Looking for a Band Pencil alternative?
What Band Pencil does well, from its own website; what that site does not mention; and what Event Band Manager does instead — for bands where the fee is split between the players. Checked against Band Pencil’s website on 23 September 2026.
What Band Pencil does well
Management CRM software for bands, musicians, artists, DJs and entertainment businesses — enquiries, bookings, musicians, clients, contracts and invoices in one place.
- Enquiries from a lead capture form, and a gig pipeline
- A line-up builder: roles, templates, who is available and which roles are empty
- A free Member Portal: gig details, availability, each member’s own fee, performer invoices
- A Client Portal: contracts signed online, invoices and online card payments
- A setlist builder
- Travel and accommodation itineraries for a booking
What it does that Event Band Manager does not
- Contracts a client signs online, and performer contracts
- A client portal for event details, files, invoices and payments
- Card payments on invoices through Stripe
- Travel itineraries — flights, trains, accommodation — attached to a booking
- Reusable line-up templates by instrument or role
- REST API access on the Ultimate plan
Price, as published on 23 September 2026: Standard £24 a month, Premium £39 a month, Ultimate £79 a month (or £240, £360 and £720 a year); excluding VAT; 14-day free trial. Web; the Member Portal opens on desktop, tablet or mobile. App-store apps not stated.
What its site does not mention
Five things matter most to the people who play in a function band: their travel, their share, deps, expenses, and not paying to take part. Here is what we could not find on Band Pencil’s website. Not mentioned is not the same as not there — if one of these matters to you, ask them.
- Each player’s travel from their own postcode, taken off the top — what its site does say: travel itineraries per booking (flights, trains, driving).
- An equal split to the penny, with a statement for each member — what its site does say: each member sees their own fee and can submit an invoice.
- Deps: travel from where the dep lives, and the member settles with the dep — what its site does say: line-up builder assigns musicians to roles.
- Expenses filed against a gig — what its site does say: financial reporting listed on Premium.
What Event Band Manager does instead
Travel comes off the top, per player. Each person’s round-trip driving distance is worked out from their own postcode to the venue, at the mileage rate the band sets, and paid back to them before anything is divided. On Band Pro the journey builder counts stops, when somebody picks two others up.
What is left splits equally, to the penny. The odd pennies are handed out rather than rounded away, and at the end of the month each person gets a statement of their own — every gig, the share, the travel back and the expenses — as a page and a PDF. A correction supersedes the old version instead of quietly rewriting it.
Deps are people, with their own journey. When a dep covers, the travel is worked out from where the dep lives, the band pays its own member, and the member settles with the dep. Who owes whom is on the statement, not in somebody’s memory.
Expenses ride with the gig. Photograph the receipt on the night and file it against the gig; whoever looks after the band’s money approves it, and it lands on the right statement.
Members are free. Every member and every dep has an account of their own at no cost, with one diary for every band they play in.
What it costs: Free for every member and dep, and for a band running itself. Band Pro £12 a month per band; Manager £15 a month per band you manage (£12 from the third); Bookings £9 a month per person.
Who should stay with Band Pencil
If you mostly book musicians onto gigs at a fee each, with contracts and a client portal, and do not split a fee between the players, Band Pencil is built for that.
To put it plainly: a band that wants setlists, charts or rehearsal tools first, and whose money is simple, may be better where it is. Event Band Manager is for the band where the arithmetic is the argument — different drives, deps most weekends, and a statement each member can check.
How to move
Create an account and the band, and add the people in it with their postcodes. Put your next gig in with its fee and venue, and the split and everybody’s travel are worked out straight away. If your gigs already live in a shared sheet — the one your agency keeps, for example — Band Pro connects it and brings the gigs in, synced daily, with a conflict shown rather than a silent overwrite.
Then invite the band. Members join free, by a link, and see their own gigs, travel and statement from the first gig. Want to see the arithmetic before any of that? The pay split calculator does the same sum with no account.
Questions
Is Event Band Manager connected to Band Pencil?
No. Event Band Manager is a separate product and is not affiliated with Band Pencil. This page is our own comparison, made from Band Pencil’s website as it read on 23 September 2026.
Is Event Band Manager free?
Every member and every dep uses it free, and a band running itself can stay on Free for good — the pay split, travel, expenses, statements and deps are all in it. Band Pro is £12 a month per band and Manager £15 a month per band you manage; every new band gets a month of Band Pro to try, with no card to start.
Is there an iPhone app?
Not in the App Store. Event Band Manager installs as an app on an iPhone or an Android phone straight from the browser, opens full screen, and keeps your gig list for a venue with no signal. A Google Play listing is on its way.
Put your next gig in and see the split
Members are free. Every new band gets a month of Band Pro, and it drops to Free on its own afterwards.
Band Pencil is a trademark of its owner; this page is Event Band Manager’s own comparison, checked on 23 September 2026.