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Personal link vs. public link: what is the difference

Where the registration button in an e-mail should lead: a personal recipient link, a public link, or individual free admission at a paid event.

For the registration button in the Invitation e-mail and in an E-mail campaign, the section Where should the registration button lead? decides where you send the recipient. You always get Personal recipient link (an invitation tied to one specific contact) and Public link (shareable, everyone enters their own e-mail). A paid event adds a third option, Individual free admission — the recipient registers without buying a ticket. The choice decides whether the invitation becomes a private guest list or a channel for spreading the word.

Getting started

  • Decide whether the invitation should be personal (valid for the recipient) or shareable (anyone with the link can register).

  • At a paid event, also decide whether the recipient should pay. A personal link sends them to ticket purchase. If admission should be free, you need Individual free admission.

  • With a public link, expect people to forward it. If you do not want that, choose the personal link.

Details

The setting sits in the e-mail content under Where should the registration button lead?. The options depend on the event type: a free event offers two, a paid event three. Individual free admission does not appear at a free event — there is no purchase to bypass.

Personal recipient link

The link is unique to the recipient of the e-mail — it carries the identification of one specific contact. It behaves differently depending on whether the event has tickets enabled.

At a free event, the registration e-mail is fixed and cannot be changed. The recipient can confirm or decline attendance. If they forward the link, the other person does not get registered under their own name — the registration belongs to the original recipient.

At a paid event, the personal link mainly serves to personalize the microsite. The recipient continues to ticket selection and purchase, and during checkout they can enter a different e-mail than the one the invitation was sent to. So at a paid event, a personal link is not a way to let someone in for free, and it does not lock registration down as tightly as at a free event.

When to use it:

  • A personal invitation to a VIP or a specific partner.

  • An internal company event without tickets, where you do not want registrations from outside the invited list.

  • An invitation-only event without tickets, where you have a closed list.

  • A paid event where the microsite should be personalized and the guest buys their own ticket. If you need certainty about who registers, add the Registration only for assigned contacts restriction.

Public link

A public link does not lead to a pre-filled registration. It leads to the microsite, where the visitor first enters an e-mail and only then continues — at a free event to the registration form, at a paid event to ticket selection and payment, if required. Any e-mail address can be entered.

Behavior:

  • The link can be copied and sent to anyone. A new recipient registers under their own e-mail.

  • You can post it on social media, on your website, or in an internal newsletter.

  • It suits public events and campaigns meant to drive as many registrations as possible.

When to use it:

  • A public event where you want to admit as many people as possible.

  • An invitation attendees are meant to pass along ("bring a colleague").

  • When you do not yet know who will come and want to keep it open.

Every link is built on the microsite address

The personal link, the public link, and individual free admission all lead to the microsite address https://www.happenee.com/events/<slug> and differ only in what Happenee appends after it. When you change the slug under Event microsite → Settings, all three link types in e-mails already sent stop working, not just the public link shared on the website. There is no redirect from the old address. Change the address before the first send; the details are in How the Event microsite works.

Individual free admission (paid events only)

The third option appears only at an event with Tickets enabled. The recipient gets an individual registration link without having to buy a ticket — exactly the "let this list of people in for free" scenario.

This is the right choice for a guest list at a paid event. A personal link is not a substitute: it sends the recipient to checkout.

Guest lists at paid events

A common request from organizers of paid events: "I want to let 50 contacts in for free without paying."

How to do it:

  1. Import the 50 contacts into contact management (with a preferred language).

  2. Assign them to the event.

  3. Create an E-mail campaign (or use the Invitation e-mail) and set the registration button to Individual free admission.

  4. Send the campaign to exactly those 50 contacts.

  5. Through the link, the recipients reach registration without buying a ticket.

Compared to a 100% discount code: with a discount code the attendee still goes through the purchase process, even though the total is zero. Individual free admission skips checkout entirely, which is cleaner for the guest.

Individual and bulk registration links

The Tickets module offers the same principle, with registration links managed separately:

  • Individual link — single-use, for one person, bypasses ticket purchase.

  • Bulk link — one link with a maximum number of uses (for example 20). Useful to hand to a partner: they share it among their guests and the system enforces the limit.

Both types can add people to a group after registration (for example "Partner XY"), so you can keep addressing them by segment. Details in Setting up Tickets.

What differs is distribution: Individual free admission generates links for the recipients of a campaign or the Invitation e-mail, whereas links from the Tickets module are distributed by you, and a bulk link additionally supports shared use with a limit.

Combining with an E-mail campaign

An E-mail campaign is a "container" for delivering the link:

  • A campaign with a personal link → an invitation targeted at specific contacts or groups.

  • A campaign with a public link → shared information, even when you target a single group (they can forward it).

  • A campaign with individual free admission → a guest list at a paid event.

Typical use: a campaign for VIPs with a personal link, a reminder to registered attendees with a public link (let them pass it to a colleague).

Decision rule

  • Invitation-only, closed list (free event) — Personal recipient link

  • Free guest list at a paid event — Individual free admission

  • Partner link with a usage limit — Bulk registration link (in Tickets)

  • Public invitation for social media — Public link

  • Reminder to registered attendees, occasional forwarding — Public link

  • Personalized microsite at a paid event (the guest buys a ticket) — Personal recipient link

Common pitfalls

The organizer sends an invitation to a paid event with a personal link and expects the guest to get in for free

At a paid event, a personal link leads to ticket selection and purchase — it personalizes the microsite but does not bypass payment. For free admission, choose Individual free admission, or use an individual or bulk registration link from the Tickets module.

The organizer sends an invitation to a paid event with a 100% discount code and wonders why the guest still has to go through checkout

A discount code lowers the price, but the purchase process remains. For a free guest list, use Individual free admission in the e-mail, or registration links in the Tickets module.

The organizer puts a public link in the Invitation e-mail and then wonders why people outside the invited list are registering (someone forwarded it)

For a closed list, use Personal recipient link. If it has to be a public link, turn on the Registration only for assigned contacts restriction in Event settings.

The organizer assumes that at a paid event a personal link locks registration to the recipient

At a free event the registration e-mail genuinely cannot be changed. At a paid event, however, the recipient can enter a different e-mail during checkout, so the registration may not end up with the person the invitation was sent to. If you need certainty about who registers, add the Registration only for assigned contacts restriction.

The organizer shares a personal link on social media and wonders why only one person registers

A personal link belongs to one specific recipient. For public sharing, use Public link, or the public microsite link from the Event microsite module.

The organizer hands out bulk links to several partners and later has no idea how many people came through each one

A bulk link in the Tickets module always has a limit: you set the Number of uses from 1 to 500. Once the limit is reached, the link shows a message that it has already been used, instead of the registration form. To see how much of the limit each partner has used, go to the Tickets page and open Exports → Registration links export . For each link, the file shows the limit, the number of uses, and the status, such as Exhausted . The names of the people who registered are not in the export; if you need to trace them, set the link to assign a group (for example "Partner XY") before you send it out, and search by that group. The assignment is not added retroactively for people who registered earlier.

The organizer assumes that people who came through a public link received the Invitation e-mail

A registration from a public link shows up in statistics as an arrival through an open link — the system sent those people no invitation. To reach them afterwards, use an E-mail campaign targeted at the Registered status or at the group they landed in.

The organizer changes the microsite address after the invitations are sent, and every link in the e-mails stops working

The personal link, the public link, and individual free admission all carry the microsite slug, so changing the address under Event microsite → Settings invalidates them all at once, and the old address does not redirect. Either set the slug back to its original form, or send the campaign or the Invitation e-mail again.

Related articles

  • Creating and sending an E-mail campaign

  • How the Invitation e-mail works

  • Choosing the right registration type

  • Setting up Tickets

  • How the Event microsite works

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