I wanted an application that would integrate easily with Joomla, which I use on my business website. I went with AKReservations, a decent solution, although with a very steep learning curve. I wouldn't recommend it to non-technical users.
My client doesn't use Joomla and wanted just basic functionality now, with the ability to add features later. After much research, we went with Mollyguard.
At its most basic, Mollyguard offers very easy registration set up. You enter the details of your event, specify the event capacity if you want, and can even specify a unique URL. On the following screen you create your ticket prices, and you can set different price levels easily.
The free version uses Mollyguard's branding, and you are unable to brand confirmation emails. But the premium version, at 2.5% of the ticket price (min. .99 cents) is quite reasonable and Mollyguard can add it as a ticket surcharge.
Payments for both the free and premium versions are handled through PayPal.
One small problem with both Mollyguard and with AKReservations - while you can designate the maximum attendees for an event, you have to also designate how many at each price level - something you may not know if you are giving a discount. Mollyguard gets around that by offering a discount code at the premium levels. AKReservations doesn't have this option at all.
