Race Entry and haku both offer competitive race registration and management software. You can use these tools to manage sponsors, volunteers, fundraising, and merchandise sales. And, everything is fully integrated in one place.
haku differentiates itself with integrations and AI. In contrast, Race Entry emphasizes working with a dedicated account manager and effective, trackable growth tools.
Marketing
haku offers unlimited email marketing and SMS campaigns. The company may also offer other tools, but it’s unclear what those are from its website.
Race Entry also offers unlimited email marketing. You can even benefit from pre-made templates to level-up your email game. You can also use Race Entry’s tools to send unlimited text alerts.
In addition to robust, custom messaging tools, Race Entry offers trackable growth tools that help you sell more registrations. You can create a referral program that offers rebates (up to a free registration) for each person a participant gets to sign up. You set the rebate amount, and then turn the feature on. You’ll see how many new participants signed up and how much revenue you generated from referrals.
Another way you can leverage your participants’ networks is through social media shares – you can generate organic buzz on Facebook and get more sign ups. Just offer a small discount in exchange for sharing a link to your registration page on Facebook.
Race Entry also tackles abandoned carts – customize and turn on email reminders to people who didn’t finish their registration form. The unique link in their email takes them right to where they left off, so all they have to do is submit payment details.
You can also start generating an email list long before your race opens for registration – rather than visiting an empty registration page, visitors can sign-up for an email notification when your race opens for registration. Once you open for registration, an email notification is automatically sent to everyone on your list.
Race Entry also supports promo codes, so you can customize and track discounts to understand effective strategies. You can also create a group discount that automatically applies – this helps increase order sizes on the registration page.
You can also manage your loyalty program with ease – set what years and how many years someone has participated in your race. Once you’ve made your settings, you can send an email with unique promo codes for all of the qualifying participants. It’s easier than ever to keep your audience.
With customizable marketing pages, you have another tool for your SEO strategy. Add photos, videos, and text to get people excited about your race. Having this page makes it easier to appear in online search results.
Race Entry also offers paid display advertising on its homepage and calendar page. This advertising can help draw more attention to your race.
Data
haku offers real-time reports, analytics, and a CRM that includes participant EMR (Emergency Medical Record).
Similarly, Race Entry offers real-time reports and analytics so you can gain valuable insights into your race to optimize performance. You can also create your own custom reports.
Race Entry’s CRM stores participant data so you can easily reach out to past participants with details about this year’s race. You can also collect important information by adding custom questions to your registration page.
Support
haku offers many ways to get support – you can get help through live-chat, email, text, or phone call. Once you start working with haku, you’ll meet with a customer experience manager to develop a strategy for your race. You can even get marketing support, insight from business analysts, and help from haku’s design team. haku even offers support for your participants.
Similarly, Race Entry offers robust support – you’ll work with a dedicated account manager who will help answer questions and troubleshoot as needed. You can get support from Race Entry via email and phone call. Your participants can get support from Race Entry, too.
Race Entry’s marketing support is built in with its growth tools. All you have to do is turn them on.
Customization
haku hones in on its ability to customize for your race. You can use its white label offering to keep the focus on your brand. You can create and store your own email templates. Beyond customizing public pages, you can also customize the software to meet your needs.
Similarly, Race Entry’s software and tools are customizable – add photos, video, and messaging to match your brand and highlight the experience at your race. Add custom messaging to all of your public-facing pages, confirmation emails, waivers, and the participant dashboard. You can also create a white label with Race Entry.
Race Entry’s tools are also easy to adapt to your needs and match your strategy. Choose which growth tools are most valuable to your race, and keep the others turned off. You can also work with your account manager to determine the best ways to use Race Entry for your race.
Results
Both haku and Race Entry offer similar results tools – live tracking, certificates, and a race day app. With these tools, you can create a memorable experience for participants and their supporters. Online results makes it easy for them to understand their performance.
They also offer timer integrations so timers can quickly and easily upload results online.
Merchandise
Another way that haku and Race Entry are similar is in their ability to manage merchandise. haku’s e-commerce supports storefront and merchandising. Race Entry’s software makes it easy to sell merchandise from an online page, in the registration pathway, or in-person. Whatever approach you take to your merchandise, Race Entry makes it easy to sell.
Fundraising
haku offers peer-to-peer fundraising tools that include fundraising incentives, a leaderboard, custom badges, comments, and social integrations. You can even display real-time fundraising results on your public-facing pages.
haku also offers a Facebook integration to make it easy to track all donations made on Facebook. Participants also access fundraising options and tools from the same account they create when they register for your race.
Race Entry’s fundraising tools are very similar: incentivize fundraising with opportunities for a free registration, showcase top donors and top fundraising teams with leaderboards, and foster engagement with user comments on donation pages. You’ll also see real-time fundraising reports and can publish progress automatically on your fundraising pages.
Unlike haku, Race Entry does not require people to create an account when they register for a race. This strategy helps increase conversion rates on your registration form. It also avoids the hassle of remembering another username and password for attendees – forgetting often results in extra steps to get an email to reset a password. Instead, participants can use the links in their confirmation emails to access their participant dashboards.
Memberships
Race Entry and haku both manage memberships for running clubs. Race Entry’s membership software includes email, promo codes, and renewal reports.
Sponsorships
haku’s software also handles sponsors and sponsor placement opportunities.
Similarly, Race Entry’s software makes sponsorships easy to sell online and manage. You can even automatically add them to your marketing page or to the bottom of all your emails.
Volunteer Management
haku also has tools to assist with volunteers, though details on the website are limited.
Race Entry offers free use of Come Volunteer’s volunteer management software. You can create jobs, shifts, and send emails to volunteers. It’s easy to see what jobs are still open and coordinate with volunteers.
Security and Data Privacy
Race Entry and haku both use secure payment processing. With both companies, you can set-up direct deposit.
With Race Entry, you have full ownership of your data – your participants won’t see any third party offers from Race Entry or any other race it works with. haku’s website has limited information on how it handles data.
Ticketing and Booth Sales
haku’s software can also be used for ticket sales and booth sales, though its ticketing and booth sales are not as robust as Race Entry’s.
Race Entry’s software is also able to be used for ticketed events and booth sales. With its software, you can do general admission or assigned seating. This translates easily to booths, so you can assign them or you can let vendors choose their spots. With this flexibility, it’s easy to charge more for more valuable placements in your booth.
With assigned seating, you can include a seat map, reserve seats, and even use early access codes.
With both Race Entry and haku, you’ll find integrated race management software. So, you can manage participants, merchandise sales, sponsors, and volunteers in one place. You can also fully customize your registration page. Race Entry offers marketing pages
While haku offers AI-tools and several integrations, Race Entry offers robust volunteer management software, integrated merchandise sales, and trackable marketing tools. It even cuts the hassle of account creation for your participants – they can manage everything through unique links they receive in their email. It’s just as secure as account creation because resetting a password requires access to the associated email address.
