Keep a waiting list when the page is full
Updated September 9, 2026
Once a capped page fills up, let visitors join a waiting list instead of being turned away, then promote them as seats free up.
What it’s for
A registration limit closes the form the moment it is reached: everyone who arrives after that sees a “registration full” message and leaves. The waiting list keeps the form open instead. Visitors past the cap sign up as usual, are told they are in line, and wait for you.
Use it whenever demand may outrun the seats you have: a capped webinar, a room with a fixed capacity, a session you might duplicate if enough people ask. You keep the names instead of losing them, and you decide who comes in when a seat frees up.
Open your page in the builder, on step 4 · Settings, and turn “Registration limit” on: the waiting list is a sub-option of the cap, so it only appears once the page is Limited. A page with no cap has nothing to wait for.
Turn on “Waiting list”, nested under the limit controls. Free pages only: a paid page keeps its own pay-then-register path and its “full” refusal.
Publish. Once the page is full, visitors see “This event is full. You’ll be added to the waiting list.” and the form’s button becomes “Join the waiting list”. After they submit, the page confirms that their place in line is saved and that you will email them if a seat frees up.
Open the Registrants tab. A “Waiting list” view sits beside Approved, and its header says how many people are in line and how many seats are free.
Promote a single person, or exactly as many as you have seats for. Promote from that view: “Promote” on a single row, or “Promote next N” to fill exactly the seats you have, oldest request first. “Promote everyone” appears once the page no longer has a limit at all.
Good to know
- The list is first come, first served: promoting always works from the oldest request down, so nobody is overtaken by a later sign-up.
- Promoting someone while the page is still full registers them beyond your limit, which is you overriding your own cap on purpose, and the view says so before you do it. The public form stays on the waiting list and keeps taking names.
- A promotion runs the same registration path as a normal sign-up, including the event platform enroll. If your workspace’s own registration ceiling refuses it, that person stays in line untouched and a batch stops there rather than skipping ahead.
- Removing someone from the list puts them in Declined, with a way back into line if you change your mind.
- Unavailable while registrant retention is “Don’t store on Venue”: a place in line is only worth keeping if Venue can keep the form answers that go with it. Turning the list back off stays possible either way.
- Lifting the registration limit entirely takes the switch away with it, and everyone still in line can then be promoted at once.
Related articles
- Control access and privacyPassword-protect the page, set its visibility, redirect after registration, and cap sign-ups.
- Create and revoke API keysIssue workspace keys to call the Venue API from your own code — then revoke them when you no longer need them.
- Set how long registrant data is keptChoose a retention window for the personal data collected through your pages — or keep none on Venue at all.
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