With double opt-in, people who sign up for a free membership or register for a free event receive an email with a confirmation link. Their membership or registration is completed only after they confirm. This keeps bots, fake sign-ups and mistyped email addresses out of your lists, protects your email deliverability, and gives you a clear record that each person confirmed their own address, which helps with privacy rules such as GDPR.
There are two separate settings, one for membership sign-ups and one for event registrations. You can turn on either or both.
Membership Sign-Ups
Turn on double opt-in for sign-ups
Log into your account and go to Membership > Settings > General. Turn on Require email confirmation at sign-up (double opt-in) and save.
From now on, every free sign-up goes through email confirmation. If your free plan approves applications automatically, the automatic approval waits until the email address is confirmed.
1. Check your email
Right after submitting the sign-up form, the person lands on a Check your email page. It shows:
Sent to: the address the email went to, partly hidden for privacy.
Link works until: the date and time the confirmation link expires, with a countdown. The link is valid for 24 hours.
Didn't get it?: a Resend email button, with a reminder to check the spam folder first.
2. The confirmation email
The person receives an Activate your email message from your organization with an Activate Email button.
3. Email confirmed
After clicking the button, they see the Email confirmed page. It shows that their email is verified and their membership status. With automatic approval, the membership shows as Active right away, and they can click Continue to the portal to log in and complete their profile.
Free Event Registrations
Turn on double opt-in for events
Go to Events > Settings > General. Turn on Require email confirmation for free registrations (double opt-in) and save.
The setting applies to all free events. Guests who register without being logged in will need to confirm their email before their seat is confirmed.
1. Check your email
After the guest fills in the registration form and clicks Complete, they land on a Check your email page for the event. It shows:
Sent to: the address the email went to, with a Wrong email? link in case they mistyped it.
Seat held until: the date and time their seat is held, with a countdown. Seats are held for 48 hours.
Didn't get it?: a Resend email button, with a reminder to check the spam folder first.
2. The confirmation email
The guest receives a Confirm your registration email with your logo, the event name, date, time and location, a Confirm my registration button and a note on how long the seat is held.
3. Confirm the registration
The button in the email opens a confirmation page with the event details and a Confirm my registration button. The registration is confirmed only when the guest clicks this button. This extra step stops email security scanners, which open links automatically, from confirming registrations on someone's behalf.
4. You're registered
After confirming, the guest sees the You're registered page with the event date, time and location, and receives the usual registration and ticket emails. Event reminders are sent as usual from here on.
Pending registrations in the admin panel
Open the event and go to its registrations list. When some registrations are waiting for email confirmation, you will see:
A banner above the list showing how many registrations are waiting for email confirmation and when the oldest seat hold expires.
A Pending confirmation status on each unconfirmed registration. These rows are highlighted so you can spot them easily. Once the guest confirms, the status changes and the registration becomes a regular confirmed registration.
Resend all on the right of the banner, which sends the confirmation email again to everyone who has not confirmed yet. Resending does not extend the 48-hour hold.
Things to Know
Free only. Double opt-in applies to free membership sign-ups and free event registrations. Paid sign-ups and paid tickets are not affected, because the payment already confirms the email address.
Logged-in members are not asked. A member who is logged in and registers for an event themselves is registered right away.
Held seats count against capacity. While a registration is waiting for confirmation, its seat is reserved for up to 48 hours. If the event is full, new visitors see it as sold out and can join the waitlist.
Unconfirmed registrations expire. If the guest does not confirm within 48 hours, the registration is cancelled, the seat is released, and if there is a waitlist, the next person in line is offered the spot.
Sign-up links expire after 24 hours. The person can request a new link with Resend email.
Manual approval still applies. If your membership plan requires manual approval, confirming the email does not approve the application. You still approve it from Membership > Applications.
Turning it off. Switch a setting off and new sign-ups or registrations are completed immediately again, as before.