The Real Cost of Selling Event Tickets: We Compared Fees Across 6 Platforms (2026)

Most event organizers already know ticketing platforms take a cut. Far fewer can tell you exactly how much — because the real number is split between a “service fee,” a “payment processing fee,” and sometimes a flat per-ticket charge buried in the checkout. So we did the math ourselves. We pulled the publicly listed pricing for six popular ticketing tools, normalized everything to a single $25 ticket, and worked out what each one actually costs you per ticket and across a full on-sale.

The gap is bigger than most people expect. On a 1,000-ticket event at $25 each, the difference between the most and least expensive option in our study is roughly $2,400 — money that comes straight out of your event’s margin. Here is how the numbers break down, and the methodology so you can check our work.

How we ran the numbers

We kept the model deliberately simple and transparent so it is easy to reproduce:

• One ticket price: $25, a common mid-range admission price.
• US public pricing, June 2026: taken from each platform’s own pricing page (linked in the sources at the end). Rates differ by country — for example, Eventbrite uses a combined 6.95% + £0.59 model in the UK — so treat these as US figures.
• Two cost layers, separated: the unavoidable card-processing fee that every option pays to a gateway like Stripe or PayPal, and the platform’s own added cut on top.
• Three volumes: 100, 1,000, and 5,000 tickets sold, so license costs that amortize at scale are visible.

We compared three hosted platforms (Eventbrite, TicketSpice, Ticket Tailor) against three self-hosted WordPress options that run on WooCommerce (FooEvents, Tickera, and our own plugin, Venuera). For the self-hosted tools, the ticketing software itself takes no per-ticket cut; you pay only your payment gateway, plus any annual license for the paid plugins.

The headline finding

Here is the all-in cost per $25 ticket — the platform’s fee plus card processing combined — using each tool’s standard public rate.

The unavoidable card-processing fee — about $1.03 on a $25 ticket — is the same floor for everyone. Everything above that line is the ticketing platform’s choice of business model. On a 1,000-ticket on-sale, that translates to roughly $3,440 in fees with Eventbrite versus about $1,025 with a self-hosted WooCommerce setup — a difference of around $2,400 kept in your account.

The one fee nobody escapes: payment processing

No matter which tool you pick, a card processor takes its cut. Stripe’s standard US rate is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, and most gateways land in the same neighborhood. On our $25 ticket that is about $1.03. This is the genuine, value-for-service cost of taking money online, and it is the same whether you sell through a marketplace or your own site. The useful question is therefore not “is there a fee?” but “how much does the platform add on top of processing?”

Where hosted platforms add the most

Hosted marketplaces layer their revenue model above processing. Eventbrite’s added service fee of 3.7% + $1.79 per ticket is the heaviest in our set, pushing the all-in cost to 13.8% of a $25 ticket. Flat-fee challengers are gentler: TicketSpice charges $0.99 per ticket and Ticket Tailor $0.85 (dropping toward $0.30 if you prepay for credits). Those flat models scale far more kindly than a percentage as your ticket price rises — a $0.99 fee is trivial on a $120 ticket but meaningful on a $10 one. If you want the deeper Eventbrite-specific breakdown, we covered it in Eventbrite fees explained.

Why self-hosted WordPress comes out lowest

The three WooCommerce-based options share one structural advantage: the ticketing software does not take a per-ticket cut at all, so your only transaction cost is the gateway you already use. Venuera’s core plugin is free, while Tickera and FooEvents charge an annual license. Crucially, a license is a fixed cost, not a percentage — so it amortizes toward zero as you sell more. A $99/year license spread across 1,000 tickets adds just under $0.10 per ticket; across 5,000 it is $0.02. For any event selling more than a few hundred tickets, the per-ticket math overwhelmingly favors self-hosted. We walk through that single-platform comparison in Eventbrite vs. self-hosted cost, and the general WooCommerce setup in how to sell tickets with WooCommerce.

The honest tradeoff

Lower fees are not the whole story, and it would be unfair to pretend otherwise. Hosted platforms bundle in things you are effectively paying for: zero-setup hosting, their own support team, and — in Eventbrite’s case — a discovery marketplace where new buyers can stumble onto your event. A self-hosted plugin gives you none of that automatically. You need a working WordPress site with WooCommerce, your own payment gateway, and the willingness to own your tech stack and traffic. If you are running a single 50-person workshop and have no website, a hosted tool’s convenience may genuinely be worth its fee.

But if you already run on WordPress, sell at any real volume, or want to keep your buyer relationships and data rather than rent an audience, the fee structure tilts hard toward self-hosted. You trade a bit of setup for keeping the platform’s cut. Browse the add-ons if you need extras like a box office or attendee data capture, and see the full plan on the pricing page. Looking for more options in this space? Our roundup of the best Eventbrite alternatives for WordPress compares several.

What this means for your event

Run your own version of this math before you commit: take your real ticket price and expected volume, multiply out each platform’s published fee, and compare the totals — not the marketing. For small, one-off, no-website events, a hosted tool’s convenience can outweigh the fee. For recurring events, higher volumes, or anyone already on WordPress, a self-hosted WooCommerce setup is usually the cheaper home by a wide margin, and the savings compound every time you open a new on-sale.

Frequently asked questions

Which event ticketing platform has the lowest fees in 2026?

In our study, self-hosted WordPress options that run on WooCommerce (Venuera, Tickera, FooEvents) had the lowest cost per ticket because the ticketing software takes no per-ticket cut — you pay only your payment gateway, about 4.1% on a $25 ticket. Among hosted platforms, flat-fee tools like Ticket Tailor and TicketSpice were cheaper than Eventbrite’s percentage-plus-flat model.

Can I avoid payment processing fees entirely?

No. A card processor such as Stripe or PayPal always charges to move money, typically around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. That floor applies regardless of which ticketing tool you use. What you can avoid is the additional cut a hosted ticketing platform adds on top of processing.

Is it cheaper to pass fees on to ticket buyers?

Passing fees to buyers does not lower the total cost — it just shifts who pays it, and can raise your displayed price and hurt conversion. The only way to genuinely reduce the cost is to choose a tool with a lower fee structure, which is what this comparison measures.

Do these numbers change over time?

Yes. Every figure here comes from each platform’s public pricing as of June 2026 and reflects US rates; pricing, plans, and regional rates change, so always verify the current numbers on the provider’s own pricing page before deciding.

Sources & methodology

Figures were taken in June 2026 from each provider’s public pricing pages: Ticket Tailor, TicketSpice, Tickera, FooEvents, and Eventbrite, with payment processing based on Stripe’s standard US rate. Self-hosted options assume a standard WooCommerce store with your own gateway. All math uses a $25 ticket; your results will vary with ticket price, volume, and country.