Top Picks: Expert-Approved Top Online Ticketing Platforms

Quick Answer: The top online ticketing platform based on my review and analysis is TicketsCandy.

Gone are the days when people used to buy tickets offline. Research shows that 66% of people buy event tickets via email and 25% of traffic on event websites is generated via social media platforms. By 2030, the total number of online users for event tickets will surpass 863 million worldwide.

As more and more people buy event tickets online, you should have an event ticketing platform in your tech stack. Having access to the right online ticket platform not just increases ticket sales but it helps you in event management as well.

As much as 84% of event organizers say that technology has a major role in the success of their event.

What ticketing service you use for your event has a direct impact on its success.

Not sure how to choose the right tool for your event ticketing?

This article is for you as it explores the features, pros, cons, and pricing details of popular online ticketing platforms to help you make a well-informed decision.

Top Online Ticketing Platforms

Here is a list of the recommended event ticketing platforms for your business:

1. TicketsCandy: Overall Best
2. Eventbrite: Best for Small Events
3. Ticketleap: Best Beginner-Friendly
4. Eventbee: Best Flat Fee
5. TicketSpice: Best Event Page Builder
6. Ticketbud: Best Offline Ticket Sales
7. Ticket Tailor: Best Environment-Friendly.

Features	TicketsCandy	Eventbrite	Ticketleap	Eventbee	TicketSpice	Ticketbud	Ticket Tailor
Total Pricing Per Ticket	Free	6.6% + $2.09	5%	2.9% + $3.80	2.99% + $0.99	4.9% + $1.29	2.9% + $0.95
User-friendly widget
Multiple types of events
Integrates with content management systems
Event page builder
Multiple languages
Event marketing tools
Instant payouts
Customer support

Let’s get to the details…

1. TicketsCandy: Overall Best

TicketsCandy is the overall best online event ticketing platform that is loaded with some of the best features and is focused on selling more tickets. You can increase ticket sales by a whopping 30%.

It is an all-in-one event ticketing software that covers everything including event creation, ticket sales, attendee management, event promotion, payment processing, and more.

TicketsCandy is user-friendly, feature-rich, and cost-effective which makes it the best choice for events of all sizes. You can create unlimited events and sell unlimited tickets at any price point without any restrictions from the app.

Key Features

Here is a list of the major TicketsCandy features:

• An all-in-one online ticketing platform
• Easy to use with its user-friendly widget
• Supports multiple types of events including recurring events with no cap on the number of events you can create
• Integrates and works with leading content management systems such as WordPress
• Event page builder to help you build event landing pages quickly
• Supports multiple languages
• It offers multiple event marketing tools like partner website promotion
• Instant payouts without any fee
• 24/7 customer support including email, phone, and live chat
• Free to use.

Pricing

TicketsCandy is free to use for event organizers and businesses. It charges a 0.9% fee per ticket sale which is charged to the customer. This makes it free for the event businesses.

Things I Like

• It offers a complete ticketing suite at zero cost
• Supports multiple event types
• Low fees with complete transparency and no hiccups.

Things I Don’t Like

• It works with only a single payment processor.

Best For

TicketsCandy is suitable for large events as it is free for event organizers keeping your event profitable. Additionally, those who want to create multiple event types and need to promote their events should stick with TicketsCandy.

2. Eventbrite: Best for Small Events

Eventbrite is an event marketplace and event management platform. It lets users find events in their city based on their interests. At the same time, it helps organizers create and promote local events. So, it works for both attendees and event businesses.

As an event organizer, you can use Eventbrite to create a wide range of local events and use its discovery network to reach your target audience.

Key Features

The main Eventbrite features include:

• Create and sell multiple event types
• A simple and easy-to-use interface
• Refunds for attendees
• You can list your event in the marketplace to reach more attendees
• Quick payouts
• Built-in marketing tools such as social media marketing support
• Sell tickets on the spot with the app
• Free to use for organizers.

Pricing

Eventbrite has two types of fees in the United States:

1. It charges 3.7% + $1.79 service fee per sold ticket.
2. There is a 2.9% payment processing fee that event organizers have to pay. You can’t pass it on to the attendees.

Since Eventbrite is more into local events, it has different pricing for different countries which can be found here. Some locations like Brazil have a 9.99% service fee per ticket sold. So, it can get quite expensive.

Things I Like

• Eventbrite has a marketplace that makes event promotion easier
• It supports multiple ticket types and is available in different countries
• Detailed analytics make attendee management a piece of cake.

Things I Don’t Like

• It is expensive and comes with lots of different types of fees that change drastically depending on the avenue
• It lacks flexibility in terms of customization and branding as Eventbrite gets more prominent during the ticket sales cycle than your brand.

Best For

Eventbrite is suitable for small local events like social events and street parties where you want to reach a highly targeted audience. You can leverage its marketplace and can afford high costs. For larger events, Eventbrite might not be a good option due to high variable cost.

3. Ticketleap: Best Beginner-Friendly

Ticketleap offers an easy-to-use interface that lets you create your event within minutes. It supports event pages, marketing tools, and attendee management to help you sell more tickets comfortably.

It comes with a clean interface with ready-to-use event pages. You need to choose a theme, customize your event page (e.g., add a logo and tweak the color theme), and customize the checkout process. These features make it a beginner-friendly event ticketing platform.

Key Features

The major Ticketleap features include:

• Simple user interface that lets you create an event in minutes
• Customizable mobile-friendly event pages with themes
• Supports multiple event types including password protected events
• Multiple payment options including PayPal
• Drag-and-drop editor for venue and seat management
• You can get paid every week even before the event date
• Free to use for event organizers.

Pricing

Ticketleap has a price calculator that lets you calculate fees per ticket which makes it easy to set a pricing strategy. It charges you a flat fee per ticket sale and a fixed percentage per ticket that goes something like this:

• If the ticket price is $5 or below, a flat $0.25 per ticket is charged
• For all other tickets, $1 + 2% is charged per ticket sold
• A 3% payment processing fee is charged for all ticket sales irrespective of the ticket price.

The price is on the high side as it gets quite expensive if you are selling high-priced tickets.

Things I Like

• Ease of use with which anyone can set up an event from scratch
• Customizable event page themes
• You can create all types of events with no restrictions.

Things I Don’t Like

• It lacks ticket promotion tools which makes selling tickets much harder if you don’t have an existing audience
• Customer support is only available 9 am – 5 pm and this is quite problematic if you have an urgent issue to resolve
• It is an expensive event ticketing platform.

Best For

Ticketleap works best for beginners who are new to event ticketing. Businesses that want to create a single event and don’t want to spend endless time and resources on tweaks should go with it.

4. Eventbee: Best Flat Fee

If you don’t like paying a percentage fee as it gets too expensive for high-priced tickets, your best bet is to use an event ticketing platform that charges a flat fee per ticket. Eventbee is the best option to try as it offers a flat fee and several perks for creating and selling event tickets. The starting fee is $1 per ticket for the Basic plan that comes with the basic features.

Eventbee has a clean user interface that isn’t too complicated to use. You can create event tickets for multiple event types, promote them, and manage attendees.

Key Features

Eventbee offers the following features to its users:

• A simple yet effective ticketing service for all types of events
• The flat fee makes it suitable for large events with high ticket price
• Supports multiple event types
• You can customize the event page with a customized URL and branding
•  Sell tickets through your Facebook page and website easily
• Add event sub-managers to manage large events
• It supports multiple payment processors including PayPal and Stripe
• The flat fee keeps pricing simple.

Pricing

Eventbee offers a flat fee per ticket which depends on your plan. It offers 4 plans with varied features and ticket fees:

1. Basic: $1 per ticket with a price limit per ticket of $100. It comes with basic features and up to 3 ticket types.
2. Pro: $1.50 per ticket and up to $500 per ticket. More features than the Basic plan with support for creating up to 10 types of tickets.
3. Advanced: $2.50 per ticket with a maximum ticket price of up to $1,000. It offers more features and you can have 20 types of events.
4. Business: $3.50 per ticket with no limit on ticket price. You get access to all the features with unlimited ticket types.

The only way you can benefit from Eventbee’s flat pricing structure is when you are on the Business plan. The other 3 plans have capped ticket pricing which makes them less attractive and somewhat expensive.

Things I Like

• It supports multiple event types in different countries and languages
• A fairly easy-to-use dashboard that makes event management easier
• The flat fee keeps cost-effective for larger events.

Things I Don’t Like

• The interface seems outdated and so does Eventbee’s website. It still is easy to use but it doesn’t give you that modern look and feel
• You don’t get access to all the features with Basic, Pro, and Advanced plans despite being a paid customer which is a bit frustrating
• It gets expensive if you have a small event with a limited audience.

Best For

Eventbee is best for large events with high ticket prices. This is the only way you will be able to benefit from its flat fee. And you have to be on the Business plan to control ticketing price instead of Eventbee capping it.

5. TicketSpice: Best Event Page Builder

Not all ticketing services offer fancy drag-and-drop event page builders like TicketSpice. If customization, branding, and full control over the event page are your basic needs, TicketSpice is the best choice for you.

It offers tons of features but nothing beats its event page builder than has a drag-and-drop editor. The pages are by default mobile responsive and fully customizable. You can add fields, set a logo, choose a color scheme, optimize the checkout process, and more.

Of course, it has more to offer than just a page builder…

Key Features

Here is an overview of the major TicketSpice features:

• Drag and drop editor for creating event pages with ease
• You can set dynamic ticket prices using conditional logic
• Supports multiple types of events including recurring events
• Fully customizable event page templates
• It integrates and works with several apps and tools
• Works with your CRM and email marketing apps
• Supports leading payment processors including Stripe and PayPal with the ability to integrate third-party payment gateways.

Pricing

TicketSpice has kept pricing simple that includes a $0.99 per ticket fixed fee and a 2.99% credit card processing fee.

When you add a third-party payment processor of your choice via integration, it costs an additional 1% fee per transaction.

The fixed fee per ticket sale is fine but the 2.99% payment processing fee seems to be on the high side when compared with other event ticketing platforms like TicketsCandy that don’t charge any payment processing fee at all.

Things I Like

• Its event page builder with templates is the best feature
• You get full control over branding when creating an event
• It integrates seamlessly with your tech stack.

Things I Don’t Like

• Limited support for ticket marketing
• A bit pricey when compared with other event management apps

Best For

TicketSpice is suitable for event businesses that need full control over the event page and are little concerned about platform fees and other features. If professional and well-designed event pages are what you need, TicketSpice is the right event ticketing platform for you.

6. Ticketbud: Best Offline Ticket Sales

Do you want to sell event tickets offline? Do you need a POS feature? Ticketbud offers the best ticketing service to businesses that want to sell tickets offline. It gives hardware for point of sale for your event that makes it easy to sell tickets offline to your target audience.

It also offers white-label event ticketing service which means you can customize end-to-end events as per your needs. Attendees will not see Ticketbud branding anywhere throughout their interaction with your event.

Key Features

Ticketbud offers the following features to event organizers:

• Offline ticketing selling support
• White label services make branding easier with full control and branding
• You can rent hardware devices from Ticketbud to sell tickets offline
• You get a customized website for your event
• It offers multiple event promotion tools like social tools, audience segmentation, attendee emails, and more
• Support for multiple ticket types including thermal tickets
• The ticketing platform integrates with leading tools and apps including Zapier
• It supports daily payouts.

Pricing

The pricing is quite simple, here is how much you are charged:

• 0.99c + 2% per ticket sale
• 2.9% payment processing fee.

Additional services like white labeling and hardware renting have additional costs with setup fees and/or security deposit. For example, a scanning sled and pistol grip package costs $25 per device with a $400 refundable deposit.

Things I Like

• Renting of hardware devices is a nice feature that is suitable for new event organizers or businesses that want to run a single event but professionally
• White label event ticketing service is ideal for large businesses that need a full suite of branded event ticketing solution
• Zapier and Salesforce integration makes it a big gun.

Things I Don’t Like

• Attendee management service is limited
• It gets expensive if you rent hardware for offline sales.

Best For

Ticketbud is a great choice for new event organizers who don’t have the necessary hardware for their event. And it is equally great to create and manage large-scale events with your own branding which suits large businesses.

7. Ticket Tailor: Best Environment-Friendly

This shouldn’t be surprising. A lot of businesses and individuals prefer dealing with environment-friendly and socially responsible organizations. If that’s you, Ticket Tailor is the ticketing app you should use.

Ticket Tailor is a certified B Corp event ticketing platform with an 86.3 impact score. And it is a carbon neutral platform. Importantly, it donates 1p to climate charity partners for every ticket sale. The total donations so far are £232,507.

If these numbers align with your event business philosophy and mission, it seems to be a good match.

In terms of ticketing service features, it offers all the popular features you need to create, promote, and manage your event and tickets.

Key Features

Here are the main features offered by Ticket Tailor:

• A certified B Corp and carbon neutral event ticketing service provider
• It offers unlimited events, unlimited ticket types, and unlimited seating charts
• You can customize the checkout form, order confirmation, and tickets
• Customizable event page templates
• Supports integration with third-party apps and tools
• It has a WordPress plugin to sell directly from your WordPress website
• Supports integration via API and works with Zapier
• It supports Stripe and PayPal for payment processing
• Zero fees for free events
• The first five tickets are free.

Pricing

Ticket Tailor has two types of paid payment plans:

• Pre pay costs $0.26 per ticket
• Pay as you go plan costs $0.65 per ticket.

The pre pay plan is cheap but it requires buying credits in advance before selling any ticket.

The payment processing fee for Stripe is 2.9% + $0.30 per ticket. If you go with the pre pay plan, the pricing gets quite competitive and lower than most of the other ticketing platforms excluding TicketsCandy (which has the lowest pricing).

Things I Like

• A socially responsible ticketing platform that donates 1p per ticket sale for climate improvement
• It has several integration options that make it easy to align it with the existing apps and tools you are using
• 20% discount offered to B-corps and PTAs.

Things I Don’t Like

• Limited tools for event promotion
• Stripe is the main payment processor that it uses.

Best For

Ticket Tailor is suitable for event organizers and businesses that are B-corps and support the environment and climate strongly. You don’t just get a 20% discount (which makes it cheaper) but you will be working with a business that perfectly aligns with your business philosophy and values.

What’s the Best Online Ticketing Platform?

The right online ticketing platform is the one that fulfills your needs. Not all tools are created equal. Each ticketing service has its ups and downs. I analyzed and reviewed the top ticketing platforms and identified their unique features.

The overall best is TicketsCandy because it is cost-effective and offers all the major features you expect from an online ticketing app.

Besides, you can choose to go with other tools based on your specific requirements. For example, if you need a tool with a powerful event page builder, you should use TicketSpice and if you are more interested in a beginner-friendly app, you should try Ticketleap.

Remember, an online ticketing platform is just a tool. How you use it makes all the difference.