Can you actually sell tickets online for free?

One ticketing question we see cropping up time and time again is whether there are any free ticket-selling platforms out there. The easy answer is – if you charge money for your tickets, you’ll need to pay to sell them on a ticketing platform. In other words, it’s a safe bet to assume that any platform will charge fees to sell tickets to paid events. But some platforms (including Ticket Tailor 👋) are completely free to use when it comes to setting up event registration for free events.

In this quick guide we break down some important things to know about ticketing platform prices.

Ticket Tailor is free to use for free events

We think this point is worth reiterating ☝️. Here at Ticket Tailor, we are totally free to use for free events. That means we have zero hidden fees, zero sign-up fees, and zero organiser fees. (Unlike a certain major ticketing platform, who just announced an organiser fee that essentially means you still have to pay, even if your events are free).

If you don’t charge your attendees anything, we don’t charge you anything. Simple. (Keep reading to understand our low-cost, flat-fee pricing for paid events.)

Some platforms might hit your customers with hefty hidden charges 

In the events world, first impressions are everything. So if you find that a ticketing platform is passing on their costs to your customers via hefty hidden fees, and ticking said customers off in the process, you’ll want to know about it. Better yet, you might want to avoid using the platform altogether. 

Opt for one, instead, like Ticket Tailor, which lets you opt in or out of passing booking fees onto your customers, and to decide exactly how much these should be. It’s a good idea to choose a platform that lets you decide how you’ll charge your booking fee too. You could charge a fee per sale – for example $2 per ticket would mean that if a customer bought five tickets you’d get $10 in booking fees. Or you could charge a fee per transaction – say, $5 (so you’d get $5 whether the transaction was for one or more tickets). With Ticket Tailor, you can choose to opt for one of these options, both of them, or neither. 

Plus, through setting your own booking fee amount, you can choose whether you want to recoup some of the other costs associated with organising your event too. It really is up to you – the important thing is that the platform you’re using is 100% transparent with you about costs, so you can be with your customers. 

Some platforms might use your customer’s data to make money

You know that saying, ‘If it’s too good to be true…’? 

If a ticketing platform claims to be free to use, but is clearly making a heap of money somehow, there’s a good chance it’s using the data it gets about your customers and selling it on, or using it to target them with advertising. It’s a pretty underhand way for the ticketing platform to make big profits off the back of the data they only have access to because of you. 

At Ticket Tailor, we never sell on customer data or use it for any purposes that isn’t directly related to your event. In fact, once we’ve sent your customers a confirmation email – our use of their data ends there.

Features aren’t always included for the advertised price

Lots of platforms claim they’re free but once you get started they charge extra for certain features and, before you know it, the costs rack up. With this in mind, it’s important to think about which features are really important to you – whether that’s being able to send emails to customers, add a seating charge or sell extras – then research which platform provides exactly what you need and what extra costs might be involved, if any.

So, what kind of ticket selling platform pricing structure should you look for?

There are tons of ticketing platforms out there to choose from, and many will take a percentage of your ticket sales as a way of charging for their services. This isn’t necessarily bad per se, but of course it all depends on what that percentage is. Some platforms have been criticised for eating too heavily into ticket-sellers’ profits, for example.

At Ticket Tailor, we only charge a flat fee (either Pay as You Go or monthly) and never a percentage of your ticket sales (more on this below). This kind of pricing can help you better manage your event-related finances, and usually ends up costing you less.

Which kind of structure you choose will largely depend on your needs and event type, though. Say you were looking to sell tickets to a large-scale festival abroad – you may be better off using a platform dedicated to that kind of event, and so be happy to go with the percentage fees. 

Our pricing in a nutshell

Here at Ticket Tailor we’re committed to keeping costs down for event creators. We’re able to do this thanks to the fact we’re full independent 😌.

We charge:

• A flat-fee per ticket sold, as low as 19p. And free events are free.

Our payment providers charge:

• A transaction fee – fees can vary depending on your provider and your location. Find out more here >

You receive:

• Your ticket cost - (Ticket Tailor flat fee + payment provider fee) = Revenue. And don't forget you can pass these fees onto your ticket-buyers by using 'booking fees'. 

We hope this quick guide has been useful! Choosing the right ticketing platform comes down to a number of factors – but it’s important to understand exactly what your costs will be to make sure they’re not burning through too much of your budget. Ultimately, you want to know that the platform has your best interests at heart, as an event creator, and isn’t only out to make big profits by any means possible.

To learn about Ticket Tailor’s commitment to being an ethical, transparent platform that balances profit with purpose, check out this article about our recent B Corp accreditation >