How Eventbrite’s price changes will impact your events – with examples

Eventbrite recently announced changes to their pricing structure. If you use the platform, you’ll want to understand exactly what these changes mean for your overall ticketing costs, as it might be time to consider an Eventbrite alternative. (Also good to know if you’re thinking about signing up to Eventbrite.)

In this guide, we explain exactly what the Eventbrite price changes are and what they mean for you in reality, as an event creator. 

Also, for those wondering exactly how much they could save by opting for a cheaper ticketing alternative – we’ve crunched the numbers for you. (Hint: you will want to know this 🤯!) 

Let’s go 👇.

Contents

• Eventbrite pricing changes – what are they and how are they different?
• What Eventbrite price rises actually mean for your events
• Introducing Ticket Tailor – the (much) cheaper alternative to Eventbrite
• Eventbrite prices vs Ticket Tailor prices – how much you’ll save (with examples)
• Final word – the impact of Eventbrite’s pricing change for event creators

Eventbrite pricing changes – what are they and how are they different?

Eventbrite users have seen a fair few price increases over the years (more on this below). The most recent change – as of mid to late 2023 depending on which country you’re in – is the addition of a new ‘Organiser fee’. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of what you need to know:

What is Eventbrite’s new organiser fee? 

It’s basically a new additional fee for publishing an event on Eventbrite, on top of all of Eventbrite’s other ticketing fees. It applies to all events with over 25 tickets (which is the overwhelming majority of all events on Eventbrite). 

Before this fee was introduced, it was free to publish your event on Eventbrite, but you’d pay various fees for each ticket sold. 

Now, you need to pay the organiser fee plus all the other usual fees per ticket. For example, if you were selling tickets in the United States before this new organiser fee was introduced, you’d pay:

• 3.7% of the ticket price + $1.79 per sold ticket
• A payment processing fee of 2.9% of the total order
• An on-site fee of $1 per ticket for credit cards and cash

With the new organiser fee (for an event with over 25 tickets) you’ll now pay:

• 3.7% of the ticket price + $1.79 per sold ticket
• A payment processing fee of 2.9% of the total order
• An on-site fee of $1 per ticket for credit cards and cash
• An organiser fee depending on the size of the event – there are one-off and monthly subscription options available for this fee, ranging from $9.99-$59.99 per event or $29 - $159 per month.

How much is Eventbrite’s new organiser fee?

How much Eventbrite’s organiser fee is depends on the size of your event. You can choose to pay-as-you-go (so, a one-off fee for every event). Or to pay a monthly subscription. Here’s what those options look like:

Flex plan (pay-as-you-go)

• Up to 100 tickets: $9.99 in the US, £7.99 in the UK
• Up to 250 tickets: $24.99 in the US, £19.99 in the UK
• Unlimited tickets: $49.99 in the US, £39.99 in the UK

Pro plan (monthly subscription)

• Up to 100 tickets: $29/month in the US, £19 in the UK
• Up to 250 tickets: $70/month in the US, £59 in the UK
• Unlimited tickets: $159/month in the US, £129 in the UK

What the recent Eventbrite price rises actually mean for your events

In a nutshell – there are two main takeaways for creators of events with over 25 attendees:

• You’ll face higher costs: To put it simply – you’ll be paying more to ticket events with over 25 attendees through Eventbrite. If you run lots of regular events, you could save money through choosing Eventbrite’s Pro plan over its Flex fees. But whichever way you look at it, you’ll still be paying more than you were before these latest pricing changes. 
• Free events are no longer free to list: Free events with over 25 attendees will no longer be free to publish on Eventbrite. Before this pricing update, it was free to list free events on the platform. But now, you’ll still have to pay the organiser fee, regardless of whether or not your tickets are free or paid.

Introducing Ticket Tailor – the (much) cheaper alternative to Eventbrite 

If all this 👆has you wondering if there’s a better way to ticket your events – keep reading! Ticket Tailor is the world’s leading independent ticketing platform and the #1 alternative to Eventbrite. The best thing is we’re much cheaper to use than Eventbrite for any and all types of event – no matter what its size – so you’ll have more money to put on a great event.

We’ve crunched the numbers so you can see exactly how much you’ll save by using Ticket Tailor instead of Eventbrite – you can see the results below. First, here’s a quick intro to who we are and what we do! 

We are:

• A totally independent ticketing platform: which means we can keep our costs right down for event creators. Woohoo! 
• Packed full of amazing ticketing features: fully customisable box office pages, tons of marketing tools and integrations, scannable tickets with our slick ticketing app… and so much more. We’ve got all your ticketing needs covered 😌. 
• 100% free for free events: as in – totally, absolutely, 100% free. If your tickets are free, then so are we to use. 
• 100% free to sign up: It’s totally free to list your events on our platform. We just charge a small, flat fee per paid ticket. You won’t pay anything until you actually sell a ticket through our platform. (And you’ll pay nothing if your events are free.)
• Low-cost, with a simple flat-fee pricing structure: For paid tickets, you just pay us a small flat fee for each ticket you sell. That’s 20p/26c if you buy credits in advance, or 50p/65c if you pay as you go. That’s it. We don’t take a percentage of your ticket sales on top of this fee, and we have zero hidden costs. Calculate what you’ll pay in your local currency on our pricing page. 
• A proud B-Corp: which means, as a business, we meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. You can find out more about Ticket Tailor as a B-Corp here 👉

Intrigued? 😌 

Find out more about ticketing your events with Ticket Tailor 👉

Eventbrite prices vs Ticket Tailor – how much you’ll save (with examples)

We’ve crunched the numbers to show you exactly how much you will save by switching from Eventbrite to Ticket Tailor. To help paint the full picture, we’ve covered a range of event types in various different countries. The pricing comparisons below are based on using Eventbrite’s Pro plan for the number of months required, as this is the closest option to the functionality Ticket Tailor offers as standard.

Take a look 👇. 

Charity Fun-Run in Canada

To run a charity fun run or similar event in Canada, here’s what you’d spend with Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor:

At Ticket Tailor we love Charity fun runs, which is why we want the event creator (and their chosen charity) to keep as much of the money raised as possible. Eventbrite’s high fees on a $20 ticket mean that they’d take an additional $7.5k from the event creator compared to Ticket Tailor. Ouch.

Christmas Lights Show in the US

To run a Christmas lights show or similar event in the US, here’s what you’d spend with Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor:

Christmas lights shows can sell a huge number of tickets, which means even a small price difference can save you a lot of money when it comes to ticketing. In this example, where the average ticket price is $15, the event organiser would save nearly $40,000 by switching to Ticket Tailor. That’s a lot of extra Christmas presents around the tree!

Comedy Venue in the UK

To run an event at a comedy venue in the UK, here’s what you’d spend with Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor:

When you run recurring events, it’s so important to choose a ticketing platform with pricing that doesn’t run away with your profits. And don’t let monthly subscription options fool you! Eventbrite has now made it so that you must subscribe to their Pro plan for any recurring events with more than 25 attendees. But as you can see from our example – this subscription doesn’t exactly result in big savings. In fact, you’d be paying an eye-watering £13,758 more with Eventbrite than you would with Ticket Tailor to ticket an identical period of recurring comedy events. That’s no laughing matter. 

Fall Festival in the US

To run a fall festival or similar event in the US, here’s what you’d spend with Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor:

Fall festivals are a firm family favourite in the US, and prove incredibly popular each year. With so many attendees to sell tickets to, you’ll want to make sure you’re using a ticketing platform that doesn’t let your costs sky-rocket for larger events that generate high levels of revenue. Case in point: this event example would generate $1,000,000 of revenue based on an average ticket price of $25. As you can see, you’d save almost $100,000 from choosing Ticket Tailor over Eventbrite to ticket your event – that’s a nice chunk of profits saved, we say!

Food Festival in the US

To run a food festival or similar event in the US, here’s what you’d spend with Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor:

Everyone loves a good food festival – so much so that tickets can sell out thick and fast. Looking at a bi-annual set-up where the average ticket price is $25, you’d save a tasty $11,650 by using Ticket Tailor instead of Eventbrite. 

Gala Dinner in the US

To run a gala dinner or similar event in the US, here’s what you’d spend with Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor:

Your attendee numbers don’t need to be in the thousands to make big savings by switching ticketing platform. Taking this US bi-annual gala dinner event as an example, you’d save $4,642 by selling 500 tickets through Ticket Tailor instead of Eventbrite. 

IT Security Conference in Australia

To run an IT security conference or similar event in Australia, here’s what you’d spend with Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor:

As Eventbrite takes a percentage of your ticket prices as a fee, it’s logical that your ticketing costs are going to rack up for events with more expensive tickets. Ticket Tailor, on the other hand, only charges a small flat fee per ticket – which stays the same, regardless of what the actual cost of the ticket is. The result? Big savings! For example, if you were running an IT security conference event with an average ticket price of $350, and you sold 3000 tickets across six months, you’d save a huge $40,944 by ticketing through Ticket Tailor instead of Eventbrite. 

Music Festival in the UK

To run a music festival or similar event in the UK, here’s what you’d spend with Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor:

From Glastonbury to Leeds Fest; Bestival to Radio 1’s Big Weekend – The UK is known for its epic music festivals! So how do things fare up for festival organisers looking to ticket their British music events through Eventbrite? In short – pretty pricey. For a festival with 20,000 attendees with an average ticket price of £70, and a ticket sale period of six months, you’d be looking at £109,874 in Eventbrite fees. WIth Ticket Tailor, you’d pay a total of £27,000 for the exact same scenario. 

Pottery Workshop in the UK

To run a pottery workshop or similar event in the UK, here’s what you’d spend with Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor:

Running workshops in your area of expertise can be a lucrative money-earner – either as a side hustle or a full-time business. But when you’re a small operation, you’ll want to make sure you’re keeping your costs down to really maximise on those profits. The example above shows just how much of a difference your ticketing costs can make here. You’d save £1,632 by using Ticket Tailor instead of Eventbrite for a run of 24 recurring workshops at £40 per ticket. 

Vintage Clothes Market in Australia

To run a vintage clothes market or similar event in Australia, here’s what you’d spend with Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor:

Not all events cost money to attend, of course! If you didn’t charge for entry to, say, a cool vintage clothes market in Australia 😎, it wouldn’t cost you a cent to ticket your event through Ticket Tailor. To ticket the exact same event through Eventbrite, you’d have to fork out A$2,748. 

Final word – the impact of Eventbrite’s pricing changes for event creators

It’s simple really – Eventbrite’s introduction of a new organiser fee will see the vast majority of event creators on its platform paying higher fees than before. Those who used to enjoy listing free events for free will no longer be able to do so. 

Ultimately, which ticketing platform you decide is right for you is a very personal choice, but it always helps to be armed with all the facts before making any decisions. Especially when you’re keen to hold onto as much of your profits as possible, and to keep your ticket prices down for your valued attendees.

That’s a wrap! If you’re keen to learn more about event ticketing and maximising the success of your events, head over to the Ticket Tailor blog.