An alternative to ticketing platforms with per-ticket fees

When you choose a ticketing platform, you look at the features first. The bill comes later, and it depends less on the features than on one question: how does the platform charge? There are three ways, and for a club with a few events a year or a visitor attraction with thousands of visitors they add up to very different amounts.

Three ways to pay for ticketing

A fixed amount per ticket. Every ticket sold costs anything from a few tens of cents to more than a euro. On a 5-euro ticket, that weighs heavily.

A percentage of your revenue. The platform takes a share of every sale. The better you sell, the more you pay — even though the platform does nothing extra for it.

A fixed amount per month or per year. You pay for the software, not for your success. Whether you sell a hundred tickets or ten thousand, the bill stays the same.

Platforms often combine the first two, and sometimes they pass the cost on to the buyer as service charges. Your visitor then pays more than the price on your poster, and notices it at checkout.

And the payment provider?

Separately, your payment provider — Mollie, Stripe or Bancontact Pro — charges a fee per payment. You have that with every platform and in every web shop. The difference lies in who sits in between: with Passavo you connect your own account, the money goes straight to your own account and we keep none of it. See Payouts and costs.

Working out your season

Take last year's sales and work out three figures:

1. the number of paid tickets, times what a platform charges per ticket;
2. your ticket revenue, times the percentage;
3. the fixed amount of a plan, times twelve months.

A worked example with an imaginary platform that charges 1 euro per ticket: a club that sells 2,000 paid tickets in a year pays 2,000 euros for them. With a fixed amount, the bill doesn't move with your sales: the Start plan costs €9.00 a month, up to 3,000 paid tickets a year, and Growth costs €29.00 a month, with no ceiling. With an annual subscription you pay €90.00 or €290.00 a year.

Want the figures of existing platforms, with the source and the date we checked them? They are in our comparisons.

What you get for that fixed amount

• A ticket shop in seven languages, with time slots, discount codes and free registrations.
• The scanning app, which also works without a network.
• Wallet passes for Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.
• From Start, the counter point of sale and your own colours and logo.
• From Growth, your own domain, season passes, gift vouchers, resellers and UiTPAS.

What is not included matters just as much: no cost per ticket, no commission on your revenue and no intermediate account where your money lands first.

Starting small is free

If you organise something a few times a year, you start on the free plan: unlimited free events and up to 100 paid tickets per event, with no card details. For one busy evening, you pay for that event separately for €19.00.

Switching in four steps

1. Create your account and set up your first product or event.
2. Connect your own payment provider.
3. Make a test payment to see what your visitor sees.
4. Embed the shop in your own website or share the link.

You don't have to move sales that are already running: simply let the event that is already selling run its course, and start your next event here. All features are on the features page, the plans on the pricing page.