Guide

Best event ticketing platforms.Where each one actually fits.

Updated October 11, 2026. Fee rates re-read on each company’s own page that day; other sources show the date they were read.

The best ticketing platform depends on what you run — recurring series, one-off public events, festivals, or music shows. Here is an honest read of the landscape, including where other platforms beat us. If you are mainly deciding what to use instead of Eventbrite, see Eventbrite alternatives, compared on fees, discovery, memberships and exports.

The best event ticketing platform depends on your events. For recurring, ticketed events you want AI to help create and grow — with application gating, paid memberships, and affiliates — SocialLoop fits. For one-off public events that need discovery, Eventbrite; for low flat fees, Ticket Tailor; for customizable higher-volume ticketing, TicketSpice; for live entertainment, Tixr; for music and nightlife, DICE. This guide places each by the use case it serves best.

The best event ticketing platforms, by use case

SocialLoop

Best for: Recurring, ticketed events with AI + affiliates

Ticketing inside a full event platform. Sell free RSVP, paid multi-tier, application-gated (charge-on-approval) and secret tiers, with paid community memberships alongside. One place for the guest list and check-in, an affiliate program for promoters, and email campaigns to your community. Best fit for recurring series: tech events, networking, conferences.

Eventbrite

Best for: One-off public events that need discovery

The best-known ticketing platform, with a large built-in discovery marketplace. A strong fit for public, one-off events that benefit from Eventbrite’s audience and brand recognition — at the cost of percentage fees and less control over branding and deeper operations.

Ticket Tailor

Best for: Low, flat per-ticket fees

Known for low flat fees instead of percentage-based pricing. A great pick for organizers who want predictable, low ticketing costs and a straightforward checkout without a lot of extra software.

TicketSpice

Best for: Highly customizable, higher-volume ticketing

Flexible, customizable ticketing pages with flexible payment options, popular for fairs, festivals, and higher-volume events. A good fit when you need deep page customization and volume.

Tixr

Best for: Live entertainment, music, and festivals

A commerce platform for live entertainment — concerts, festivals, clubs, and premium experiences — with group ordering and upsells. The right choice for large music and entertainment events.

DICE

Best for: Music and nightlife with a fan app

Built for music and nightlife, with a fan-facing app, waitlists, and anti-tout features. Ideal when your events are concerts and club nights and DICE’s music audience matters.

What is the best ticket platform for small events?

For most small events the best ticket platform is one with no monthly fee that only charges when you sell a ticket — Luma if your events are free, a low-fee seller such as TixFox, Ticket Tailor, Hi.Events or TicketSpice if you sell to people who already know you, Eventbrite only if you need strangers to find the event, and Zeffy if you are a registered nonprofit. Pick by your situation, not by the biggest name.

Free RSVPs only: Luma’s free plan allows unlimited events and guests and charges only on paid tickets. Eventbrite, TicketLeap and Humanitix also charge nothing on free tickets.
Paid tickets to your own audience: the fee is the main difference, so compare what each takes at your ticket price (the table below works one example).
You need new people to find you: Eventbrite’s public events can appear in its search, and that reach is what its higher fee buys.
A registered nonprofit: Zeffy has no platform or processing fees and is funded by optional tips from buyers.
A recurring series that also sells memberships: SocialLoop sells tickets and paid community memberships in one place. Its fee is 5% on every plan plus card processing, and its Free plan covers 1 event per month.
Before you commit, check three things a small event runs into quickly: how many events or ticket types the free plan allows, whether you can download your guest list to invite the same people next time, and who pays the fee by default.

What is the cheapest ticketing platform?

Platform	Monthly	Fees on a $25 ticket	The catch
TixFox	$0	$1.42	Card processing is billed by Stripe on top. Free events are free.
Ticket Tailor	$0	$1.88	85¢ pay-as-you-go; $1.33 a ticket with prepaid credits from 30¢. Up to 5,000 free tickets a year are free.
Hi.Events (hosted)	$0	$1.94	Card processing is billed on top (Stripe’s standard rate assumed). Free to self-host if you keep its “Powered by Hi.Events” link.
TicketSpice	$0	$2.02	Free tickets are free only if you also run paid events; otherwise 99¢ each.
TicketLeap	$0	$2.25	The 3% online transaction fee is charged on each order. Free events are free.
Luma free plan	$0	$2.28	The 5% platform fee comes out of your payout. Luma Plus removes it (below).
SimpleTix	$0	$2.32	Card processing is set by your processor (Stripe’s standard rate assumed).
SocialLoop Free plan	$0	$2.40	1 event a month, 1 ticket type per event, a community of up to 50 members.
Humanitix	$0	$2.54	Humanitix says its profits go to charity. Free events are free.
Eventbrite (for comparison)	$0	$3.44	Public events can appear in Eventbrite search. Buyers pay the fees by default.

An illustrative example, not a quote: a $25 ticket, one ticket per order, US cards, 40 paying guests a month (480 tickets a year), and you absorb every fee so each guest pays $25. Rates read on each company’s own pricing page on October 11, 2026.

Zeffy is not in the table because it costs $0: no platform or processing fees, funded by optional tips from buyers. It is for registered nonprofits only.
Ticket Tailor has no subscription: 85¢ per paid ticket in the US, or from 30¢ with prepaid credits, plus your processor’s fee, and no fee on up to 5,000 free tickets a year. Its US-dollar rates are in the currency table on its pricing page.
Rates used: TixFox 39¢ + Stripe 2.9% + 30¢; Ticket Tailor 85¢ + Stripe 2.9% + 30¢; Hi.Events 1.25% + 60¢ + Stripe; TicketSpice 99¢ + 2.9% + 30¢; TicketLeap $1 + 2% + a 3% online transaction fee; Luma 5% + Stripe 2.9% + 30¢; SimpleTix 2% + 79¢ + Stripe; Humanitix 2.1% + 99¢ + 2.9% + 30¢; Eventbrite 3.7% + $1.79 + 2.9%. Each total is computed exactly and rounded to the cent once.

Sources, fee rates read October 11, 2026: Eventbrite pricing, Luma pricing, Hi.Events pricing, TicketSpice pricing, TicketLeap pricing, SimpleTix pricing, Humanitix US pricing, Zeffy pricing, Ticket Tailor US pricing, TixFox pricing, Stripe pricing.

The order changes with the price. A flat fee per ticket weighs most on a cheap ticket and a percentage weighs most on an expensive one, so run your own price before deciding.

SocialLoop is in the middle of this table, not at the top: $2.40 a ticket at $25, because its fee is 5% on every plan plus card processing.

Free events are free on most of these platforms. The exception to watch is TicketSpice, which charges 99¢ per free ticket unless you also run paid events.

Run your own ticket price in the fee calculator, or see the same table with each free plan’s limits in free Eventbrite alternatives.

Common questions

What is the best event ticketing platform?

It depends on your events. For recurring, ticketed events you want AI to help create and grow — with application gating, paid memberships, and affiliate payouts — SocialLoop fits. For one-off public events needing discovery, Eventbrite; for low flat fees, Ticket Tailor; for customizable higher-volume ticketing, TicketSpice; for live entertainment, Tixr; for music and nightlife, DICE.

What should I look for in an event ticketing platform?

Match the platform to your events: fee structure (flat vs percentage), ticket types you need (paid tiers, application gating, member/secret tiers), branding and control, whether you need discovery, and how much it does beyond ticketing — registration, marketing, affiliates, check-in, and analytics. Platforms that bundle those (like SocialLoop) reduce the number of separate tools you run.

Which ticketing platform is best for recurring events?

For recurring, ticketed event series, a platform with paid memberships, affiliate distribution, and integrated marketing (SocialLoop) is built for the ongoing operations. Ticket Tailor also works well for simple recurring paid ticketing.

How do event ticketing fees work?

Most platforms charge either a percentage of each ticket plus a flat fee, or a low flat fee per ticket, and card processing is often added on top. Ticket Tailor emphasizes flat fees; SocialLoop charges 5% on every plan on paid tickets plus card processing, and nothing on free RSVPs. Always verify current pricing on each provider directly.

What is the best ticket platform for small events?

What is the cheapest ticketing platform?

If you are a registered nonprofit, Zeffy is the cheapest because it charges no platform or processing fees; for everyone else the cheapest is the platform with no monthly fee and the lowest cut at your ticket price — on a $25 ticket in the US that was TixFox at $1.42 a ticket, against $3.44 on Eventbrite, all fees included, when we checked on October 11, 2026. The order changes with the price. A flat fee per ticket weighs most on a cheap ticket and a percentage weighs most on an expensive one, so run your own price before deciding.

Try SocialLoop

If you run recurring, ticketed events and want AI to help create and grow them — with application gating, paid memberships, and affiliates built in — SocialLoop fits. What it costs is set out above.

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