Event ticketing costs come in three layers — a platform service fee (flat or percentage), card processing (~2.9% + 30¢ in the US), and sometimes subscription or feature-tier charges — and on a $150 seated-event ticket, total published 2026 fees range from about $5.81 (TicketSpice) and $5.82 (Tavolina) to about $11.90 (Eventbrite).
Ticketing fees are simple arithmetic hidden behind marketing. There are only three layers; every platform is some combination of them.
The three layers
1 — The platform service fee. Either a flat amount per ticket (Tavolina $1.00; TicketSpice 99¢; Ticket Tailor $0.85 pay-as-you-go or from $0.60 prepaid) or a percentage plus a fixed amount (Eventbrite 3.7% + $1.79; PromoTix free plan 3% + $1.49). The distinction matters more as your ticket price rises: a percentage fee on a $250 gala ticket costs multiples of what it costs on a $25 ticket; a flat fee costs the same dollar.
2 — Card processing. In the US, roughly 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction. The real question is whose processor: on Tavolina and Ticket Tailor, processing runs on the organizer's own Stripe account (money settles to you directly, on Stripe's schedule); on TicketSpice it's their mandatory in-house processor; on Eventbrite it's bundled, and your money flows through Eventbrite with payouts after.
3 — Everything else. Monthly subscriptions (Eventbrite Pro email from $15/mo; PromoTix's "no ticketing fees" plan — price not published), feature gates (PromoTix reserved seating is Enterprise-only; Ticket Tailor reserved seats cost one extra credit each, roughly doubling seated events), and per-event or setup charges. The zeros matter as much as the numbers — ask every vendor for the fees that don't appear on the pricing page.
The same ticket, five ways
A $150 seated-event ticket, all fees passed to the buyer, at rates as published 2026-07-15:
| Platform | Total fees per ticket |
|---|---|
| TicketSpice | ≈ $5.81 — but no table-based selling; their processor is mandatory |
| Tavolina | $5.82 ($1.00 flat + your own Stripe processing) |
| Ticket Tailor | ≈ $6.44 prepaid / $7.37 pay-as-you-go (reserved seats cost 2 credits) |
| PromoTix (free plan) | ≈ $7.48 + processing at an unpublished rate |
| Eventbrite | ≈ $11.90 |
For pure general admission the ranking changes: Ticket Tailor's prepaid credits (≈ $5.41 on the same ticket) beat both flat-fee platforms, and TicketSpice's 99¢ beats Tavolina's $1.00 by a cent. No platform is cheapest everywhere; the honest question is which is cheapest for your event's shape.
Pass through or absorb?
Every platform lets you either pass fees to the buyer (ticket $150, buyer pays ~$155.82, you net $150) or absorb them (buyer pays $150 flat, you net ~$144). Pass-through is the community-event default — treasurers budget on netting face value. Whichever you choose, advertise one all-in number: US junk-fee rules (FTC, 16 CFR Part 464) now require the advertised price to include mandatory fees, and buyers punish checkout surprises anyway.
Questions that expose the real price
- What is the total cost on my ticket price, service fee and processing, added up?
- Does the money settle to my own account as tickets sell, or do you hold it until after the event?
- What do refunds cost me? (Tavolina returns its $1 on refunds; Stripe keeps its processing fee — that's Stripe's policy, and any Stripe-based platform inherits it.)
- What do free or comped tickets cost?
- Is anything I need — reserved seating, check-in, exports — gated to a higher tier?
Run your own numbers in the fee calculator, which shows each platform's published rates on your exact ticket price, sources linked and dated — including the cells where a competitor beats us.