My answer to a question on Quora:
There are hundreds of different cloud-based (hosted) ticketing systems available on the internet, but if you want to take life by the horns, I would tell you to sell tickets from your website and cut out the middleman.
“How the heck do I do that?”, you ask out loud.
“Build a WordPress website!”, I respond instantly.
“I don’t know anything about building a website”, you say with a frown.
“Oh, quit being a baby! It’s easy to spin up a WordPress website, then install an event ticketing plugin to sell tickets”, I exclaim loudly. “All you have to do is follow these five simple steps.”
Step 1: Find a good WordPress hosting provider. Here are few I recommend (pick one):
(Stay away from really cheap hosting providers, such as GoDaddy Hosting, Yahoo Hosting, and Crazy Domains Hosting.)
Step 2: Sign up with a payment provider. I recommend the following:
- PayPal (because a ton of people use this platform for accepting payments)
- Stripe (for processing credit cards)
Step 3: Install a WordPress plugin to create events and sell tickets (login to your WordPress dashboard and install one of the following plugins):
Step 4: Install a WordPress theme that suits your style. There are many to choose from, so here’s a list of my favorite places to get a nice looking theme:
- WordPress Theme Repository (free)
- ShowThemes (paid)
- Espresso Themes (free themes for Event Espresso)
Step 5: Add some events and start selling tickets!
Why Sell Tickets from Your Website?
Because companies, such as Eventbrite, all have high ticketing fees, can hold your funds hostage, will flat out sell your customer data, and send email spam to your customers.
Also, when you put all your eggs in one basket with hosted ticketing platforms, you are at their mercy.
Don’t be fooled by the ease of use and flexibility of Eventbrite, cVent, Ticketfly, and other hosted ticketing platforms without considering the safety of your event and registration data, ticketing fees, and lack of autonomy and profitability.
Just because you can create events and sell tickets with ease on those platforms, ultimately, you are not in control. You risk losing valuable business data and reputation on these closed-source platforms, where you are held captive by their ever-increasing fees, while your customer data is farmed out to the highest bidder and you are both bombarded with followup marketing emails.
Now imagine if that closed source software you’ve come to rely on gets hacked and shuts down, like what happened to Ticketfly after Eventbrite acquired it. Where did all of your sales data and registration disappear to? Chances are, that data is gone forever, just as some Eventbrite customers selling tickets to a Cannabis Film Festival found out recently when Eventbrite shut down their ticket sales and held the ticketing fees. Seriously, it was so insane that Forbes reported on the article here.
The bottom line is that these types of corporations put profits over customer satisfaction and don’t believe in Net Neutrality.
Trust the Event Ticketing Powered by Open Source Technology
Unlike the too-big-to-fail, closed system, event behemoths, like Eventbrite, cVent, Ticketfly, and TicketMaster, event ticketing systems powered by Event Espresso and WordPress are wholly based on open source technology, where developers can access core files, create customizations, and build integrations with other platforms. If you can dream it, an Event Espresso Pro or WordPress developer can make it.
Eventbrite Fees Calculator
Did you know there’s a tool that can help you estimate how much you could pay in Eventbrite fees and charges? With Event Espresso you can save 100% of what Eventbrite charges to sell tickets or accept registrations online. Plus you can do it all on your own website with your own branding and keep control of your event and attendee data.
Full Disclosure
I am a co-founder of Event Espresso and Event Smart. At Event Espresso, we believe in Open Source Software and the rights it provides users. So, it saddens us to see closed-source platforms, such as Eventbrite, increasing their fees, even for their non-profit customers.
Earlier this year, we reported on a quilting events and workshops company that is losing $21,000 in ticketing fees annually, by using Eventbrite. That means, if costs are increasing, the quilting company will stand to lose well over $40,000 in ticketing fees, next year.
I originally built the Event Espresso plugin for my wife in 2009, to escape the high ticketing fees she was presented with when trying to sell tickets to her small scrapbooking workshops. Since that time, Event Espresso has gone on to help over 60,000 organizations sell over $100,000,000 in tickets, without ever charging a ticketing fee or transaction fee to our customers.
You can read and listen to the full story of how I went from homeless to helping businesses save money with open source software.
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Did you enjoy this answer to the Quora question, “Which is the Best Free Ticketing System?”. Follow me on Quora to see my answers to questions about event management software in your feed.
