Eventbrite costs 2.7% + $0.79/ticket — and unlike a tool you buy once, that bill never stops. Over three years that's roughly $1,995 for software doing a job your own hardware could just as easily do.
Where the subscription actually goes
2.7% + $0.79/ticket is the sticker price. It compounds: cancel and you typically lose access to your own history, and most plans ratchet the price up as you add usage, seats or storage — the bill rarely stays flat for long.
Eventcraft: the pay-once alternative
Eventcraft does the same core job for $39, once. Self-hosted ticketing with tiers, QR tickets, webcam door check-in and auto-promoting waitlists; money runs through your own Stripe link.
| Eventcraft | Eventbrite | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $39 once | 2.7% + $0.79/ticket |
| 500 x $20 tickets | $39 total, ever | ~$665 in fees |
| Payment processing | Your Stripe link | Their cut |
| Attendee data | Your SQLite file | Their platform |
| QR check-in | Yes, offline-capable | Yes, their app |
| Waitlist auto-promotion | Yes | Plan-gated |
| Custom questions | Yes, unlimited | Yes |
| Source code | MIT, yours | Proprietary |
One 500-ticket event on Eventbrite costs around $665 in fees; Eventcraft is $39, and the next event is free.
Is the subscription ever still worth it?
If you need Eventbrite's specific ecosystem, integrations or managed infrastructure and that's genuinely load-bearing for you, the subscription earns its keep — that's a real trade-off, not a trick. Eventcraft is for everyone else: people paying every month for a job that runs fine on hardware they already own.
Try Eventcraft — $39, once
Self-hosted ticketing with tiers, QR tickets, webcam door check-in and auto-promoting waitlists; money runs through your own Stripe link.