Eventcraft and Eventbrite solve the same problem from opposite directions: one is source-available software you can own outright for $39, the other is a subscription at 2.7% + $0.79/ticket run entirely on someone else's servers.
Head to head
| 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 |
What Eventcraft does well
- Event pages — Title, rich description, date and time, venue or virtual link, cover image and a shareable clean URL.
- Ticket tiers — Free or paid, quantity limits and early-bird pricing windows, with all money handled as integer cents to avoid rounding bugs.
- BYO Stripe Payment Link — Paste your own Payment Link per tier; attendees pay Stripe's standard rate and only Stripe's rate, with zero API calls to any payment provider.
- QR-code tickets — Generated server-side, emailed on confirmation via optional SMTP, and always viewable at a private ticket URL.
What Eventbrite still does better
There's a real reason Eventbrite costs what it does: a bigger team, broader integrations and dedicated support behind it. If that ecosystem is genuinely what you need, it's worth paying for.
Which one should you pick
If your workflow depends on Eventbrite's specific integrations or you'd rather not run anything yourself, stay put — that's a legitimate call. If you're comfortable owning the tool and want to stop paying 2.7% + $0.79/ticket for a job your own hardware can do, Eventcraft pays for itself and then some: one 500-ticket event on Eventbrite costs around $665 in fees; Eventcraft is $39, and the next event is free.
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.