Quick answer
Yes — Eventcraft is a one-time-purchase alternative to Eventbrite. It costs $39 once, while Eventbrite runs 2.7% + $0.79/ticket — about $665 per year, every year. Self-hosted ticketing with tiers, QR tickets, webcam door check-in and auto-promoting waitlists; money runs through your own Stripe link. It is for people who want the job done on their own hardware without a renewal date — not for teams that live inside Eventbrite's ecosystem.
The verdict
Switch to Eventcraft if you are an individual or small team paying Eventbrite 2.7% + $0.79/ticket for work your own machine can do. One 500-ticket event on Eventbrite costs around $665 in fees; Eventcraft is $39, and the next event is free.
Stay with Eventbrite if your workflow depends on its integrations, you need enterprise features (SSO, admin controls, SLAs), or your team is large enough that per-seat collaboration tooling is worth the bill. Eventcraft does not try to replicate those.
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 |
| 5-year cost | $39 | $3,325 |
Where Eventbrite still wins
- Ecosystem and integrations. Established tools accumulate years of third-party integrations, templates and add-ons. If your workflow is wired into Eventbrite's ecosystem, switching means rebuilding that plumbing — a real cost.
- Team and enterprise features. Shared workspaces, granular permissions, SSO, audit logs and a vendor to call when something breaks — that is what the higher subscription tiers actually buy, and a pay-once app does not come with it.
- Familiarity and hiring. Eventbrite is the name people already know. Onboarding a team onto a tool nobody has used before takes time the subscription never charges for.
Where Eventcraft wins
- Price, permanently. $39 once versus $665/yr for as long as you use it. There is no renewal, no seat count and no tier gate.
- 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.
The math
One 500-ticket event on Eventbrite costs around $665 in fees; Eventcraft is $39, and the next event is free.
- After 1 year: Eventcraft has cost you $39 total — Eventbrite has cost $665.
- After 3 years: Eventcraft is still $39 — the subscription is at $1,995.
- After 5 years: Eventcraft is still $39 — the subscription is at $3,325.
Common questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — Eventcraft is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/event-registration-mvp. The $39 buys the packaged installer and 1-click setup; building from source is free.
Where does my attendee data live?
In one SQLite file on your own server or machine. Zero telemetry, and Eventcraft makes zero API calls to any payment provider.
Do you take a per-ticket cut?
No. Attendees pay your own Stripe Payment Link at Stripe's standard rate; Eventcraft takes nothing. It's $39 once, no renewal.
Try Eventcraft — $39, one time
Or get Eventcraft plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.