To sell event tickets with no fees — keeping 100% of ticket revenue minus only your payment processor’s standard rate — you need to move your ticketing off third-party platforms and onto your own WordPress site. Every time you sell a ticket through Eventbrite, approximately 6.95% of the ticket price plus £0.59 disappears before it reaches you. For a £75 ticket, that’s £5.80 per ticket — multiply by 200 tickets and you’ve paid Eventbrite £1,160 for one event. Live Event Seating lets you sell event tickets with no fees through WooCommerce: the plugin costs $49.99–$194.99/year flat, and takes zero percentage of your sales.
Where the Money Actually Goes on Ticketing Platforms
Understanding the full fee structure of major platforms is important before comparing:
Eventbrite (UK):
- Service fee: 6.95% + £0.59 per ticket (paid by buyer or absorbed by organiser)
- Payment processing: Included in service fee
- Organiser fee: Eventbrite Pro required for some features
TicketTailor:
- Per-ticket fee: from 23p to 65p per ticket (depending on plan)
- Payment processing: 1.4% + 25p (Stripe fees, passed through)
- Monthly subscription: from £0 (but per-ticket fees increase)
Ticket Tailor example (1,000 tickets at £50):
- Platform fee (at 40p/ticket): £400
- Stripe processing (1.4% + 25p): ~£950
- Total fees: ~£1,350 on £50,000 of revenue
Live Event Seating + WooCommerce + Stripe:
- Plugin cost: £39–£154/year (flat, not per ticket)
- Stripe processing: 1.4% + 25p per transaction (same as above)
- Platform percentage cut: £0
The payment processing fee (Stripe, PayPal, etc.) is unavoidable regardless of which platform you use — your bank or card scheme charges it. The platform percentage is what changes. With Live Event Seating, that percentage is zero.
The Maths at Different Event Scales
| Event Size | Ticket Price | Eventbrite Fees (est.) | LES Cost (Pro/yr) | Annual Saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 seats × 12 events | £45 | £4,644/yr | £154 | £4,490/yr |
| 200 seats × 6 events | £75 | £6,960/yr | £154 | £6,806/yr |
| 500 seats × 4 events | £35 | £5,740/yr | £154 | £5,586/yr |
| 150 seats × 20 events | £55 | £15,510/yr | £154 | £15,356/yr |
These are conservative estimates. The saving scales with ticket price and event frequency. A venue running 20+ events per year is paying five figures annually in platform fees that a flat-rate WordPress plugin eliminates.
What You Control When You Own the Ticketing
Beyond the fee saving, selling through your own WordPress site gives you control that third-party platforms don’t:
Your customer data: On Eventbrite, your buyers’ contact data belongs to Eventbrite. On your own site, every buyer is a WooCommerce customer in your own database — email address, purchase history, and all.
Your refund policy: Platforms enforce their own refund policies. On WooCommerce, your refund policy is whatever you configure. You decide the terms.
Your checkout experience: Third-party platforms have their own branded checkout — your buyers leave your site. With WooCommerce, the entire purchase happens on your domain, in your branding.
Your upsell opportunities: At checkout, WooCommerce lets you cross-sell and upsell — merchandise, drink packages, parking passes, next event early access. None of this is possible on a third-party platform.
Your analytics: WooCommerce feeds into Google Analytics, your email platform, your CRM. You know who your buyers are, how they found you, and what they buy. Eventbrite gives you their analytics. You get yours.
The Setup Cost vs. The Saving
Setting up Live Event Seating for the first time — installing the plugin, creating your first seating chart, connecting your WooCommerce payment gateway — takes approximately 2–4 hours for a non-technical user following the documentation.
For a venue that would otherwise pay £4,000/year in Eventbrite fees, that setup time is paid back at an effective rate of £1,000/hour in recovered revenue. For a venue paying £15,000/year in platform fees, the ROI is extraordinary.
The plugin documentation covers every step: WordPress Seating Chart Plugin — Complete Documentation.
Platform fees compound every year. A flat plugin licence doesn’t. Keep 100% of your ticket revenue — minus only your payment processor’s standard rate. Get Live Event Seating → Starter from $49.99/year · 14-day money-back guarantee · 0% per-ticket commission
Ready to Keep 100% of Your Ticket Sales?
The Live Event Seating Plugin integrates with WooCommerce, giving you a powerful seating chart builder with zero per-ticket fees.