Eventbrite vs Ticketmaster: Choose the Right Ticketing Platform for Your Events

The event ticketing space is all the rage. It’s expected to grow by over 14% in 2023. If you want to capitalize on this multi-billion dollar market, you need to get the three things right:

1. A theme to boost mass appeal

2. The ticketing experience

3. A memorable ending

Today, we’ll focus on the ticketing experience and help you choose a ticketing solution for your event between Eventbrite vs. Ticketmaster.

Both platforms are very well known in the ticketing industry for being easy third-party choices. So which one topples the other? And which platform should you opt for? 

What is Eventbrite?

Eventbrite is an event ticketing platform that allows you to showcase your events and allow the purchase of tickets. The events are displayed on the Eventbrite website which gives you an added advantage of their existing audience. 

Eventbrite also offers an easy-to-setup system that you can use to get your tickets ready for purchase. However, since Eventbrite has an existing style to its website, there is a lack of customization available. If a user is redirected to Eventbrite from your website, the difference also becomes fairly obvious. 

What is Ticketmaster? 

Ticketmaster is a popular event ticketing platform for businesses of all scales and sizes. This platform began even before Eventbrite and has continued to hold its position in the top ticketing systems worldwide. 

Similar to Eventbrite, Ticketmaster makes selling your event tickets easy. However, there are a few caveats to using either of these platforms. 

Eventbrite vs Ticketmaster  — What are the differences?

Both ticketing systems are great choices for event organizers. Let’s look at the differences between these two ticketing systems. 

Quick summary of differences between Ticketmaster and Eventbrite

Eventbrite vs. Ticketmaster — Sales dashboard

Both platforms have very similar features as they have been topping each other off in terms of features for over a decade.

Eventbrite

Begin by creating an account on the Eventbrite website to sell tickets. It allows you to then add the events, set up the location and set a price. 

Eventbrite handles the checkout and payment process, taking that responsibility off your shoulders. While that is great for some event hosts, it may not be great when you realize that Eventbrite charges a heavy fee. More on that later. 

Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster has a fairly simple dashboard which can be convenient for first-time event organizers. Similar to Eventbrite, it handles the payments, the processing, and the ticket delivery for you. So in this case, you can go with either of these platforms and have a very similar experience.

Eventbrite vs Ticketmaster — Event setup and customization

Event sales pages need to give your audience a feel for the event. They must have a vibe that gets your audience excited.

That’s the page where you can capture your customer’s attention, ask for their emails, and provide value and a promise of a great event before asking for money. 

Eventbrite

Eventbrite offers very little customization to the events. The event pages match the Eventbrite website theme, so every event hosted on Eventbrite has the same style. 

The only way to make an event stand out is to upload an eye-catchy event image. Apart from that, every other design element is controlled by Eventbrite. 

Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster is similar to Eventbrite in terms of customizability. Since they need the events to be standardized throughout their website, Ticketmaster offers limited functionality for customizing your ticket pages. 

You can change the event image and pricing, add unique titles to try and grab attention, and more. However, that’s the most you can do with third-party ticketing apps. 

Looking for a fully customizable ticketing experience that’s also easy to use? Try Evey.

Ticketmaster vs. Eventbrite — External apps

Being able to connect your event ticketing platform with your business tools can make things quite seamless. It can help you work with existing technology for sending welcome and reminder emails, using calendars, tracking attendees, and even making payments available at your venue. 

Eventbrite

Eventbrite has an app ecosystem. This lets you enhance Eventbrite’s capabilities and helps you connect multiple systems together. 

For example, you can connect your Google calendar to sync with the events. Along with that, you can keep Mailchimp and Eventbrite’s email lists in sync. 

Ticketmaster

While Ticketmaster has an API for other apps to integrate with, it does not offer an app marketplace as Eventbrite does. As such, you may have to manually look up if one of your existing tools integrates with Ticketmaster. 

For example, if you want to connect your Mailchimp account to sync emails between the accounts, that may not be possible as easily with Ticketmaster as it will be with Eventbrite’s integrations. 

Eventbrite vs Ticketmaster — Pricing

The most important differentiating factor between Ticketmaster and Eventbrite is their pricing. Both offer similar features for very different prices. 

Eventbrite

Eventbrite charges a fee per ticket along with the payment processing charges. If the ticket is free of cost, Eventbrite will not charge any fees. You can also choose to absorb the fees or pass it on to your customers. This may increase the per-ticket cost for your customers while giving you the full revenue you expect.  

Let’s take an example of a $10 event ticket sold on Eventbrite. We’ll absorb the fees to understand the total amount. 

If you sell 100 tickets for this event, the expected revenue is $1,000. 

After the Eventbrite fees, the amount would go down to $876. This comes to $124 in Eventbrite fees.

However, these lower fees are for the Essentials package. If you go for the Professional package, the fees are even higher at $219.

This is excluding the taxes and payment processing fees you will be charged on your sales. As you sell tickets for higher-priced events, the percentage fee eats up into your total revenue. 

Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster’s pricing structure is only visible while you’re on the final page for selling your tickets. However, it’s a known fact that Ticketmaster charges an extremely high fee along with some added demand-based pricing features.

This can lead to customers paying much higher costs for the ticket while the event organizer does not greatly benefit from these raised costs. 

While both platforms have high per-ticket fees, Eventbrite costs are lower overall.

Alternatively, if you are looking for a ticketing platform that offers a very low fee per ticket, Evey can be a perfect choice. 

Eventbrite vs Ticketmaster — Final thoughts

Eventbrite and Ticketmaster are both great platforms for managing your events. The major differentiating factors between these two will be the fees and the audience reach. 

Eventbrite 

Eventbrite provides you with an existing audience and handles your event payments, and attendee management from a single place. However, it uses your customers’ emails to promote other events. 

With that said, Eventbrite can be a good platform if you’re starting out and haven’t found your distribution channel yet.

Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster is very similar to Eventbrite in terms of experience. Both are strong competitors in this space and have been so for the last decade. Ticketmaster also handles the payments using Stripe and offers a complete solution for selling event tickets.

Additionally, Ticketmaster also owns multiple concert venues where they host events and offer space for larger events to be hosted. 

The choice between the two platforms will rely on majorly the pricing and fees. If you are looking for comparatively lower fees, Eventbrite is a clear winner.

But if the pricing does not deter you, it may make more sense to gain the added visibility by listing on both platforms. If you want to add exclusivity to your events through proper customization and a seamless ticketing experience, you may need something more.

Also read: Eventbrite vs. Evey Events: Which Is The Best Ticketing Platform?

Try Evey for a customized and seamless ticketing experience on Shopify

If you run a Shopify store and want to host events, why go with a third-party ticketing system? Evey helps design modern and customized tickets and sales pages for your virtual events. Here’s how:

1. After you install Evey on your Shopify store, you are presented with a screen to create a new event.

2. Click Create event and set up the event details including the name, the dates, the ticket pricing, and the number of tickets available. You can choose the location of the event here, and click Save Event.

3. Next, click on the Tickets tab and go to Customize.

4. Start designing your ticket with the simple drag-and-drop template designer. Edit the colors and the layout of the tickets as you prefer.

5. Once you’re done, click Save at the top right corner and then hit Exit.

Your ticket template is now created and it will be automatically sent to customers who purchase the event tickets. The overall custom look gives your events an exclusive feel that is difficult to achieve on ticketing platforms.

Want to sell event tickets without the high fees of a third-party platform?

If you want the long-term business benefits that events offer like better customer relationships, new leads, increased customer loyalty, and improved brand positioning — you cannot afford to give up control. 

You must organize and stay in control of your events from the start to the finish making sure nothing is left to doubt.

Evey Events becomes your partner and helps you host your events effortlessly while giving you full control over the designs, data, and revenue.

It becomes the entry point for customers to buy tickets from. With complete control over the ticketing experience, from the page designs to custom tickets to payment pages, Evey gives your customers a seamless purchase experience that’s impossible to create on third-party websites. 

For a fully customizable Shopify event ticketing experience, try Evey — the only event ticketing platform to help make your event a success.