Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor (vs PromoTix): Which Platform Is Better For Your Event Marketing Needs In 2026?

Choosing between Eventbrite and Ticket Tailor for your event ticketing needs often comes down to these five critical questions:

• Do you need a marketplace to discover new attendees, or do you already have an audience ready to buy?
• Are you willing to pay combined fees of around 6.6% plus $1.79 per ticket , or would you prefer a total ticketing and processing fee of just 2.9% + $1.15 per ticket?
• Is having your own brand front and center important, or are you okay with your ticketing platform's logo on everything?
• Do you want basic ticketing functionality, or do you need powerful marketing tools to actually sell tickets?
• Would you rather manage multiple tools for ticketing and marketing, or have everything integrated in one platform?
  
  

In short, here's what we recommend:

👉 Eventbrite is the marketplace leader that connects event organizers with millions of potential attendees actively browsing for things to do. With approximately 87-89 million monthly active users, it excels at event discovery and offers a comprehensive suite of features including reserved seating, RFID capabilities through partnerships, and various support tiers. However, its service fees (3.7% + $1.79 per ticket, not including payment processing fees of 2.9% per order) can significantly eat into your profits, while making your event compete for attention with thousands of others on the same platform. If you want payouts ahead of your event, these fees climb even higher adding yet another 3% (up to 9.6% + $1.79 per ticket) for instant payouts.

👉 Ticket Tailor is the ethical, independent alternative that charges a low flat fee of just $0.85 USD (plus payment processing) per ticket rather than a percentage. As a certified B Corporation, it offers complete white-labeling capabilities, direct payouts through Stripe, and 24/7 human support. The difference is minimal built-in marketplace discovery (you primarily bring your own audience) and limited marketing tools compared to comprehensive platforms.

Both platforms are solid choices for basic ticketing. But here's what most comparison articles won't tell you: neither platform was actually built with marketing in mind. They're ticketing tools that added marketing features as an afterthought. What if there was a platform built by an actual event promoter who experienced firsthand how ticketing platforms promise marketing help but never deliver?

👉 PromoTix was founded by an event promoter who owned an advertising agency and was originally an Eventbrite Spectrum partner offering marketing tools to Eventbrite customers. When he saw what event organizers really needed but weren't getting, he built PromoTix as marketing software first, then added ticketing. 

With pricing that delivers 20-30% savings compared to Eventbrite while including features like viral contest pages, ambassador programs, and branded mobile apps that you'd typically pay for separately elsewhere, it's designed for events that need more than just ticket processing. It's particularly strong for youth sports events (their biggest vertical), music events, festivals, religious gatherings, beauty pageants, and competitions where family engagement drives sales.

If you're ready to work with a platform that actually delivers on marketing promises with patented tools that drive ticket sales, see how PromoTix can transform your event profitability.

Table of contents:

• Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor vs PromoTix at a glance
• The fundamental divide: Marketplace vs white-label vs marketing-first
• Eventbrite's marketplace advantage comes at a steep price
• Ticket Tailor's ethical stance delivers real savings
• PromoTix: Built by a promoter who knew what was missing
• The fee structure reveals everything about priorities
• Marketing capabilities separate ticketing from ticket selling
• Streaming and virtual events show who's future-ready
• Support quality varies dramatically between platforms
• Which platform should you choose?

Eventbrite vs Ticket Tailor vs PromoTix at a glance

*All platform fees shown exclude payment processing fees (typically 2.9% + $0.30, although PromoTix Processing Pro offers the lowest at 2.75% + $0.25)

The fundamental divide: Marketplace vs basic processing vs marketing-first

Eventbrite built its empire on being a two-sided marketplace. 

Event organizers get access to millions of potential attendees browsing the platform, while attendees discover new events. This marketplace model drives significant value: Eventbrite reports that nearly 30% of paid ticket sales come from their discovery network, although in our own studies only about 5% of sales came directly from the marketplace, where the remainder came from Google searches where the attendee was already aware of the event name. 

But this additional discovery comes with strings attached. Your event page displays other events that might interest attendees, essentially advertising your competition. You're also working within Eventbrite's branding and user experience framework. You may lose sales to other events as they are advertised directly on your event page.

Ticket Tailor took the opposite approach. 

They're not primarily a marketplace but a white-label ticketing tool (though they do maintain a minimal public "Discover" portal). Their philosophy is simple: you already have an audience, so why pay high fees to a platform that takes credit for your success? 

As a certified B Corporation committed to ethical business practices, they charge a flat $0.85 USD per ticket regardless of price. Your events live on your domain, with your branding, and attendees might never know Ticket Tailor exists.

However, they really don’t help you grow your events, and you’ll be spending your savings on advanced marketing tools elsewhere to grow - possibly outpacing any savings.

PromoTix represents a third philosophy entirely: marketing-first ticketing built by someone who lived the problem. 

The founder was an event promoter with an advertising agency who was actually an Eventbrite Spectrum partner offering marketing tools to Eventbrite customers. After experiencing firsthand how ticketing platforms promise marketing help but never deliver, he built PromoTix with marketing at its core. 

This framework shows in everything they do, from patented viral contest tools to a network of over 6,500+ ambassadors. The philosophy is that you shouldn't need to rely solely on marketplace discovery when you have the right tools to activate and expand your audience.

Eventbrite's marketplace advantage comes at a steep price

Eventbrite's greatest strength is also its most expensive feature: the marketplace. 

With 93 million unique ticket buyers reached in 2023, the platform offers unmatched discovery potential for events that need to reach new generic audiences.

The marketplace integration is broad. Eventbrite uses personalization algorithms to show your event to users likely to be interested. Your event gets indexed by search engines. The platform sends automated notifications when creators and users follow and publish new events. For the right event, this exposure can be transformative - for specialty audiences (ie: niche music festivals, events, youth sports, etc.), it doesn’t tend to deliver much additional value.

The platform also offers more features than often credited, including RFID/NFC capabilities through partnerships and enterprise-level support options for larger events. Their online event pages can be gated behind attendee-only access, providing more security than simple link sharing.

Source: Eventbrite

But you pay considerably for these capabilities. At 3.7% + $1.79 per ticket for paid events (not including payment processing fees of 2.9% per order), a $100 ticket costs you approximately $8.54 in platform and processing fees combined. Sell 1,000 tickets and you've paid approximately $8,540. 

Deduct another 3% from your revenue if you want instant payouts and don’t want to wait until after your event for your ticket sales revenue (bringing total fees to $11,540). While Eventbrite has introduced instant payout options since 2024, standard payout schedules can still create cash flow considerations for organizers who need to pay vendors upfront.

Ticket Tailor's ethical stance delivers real savings

Ticket Tailor's B Corporation status isn't just a marketing fluff; it shapes how they operate. 

With a legal requirement to balance profit with purpose, they've built a platform that actually puts organizers first.

The flat fee structure is in line with its simplicity. 

Whether you're selling a $10 workshop ticket or a $1,000 VIP package, you pay the same $0.85 to Ticket Tailor. For expensive tickets, the savings are dramatic. That same $100 ticket that costs approximately $8.39 on Eventbrite costs just $4.07 on Ticket Tailor, a platform fee savings of $4.47 per ticket.

White-labeling goes beyond just removing logos. You can embed the entire checkout experience into your website, use custom domains, and maintain complete control over your brand experience. The platform includes a design studio for customizing colors, fonts, and layouts. Your attendees might never know they're using Ticket Tailor, which is exactly the point.

The direct payout feature solves a critical issue. Because Ticket Tailor integrates directly with your Stripe, PayPal, or Square account, funds from each sale go straight to your payment processor immediately.

Source: Ticket Tailor

But Ticket Tailor's minimalist approach has limitations. Without significant marketplace presence, you're primarily responsible for driving traffic. The marketing tools, while including email broadcasts, discount codes, and CRM integrations, still lack the advanced viral growth features or comprehensive ambassador programs that some organizers need to truly amplify their reach.

PromoTix: Built by a promoter who knew what was missing

PromoTix solves the key challenge of event marketing with the credibility only an actual event promoter could bring. 

The founder's unique journey, from running events and an advertising agency to becoming an Eventbrite partner offering marketing tools, gave him insight into exactly what event organizers need but weren't getting. When PromoTix says it has marketing tools that drive sales, they truly deliver because the platform was built by someone who lived the problem.

The viral contest registration pages exemplify this promoter's mindset. 

Source: PromoTix

Before tickets even go on sale, you launch a contest where fans earn points by following your social media, sharing with friends, and recruiting others to register. The platform automates everything: tracking social shares, awarding points, and maintaining leaderboards.

As the organizer, you get a copy of everyone’s name, email, phone numbers, social connections, and social shares - even Spotify listener data, and can use that for email campaigns, SMS, social ads, and retargeting ads. This is huge for marketers as the platform builds a literal database of interested people in your event to market to.

The ambassador program provides access to a network of over 6,500 existing ambassadors you can recruit, plus tools to manage your own team. 

Ambassadors get tasks like distributing flyers tracked via GPS, sharing social posts (monitored automatically, and pulled from a library of content you control), and selling tickets directly (with automatic commission payouts). For youth sports tournaments or beauty pageants, having ambassadors in local communities can dramatically expand reach and increase the spectator per athlete/competitor which typically runs flat. PromoTix has experience lifting this from the two spectator average per athlete to closer to three.

Source: PromoTix

PromoTix also operates a reseller marketplace where organizers control the secondary market for their tickets. If you opt into an exclusive resale deal with them, you can also share in a portion of the resale fees - meaning you’ll make additional money if someone resells their ticket to someone else. The platform validates authenticity and uses an escrow-type service protecting attendees from fraud while allowing organizers to earn additional service fees on resales; crucial for high-demand events like championships or festivals.

The platform includes RFID technology optimized for events with 3,000+ attendees, enabling cashless payments, access control, and sponsor activation. They also offer promotional materials printing with individual QR codes that integrate directly with their validation system;  services that would typically require multiple vendors.

For music events, the Spotify Artist Insights feature analyzes what ticket buyers actually listen to, helping promoters book artists their audience wants - that will sell out their events. The mobile app capability lets you create fully branded iOS and Android apps for your events or venue with push notifications at just $0.01 each.

PromoTix achieves an 80% close rate with leads coming from Eventbrite by offering more features and capabilities for 20-30% less cost; a compelling value proposition for organizers looking to upgrade their marketing capabilities.

There’s no comparison in the marketing value you’ll get with PromoTix compared to Eventbrite and Ticket Tailor.

The fee structure reveals everything about priorities

How each platform charges tells you exactly what they value and who they serve.

Eventbrite's percentage-based fees (3.7% + $1.79, not including payment processing) mean they make more money when you charge higher prices. 

Their model scales with ticket value, and they offer various plans including enterprise options for large-scale events. The platform does allow you to pass fees to attendees, helping offset some burden.

Ticket Tailor's flat fee structure shows they're genuinely aligned with organizer success. 

They make the same whether you sell budget or premium tickets. The pre-pay credit system rewards commitment with even lower rates. Their 50% discount for charities (up to 5,000 free tickets annually) demonstrates their B Corporation values in action.

But remember, you’ll need to spend most of these savings on other marketing tools to grow your event.

PromoTix positions itself as the middle-price-point solution that delivers exceptional value and helps your event grow with their unique advanced marketing tools. 

At 3% + $1.49 per ticket, they're not the cheapest option; that's intentional. The price reflects the included value: ambassador programs, viral contest tools, native iOS and Android branded mobile apps, and agency-level support and growth consulting that competitors' customers typically purchase separately. 

Their Professional Enterprise plan can eliminate per-ticket platform fees entirely through customized annual subscriptions (0% ticket service fees), making PromoTix the most cost-effective for high-volume events. They also enable organizers to add their own service fee on top, turning ticketing from a cost center into a potential revenue stream.

Marketing capabilities separate ticketing from ticket selling

Let's be clear: selling tickets is harder than processing them. The platform that helps you sell more tickets is worth more than one that just handles transactions.

Eventbrite's marketing tools include built-in features that work adequately for many organizers. 

Source: Eventbrite

Email campaigns start with 250 free per day on the free plan, with higher limits on paid plans. Social media integration exists and functions. They've recently added AI features for generating descriptions and marketing copy. While they market 'Eventbrite Boost' as a sales driver, the real marketing value comes from the generic marketplace discovery rather than the tools themselves.

Ticket Tailor provides straightforward marketing capabilities. 

They offer email broadcasts, discount codes, and integrations with CRM tools like Mailchimp and HubSpot. They support Meta Pixel tracking and provide connection points for marketers using external tools. Their philosophy: provide solid basics while letting organizers use specialized marketing software (usually expensive) for advanced needs.

PromoTix was literally built as marketing software first by someone who knew what was missing. 

Beyond viral contests and ambassador programs, they offer GPS tracking for physical promotions, integration with Meta pixels for ad tracking, automated email sequences through Mailchimp, and detailed analytics showing marketing ROI. The platform generates QR codes for physical flyers and includes patented features specifically designed to drive sales. 

Source: PromoTix

This is particularly powerful for their target markets; youth sports tournaments where parents share with other parents, beauty pageants where contestants promote to supporters, and festivals where attendees become promoters.

Streaming and virtual events show who's future-ready

The pandemic forced every platform to address virtual events, but their solutions reveal their preparedness for hybrid futures, particularly important for events with remote family audiences.

Eventbrite can mark events as "online" and add streaming links, with attendee-only pages requiring login for some security. You still rely on third-party streaming platforms, but they've added gating capabilities beyond simple link sharing. And if the original streaming platform link gets shared, you’ll have thousands of viewers who didn’t buy a ticket.

Source: Eventbrite

Ticket Tailor handles virtual events with a "holding page" system that adds basic security by only redirecting to stream links at showtime. It's better than open links but still requires third-party streaming platforms and isn’t secure, so you could end up with thousands of viewers who didn’t buy tickets.

Source: TicketTailor

PromoTix built streaming into their platform, crucial for their core markets where family members want to watch remotely: youth sports championships, beauty pageants, religious ceremonies and other competitions where the audience may be far away. 

Each ticket generates a unique streaming link that only works for one viewer at a time. 

If someone tries to share access, the viewer gets a message saying the ticket is already in use, and prompts them to buy their own. With ultra-low latency (around one second) and HD video quality, it handles everything from multi-day tournaments to hybrid events with combo tickets for both in-person and streaming access. This is transformative for youth competitions where grandparents, divorced parents, or distant relatives want to watch.

Support quality varies dramatically between platforms

When something goes wrong on event day, support quality becomes critical, especially for high-stakes events like championships or festivals.

Eventbrite's support varies by plan. Free events get email support. Paid events get chats. Larger events access phone support, and they offer sales engagement and enterprise support options but you’ll need to be selling tens of thousands of tickets to get attention from them. The quality depends on your tier and timing.

Ticket Tailor's 24/7 human support stands out. They advertise response times under 5 minutes, and as a B Corporation, quality support is part of their ethical commitment. Every user gets the same support channels regardless of event size.

PromoTix provides what they call "agency-model" support for larger accounts. Professional and Enterprise customers get dedicated Client Success Managers with direct phone and email access to named contacts who know their events. This contrasts with purely self-service models and provides the high-touch support that complex events like multi-venue tournaments or festivals require. They also assign Ambassador Program Managers that will help you recruit, setup, manage, and run your ambassador program to grow your sales. Smaller Organizers and all Attendees get 24-7 phone and chat support as well when they need help, or in the case of an attendee, can’t find their ticket or misspell their email address.

Which platform should you choose?

The choice depends on your specific situation, event type, and priorities.

Choose Eventbrite if:

• You're launching a new generic event without an established audience
• Discovery through their marketplace is worth the high fees
• You need advanced features across various event types
• You want an established ticketing brand with multiple support tiers
• Your budget can accommodate combined fees around 6.6% + $1.79 per ticket
• You can wait on receiving your payout until after the event, or are OK paying an additional 3%

Choose Ticket Tailor if:

• You have an established audience or marketing channels
• Low, transparent fees are a priority (just $0.85 flat)
• Complete brand control and white-labeling matter
• You value direct access to funds via your payment processor
• Ethical business practices align with your values
• You need reliable 24/7 human support

Choose PromoTix if:

• You run youth sports events, music events, virtual stream pageants, or religious events
• Remote family/friend viewing is important (streaming)
• You want marketing tools that actually drive sales and grow your business, not just process them
• You value included features that cost extra elsewhere
• You prefer agency-level consulting and support with named contacts
• You're willing to pay middle-tier pricing for exceptional value to help you grow
• You're switching from Eventbrite and want much more for less

Ready to work with a platform built by an event promoter who actually understands what you need? See how PromoTix's marketing-first approach and comprehensive feature set can transform your events.

The event ticketing landscape in 2025 isn't just about processing transactions anymore. It's about building audiences, creating viral momentum, and maximizing both attendance and profitability. 

While Eventbrite dominates through marketplace discovery and Ticket Tailor wins on ethical pricing and white-label capabilities, PromoTix stands apart by delivering what its founder couldn't find elsewhere: genuine marketing tools that drive sales, built by someone who actually ran events and knew what was missing.

For event creators in PromoTix's sweet spot; youth sports, music, festivals, venues, theaters, pageants, and events with remote audiences, the platform offers compelling value: more capabilities than Eventbrite for 20-30% less cost, with marketing tools and support that justify the premium over extra-low-cost alternatives. When you need more than just ticket processing, when marketing and sales matter as much as transactions, that's where PromoTix shines.