Free event ticketing platform: what free really costs, and who pays

A free event ticketing platform charges the organizer nothing to list an event and sell tickets. Seven of the eight platforms below say so outright for free events. What differs is where the cost goes instead: to the buyer as a booking fee, to the card processor, to a monthly plan, or to the servers you run yourself. This guide reads the pricing pages of eight platforms that call themselves free, shows what each one charges on a paid ticket, and works out the fee on a $25 ticket so you can compare them on one number.

All rates come from each platform's own pricing page, linked in the text, as read on November 3, 2026. The $25 figures are our arithmetic on those rates.

Four meanings of "free"

1. Free events are free. If your tickets cost nothing, the platform charges nothing. Seven of the eight below work this way.
2. Free to the organizer. Paid tickets carry a fee, but the buyer pays it at checkout by default. You receive the ticket price; the attendee pays more.
3. Free software. The code is open source and costs nothing, but you host it, maintain it, and still pay a payment processor.
4. A free plan with a percentage fee. A paid subscription removes the fee. Luma works this way, and it is the clearest case where your volume decides whether free is the cheaper option.

Card processing sits outside all of these. Unless a platform says it covers processing, the processor takes its cut whatever the platform's own fee: the pages below list 2.9% to 3% of the order, usually with about $0.30 added.

The platforms, from their pricing pages

Eventbrite

Eventbrite's pricing page says you can "publish unlimited free events at no cost." For paid tickets in the US it lists a service fee of 3.7% plus $1.79 per ticket and a payment processing fee of 2.9% per order. Buyers pay the fees by default, and you can choose to absorb them. Rates differ by country; our guide to Eventbrite fees has the full table.

TicketLeap

TicketLeap's pricing page says free events are "always free." Paid online tickets cost $1 plus 2% of the ticket price, with a 3% online transaction fee per order on top. Tickets priced at $5 or less pay a flat $0.49 instead of the $1 plus 2%. TicketLeap caps its ticketing fee at $20 per ticket, though the page says the 3% transaction fee has no cap. You choose whether buyers pay or you absorb the fees.

Ticketbud

Ticketbud's pricing page puts free events at $0. Paid tickets carry a Ticketbud fee of 2% plus $0.99 per ticket, paid by attendees by default, and a payment processor fee of 2.9% plus $0.30. Nonprofits and schools pay 1.75% plus $0.99. There are no subscriptions or contracts, and tickets under $10 can get a discounted rate on request.

Humanitix

Humanitix's US pricing page lists free events as costing "Nothing. Nada." Humanitix's Standard plan charges 2.1% plus $0.99 per paid ticket, and Charities & Schools pay 1% plus $0.99. Payment processing is listed at 2.9% plus $0.30. Humanitix states that its profits go to charity. The page does not say whether the host or the buyer pays the booking fee by default.

Hi.Events

Hi.Events offers two routes. On the hosted version, free events cost nothing and paid tickets carry 1.25% plus $0.60 per ticket, which the buyer pays by default; you can absorb it instead. Payment processing is charged on top, at a rate the page does not give. The self-hosted version is open-source software under the AGPL with no platform fees. A licence, priced separately, removes the branding and adds reserved seating, a box office and company single sign-on.

Luma

Luma's pricing page describes its free plan as "Free, forever," with unlimited events and a 5% platform fee on paid events. Luma Plus costs $59 a month, billed annually, and drops the platform fee to 0%. Card processing through Stripe is listed at typically 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction, charged on top of Luma's fee.

Ticket Tailor

Ticket Tailor charges a flat fee per paid ticket instead of a percentage, and its pricing page shows it in pounds: £0.60 pay as you go, or from £0.22 with prepaid credits, plus VAT. It issues up to 5,000 free tickets a year without a fee. Payment processing is charged by your processor; for Stripe in the US the page lists 2.9% plus $0.30. You can pass the fees to buyers as a booking fee. Registered charities get 50% off.

Zeffy

Zeffy is built for nonprofits and says that "Every feature is 100% free" and that "Zeffy covers all transaction & credit card fees." Zeffy says it "relies entirely on optional contributions from donors." The pricing page does not list ticketing terms separately, so check its support documentation before planning a large paid event.

The fee on a $25 ticket

The table gives the platform fee on one $25 ticket and card processing where the platform's page states a rate. Processing is worked out on $25; if fees are passed on to the buyer, the charge is slightly larger and so is the processing.

At $25, the platforms that charge a percentage plus a fixed amount sit between about $2.25 and $3.52 per ticket in total. The flat-fee and self-hosted options cost less per ticket. As the ticket price rises, a percentage fee rises with it while a flat fee stays where it is, so the gap widens.

For cheap tickets the fixed part dominates. A $5 ticket on TicketLeap pays $0.49 in ticketing fee plus the 3% transaction fee, $0.64 in all. On Eventbrite in the US the same $5 ticket pays $1.98 in service fee alone (3.7% of $5 is $0.19, plus $1.79).

When a subscription beats "free"

On Luma's free plan you pay 5% of paid ticket sales. Luma Plus costs $59 a month billed annually, or $708 a year, and charges 0%.

The two cost the same when 5% of your annual ticket sales equals $708, which is at $14,160 a year in paid tickets. Below that, the free plan costs less. Above it, Plus does. Card processing is the same on both plans, so it does not change the break-even.

The same reasoning applies to Ticket Tailor's prepaid credits: if you know your volume, buying credits brings the per-ticket fee from £0.60 down towards £0.22.

What free does not cover

Even at $0 in platform fees, a few costs remain:

• Card processing. Only Zeffy, among the platforms here, says it covers processing. Everywhere else the processor takes its share. Eventbrite does not let you pass processing on for sales at the door.
• Your own infrastructure. Self-hosted Hi.Events has no platform fee, but you run the server, apply updates and handle the payment provider's setup. Removing the branding takes a licence.
• The buyer's total. When fees are passed on, the attendee pays more than the price on your event page: on Eventbrite in the US, $28.52 for a $25 ticket.
• Refund terms. Platforms differ on whether fees come back on a refund. Eventbrite, for example, keeps its fees on a standard refund and returns them only for cancelled or postponed events and duplicate charges. Read your platform's refund terms before promising full refunds.

How to choose

Match the platform to the kind of event.

• Free community events. Any platform here works. Ticket Tailor's free allowance is 5,000 tickets a year; Eventbrite, TicketLeap, Ticketbud, Humanitix and Hi.Events state no cap for free events.
• Low-priced paid tickets. Look for a flat or low fixed fee. A $1.79 fixed fee on a $10 ticket is 17.9% before any percentage.
• Nonprofit fundraisers. Compare Zeffy with the charity rates at Humanitix (1% plus $0.99), Ticketbud (1.75% plus $0.99) and Ticket Tailor (50% off).
• Regular paid events at volume. Work out your annual sales against subscription break-evens such as Luma Plus, or against a flat-fee model.
• Technical team, full control. Self-hosted open source removes the platform fee and adds the work of running it.

If you also need NFC cashless payments at the venue and attendee matching, INITE Events is an AI-powered event platform with smart ticketing and NFC cashless payments for events from 10 to 10,000 attendees.

Sources

• Eventbrite organizer pricing and Eventbrite fee refunds
• TicketLeap pricing
• Ticketbud pricing
• Humanitix US pricing
• Hi.Events pricing
• Luma pricing
• Ticket Tailor pricing
• Zeffy pricing

Prices were read on November 3, 2026, and platforms change them. Check the page for your country before you choose.