Why community organizers are switching from Eventbrite to Eventrise

Community organizers are leaving Eventbrite because the math stopped working. When a platform charges a percentage and a flat fee on every single ticket, the cheaper your tickets are, the more it costs you. Community events run on cheap tickets.

This post breaks down why organizers are making the switch to Eventrise, what the fee difference actually looks like in real dollars, and how the transition works.

TL;DR

Eventrise charges a flat 5% platform fee. Eventbrite charges 3.7% plus $1.79 on every ticket sold. At community ticket prices, that flat per-ticket fee is what does the damage.

Ticket revenue goes directly to your own Stripe account. You control the payout schedule. Eventbrite holds your funds until after your event.

Switching takes about an hour. No contracts, no penalties. You can run events on both platforms during the transition if you’d like.

Eventrise is built by a team that has spent years running events. Learn more about our team and story.

How much do organizers actually save by switching from Eventbrite?

The savings depend on your event size and ticket price, but they add up fast. Here are three scenarios that highlight the platform fee comparison.

Platform fees only. Standard Stripe processing (2.9% + $0.30 per ticket) applies on both platforms and is left out of the comparison.

Notice what drives the gap: it’s the price of your ticket, not the size of your event. Eventbrite’s $1.79 lands on every ticket whether it costs $25 or $100 — so on a $25 workshop ticket their platform fee is nearly 11% of face value, and on a $100 conference seat it’s 5.5%. Ours is 5% at every price. The cheaper your tickets, the more that flat fee costs you.

One honest caveat: above roughly $115 a ticket, Eventbrite’s flat per-ticket fee stops mattering and their all-in cost comes in under ours. If you sell premium tickets, run your own numbers before switching on price alone.

The per-ticket fee is what makes Eventbrite’s pricing especially painful for community events. Every ticket carries that $1.79 regardless of what the ticket costs, so a sold-out room of $25 tickets pays the same flat surcharge as a room of $200 seats. Eventrise’s 5% scales proportionally instead. Your costs scale with your revenue, nothing more.

Why are Eventbrite’s fees a problem for community organizers specifically?

Eventbrite’s pricing was designed for scale: large consumer events, enterprise clients, marketplace-driven discovery. For those use cases, the fee structure makes sense. You’re paying for access to millions of browsing consumers.

But most community organizers don’t need that. If you’re running a 200-person conference, a recurring workshop series, or an annual creative festival, your audience already knows you. They’re coming to your website, following you on social media, or hearing about the event through your network. You’re not relying on Eventbrite’s marketplace to fill seats.

So you’re paying marketplace fees without using the marketplace. Eventbrite was built for Coachella, not a 200-person conference.

When do organizers actually get paid on Eventrise vs. Eventbrite?

Eventbrite holds your ticket revenue and pays it out after the event ends, typically 4–5 business days later. For organizers fronting venue deposits, speaker fees, catering costs, and production expenses, that creates a real cash flow problem. You’re spending money you’ve technically earned but can’t access yet.

Picture this: you’ve sold $15,000 in tickets for a conference four weeks out. Your venue needs a $3,000 deposit on Friday. Your money is sitting in Eventbrite’s account until roughly a week after your event ends… five weeks away!

Eventrise works differently. When someone buys a ticket, the revenue flows directly into your own Stripe account and reaches your bank within days. You control the payout schedule, which means Eventrise never holds your money.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. Being able to cover a venue deposit the week tickets go on sale (instead of weeks after the event ends) changes how you plan and what you can afford to do.

What does the support experience look like on Eventrise vs Eventbrite?

Behind every event is a human, we build for them. That shows up most clearly when something breaks on show day. A promo code doesn’t work, a ticket type needs updating ten minutes before doors open, a speaker’s comped ticket didn’t go through. These aren’t hypotheticals, we’ve been on your side of these issues and we know every minute matters.

With Eventbrite, support is queue-based and priority routing is tier-gated, small organizers share a queue with enterprise accounts without the same priority. With Eventrise, you email or chat directly with our team and reach a real person (we’ve run events, we’ve been in your shoes).

Is Eventrise right for every organizer?

No, and we’re upfront about that.

Eventbrite might still be the better choice if:

• You rely on their consumer marketplace for event discovery (although, most event organizers we talk to find it drives less traffic than they’d assumed)

• You’re running extremely large events with complex enterprise integrations

• You depend on very specific, custom integrations that Eventrise doesn’t currently support

Eventrise is built for community organizers running conferences, workshops, festivals, and recurring events (typically with 50 to 1500 attendees). If lower fees would meaningfully impact your budget, if controlling your own payout timing matters for cash flow, and if you want a platform built by people who actually run events like yours… you are exactly who we built this for.

How hard is it to switch from Eventbrite to Eventrise?

Easier than most organizers expect. The whole process from signup to live event can be done in as little as an hour, and you can do it yourself or hand it to us.

Option 1: Self-serve

Best if you have one upcoming event and a straightforward setup.

1. Create your Eventrise account. Sign up at eventrise.com.

2. Create an event / add your event details. Title, description, date, and time. The core of your event page.

3. Add at least one ticket. Set the price, quantity, and any sale windows. Add as many ticket types as you need.

4. Add a refund policy. Give attendees a clear expectation before they buy.

5. Complete your organizer profile. A few details about you, the event organizer, for context.

6. Add your venue. Physical address or virtual link.

7. Connect your Stripe account. Ticket revenue deposits directly here, no middleman holding your money.

8. Publish and start selling immediately. Fair fees from the first ticket sold.

Option 2: We do it with you (free, no strings)

Best if you’re running multiple events, have complex ticket types, or just want a second set of eyes.

• You sign up for an Eventrise account, then send us your Eventbrite event details

• A member of our team walks through your current setup, follows up with any questions, then rebuilds your event pages in Eventrise.

• Once complete, your events are saved as a draft in your new Eventrise account waiting for you to approve, and start selling.

Keep in mind, you don’t have to pick a side on day one. Running your next event on Eventrise while your existing Eventbrite events finish out is a common scenario.

How do I get started on Eventrise?

Run your next event on Eventrise and compare. That’s the most honest pitch we can make. Keep your existing Eventbrite events running while you try it. No credit card to sign up, no contract, no penalty for leaving. Plenty of organizers do exactly that. If lower fees, faster payouts, and support from people who’ve actually run events change how your next event feels, you’ll know what to do from there. Our rate is 5%, published, with no contract and no penalty for leaving.