Selling tickets for your business event: which software fits?

Organizing a business event starts with a practical question: how do you sell tickets or invite guests without the administration getting out of hand? Your choice of ticketing software determines your costs, your guest data and the first impression you make. These are the four routes, with their trade-offs.

Route 1: consumer platforms like Eventbrite and Eventix

Platforms like Eventbrite, Eventix and Weeztix are quick to set up and widely known. You create an event, share the link and ticket sales run.

The downside is cost and control. You pay a service fee per sold ticket, which adds up for paid events and often lands partly on your visitor. Your guest data sits on someone else’s platform, and your ticket shop looks the way the platform decides. For open, public events that’s fine. For private business events it pinches.

Route 2: event software with a subscription

Full-featured event software for registration, badges and marketing runs on monthly or yearly licenses. For organizations with a continuous event calendar, that can pay off.

If you only run a few events a year, you’re paying most of the year for something that sits idle. This is the route where many organizations bail the moment they see the quote.

Route 3: an open platform like Pretix

Pretix is a European, GDPR-compliant ticketing platform where you only pay per issued ticket. No subscription, no service contract, and you manage it yourself. It supports invitation-only events, unique registration links per guest, RSVP with a +1 or +2, seating plans and a free scan app for check-in.

The limitation: the default ticket shop looks functional, not premium. What Pretix can do and what it costs is covered in our practical Pretix guide.

Route 4: fully custom

Your own ticketing system gives maximum freedom, but you pay to reinvent proven functionality: payments, quotas, QR codes, check-in, emails. For almost any organization that runs events as a side activity, it’s not worth it.

When do you pick what?

Situation	Best route
Public event, reach matters more than margin	Eventbrite or Eventix
Continuous event calendar with a large team	Licensed event software
A few events a year, control over data and costs	Pretix
Private events with a premium look	Pretix with a custom frontend

That last route deserves a word, because it combines the best of both worlds. Through the Pretix API you build a fully branded ticket environment, while the platform handles all logic and administration. We did exactly that for a client with exclusive business events: a premium ticket platform on Pretix, live in two weeks, roughly 10x more cost efficient than a licensed platform. Curious whether that would work for your events? Get in touch, we’re happy to think along.

Our approach

We never start with the software. We start with the requirements: what is truly needed, and what process sits behind it? Then we select the platform that fits and only add custom work where it creates value. That’s usually faster and far cheaper than building from scratch.

Need help choosing?

Torn between platforms, or want a ticket shop without monthly fees for your next event? Send us a message and we’ll take a look at what fits, no strings attached.