DICE or your own box office: what a venue keeps on each ticket.

The short answer

• Stay with DICE if its app is bringing you buyers you would not otherwise reach, if your tickets are cheap, or if you sell a lot at the door.
• Look at Gatehouse if your audience already finds you, your tickets are $25.00 and up, and you would rather have the money before the show.
• The line is roughly 24 paid tickets a month at $35.00. At $10.00, there is no line: DICE leaves you more.

Side by side

What you keep on one ticket

The buyer pays the same total on both sides: face value plus DICE’s 13%. On Gatehouse the venue sets the same service fee and keeps it, less Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 and our $1.00. Single-ticket orders, the worst case for us.

A percentage grows with the ticket price and a flat fee does not, so the gap is small on a cheap ticket and wide on a dear one. On a $10.00 ticket our flat dollar and Stripe’s 30 cents cost more than DICE’s 13%, and no volume changes that. The guide to choosing a platform for a music venue covers the questions besides price.

When the money arrives

DICE’s terms say it pays the venue within five business days of the show. They also let DICE hold back up to 5% of each show’s sales for six months afterwards, to cover chargebacks.

On Gatehouse the charge is made on your own Stripe account, so each sale is in your Stripe balance when the card clears and in your bank on your normal payout schedule, weeks before the show. Nothing is held afterwards, because nothing passed through us.

Where DICE is the better choice

• An audience. DICE markets your show inside its app to people who were not already following you. We have no marketplace, so every Gatehouse buyer is one you brought.
• Cheap tickets. At $10.00, DICE leaves the venue more than we do, and at $15.00 the two are within a few cents. The table above has the figures.
• Door sales. DICE sells at the door, for a 10% fee. We do not sell walk-ups at all.
• No fixed cost. A month with no shows costs nothing on DICE. It costs $49.99 here.

Where Gatehouse is different

• The money before the show, on your own Stripe account, with nothing held back afterwards.
• The service fee is yours. Keep DICE’s 13% as your own fee, lower it, or drop it. The buyer sees one total, fees included.
• Your own domain, so the page that ranks for your shows is yours.
• A door that works with no signal, and wallet passes that update when a show moves.

Running both

DICE’s self sign-up terms are non-exclusive, and so are ours. The sensible test is to keep DICE for the shows its app actually fills and sell the rest from your own site for a season, then compare what each brought in. More on switching.

Questions

How much does DICE charge venues in the US?

On its self sign-up terms, 13% of face value, added to the buyer’s price, with card processing included. 3% when the face value goes to a charity, and nothing on free tickets. Partners negotiate their own rate.

When does DICE pay out?

Within five business days of the show, less up to 5% that DICE may hold for six months against chargebacks.

Does DICE charge for door sales?

Yes. Its terms set a 10% fee on box office and door sales.

Is DICE worth it for a small room?

It depends on whether the app sells tickets you would not have sold yourself. At $35.00, DICE costs the venue $2.10 a ticket more than selling direct here. If the app brings in enough extra buyers to cover that, it is worth it. If your crowd already knows where to find you, it is a toll on people who were coming anyway.

Sources

• DICE, “Self Sign-Up Terms and Conditions USA”, last updated 28 April 2026, read 26 September 2026. Service Fees and Box Office Fee definitions, clauses 2.1, 2.4, 9.4 and 9.15: support.dice.fm, article 764
• Gatehouse figures computed from the same pricing module the checkout uses, and asserted by an automated test on every change.