An Eventbrite alternative for venues that want the money before the show.

The short answer

• Stay with Eventbrite if you sell fewer than about 29 paid tickets a month at $35.00, if you need reserved seating or card sales at the door, or if you want its marketplace to find you buyers.
• Look at Gatehouse if you run a regular calendar, sell general admission, and would rather have the money before the show than after it.
• The line between them is volume and ticket price. The table under “What you keep” gives it at three prices.

Side by side

What you keep on one ticket

The buyer pays exactly the same total on both sides: Eventbrite’s all-in price. The question is how much of it reaches the venue. Every row is a single-ticket order, which is the worst case for us, because Stripe’s 30 cents is charged per order.

The break-even is the paid tickets a month at which the difference covers the $49.99 monthly plan. The annual plan works out at $37.50 a month and lowers each one by about a quarter. Below it, Eventbrite is cheaper, and you should stay. The event ticketing software guide walks through the $35.00 case line by line.

The difference exists because the service fee is Eventbrite’s revenue. Here, the same fee on the same ticket is yours, and the only deductions are Stripe’s and our dollar.

When the money arrives

On Eventbrite’s default schedule, a show’s money is sent three business days after it ends. Eventbrite’s help centre puts it in a US bank “within 6-8 business days after your event ends”. Every ticket sold for a show in six weeks is money you do not have for six weeks and a week.

Earlier payouts exist, weekly or twice a month, once you have hosted a paid event and received a payout, and subject to what Eventbrite calls additional restrictions. Pre-show payouts keep back 20% of each event’s net sales until it ends, and stop at $100,000 across your upcoming events. Some US organisers can also use Instant Payouts.

Where Eventbrite is the better choice

• Low volume. No fixed cost at all. Under the break-even above, every month you are on Gatehouse costs you money.
• Reach. Eventbrite lists events on its own site and app, where people browse for something to do. We have no marketplace and never will, so we cannot sell you discovery.
• Reserved seating. Eventbrite sells seat maps. We do general admission and tiers only.
• Card sales at the door. Eventbrite’s Organizer app takes contactless payments on a phone. We do not sell walk-ups; our scanner admits tickets that were bought online or comped.
• Somebody else carries the chargebacks. Eventbrite is the one taking the payment. Here, you are the merchant of record, which is the same fact as nobody being able to hold your money, seen from the other side.

Where Gatehouse is different

• The charge is made on your own Stripe account. We take our dollar as an application fee on that charge. There is nothing to reserve because nothing was pooled.
• The service fee is yours. Set it to what Eventbrite would have charged, lower it, or drop it. The buyer sees one total, fees included, from the first screen.
• Your own domain, included. tickets.yourvenue.com, so what ranks is yours and stays yours if you ever leave us.
• A door that works with no signal. The scanner holds the night’s list on the device and still refuses a duplicate with the internet off.
• Wallet passes that change. Move a show and the Apple and Google passes already in people’s phones update.

Switching from Eventbrite

Export your past buyers first, before anything else. Then put two shows through Gatehouse and leave the rest where they are: nothing here is exclusive, so you can decide after a season with real numbers. More on switching.

Questions

How long does Eventbrite take to pay a venue?

By default, Eventbrite sends the payout three business days after the event ends, and says it should reach a US bank within six to eight business days of the end of the event.

Can I get paid before the event on Eventbrite?

Once you have hosted a paid event and received a payout, you can choose weekly or twice-monthly payouts, though Eventbrite says other restrictions may apply. Those keep back 20% of each event’s net sales until it ends, and are capped at $100,000 across your upcoming events.

Who keeps the Eventbrite service fee?

Eventbrite. When the buyer pays it, the venue receives face value. If the venue absorbs it instead, it comes out of the payout.

How many tickets a month before Gatehouse is cheaper?

About 49 at $15.00, 29 at $35.00, and 16 at $75.00, on the monthly plan. The calculator takes your own price and volume.

Will I lose my Eventbrite search ranking if I move?

Your event pages there are Eventbrite’s pages, so whatever they rank for stays with Eventbrite whether you move or not. Pages on your own domain start from nothing, and everything they earn after that is yours. Running both for a season covers the gap.

Sources

• Eventbrite organiser pricing, read 26 September 2026: eventbrite.com/organizer/pricing
• Eventbrite, “Get started with event payouts”, read 26 September 2026: eventbrite.com/help, article 640593
• Eventbrite, “Set up a payout schedule”, read 26 September 2026: eventbrite.com/help, article 115913
• Eventbrite, Tap to Pay and reserved seating feature pages, read 26 September 2026: tap to pay, reserved seating
• Gatehouse figures computed from the same pricing module the checkout uses, and asserted by an automated test on every change.