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Chobble Tickets vs Eventbrite

Eventbrite is the biggest name in event ticketing, so here's how a small, open source alternative compares.

Pricing comparison

Eventbrite charges a percentage plus a fixed fee per ticket, and their pricing has changed multiple times over the years (generally trending upward), so for a £15 ticket you might lose £1-2 per sale to the platform.

Chobble Tickets is a flat £50/year regardless of how many tickets you sell, so the maths is simple: if you sell more than a few dozen tickets a year, Chobble Tickets is cheaper.

Interactive cost calculator

Drag the sliders to see how costs compare at different volumes:

Total takings £2,000.00
Chobble Tickets Eventbrite
Annual fee £50.00 £0.00
Platform fees £0.00 £0.00
Payment processing £0.00 £0.00
Total cost per year £0.00 £0.00
Cost per ticket £0.00 £0.00

Eventbrite fees: 6.95% + £0.59 per ticket (includes payment processing). Chobble Tickets: £50/year flat + Stripe processing (1.5% + 20p).

Feature comparison

Eventbrite is a massive platform with features Chobble Tickets doesn't have, and vice versa. Here's an honest breakdown:

Both sites share some features:

  • Online ticket sales with payment processing via Stripe
  • Apple Pay and Google Pay at checkout (via Stripe)
  • QR code scanning for check-in at the door
  • Email confirmations to attendees after booking
  • Capacity management to prevent overselling
  • Free event support with no payment setup required
  • Refund processing from the admin panel
  • Embeddable ticket widgets for your own website
  • API access for custom integrations
  • Custom questions on the registration form
  • Event grouping into collections for multi-event bookings
  • Multiple ticket types per event — use event groups with shared capacity limits to create VIP, general admission, early bird, and other tiers with different prices

Eventbrite has features Chobble Tickets doesn't:

  • Event discovery marketplace — 90 million+ active ticket buyers browsing Eventbrite for events, which can drive organic sales you wouldn't get on your own
  • Built-in email marketing — send campaigns to attendees and followers with up to 10,000 daily sends on Pro, including audience segmentation and automated event reminders
  • Social media ad tools — launch Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns directly from Eventbrite with smart audience targeting and retargeting (Eventbrite claim 6x average ROI on retargeting campaigns)
  • Promo codes and discounts — create early bird pricing, discount codes, group discounts, and limited-time offers with usage limits
  • Hidden ticket tiers — ticket types hidden behind access codes or time-limited availability windows for presales and invite-only access
  • Reserved seating — design interactive venue maps with assigned seating sections and let attendees pick their seats
  • Timed entry ticketing — time-slot-based ticket distribution for museums, tours, and similar events
  • Waitlists — built-in waitlists for sold-out events, with automatic notifications when places open up
  • Scheduled payouts — receive advance payments on customised schedules before your event occurs
  • AI-powered event creation — automated tools for generating event descriptions and building event pages
  • Organiser mobile app — dedicated iOS/Android app for managing events, scanning check-ins, and monitoring sales on the go
  • App marketplace — 100+ third-party integrations including Zoom, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Zapier, HubSpot, and more
  • Multi-currency support — sell in different currencies for international events across 180+ countries
  • Virtual event support — integrations with Zoom, livestreaming tools, and online event hosting
  • Collections — group related events for easier discovery and cross-promotion
  • Attendee messaging — send updates and messages to ticket holders before and after events
  • Custom registration forms with free-text fields — add free-text questions and custom field types beyond multiple choice to the checkout process (Chobble supports multiple-choice custom questions)
  • Nonprofit discount — 50% off Pro plans and discounted fees on donation tickets for qualifying organisations
  • Sell add-ons — offer merchandise, parking, meal upgrades, or other extras alongside tickets
  • Tap to Pay — accept contactless on-site payments at the door using NFC
  • Tracking pixels and links — add conversion tracking pixels and attribution links across ad platforms
  • Sell through social platforms — sell tickets directly through Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn without attendees leaving those apps
  • 1:1 onboarding and phone support — Pro customers get onboarding sessions and 24/7 phone and live chat support
  • AI Marketing Copilot — AI-generated ad copy, email campaigns, event images, and descriptions (Eventbrite claim 30% faster campaign launches and 17% better CPC)
  • Conditional logic questions — follow-up registration questions that appear based on previous answers
  • Attendee self-service transfers — attendees can change ticket type, transfer to a different event date, or reassign to another person themselves
  • Post-event surveys — built-in NPS scoring and follow-up surveys after events
  • Lineup feature — dedicated artist profiles with auto-syndication to Spotify, Bandsintown, and Google
  • "See Who's Going" — social proof feature showing which friends are attending an event
  • Multi-language support — platform available in multiple languages for international audiences
  • On-site mobile box office — sell tickets and merchandise in person with credit card processing via the organiser app
  • Automated pre-event reminders — series of emails at 48 hours, 2 hours, and 10 minutes before the event with "Join Now" links

Chobble Tickets has features Eventbrite doesn't:

  • End-to-end encryption — attendee data is encrypted at rest with hybrid RSA-OAEP + AES-256-GCM, not just stored in a database
  • Open source — every line of code is public under AGPLv3, no proprietary lock-in
  • Self-hosting option — run the platform on your own servers for free, with no licence fee
  • Flat annual pricing — £50/year with no per-ticket fees, no matter how many you sell
  • Apple & Google Wallet tickets — attendees can add tickets to their phone wallet
  • ICS calendar feeds — subscribers get automatic calendar updates
  • RSS feeds — syndicate your events to feed readers
  • Tiered ticket types via groups — create VIP, early bird, and other tiers using event groups with a shared capacity cap (max attendees per group)
  • Pay-what-you-want pricing — let attendees choose their own price
  • Daily/recurring events — per-date capacity with calendar picker and holiday blackouts
  • Custom questions — add multiple-choice questions to events and collect structured answers at checkout, with answers visible across the admin interface, CSV exports, and webhooks
  • Webhooks — outbound POST on every registration for custom integrations
  • Custom email providers — use Resend, Postmark, SendGrid, or Mailgun so emails come from your domain, not the platform's
  • Customisable email templates — full control over confirmation emails with Liquid syntax for a fully white-label experience
  • Custom domain — your ticketing lives at your own web address, not eventbrite.co.uk
  • No marketing to your attendees — your audience stays yours, with no cross-promotion of competing events
  • Community Interest Company — run by a CIC, not a VC-backed startup (Eventbrite was acquired by Bending Spoons in March 2026)

Data ownership

Eventbrite owns a lot of data about your attendees and uses it for their own marketing, and your event page exists within Eventbrite's ecosystem where attendees are encouraged to follow other events on the platform.

With Chobble Tickets, attendee data is encrypted and stays under your control. There's no platform trying to cross-promote other events to your audience.

When Eventbrite might be the better choice

  • You need a discovery platform to help attendees find your events
  • You want built-in marketing tools, retargeting ads, and email campaigns
  • You need reserved seating with venue maps
  • You're running international events in multiple currencies
  • You want an app marketplace with 100+ integrations
  • You have very low volume and prefer paying per ticket over an annual fee

When Chobble Tickets is the better choice

  • You already have your own audience and don't need a discovery platform
  • You want predictable, flat-rate pricing with no per-ticket fees
  • Privacy and encryption matter to you
  • You don't want a platform marketing to your attendees
  • You're a community group, charity, or school (£25/year)
  • You want Apple/Google Wallet, calendar feeds, or a public API
  • You value open source and the ability to self-host

Who owns Eventbrite?

Eventbrite was founded in 2006 by Kevin Hartz, Julia Hartz, and Renaud Visage in San Francisco. It went public on the NYSE in 2018 at a valuation of approximately $1.76 billion.

In March 2026, Eventbrite was taken private by Bending Spoons, an Italian software company based in Milan, in an all-cash deal worth approximately $500 million. Bending Spoons' portfolio also includes Evernote, Meetup, WeTransfer, Vimeo, and StreamYard, among others. Their model involves acquiring established technology brands and restructuring them for profitability.

Chobble Tickets is run by one person as a Community Interest Company (CIC) — a UK legal structure that locks the company's assets for community benefit. All of Chobble's code is public under AGPLv3, and the platform can be self-hosted by anyone without depending on Chobble as a company.

Pricing sources

The pricing information on this page was verified in March 2026. Fees may change — check the links below for the latest figures.