The Best Way to Sell Event Tickets Online

Are you looking for the best way to sell event tickets online?

Selling event tickets efficiently is one of the biggest concerns of event organizers. Having an engaging event content is not enough to convince people to spend money on your event tickets. There are certain factors that influence the ticket sales for an event that include your marketing strategies and the process that you are offering to your attendees to register and purchase tickets. This is because a long and complicated registration process often encourages attendees to step back even if they are interested in the event content.

Nowadays, event attendees look for digital facilities everywhere, making it essential for event organizers to sell tickets online. That is why many event organizers rely on third-party ticketing platforms like Eventbrite. Such platforms charge high commission fees on each ticket sale that eats up a significant share of profit.

In this article, we will discuss the best way to sell event tickets online with real facts and reasons. Now let us begin with different ways to sell event tickets online.

How to sell event tickets online

2025 is the year of digitization; starting from ordering food to purchasing event tickets people look for online purchasing facility everywhere. There are mainly two ways to sell tickets online for events:

• Third-party event ticketing platforms
• Having your own event ticketing system

Both the concepts have some advantages and disadvantages that you will learn in the upcoming segments. Event organizers who do not have much technical knowledge prefer to rely on third-party ticketing platforms which are expensive. By the end of this article you will be able to determine which option is suitable for your business.

if you are still not selling tickets online for your events, you are surely missing out on a big revenue opportunity and restricting your growth. You might be surprised to know that Online Event Ticketing Market size was estimated at USD 56.7 Billion in 2024 and will possibly reach USD 99.31 Billion by 2032 with a CAGR of 3.8% from 2026-2032.

To determine which online ticket selling method is beneficial for your business, you need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of them.

Advantages and disadvantages of having your own online ticketing platform for events

Having your own online ticketing gives you complete control of ticketing, which comes with certain responsibilities. Let us discuss this in detail:

1. Advantages of having your own online ticketing system

• Full control over your ticketing

When you have your own online event ticketing system, you get the ultimate comfort of managing the entire ticket selling process through a centralized platform. Right from setting event ticket prices, tracking ticket status to check in, checkouts and measuring event performance, the overall control of your event tickets will be in your hand.

• Better customer relationship

An online event ticketing system allows you to directly interact with your WordPress website and brand. At first, they share their details during the registration process which helps you know your attendees better and offer personalized event experience to them. Besides this, you can collect post event feedback from them and reviews to understand which areas of your event drive maximum engagement and which areas need improvement. This ultimately strengthens the bond between you and your attendees.

• Increase in revenue

Having a dedicated online ticketing system eliminates your dependence on third-party ticketing apps, which frees you from the burden of commission. This means the entire ticket revenue goes into your pocket, giving you an opportunity to maximize revenue. In addition to that, you can allow other event organizers to sell their tickets on your website and earn commission from them on their ticket sales.

Pro tip: Use the Sell tickets addon that not only allows you to streamline your ticket selling process but also gives you the scope to create an online event ticketing marketplace.

• Improved user experience

Your audiences get a centralized platform to register and buy tickets for your events which highly improves user experience. They do not need to juggle between sites or pass through a long process to get event tickets. Besides this, they get a platform to address their issues with you and share their feedback.

• Useful insights

A dedicated online event ticketing system provides useful reports on event ticket sales and registration numbers that helps measure your event performance and also lets you improve your upcoming events.

2. Disadvantages of having your own online ticketing system

• System maintenance 

To have an online ticketing platform, you need to create a dedicated events website and purchase event ticketing software. So as an event owner you need to maintain your website and software that you added to manage your events online.

Tip: To avoid this, you can use a reliable event ticketing software like WP Event Manager that regularly updates its plugins to ensure high quality performance and maintain consistency.

• Choosing the right event ticketing software

The market is flooded with online event ticketing software which claim to help you create the best Eventbrite alternative platform on your website. However, not all of them are suitable for your business. Read the article till the end to find out how to find the best online event ticketing software for your business.  

Advantages and disadvantages of third-party ticketing platforms

1. Advantages of third-party online ticketing system

• Wider exposure

Enlisting your event in third-party event ticketing platforms gives your event a better exposure because your events get exposed to the audiences of other event organizers as well.

• No technical maintenance

When you use third-party event ticketing platforms, you do not need to think about the website, software maintenance, or any other technical aspects as the third-party remains in charge of everything

2. Disadvantages of third-party online ticketing system:

• High commission

Third-party platforms like EventBrite charges a high commission fee to event organizers on each ticket sales making it a costly platform for event organizers. As a result, event organizers do not get the full profit amount, which restricts the revenue flow.

• Less profit

High commission fee results in less profit for event organizers. Moreover, their ticket pricing is also influenced by the third-party commission fee and the platform rules.

• No direct communication with attendees

In a third-party event ticketing platform, event organizers do not get any access to customer data, and for any queries and feedback, they contact the platform, not the event organizers. This creates a barrier between audiences and event organizers.

• No control over attendee data

Attendee data helps event organizers know their attendees better which helps them create personalized marketing campaigns and deliver personalized event experiences, which is crucial for success. As third-party event ticketing platforms do not share customer data with event organizers, this part remains absent in their system.

• Difficulty in performance tracking

Event organizers do not get access to their ticket sales performance as they remain in control of the third party platforms. So there is no scope for event organizers to get the performance details.

What is the best way to sell event tickets online

Considering the advantages and disadvantages of both the online event ticket selling method, it is clear that having your own online event ticketing system is way more beneficial than relying on third-party platforms. All you need is the right event ticketing platform like WP Event Manager's Registration and  Sell tickets add on to streamline the entire process for you and your attendees.

To get the best of both world, you can sell your event tickets through your own ticketing platform along with third-party platforms. This will not only help you balance out the revenue loss that happens due to high commission fees but also boost exposure and attendee satisfaction.

 How to choose the best online event ticketing software  

If you still do not have your own online event ticketing system, and looking for a suitable software to sell event tickets online, here are some tips to choose the best online event ticketing software:

• Go through the features carefully and check if the features match your requirements.
• Make sure that the software you choose offers 100% payment security.
• A quality support system is also required so that you can find solution to your issues when you need them.
• Check reviews on various review platforms to see people's experience with the software.

Examine multiple platforms based on the above mentioned criterea. If you want to go with our recommendation, try Sell tickets that carries all the above mentioned qualities.

Wrapping up

We hope that the above mentioned details about the best way to sell event ticketis online will help you sell your tickets more efficiently with a good online event ticketing platform.