4 hidden costs your platform isn't telling you, and how to fix them. A practical 30-minute audit you can run on your current setup.
I built Tickify because I watched event organisers get burned, not just on fees, but on data, flexibility, and support.
Not intentionally. Not maliciously. Most ticketing platforms aren't trying to take advantage of you. They're just built for a different customer: the attendee. The person browsing, buying, and showing up.
You, the promoter, the venue manager, the festival director, are a distribution channel. Not the customer.
That distinction changes everything. It changes how they structure their fees, how they handle your data, how they build their product, and how quickly they pick up the phone when something goes wrong at 8pm the night of your event.
This playbook is a practical audit you can run on your current ticketing setup in about 30 minutes. It's not a sales pitch. If you read it and decide your current platform is working great for you, that's a completely valid outcome.
But if you find, like a lot of the organisers I talk to, that the numbers don't add up the way you thought they did, you'll have what you need to make a better decision.
The first thing most event organisers want to know is: how much am I actually paying? It sounds like a simple question. It almost never has a simple answer.
Fee model: No public rate card for organisers. Ticketmaster AU charges buyers a per-order handling fee on online and phone sales; the amount varies by event and is agreed between Ticketmaster and the event partner (venue or promoter).
Who pays: Ticket buyers. If you're playing a Ticketmaster venue, the terms are often set by the venue's deal rather than by you.
Buyers see the fee breakdown at checkout, but you won't find a standard schedule to compare against before you sign. Ask for the exact per-ticket and per-order charges for your event in writing.
Fee model: No public rate card for organisers. Fees are set per venue and event and shown to buyers at checkout.
Who pays: Ticket buyers.
Without a published schedule, get the full buyer-facing total (service, facility and order fees) for a sample ticket in writing before you commit.
Fee model: Published for self sign-up organisers: a 6.3% service fee on face value (flat A$1 under A$15.88, capped at A$5), included in the ticket price, plus a 1.95% transaction fee added on top. Both plus GST. DICE can also withhold up to 5% of an event's sales for six months to cover chargebacks. Larger promoters negotiate their own rates.
Who pays: Split. The service fee comes out of your ticket price; the transaction fee is paid by the buyer. Fans see one all-in price.
On a $60 ticket the buyer pays about $61.29 and you net about $55.84 after the service fee and GST. Check the chargeback holdback: up to 5% of sales held for six months is real cash flow.
Fee model: 5.35% + A$1.19 per ticket in Australia, with no separate payment processing fee.
Who pays: Ticket buyers by default. Organisers can choose to absorb the fee instead.
Fees are published and the default protects your face value. On a $60 ticket the buyer pays $64.40. The fixed A$1.19 per ticket weighs more heavily on cheaper tickets.
Fee model: 4% + $0.99 per ticket plus GST (standard). 2.5% + $0.50 for not-for-profits, charities and schools.
Who pays: Ticket buyers by default. Organisers can choose to absorb the fee instead.
A not-for-profit that directs its profits to charity. If that matters to your audience, it's a real point of difference. Fee structure is transparent.
Fee model: 5% flat, passed to the ticket buyer. Organisers keep 100% of face value.
Who pays: Ticket buyers.
Transparent, fixed, no hidden charges. No per-ticket fixed component that erodes margins on lower-priced tickets. Organiser margin is completely protected.
Event: 500 tickets × $60 face value = $30,000 face value total
| Platform | Buyer pays per ticket | Organiser nets (event) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ticketmaster | Shown at checkout | Set by your contract | Per-order handling fee, varies by event |
| DICE | $61.29 | ~$27,921 | 6.3% service fee from you, 1.95% on buyer (incl. GST) |
| Eventbrite (fees absorbed) | $60 | $27,800 | 5.35% + A$1.19/ticket absorbed |
| Eventbrite (fees passed) | $64.40 | $30,000 | Buyer pays 5.35% + A$1.19 (default) |
| Humanitix (fees passed) | $63.73 | $30,000 | 4% + $0.99 + GST passed to buyer (default) |
| Tickify | $63 | $30,000 | 5% flat, fully transparent |
If you're passing fees to buyers, which is now possible on most modern platforms, the real comparison shifts to (a) how much the buyer is paying, and (b) what you get beyond the transaction. Which brings us to the hidden costs that don't show up in the fee table.
Most conversations about ticketing fees stop at the booking fee. It's the number that shows up at checkout, so it gets the attention. But for event organisers, there are four other costs that don't show up at checkout at all.
When someone buys a ticket through your current platform, can you actually take that customer list with you? If you can't get it out in full, you have a data lock-in problem.
Here's what this looks like in practice: You run a festival. 3,000 people buy tickets. The next year, you want to launch early bird tickets to last year's buyers, the highest-converting audience you have. You go to export your attendee list and discover the email export is incomplete, missing fields, or only available in a non-portable format.
Also read how your platform treats buyers who create an account with it. Many platforms, Tickify included, market to their own account holders. That is normal, but you should know the terms.
Can you export your full attendee list, name, email, purchase history, ticket type, in a portable format today, with no restrictions on how you use it?
Most ticketing platforms, Tickify included, pay out your event revenue after the event. How long after, and whether you can get funds earlier, varies a lot between platforms. You've done the work, sold the tickets, run the event, and the cash is still sitting in someone else's account.
On a $30,000 event, even a week's wait is a real cash flow problem — especially if you're running multiple events a month, or if that revenue needs to fund the next one.
What are your platform's payout terms? Do they hold funds until post-event? Is there any option for earlier settlement?
Chargebacks happen. A buyer disputes a charge, a card is fraudulently used, an event gets cancelled. How your platform handles these situations — and who absorbs the cost — varies a lot.
Watch for
Best practice
What is your platform's chargeback policy? Is there a reserve? Who absorbs disputed transactions?
This is the hidden cost that's hardest to quantify, but often the largest. Most ticketing platforms sell tickets. Full stop. What they don't offer:
Controlled Resale
Cap what a buyer can pay on resale (10% above face value, the cap in most Australian states) and earn up to 5% on resales at or above face value. Coming soon on Tickify.
Exclusive Drops
Timed or access-gated ticket releases for your most loyal fans.
VIP Bundling
Combine tickets with hospitality, merch, or experiences. Raises average spend without adding more attendees.
Fan Engagement Data
Understanding which buyers are high-frequency attendees or likely to upgrade.
Does your platform offer any tools beyond basic ticket tiers? Can you set price floors/ceilings on resale? Can you create access-gated drops or VIP bundles natively?
I hear this one a lot. It's become the standard response when organisers raise concerns about fees. And it's not wrong — it's just not the full picture.
Yes, most modern platforms now allow you to pass booking fees to the ticket buyer. This is a genuine improvement over the old model where organisers absorbed everything. And it means that for platforms like Eventbrite, Humanitix, and Tickify, the organiser's direct out-of-pocket cost can be zero.
But passing fees to buyers doesn't solve the four hidden costs from Chapter 2.
And there's a second issue: buyer experience.
When you pass fees to buyers, the ticket price shown at checkout goes up. On a $60 ticket with Eventbrite's fee structure passed through, the buyer sees $64.40. On a $60 ticket with Tickify, they see $63. On a $60 ticket where you've absorbed Eventbrite's fees entirely, the buyer sees $60, but you net $55.60.
Ask this instead
"What platform gives my buyers a transparent, fair checkout experience, while giving me 100% of face value, my full attendee list, and tools to grow revenue per event?"
That's a different question than "can I pass fees to buyers?" And it has a different answer.
Seven things a ticketing platform should be doing for you. Not as a favour — as a baseline.
You should be able to read the fee structure on a public pricing page before you sign anything. No "Schedule A", no "contact us for pricing." If a platform won't publish its fees, ask yourself why.
Fees passed to the buyer, clearly disclosed at checkout, protect your margins while giving buyers transparency. Most modern platforms support this. If yours doesn't, that's a problem.
As your event scales, from 200 to 2,000 tickets, your per-ticket cost should be predictable and consistent. A flat percentage model (like 5%) gives you certainty as you grow.
Full export capability. Portable format. No restrictions on how you use it for direct marketing to your own buyers. This is non-negotiable for any organiser building a long-term business.
Ideally, access to revenue before the event or within days of it. At minimum, payout terms should be clearly stated and predictable.
VIP tiers, controlled resale, exclusive drops, bundle pricing. These aren't luxury features, they're the tools that separate a $60/head event from an $85/head event with the same attendance.
When something goes wrong on the night of your event, and at some point, something will, your ticketing platform needs to be reachable. Not a ticket queue. Not a chatbot. A human who understands events and can help in real time.
Run this on your current platform. Be honest. Every unticked item is either money you're leaving on the table or risk you're carrying without knowing it.
Scoring Guide
Your platform is genuinely working for you. No action needed.
Worth having a conversation with your platform about what's missing.
You're likely leaving money on the table and carrying risk you're not aware of. Explore alternatives.
If you're evaluating platforms, or renegotiating with your current one, these are the seven questions worth asking. A platform that can't answer them clearly is telling you something.
A clear, published fee page. A single percentage or flat fee with no hidden components.
"It depends on your event." / "We'll send you a proposal." / "That's covered in Schedule A."
"Yes. Full CSV export in your dashboard at any time, and you can use it for your own marketing."
"We use anonymised aggregated data..." / "Data exports are available on request..."
Clear payout schedule. No excessive post-event holdback. Optional early settlement available.
"Funds are released 10–14 business days post-event." / Vague answers. / "It depends on your event volume."
Clear chargeback process, organiser not automatically liable for fraudulent transactions, no or minimal reserve.
"We hold a 5% chargeback reserve." / "All disputed transactions are the organiser's responsibility."
VIP tier management, controlled resale, exclusive drops, bundle pricing, dynamic pricing options.
"You can create multiple ticket types." (This is table stakes, not a revenue tool.)
Named account manager. Direct phone/live chat access on event day. Clear SLA for urgent issues.
"You can submit a support ticket..." / "Our team is available during business hours..."
"Yes, your fee rate is locked in for the term of the agreement."
"Fees are subject to change with notice." / "Current rates apply at the time of each event."
We're not the right fit for everyone. But if data ownership, transparent fees, and real revenue tools matter, it's worth 20 minutes to compare.
Book a Free 20-Minute CallNo pitch. No pressure. Bring your last event's numbers, I'll show you the comparison.