Eventbrite Alternative: GoHighLevel Events, priced honestly.
Eventbrite takes 3.7% plus $1.79 in service fees on every paid ticket, then another 2.9% to process the payment. GoHighLevel's Events tool takes nothing per ticket — you bring your own processor and pay one flat monthly price. On a $50 ticket that is $5.09 versus $1.75.
Then the question is simple: how much of your ticket revenue disappears before it reaches you, and what the same events would cost on a flat monthly plan.
If you sell more than a handful of paid tickets a month, Eventbrite's per-ticket fee is the most expensive line item in your event. GoHighLevel replaces it with a flat plan and your own Stripe account, and throws in the website, emails, texts and CRM you were paying for elsewhere. What you give up is Eventbrite's marketplace — if strangers browsing Eventbrite are a real source of your ticket sales, keep a listing there and treat the fee as advertising.
What Eventbrite actually charges
Two fees stack on every paid ticket in the US: a 3.7% + $1.79 service fee, and 2.9% payment processing on the order. Because $1.79 is fixed, cheap tickets are punished hardest. Donation tickets drop to a 2% service fee with no fixed component. Free events cost nothing. Card sales at the door swap the percentage service fee for a flat $1.00, still plus 2.9%.
| Ticket price | Service fee | Processing | Eventbrite total | Effective rate | GoHighLevel + Stripe | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25 | $2.72 | $0.73 | $3.44 | 13.8% | $1.03 | +$2.42 / ticket |
| $50 | $3.64 | $1.45 | $5.09 | 10.2% | $1.75 | +$3.34 / ticket |
| $100 | $5.49 | $2.90 | $8.39 | 8.4% | $3.20 | +$5.19 / ticket |
| $250 | $11.04 | $7.25 | $18.29 | 7.3% | $7.55 | +$10.74 / ticket |
The $69/mo Eventbrite subscription adds marketing features, higher email limits and ad credits. It does not remove any of the fees above, which is why the calculator treats it as an extra cost rather than a discount.
Your fees, your events
Fill in what you actually run. Everything recalculates live — ticket type, door sales, the Eventbrite subscription, which processor you would connect to GoHighLevel, and which plan you would sit on.
2.9% + $0.30 per card charge. The default GoHighLevel processor and the one most agencies use.
Eventbrite rates are US published organizer fees checked August 2026: 3.7% + $1.79 service fee and 2.9% processing on paid tickets, 2% on donations, $1.00 + 2.9% on at-the-door card sales, free events free. Processor rates are published standard rates. Verify both before you commit — vendors change pricing without notice.
Bring your own processor
Eventbrite processes the payment itself at a fixed 2.9%. GoHighLevel does not touch the money — you connect a processor and keep whatever rate you have negotiated. That is the part most comparisons miss: on volume, your effective rate is something you control.
2.9% + $0.30 per card charge. The default GoHighLevel processor and the one most agencies use.
3.49% + $0.49 on standard checkout. Higher per ticket, but buyers recognise it.
2.9% + $0.30 online. Handy if you already take door payments on a Square reader.
2.9% + $0.30 plus a $25/mo gateway fee. Only worth it if a merchant account already requires it.
Rates depend on the merchant account behind it. Shown at a typical negotiated 2.75% + $0.25.
What running an event on GoHighLevel looks like
Pick ticketed for paid admission or RSVP for free registration. Free RSVP events cost you nothing at all, because there is no payment to take a cut of.
Drafts, published events and past events live in the same account as your contacts, calendars and pipelines. Attendees are CRM records, not a CSV you export later.
The event page is built in the same drag-and-drop builder as the rest of your funnels, on your own domain, with your schedule, capacity and description. You can also embed the event or the checkout on an existing site with a code snippet.
Buyers pay on your page through your Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net or NMI account. Multi-attendee registration collects individual details per attendee and copies the shared fields, so a group of four is one order and four real contact records.
The moment a ticket sells, workflows fire: confirmation email, SMS reminders on a schedule, an add to a pipeline, a task for the team, a check-in list for the door, and a follow-up sequence after the event to sell the next one.
Feature by feature
| Feature | GoHighLevel | Eventbrite |
|---|---|---|
| Per-ticket platform fee | None. You keep the ticket price minus your processor's rate. | 3.7% + $1.79 service fee on every paid ticket |
| Payment processing | Bring your own: Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net, NMI | 2.9% through Eventbrite's processing, no choice |
| Free events | Free, RSVP event type | Free to publish and list |
| Donation events | Set your own amounts, processor fee only | 2% service fee plus 2.9% processing |
| At-the-door card sales | Your processor's card-present rate | $1.00 per ticket plus 2.9% |
| Event types | Ticketed or RSVP, in person or virtual | Ticketed, free and donation |
| Event page builder | Full drag-and-drop page and funnel builder on your own domain | Eventbrite-hosted listing page with limited layout control |
| Embed on your site | Code snippet embeds the event or checkout anywhere | Embedded checkout widget |
| Multi-attendee registration | Collect individual details per attendee, copy shared data | Supported |
| Check-in | Built-in check-in experience for in-person events | Organizer app check-in |
| Automation after registration | Full workflow builder: SMS, email, tasks, pipelines, reminders | Basic reminder and follow-up emails |
| SMS to attendees | Two-way texting built in, usage billed at cost | Not included |
| CRM and pipelines | Every attendee lands in a real CRM with pipeline stages | Attendee lists and exports |
| Websites and funnels | Included, unlimited | Not included |
| Marketplace discovery | None. You bring the traffic. | Eventbrite's consumer marketplace and app can surface your event |
| Resell to clients | Yes, white-label under your own brand in SaaS mode | No |
| Monthly cost | $97, $297 or $497 flat, everything included | $0 base, optional $69/mo Pro for marketing tools |
Eventbrite has a marketplace. GoHighLevel has the rest of the business.
Eventbrite's extra tools are event marketing tools: a listing in a consumer marketplace, email blasts to people who bought before, some ad credits on the paid tiers. That is a genuine advantage for public, discoverable events — a comedy night, a run club, a class people search for.
GoHighLevel is not an event marketplace. It is the CRM, the website, the funnel builder, the calendar, the two-way SMS, the email sending, the pipelines, the invoices and the automation, with events as one more thing that feeds it. Someone who registers for a workshop becomes a contact you can text in six months about the next one. On Eventbrite they are a row in an attendee export.
The honest split: if your ticket sales come from your own list, ads and website, the marketplace is worth nothing to you and the fees are pure loss. If half your buyers found you inside Eventbrite, keep listing there and run everything else on your own platform.
Moving your next event over
- Export your Eventbrite attendee list to CSV and import it as contacts.
- Connect Stripe, then build the event as ticketed or RSVP.
- Build the event page on your own domain, or embed the checkout on the site you already have with the code snippet.
- Set the reminder workflow: confirmation immediately, a text the day before, a text two hours before. This is where no-show rates actually move.
- Run one event on both platforms if you are nervous. Compare tickets sold and fees paid, then cancel the loser.
When to stay on Eventbrite
- You run one or two small paid events a year — a flat monthly plan costs more.
- A real share of your buyers discover you inside Eventbrite's app or search results.
- You only run free events and want zero setup and zero monthly cost.
- You need Eventbrite's brand credibility for public ticket buyers who have never heard of you.
Everyone else — recurring workshops, paid classes, conferences, membership events, anything sold to your own audience — is paying a marketplace fee for traffic they generated themselves.
Common questions
- How much does Eventbrite actually charge?
- In the United States, Eventbrite charges organizers 3.7% plus $1.79 per paid ticket as a service fee, plus 2.9% of the order total for payment processing. Donation tickets carry a reduced 2% service fee with no fixed component. Free events are free. Because the $1.79 is fixed, cheap tickets are hit hardest: a $25 ticket loses about 14.1% to fees, a $50 ticket about 10.4%, and a $100 ticket about 8.5%.
- Does GoHighLevel charge per ticket?
- No. GoHighLevel's Events tool is included in the flat monthly plan. The only per-ticket cost is your own payment processor, which is normally Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30. On a $50 ticket that is $1.75 instead of Eventbrite's roughly $5.20.
- Does the Eventbrite $69/mo subscription remove the ticket fees?
- No. The paid tiers add marketing features, higher daily email limits and advertising credits. Standard ticketing fees still apply on top, which is why the calculator treats the subscription as an added monthly cost rather than a discount.
- Can I pass Eventbrite fees on to the buyer?
- Yes, and most organizers do. That does not make the fees disappear, it raises the price your buyer sees at checkout. A $50 ticket becomes about $55.20, which is a real conversion cost on higher-volume or price-sensitive events.
- What do I lose by leaving Eventbrite?
- Marketplace discovery. Eventbrite's consumer app and search send some organizers genuine walk-up traffic. If a meaningful share of your ticket sales come from people browsing Eventbrite rather than from your own list or ads, treat those fees as an advertising cost and keep a listing there.
- Can an agency resell event ticketing to clients?
- Yes. On the $497 SaaS Pro plan you create sub-accounts, white-label the platform, and rebill your own monthly price. Clients get event pages, checkout, reminders and a CRM under your brand, and you keep the difference between your price and the flat platform cost.
- Can I bring my own payment processor?
- Yes. GoHighLevel supports Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net and NMI, so if you have negotiated rates on volume you keep them. Eventbrite processes payments itself at a fixed 2.9%.
Keep reading
Try it on one real event
Build your next event on the 14-day trial, sell ten tickets, and compare the payout to your last Eventbrite report. That comparison beats any table on this page.
Start the $97/mo plan free for 14 daysAffiliate link — it costs you nothing extra and keeps the tools on this site free. Questions first? Call +1 (817) 587-3671 or email josh@egrowthlab.com.