To sell event tickets online, you need four things: a page that explains the event, a checkout that takes card payments, a way to deliver and verify tickets, and a clear view of every fee before you publish. You can have all four running in an afternoon. The choices that matter most are where buyers check out, who pays the fees and who owns the customer data afterward.
This guide walks through the whole process, from picking a channel to scanning tickets at the door. It is written for organizers: charities, community groups, schools, sports clubs, artists and small businesses selling their own events. It is not for people reselling tickets they can't use.
TL;DR
- Sell through a dedicated event page or microsite that you control, with checkout built in, rather than a bare payment link.
- Show the total price upfront. The FTC's fee rule has covered live-event tickets in the US since May 12, 2025.
- Card processing costs exist on every platform. "No platform fees" is not the same as "no payment costs", so read the terms.
- Use QR codes for entry, and keep the attendee list in a place you own.
- Test the full buyer journey on your phone before you share the link.
Table of Contents
- Choose where people will buy
- Decide your ticket types and prices
- Understand fees before you publish
- Build your ticket page
- Set up payments and delivery
- Promote the ticket link
- Tailor the setup to your kind of event
- Check people in on event day
- Perspective: why we built it this way
- Build your ticket page with Actickety
- A launch checklist
- FAQ
- Sources
Choose where people will buy
Your first decision is the sales channel. Most organizers end up choosing between three setups.
| Channel | How it works | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large public marketplace | Your event is listed on a big consumer ticketing site | Events that need discovery by strangers | Per-ticket platform fees, limited access to buyer data, your brand sits behind theirs |
| Embedded widget or link on your own site | A ticketing system handles payment and delivery, you link or embed it | Organizers with an existing website | Two experiences stitched together, so check mobile |
| Standalone event microsite with built-in ticketing | One branded page for details, tickets and merchandise | Charities, festivals, artists, clubs, workshops | Needs a little setup time up front |
Shopify's guide to selling tickets suggests weighing the buyer experience, fees and access to customer data when you pick a channel. That is a good checklist. If you already have loyal followers, you do not need a marketplace to find them. You need a clean page they can buy from in under a minute.
If you sell on your own site, you have the same three routes inside that: link out to a ticketing page, embed the ticketing system with a snippet of code, or build a custom connection. In each case the ticketing system should handle payment, availability counts and ticket delivery, so you are not reconciling spreadsheets by hand. Our guide to creating an event website that sells tickets covers the page itself in more depth.
Decide your ticket types and prices
Before you open any tool, write down your ticket structure on paper. It saves rework.
- Capacity. Venue limit, fire code limit, or your own cap. Set the ticket count to the lowest of these.
- Ticket types. General admission, early bird, student, family, VIP, group, free RSVP. Keep it to the few you can explain in one line each.
- Price. Work backward from your costs: venue, talent, insurance, staffing, printing, payment processing. Then add the margin or fundraising target.
- Extras. Merchandise, raffle entries, donations, parking, food vouchers. Selling these at checkout lifts what each buyer spends and saves you handling cash at the door.
- Release plan. One release or several waves. Early bird tiers create a reason to buy now, but too many tiers confuse people.
A small example: a school hosting a 300-seat spring concert might set one adult ticket, one student ticket, a family bundle of four, and an optional printed program. That is four items, easy to explain, and every one can be purchased in a single checkout.
Understand fees before you publish
Fees are where organizers get surprised, so work them out first. There are usually three layers:
- Platform or service fees. Charged by the ticketing company, often per ticket.
- Payment processing. Charged by the card network or processor. As one reference point, a major payment processor lists 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful domestic card transaction on its standard pricing. Rates vary by provider and region, so treat that as an example, not a universal number.
- Your own add-ons. A booking charge you choose to apply, or a donation option.
So can you sell tickets without fees? You can sell without platform fees on some systems, and we do exactly that. But a card payment always costs something to process. The honest question is who covers it: you, by building it into the ticket price, or the buyer, as a visible line item. Either is fine if the total is clear.
Clarity is also the law in the US. Since May 12, 2025, the FTC's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees requires businesses that sell live-event tickets to disclose the total price upfront. The same guidance says government charges, shipping and optional goods or services can be left out of that headline total, but they must be disclosed before you ask for payment. In practice: advertise the all-in ticket price, and show optional extras like merchandise as clearly optional.
It is also good business. Shopify reports that extra costs account for up to 39% of abandoned carts and advises ticket sellers to include fees upfront. If you want to go deeper on keeping buyers from dropping out at checkout, these cart abandonment strategies are worth a read.
If you are outside the US, the same principle applies but the rules differ. Check your own country's consumer protection and tax rules before you publish prices.
Build your ticket page
Your ticket page does the selling. Whether it is a full microsite or a single page, it should answer every question a buyer has before they hesitate.
What the page needs
- The essentials above the fold: event name, date, time, venue, and a clear Buy Tickets button.
- A strong image. A poster or hero image that looks like your event, not a stock template. AI poster tools can produce a polished first draft in minutes, which helps small teams without a designer.
- Ticket types with plain descriptions. What each includes, who it is for, how many are left if you want to show scarcity honestly.
- Practical details. Shopify recommends including accessibility, parking and public transport information on the ticket sales page. Add the doors-open time, age limits, bag policy and refund terms too.
- An FAQ. Most pre-event emails ask the same ten questions. Answer them once on the page. Here is a guide on what to include in an event FAQ page.
- Accessible design. Readable contrast, keyboard-friendly buttons and clear labels help everyone, and they help you meet accessibility expectations. See our notes on event website design for organizers.
Test it like a buyer
Open the page on a phone, on mobile data, and buy a ticket as a stranger would. Time it. Check that the confirmation email arrives, that the QR code on it is readable, and that the total matches what the page promised. Do this before you tell anyone the link exists.
Set up payments and delivery
The core steps are the same on any system:
- Create the event with date, venue and capacity.
- Add ticket types and prices.
- Connect the bank account or payout method that receives your money.
- Choose who covers payment costs, and make sure the total shown to buyers is complete.
- Write your refund policy and put it where buyers will see it before paying.
- Customize the confirmation email with the venue address, entry instructions and a contact.
- Do a test purchase, then refund it.
Ask two payout questions before you commit: when does the money reach you (after each sale, or after the event), and what happens if you cancel? For a charity or a small business, cash flow matters. Some organizers need ticket revenue early to pay deposits, others are happy to wait.
Promote the ticket link
A ticket page with no traffic sells nothing. Plan promotion in three stages.
Announcement. Send one email to your list and post once on every channel you use. Lead with the date and what makes the event worth attending, and link straight to the ticket page.
Momentum. Post reminders at sensible intervals: lineup reveals, speaker introductions, behind-the-scenes clips, early bird deadlines. Use one link everywhere so you can see which channel sells. Our guide to Instagram event promotion shows how to point every format at a single ticket page.
Final push. The last week usually brings a surge. Send a "last chance" email, post the remaining ticket count, and remind people about parking and doors time.
Offline promotion works too. A printed poster with a QR code that opens the ticket page turns a notice board, a shop window or a flyer into a checkout. Make the code large, test it from a few feet away, and put a short URL beside it.
Tailor the setup to your kind of event
The steps above hold for every event, but the emphasis shifts.
- Community events. Speed and simplicity win. Read our guide to community event ticketing for a launch-in-hours approach.
- Festivals. Multi-day passes, camping add-ons and tiered pricing need more structure. See festival ticketing options.
- Independent musicians. You want fans to buy from you, not from a middleman, and to keep their emails. See independent artist ticketing.
- Online or hybrid events. Access links and replay rules change the setup. See virtual event ticketing.
- Branded ticketing. If you want the experience to look entirely like your organization, read about white label ticketing.
Check people in on event day
Good check-in is quick and quiet. The most common method is a QR code or barcode on each ticket, scanned with a phone or handheld device at the entrance. Shopify notes that event staff can scan ticket barcodes with its POS app to verify tickets and allow access, which shows how standard this approach has become.
A few habits make the door run smoothly:
- Brief your volunteers the day before, and have each one scan a test ticket.
- Keep a printed or offline attendee list as backup in case the venue's Wi-Fi fails.
- Set up a separate lane for people who need help finding their ticket.
- Make sure each code can only be used once, so a screenshot shared twice does not admit two people.
For the technical side, we cover how to set up and scan QR codes for tickets. If you want practical advice on making a printed code that people actually scan, these QR code setup tips on size, placement and testing apply well to posters and signs.
Perspective: why we built it this way
We started Actickety because setting up an event shouldn't cost money before you've sold a single ticket. Too many organizers, especially charities, clubs and independent artists, pay for tools, then pay again on every sale, then discover the attendee list belongs to someone else.
Our view is simple. Your event, your revenue, your rules. You should be able to build a professional microsite in ten straightforward steps, generate a poster, set up tickets and merchandise, and pay nothing until you are ready to go live. We charge no platform fees on ticket sales, and you keep 100% ownership of your event data.
That data matters more than most people realize. The people who buy a ticket to this year's event are the easiest people to reach for next year's. When your ticketing lives on your own microsite, that relationship stays with you.
Ticketing needed a villain. We chose the fees.
Tim
Build your ticket page with Actickety
If you want to put this guide into practice, Actickety lets you build an event microsite, generate an AI poster and configure tickets and merchandise in ten steps, with no upfront cost until you go live. There are no platform fees on ticket sales, and you keep full control of your event data. It suits charities, event planners, artists, schools, sports clubs and community groups.
Before you launch, read the terms and fee details so you know exactly how payments and payouts work for your event.
A launch checklist
Use this list the week before you share the link.
- Capacity set correctly, with ticket types matching your plan.
- All-in prices displayed, with optional extras clearly marked optional.
- Refund and cancellation policy visible before payment.
- Venue, access, parking and transit information on the page.
- Test purchase completed on a phone, and confirmation email checked.
- Payout method connected and the payout timing understood.
- Check-in method chosen, volunteers briefed, backup list printed.
- One tracked link ready for each promotion channel.
- Privacy notice or consent wording in place for the data you collect, following the rules where your attendees live.
FAQ
How much does it cost to sell event tickets online?
It depends on the system. Costs usually combine a platform fee, card processing and any booking charge you add. Processing alone is often a few percent plus a small fixed amount per transaction, so even a platform with no ticket fees has some payment cost. Read the terms and calculate your net per ticket before you set prices.
Can I sell tickets on my own website?
Yes. You can link to a ticketing page, embed the ticketing system on your site, or use a standalone microsite as your event page. The ticketing system should handle payment, availability and ticket delivery. Pick the route that gives you a smooth mobile checkout and access to your buyers' data.
Do I have to show the full price upfront?
In the US, yes for live-event tickets. The FTC rule in effect since May 12, 2025 requires the total price to be disclosed upfront, though government charges, shipping and optional extras may be left out of the headline total if disclosed before payment. Outside the US, check your local consumer rules.
How do I stop people from using fake or duplicated tickets?
Use tickets with unique QR codes that your system marks as used when scanned. Scan every ticket at the door rather than eyeballing screens, and keep a backup attendee list. If a code is scanned twice, your system should flag it immediately.
Sources
- How to Sell Tickets on Shopify (2026)
- The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions (FTC)
- Stripe Pricing & Fees