For a small nonprofit selling a few hundred tickets a year, the cheapest ticketing platform is Zeffy, which charges no platform fee, no transaction fee and no processing fee, funded by optional donor tips. Humanitix at its charity rate (3.9% plus $1.29 per ticket) and Ticket Tailor (from $0.43) come next. Free events cost $0 almost everywhere.
That is the short version. The longer version matters, because "cheapest" quietly changes shape depending on how many tickets you sell, whether your event is free or paid, and whether you would rather your supporters covered the fee or you did. Here is how the real numbers break down in 2026, without the marketing fog.
Why "cheapest" depends on how many tickets you actually sell
A platform that is free at 200 tickets can quietly become the expensive one at 5,000. Percentage-based fees scale with your success, so the more you raise, the more they take. Flat and per-ticket models behave very differently once volume climbs, which is why the honest answer to "what is cheapest" is always "cheapest for what size of event".
For a one-off gala or a single fundraiser, a per-ticket or tip-funded model almost always wins, because you pay little or nothing and skip any monthly commitment. For a busy nonprofit running raffles, dinners, workshops and a season of community events all year, a percentage fee on every ticket starts to sting, and a flat subscription can work out cheaper overall.
The genuinely free options: Zeffy and Givebutter
Zeffy is the only ticketing tool built specifically for nonprofits where the headline fee is truly $0: no platform fee, no per-ticket fee, no card processing fee. It stays free because donors, not your charity, fund it through an optional tip at checkout, and on average around two in three choose to leave one. Zeffy reports that more than 100,000 nonprofits have raised over $2 billion this way (Zeffy).
Givebutter runs a similar tip-funded model, bundling ticketing with donation pages and peer-to-peer campaigns. The trade-off with both is the tip itself: it is voluntary, but it is prompted, so a buyer paying $50 for a gala seat may see a suggested contribution on top. For small community fundraisers where supporters are already in a giving mood, that friction is usually tiny. On a high-price gala, some organisers prefer a model where the fee is fixed and invisible instead.
The low-per-ticket options: Humanitix and Ticket Tailor
Humanitix charges registered charities, schools and not-for-profits a discounted 3.9% plus $1.29 per paid ticket, against a standard rate of 5% plus $1.29. Free tickets carry no fee, cash sales are free, and in-person card sales run lower. Humanitix also donates its profits to charity and points out that it has not raised its booking fees in ten years, with rates unchanged again from 1 July 2026 (Humanitix Help Centre).
Ticket Tailor gives registered charities 50% off its per-ticket fee, dropping the standard $0.85 to $0.43, or as low as $0.30 with pre-purchased credits. Free events are free up to 5,000 tickets a year, which covers 99% of the free box offices on the platform, and there is a further 20% discount for not-for-profits, PTAs and B Corps (Ticket Tailor Help Centre). Because the fee is a flat few cents rather than a percentage, Ticket Tailor gets relatively cheaper as your ticket price rises.
What Eventbrite actually costs a nonprofit
Eventbrite is the name most people reach for first, and for paid tickets it is rarely the cheapest. Its US fee is 3.7% plus $1.79 service per ticket, plus 2.9% payment processing, so a $50 fundraiser ticket loses roughly $5 to fees. Free events are $0. The catch that trips up a lot of charities: Eventbrite's nonprofit discount applies to its paid Pro subscription for marketing tools, not to the per-ticket ticketing fees themselves (EventbriteAlternatives).
Ticketing That Doesn't Tax the Cause
Flat pricing means every fundraising event keeps its margin, whether you sell fifty tickets or five thousand.
None of this makes Eventbrite a villain. Its discovery marketplace can put your event in front of people who have never heard of you, which a zero-fee tool sitting on your own site cannot. You are simply paying for reach, so the question is whether that reach is worth roughly a tenth of a $50 ticket to your particular cause.
Small-nonprofit cost, side by side
| Platform | Fee model (paid ticket) | Cost on a $50 ticket | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zeffy | $0, funded by optional donor tips | $0 to the nonprofit | Small nonprofits wanting the lowest possible cost |
| Givebutter | $0 platform, optional tips | $0 to the nonprofit | Fundraising plus donation and peer-to-peer pages |
| Ticket Tailor | $0.43 per ticket (charity rate) plus your own card processing | About $1.93 including processing | Higher-price tickets, own-brand box office |
| Humanitix | 3.9% plus $1.29 per ticket (charity rate) | About $3.24 | Charities wanting a hosted, do-good platform |
| Eventbrite | 3.7% plus $1.79 service plus 2.9% processing | About $5.09 | Events that need marketplace discovery |
| eventcloud | Flat $125 per user per month, $0 per ticket, own Stripe | About $1.75 (Stripe processing only) | Year-round programmes at real volume |
Read that table with volume in mind. At 200 tickets a year, the tip-funded and low-per-ticket tools are unbeatable. A flat monthly subscription only starts to look cheap once you are moving thousands of tickets across many events, where a percentage fee would have added up to far more than the subscription.
The whole point of shopping fees: more in the cause, less in the fee column. Credit: Brano / Unsplash
When a flat fee beats per-ticket for a growing nonprofit
There is a crossover point where paying per ticket costs more than paying a fixed monthly fee. If your nonprofit runs frequent paid events, sells premium seats, or processes several thousand tickets a year, a flat platform such as eventcloud at $125 per user per month with $0 per-ticket fees and payments through your own Stripe account can undercut a percentage model, because your fundraising success is never itself a billing event.
To be clear where we stand: eventcloud is not the budget pick for a tiny once-a-year raffle, and we will happily say so. It earns its keep when you have outgrown per-ticket fees and want unlimited events without watching the meter. If that is not you yet, the free and low-fee tools above are the right call today.
Who this is not for
If you run a single small free event and never sell a paid ticket, you barely need to choose at all, because free tickets are free almost everywhere, so pick whichever tool is easiest to set up. If you specifically need a public discovery marketplace to find first-time attendees, a zero-fee tool on your own website will not deliver that, and Eventbrite's reach may justify its cost. And if you are a large charity running a year-round programme, skip straight past "cheapest per ticket" and read the flat-fee section, because that is where your real savings hide.
For a deeper look at where every dollar of a fundraiser goes, see our guide to online ticket sales for fundraisers, and if your events are free, our note on free event ticketing for charities.
Whichever tier you are in, the goal is the same: keep more of every donation in the cause and less in the fee column. If your nonprofit has grown past the point where per-ticket fees make sense, our plan for charities and nonprofits shows what unlimited, flat-fee ticketing looks like when your success stops costing you extra.