As an event organizer, there are a number of different ways you can manage event registrations and ticketing through your WordPress site. What you shouldn’t do, however, is add Eventbrite on WordPress.
Eventbrite is a hosted event ticketing platform. This means you can create an account, create events, and allow prospective attendees to view event details and purchase tickets from your event page. Eventbrite also gives you the option to embed checkout on your WordPress site.
The main problem with adding Eventbrite to your WordPress website is that it takes away the user experience you’d otherwise be able to deliver if you were using an integrated event management plugin that is designed specifically for WordPress, like Event Espresso.
In this article, we’ll step through some of the main reasons why you don’t want to add Eventbrite to WordPress and explain what you can do instead.
Article Outline
Why You Shouldn’t Add Eventbrite to WordPress
If you’re organizing one or two free events (i.e. you’re not selling tickets) throughout the year, the Eventbrite platform might be the right option for you.
However, if you’re looking for a way to sell event tickets and manage multiple events then you shouldn’t add Eventbrite to WordPress. Here’s why:
Reason #1: Doesn’t Let You Deliver a Seamless, Consistent Brand Experience
As we mentioned earlier, the main problem you’ll face when you add Eventbrite to WordPress is that you won’t be able to deliver a seamless, consistent brand experience to prospective attendees.
This is because the Eventbrite checkout page won’t match the rest of your website and WordPress theme. So, when attendees reach checkout, they will be directed offsite away from your website and have no way to get back. As you can imagine, this is bad for user experience as it can be confusing for users and can lead to a high site bounce rate.
In addition to this, it’s worth mentioning that Eventbrite has removed the calendar widget. This means that you have to add each upcoming event manually.
Instead of settling for the poor user experience, you get when you add Eventbrite to WordPress or messing around with custom CSS code, we recommend using an event registration and ticketing plugin, like Event Espresso, that’s specifically designed for WordPress.
The key benefits of using Event Espresso are that you get a quick, seamless, and branded checkout experience out of the box – no need for messing around with code or hiring a developer. Event Espresso is designed to adapt to your website theme so it looks like a seamless part of your website. In addition to this, you can also leverage Event Espresso’s smart single-page checkout, offer group registrations, and add an events calendar and waitlist to your event page, and much more with product add-ons.
For example, if you’re organizing an art camp event, you could add it to an events calendar (Google Calendar) using Event Espresso to make it easy for attendees to view event details and register.
Reason #2: You’ll Face Higher Costs Including Per-Ticket Commission Fees
For paid events, Eventbrite commission fees and charges are based on the price of the ticket. While it may certainly be affordable for organizing a couple of events throughout the year, it can quickly get expensive for organizations that host lots of events and would like to sell tickets for each one.
So, another reason you shouldn’t add Eventbrite to WordPress is that you’ll be charged based on how many tickets you sell and the price of the tickets. Not to mention, you’ll be limiting how prospective attendees discover your events.
Instead, you should use an event ticketing solution with a simple pricing model. Event Espresso, for example, lets you create and sell multiple ticket types and an unlimited number of tickets at no additional charge. In addition to this, you can sell tickets to multiple dates for the same event.
Eventbrite’s pricing structure is two parts: commission fees + payment processing fees. Their commission fees range from 2-10% of the price of the ticket and on top of that you pay the 3% payment processing fees.
Event Espresso does not have any commission fees, you only pay your payment gateway fees for processing payments.
Reason #3: You Don’t Own the Data You Collect
From a data security standpoint, one of the major drawbacks of adding Eventbrite to WordPress is that Eventbrite will still own all of the data you collect. This includes customer names, email addresses, and (most importantly) billing details. This isn’t ideal for self-hosted WordPress site owners since it means you can’t be GDPR-compliant.
To remain compliant, you need to use a WordPress plugin that gives you complete control over your attendees’ data. We recommend using Event Espresso considering it’s GDPR-compliant out of the box. It lets you easily export and erase any personal data you collect from attendees.
Reason #4: You Get Limited Payment Options
When you add Eventbrite to WordPress, you get limited payment options. More specifically, you can collect payments via invoice or check. Eventbrite also lets you collect payments on-site using the Eventbrite Organizer mobile app. You can use it to accept cash or credit card payments.
In order to deliver a better user experience to attendees, you should aim to make it easy for them to purchase event tickets. One way to do this is by using an event registration and ticketing plugin that supports multiple payment gateways.
Event Espresso offers you a wide range of specific options to accept payments like through invoice, check, PayPal, and credit cards as well as on-site payments. The plugin comes with six payment gateways out of the box with the option to integrate up to 17 additional payment gateways using add-ons.
Reason #5: Reports and Analytics Will Be Available on Eventbrite
As an event organizer, you probably already know how important it is to have easy access to reports and analytics. When you add Eventbrite to WordPress, all of your event data will be stored in Eventbrite only. This means that you’ll have to log in to your Eventbrite account to view reports and analytics each time.
The problem with this is that you and your team members will end up using multiple tools (Eventbrite and WordPress in addition to any CRMs and project management tools you use). It also makes it more difficult to automate workflows and export data.
Instead, you should use an event registration and ticketing solution that handles reports and analytics on the same platform. Event Espresso offers built-in reporting and analytics capabilities. This makes it easy to run a report directly from the WordPress dashboard to see the income and revenue you’ve generated from an event.
Conclusion
Instead of working out a way to add Eventbrite to WordPress, it’s much easier (and more cost-effective) to use a WordPress event registration and ticketing plugin, like Event Espresso.
You won’t have to worry about managing attendees’ personal data and you’ll get access to more payment gateways. Plus, you’ll have access to reports and analytics directly through your WordPress site.
Be sure to check out our Eventbrite vs Event Espresso comparison for more information and the Event Espresso demo to see the plugin in action!