By default, WordPress provides a lot of features you can use to design your website. However, certain functionality can only be added through plugins or integrations. If you’re looking to enable online event registration and ticketing on your site, for example, you can’t do that with just WordPress posts or pages, you’ll need an additional tool.
Fortunately, there are plenty of solutions you can use to let visitors view and sign up for events. The trick lies in selecting a perfect fit for your needs and budget. Doing this is simple, as long as you understand the pros and cons of each option.
In this post, we’ll look at two of the most popular, but very different, event registration tools – Eventbrite and Event Espresso. We’ll compare them on several key criteria, to help you decide which one you need. Let’s take a look! (more…)
Eventbrite Castaways, Escapees, and Non-profit Organizations Accepted Here
Happy Halloween! It’s come to our attention that our arch nemesis, Eventbrite has raised their ticketing fee pricing. So we have taken it upon ourselves to offer Event Managers an escape from high fees and vendor lock-in that has been experienced with Closed Source Event Ticketing Platforms.
To combat the evil scourge of high ticketing fees that is taking over the world of Event Organizers everywhere, we encourage Event Managers to adopt Open Source Event Ticketing.
All kidding aside.
We Believe in the Freedoms that Open Source Event Ticketing Provides
We are dying to know, are Eventbrite fees putting a dent in your pocketbook? Is your non-profit organization suffering through the latest round of Eventbrite ticketing fee increases? Have your ticket sales have been shut down for violating Eventbrite’s TOS?
If you have answered yes to any of the above, then we welcome you to our open source, event ticketing platform, Event Espresso, with open arms.
At Event Espresso, we believe in Open Source Software and the rights it provides users. So, it saddens us to see closed-source platforms, such as Eventbrite, increasing their fees, even for their non-profit customers.
Earlier this year, we reported on a quilting events and workshops company that is losing $21,000 in ticketing fees annually, by using Eventbrite. That means, if fees are increasing, the quilting company will stand to lose well over $40,000 in ticketing fees, next year.
Is your Event Business Losing Money from Eventbrite Fees?
Let me tell you a story about a small town quilting company that’s losing over $21,000 from Eventbrite fees and charges, annually.
Starting as a Small Family Business
Modern Quilt Company (not the real name), and we’ll call it MQC for short…started out about ten years ago as a small family business in a small rural town. Employment was scarce in that small town, and local enterprise abandoned the city many years ago. Buildings were left abandoned, and the local infrastructure was crumbling, while many of the residents had to travel long distances to work, or eventually left the area altogether to find employment elsewhere.
Learn how to create a Quilt Retreat Booking website. Quilting, not your thing? Create your own event planning business.
The founder of MQC’s father, Greg, commuted an hour and a half to work each way as a mechanic at the local newspaper. He worked long hours and many night shifts to support his wife (Shauna) and his seven children. In 2008, when he lost a hefty portion of his retirement savings in the market crash and at a time when the newspaper industry was laying off people every month, his son’s James and Sammy concocted an idea to start a business that could help their parents towards retirement. (more…)
Friends Don’t Let Friends Host Events on Eventbrite
Event Espresso vs. Eventbrite. The Truth Will Set You Free from Eventbrite fees!
Eventbrite fees and charges are out of control, or they have too much control! Event Espresso beats Eventbrite by keeping you in full control of your money because you get paid directly and instantly, customer data stays with you, style and company branding is in your control.
No Post-event Payouts with Event Espresso
Are you selling tickets to your next event? Are you willing to give away 3.5% of your ticket value + $1.59 in Eventbrite fees for every ticket sold? Eventbrite pricing means that you have to fork over a percentage of every ticket you sell when you use their ticketing service. With Event Espresso you are in control of your money because your events are hosted on your website. That means no monthly fees, no registration fees, or ticketing commission fees. And because with Event Espresso you use your own merchant account (e.g. Stripe or PayPal) so you get paid instantly. (more…)
How do you save $30,000 on your WordCamp registrations?
Keep the Cash Campaign
This weekend we had the opportunity of attending WordCamp Utah. For those who haven’t attended a WordCamp, it’s a great opportunity to be inspired by and network with skilled developers, writers, webmasters, and entrepreneurs. We even had a town hall meeting with WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg and a live presentation from Will it Blend, yeah, seriously! Needless to say, we had a great time.
Even though we had a great time at WordCamp, there was a $30,000 problem that really bothered us. Each of the 153 attendees had to pay an additional $1.49 to cover the cost of registering for WordCamp through Eventbrite. With all the plugin development around WordPress, why would WordCamp not use Event Espresso to manage their events? Event Espresso only costs $59.95 for unlimited events, and no fee per registrant (compare that to $1.49 per registrant with Eventbrite). WordCamp could either use that $1.49 for cool WordCamp things, or they could give us all a discount.
There have been or will be 136 WordCamps in 2010 and if, on average, each WordCamp gets about the same number of attendees as WordCamp Utah, attendees could collectively pay $30,396 just to register for WordCamps! That could fund the development of a sweet new feature or theme or be used to publicize WordPress as a CMS. Developers can help their clients save more money too by using Event Espresso.
To help make WordCamp better, and save a lot of cash, we have decided to donate our event manager plugin, Event Espresso, to every WordCamp site. We do not want to see all that money go toward just registration fees – we’d like to see WordCamp use that money to make it better or let us all keep the cash. We’re here to help you manager your events better, so if you’re in charge of planning or hosting a WordCamp, contact us to get your free event manager plugin.
You too should make more money from your events, or make them more affordable with Event Espresso.
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