Quick summary
Selling your own tickets means you run the ticket shop under your brand, instead of listing events on a marketplace. You keep attendee data, set prices yourself and typically pay the payment fee only, not a marketplace commission.
- Control: attendee data stays with you, for newsletters, repeat buyers and later events.
- Cost: no extra 5-10% marketplace cut, mainly the payment processing fee.
- Brand: the shop feels like part of your website, not a third-party platform.
- Stack: ticket creation, checkout, check-in and payout belong in one system, not a spreadsheet plus PayPal link.
Platform, fee and payout comparison: Sell tickets online. Product pages: Orbance ticket shop and pricing. If you want to leave the marketplace model: Eventbrite alternative.
Why sell your own tickets online?
Many organizers start on well-known ticket marketplaces because onboarding is fast. The trade-off: high per-ticket fees, competing events shown next to yours, and attendee data that is only shared in part.
If you sell tickets online through your own shop, three things change:
- Attendee data stays with you. Names, emails and purchase history matter for follow-up, newsletters and the next event. A marketplace often hands you only a slice of that.
- Fees become predictable. The referral commission disappears. What remains are payment fees and, depending on the tool, a subscription or a small platform fee. See the pricing page.
- The shop carries your brand. Logo, colors, legal notice and terms sit on your surface. Buyers do not land on a foreign platform that advertises the next event beside yours.
That is enough for workshops, conferences, association events and B2B formats. Marketplace reach only matters if you actively want new audiences from the platform itself.
What you need before sales start
Before you can sell your own tickets online, three pieces should be in place. Without them the shop turns into patchwork.
Technical foundation
You need software that covers ticket creation, payment, confirmation, check-in and payout. Spreadsheets and PayPal links do not scale: capacity, refunds and GDPR become error sources. A dedicated ticket shop keeps that in one workflow.
Compliant checkout
In Germany that usually means: GDPR-compliant processing, legal notice, privacy policy, terms for cancellation and refunds, and correct invoicing with VAT. Paid distance-selling tickets often also need a withdrawal notice. Orbance provides shop templates with placeholders: you fill in your details or upload your own texts.
A channel that actually sends buyers to the shop
The best shop is useless if nobody sees the link. Typical channels: your website, newsletter, social, partners and an article like this. Every mention should go straight to the shop, not to a contact form.
Sell your own tickets online: how to proceed
1. Create the event page
Add title, date, venue, description and price tiers, for example early bird, standard, door. A clear price per category cuts pre-sale questions. Sales start, sales end and capacity per tier belong here, otherwise you will edit prices by hand later. More on the model: Event pricing tiers.
2. Choose payment methods
Cover card, SEPA and common wallets. Fewer clicks to purchase means fewer abandoned checkouts. In Orbance you connect Stripe and/or PayPal: you do not store card data yourself.
3. Embed or share the ticket shop
You can embed the shop as a widget on your website or share a dedicated link that works in email and social posts. From the Space plan you can also use a custom domain. The purchase path stays with you, not on a third-party marketplace.
4. Prepare check-in
For the door, a scanner app that checks QR codes against double use is usually enough. Without it you get queues and arguments over printed lists. In Orbance you scan tickets live against the guest list.
5. Payout and reporting
After the event you should see how many tickets sold per category and when payout lands. Without those numbers, post-event accounting is a guess.
Compare models, fees and payouts in Sell tickets online.
Sell your own tickets without marketplace fees
“Sell tickets with no fees” is a common search. The realistic expectation: payment providers (card, SEPA) almost always charge a transaction fee. That is hard to avoid technically.
The real lever is elsewhere. Classic ticket marketplaces often take an extra 5-10% referral fee on top of the payment fee. If you sell event tickets directly from your own website, you skip that commission. What remains is payment processing, plus a subscription or a transparent platform fee depending on the tool.
Orbance shows subscription and platform fee openly on the pricing page: Free plan to start, lower fee on higher plans. No listing next to competing events.
Mistakes that get expensive in pre-sales
- No pricing tiers: without early bird or capacity steps you often leave money on the table early. See Early bird pricing for events.
- Unclear cancellation terms: that creates support load and lost trust. Link terms directly on the ticket page.
- Checkout that breaks on phones: most ticket purchases happen on mobile. A form with too many required fields costs sales immediately.
- No data export: attendee lists must be exportable at any time, for door, catering or follow-up.
- No test booking: buy once yourself before launch and check email plus ticket. Otherwise you notice errors when real guests pay.
FAQ: selling your own tickets
How do I sell my own tickets?
Create the event, set ticket types and prices, connect payments, add legal pages, then share the shop on your website or via a link. Platforms like Orbance combine shop, payments, bookings and check-in so you do not assemble that from separate tools.
Can I sell tickets online without a third-party marketplace?
Yes. You still need a technical provider for checkout and payments, but not a marketplace that lists your event and takes a commission. The difference: the shop runs under your brand and attendee data stays with you. More in the ticket shop.
What does “sell your own tickets online” mean in practice?
Visitors choose ticket type and quantity, pay and receive confirmation plus e-ticket immediately. You see bookings live, control capacity and check in with QR codes on event day. The shop lives on your website or your URL, not on a foreign marketplace.
What fees apply if I sell event tickets myself?
Payment providers charge transaction fees. On top, the tool may add a subscription or platform fee. The expensive marketplace commission disappears. Orbance shows both on pricing.
What legal pages does my own ticket shop need?
Legal notice, privacy policy, terms for cancellation and liability, and for paid tickets often a withdrawal notice plus correct invoices. You remain the controller under GDPR, the platform is the processor. Orbance hosts data in Germany and provides a DPA plus text templates.
Next step: a ticket shop under your brand
Selling your own tickets is not more work than using a large platform. With the right software the process is just as automated: only with more control over prices, brand and the customer relationship. If you run events regularly, you feel that in the margin and in the guest list that is already there next time.
Start free → · See the ticket shop → · Plans & pricing → · Sell tickets online →