Best Online Ticket Sales Software for UK Charities (2026)

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If you sold 250 tickets at £40 to your last gala, you raised £10,000 on paper. On Eventbrite, you kept considerably less once you factor in plan fees, per-ticket service charges, and card processing. That gap, paid by your attendees or absorbed by your charity, is not a rounding error. It is a term of after-school club, a fortnight of foodbank stock, or a part-time coordinator's monthly hours.

Most platforms marketed as "charity ticketing" are general-purpose event tools with a charitable-status discount bolted on. They charge the same fee structure to a 250-person fundraiser gala as they do to a commercial events company. Zeffy's free UK charity ticketing platform is the only tool on this list built specifically for charities where the real fee is £0: no platform fee, no transaction fee, no card processing fee. The platform is funded by optional donor contributions at checkout, not by taking a slice of every ticket you sell. Over 100,000 charities and community groups have raised more than £2 billion on Zeffy.

This guide compares the best charity ticketing platforms in the UK by total fee load, Gift Aid handling, volunteer-friendly setup, event-type breadth, and pricing transparency. You will see what each platform costs on a £10,000 event, who it is built for, and where the trade-offs land.

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In this article:

• Compare UK charity ticketing platforms at a glance

• Zeffy: the only 100% free ticketing platform for UK charities

• Eventbrite: large audience reach, but fees add up fast

• Ticket Tailor: flat-rate UK-founded B Corp

• TicketSource: zero organiser fee, buyer-facing booking fee

• Eventcube: white-label first, London-based

• The other UK contenders: TryBooking, Skiddle, Tito, GalaBid, Givergy

• Why ticketing fees hit small UK charities hardest

• Match the ticketing platform to your event type

• 5 features every volunteer-run UK charity needs in ticketing software

• What small UK charities told us about ticketing costs

• How we evaluated these UK charity ticketing platforms

• Zeffy is the best online ticket sales platform for UK charities (100% free)

• Frequently asked questions

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Compare UK charity ticketing platforms at a glance

Estimated total fees are based on each platform's published 2026 pricing for a £10,000 event (250 tickets at £40). Figures are rounded to the nearest £25 where possible and include both organiser-paid and attendee-paid charges.

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Zeffy: the only 100% free ticketing platform for UK charities

Zeffy is the only zero-fee ticketing platform built specifically for charities and not-for-profit organisations. A £100 ticket on Zeffy is £100 to your mission. The platform is funded by optional donor contributions at checkout: donors, not charities, cover the running costs. Zeffy never charges your charity a surprise fee if a donor declines that contribution. Read how Zeffy stays 100% free.

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Why Zeffy works for small and volunteer-run UK charities

• Keep 100% of every ticket: no platform fee, no transaction fee, no card processing fee

• Online and in-person sales with Tap-to-Pay for in-person events, Apple Pay, and Google Pay

• QR code check-in via mobile app: no card reader required, any volunteer can run the door

• Unlimited ticket types (VIP, early bird, table seating, pay-what-you-can, free RSVP)

• Gift Aid declaration capture at checkout: donors can add a voluntary donation top-up with a compliant declaration so your charity can reclaim 25p per £1 from HMRC (HMRC Gift Aid guidance)

• Supporter management built in: ticket buyers can become ongoing supporters in one place, with no contact-count cap

• Raffles, silent auctions, peer-to-peer fundraising, shop, and memberships all in the same login

• Aligns with the Fundraising Regulator's Code of Fundraising Practice (current version effective 1 November 2025, including Section 9 on online platforms) and UK GDPR under the Data Protection Act 2018

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Eventbrite: large audience reach, but fees add up fast

Eventbrite is the best-known general-purpose ticketing platform in the UK, with a marketplace that helps events get discovered by attendees outside your existing list. It is polished and well-documented. From September 2023, paid events require a paid plan (Flex at £7.99 per event or Pro from £19 per month); free events with more than 25 attendees also now require a paid plan. On top of the plan cost, attendees pay a service fee and the charity pays card processing on every order.

For a UK Fundraising Manager at a small charity, Eventbrite still earns its place when you genuinely need the discovery marketplace for a public-facing event. On a £10 fete ticket or a community fundraiser, the per-ticket cost eats margin you cannot afford to lose. Pull full UK fee details from the Zeffy vs Eventbrite compare page.

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Pros

• Easy checkout and well-designed organiser tools

• Built-in attendee discovery marketplace (genuine audience reach for public-facing events)

• Real-time sales monitoring and analytics

• Eventbrite Organiser app supports QR code check-in

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Cons

• Highest fee load of any platform on this list for a typical small-charity event

• Paid plan required even for free events above 25 attendees (since September 2023)

• No Gift Aid declaration capture

• No built-in supporter management

• No native auctions, raffles, peer-to-peer fundraising, or donation forms

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Cost on a £10,000 event (250 tickets at £40)

Estimated at approximately £900 to £1,000 based on Eventbrite's published 2026 UK pricing (rounded to the nearest £25), combining organiser plan cost, attendee service fees, and card processing. Whether absorbed by attendees or your charity, that is money not going to your mission.

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Ticket Tailor: flat-rate UK-founded B Corp

Ticket Tailor is a UK-founded, B Corp certified, bootstrapped company and the Eventbrite alternative most often recommended by independent UK event organisers. Rather than charging a percentage, it charges a flat fee per ticket, which on events priced above £10 works out significantly cheaper than Eventbrite. Direct Stripe or PayPal payouts mean your charity receives funds immediately rather than waiting for a platform settlement window.

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Pros

• Flat fee per ticket (not a percentage): as low as £0.22 on pre-purchased credits

• 50% charity discount; 50% discount on tickets priced below £5

• Free events with fewer than 2,000 tickets per year are free

• Direct Stripe or PayPal payouts: funds reach your account immediately

• No monthly subscription required on the pay-as-you-go plan

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Cons

• No Gift Aid declaration capture

• No built-in donation forms, auctions, raffles, or peer-to-peer fundraising

• Relatively higher cost on very low-priced tickets (the flat fee is a larger proportion of a £2 ticket)

• Limited discovery marketplace: you bring your own audience

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Cost on a £10,000 event (250 tickets at £40)

Estimated at approximately £200 to £350 based on Ticket Tailor's published 2026 pricing (rounded to the nearest £25): flat per-ticket fee (£0.22 to £0.60 depending on plan) plus Stripe card processing. On events priced above £10, this is the clearest UK runner-up if you are not using Zeffy.

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TicketSource: zero organiser fee, buyer-facing booking fee

TicketSource is a Welsh-based ticketing platform that charges organisers nothing. It has won the STAR Outstanding Customer Service Award twice and offers UK-based human telephone support, which many volunteer-run charities find reassuring. Rather than charging the organiser, TicketSource adds a scaling booking fee visible to the buyer at checkout (approximately 10% on lower-priced tickets, reducing on higher prices). A Stripe direct-payout option lets the charity receive funds quickly.

Re-verify current pricing at ticketsource.co.uk/pricing before committing, as the buyer-facing fee percentage can change.

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Pros

• 0% organiser fee: your charity pays nothing in platform fees

• UK-based human telephone support

• Charity discount available

• Stripe direct-payout option

• Works particularly well for community theatre, amateur dramatics, church concerts, and school events

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Cons

• Buyer-facing booking fee adds to the checkout total, which can reduce conversions on price-sensitive audiences

• No Gift Aid declaration capture

• Limited fundraising features beyond ticketing: no auctions, raffles, or peer-to-peer fundraising

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Cost on a £10,000 event (250 tickets at £40)

£0 to the organiser. Buyers pay a booking fee visible at checkout (approximately 10% on lower-priced tickets). On a £40 ticket, attendees may see a total of approximately £44. Whether your audience accepts that depends on how much they care about the cause. For events where supporters are already committed (church concerts, school plays, fundraising dinners), this converts well. For price-sensitive public events, the visible surcharge can drag.

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Eventcube: white-label first, London-based

Eventcube is a London-based ticketing platform built around white-label event pages: your charity's branding is front-and-centre at checkout, not Eventcube's. The Liberal Democrats use Eventcube as their official events platform. The Starter tier charges 5% per transaction with no monthly fee; the Pro tier costs £99 per month with a 3% transaction fee, plus Stripe processing on both tiers.

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Pros

• White-label event pages: your charity's brand throughout the checkout journey

• Starter tier has no monthly subscription (5% per transaction only)

• Supports in-person, online, and hybrid events

• Streaming and virtual event tools at higher tiers

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Cons

• 5% transaction fee (Starter) is higher than Ticket Tailor for most price points

• Pro tier (£99 per month plus 3%) only justifies itself above approximately £10,000 in annual ticket revenue

• No Gift Aid declaration capture

• No built-in fundraising surfaces: no donations, auctions, or raffles

• Not designed for quick volunteer setup

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Cost on a £10,000 event (250 tickets at £40)

Estimated at approximately £500 on the Starter tier (5% of £10,000), plus Stripe card processing (1.5% plus 20p per transaction). On the Pro tier, you would break even at roughly £5,000 per month in ticket sales before the subscription pays for itself. For a single annual gala, Eventcube costs more than Ticket Tailor and far more than Zeffy.

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The other UK contenders: TryBooking, Skiddle, Tito, GalaBid, Givergy

TryBooking UK

TryBooking charges 5% plus £0.15 per paid ticket with no monthly subscription; free events are free. The platform includes a free tap-to-pay mobile box-office app for in-person door sales, which is a genuine differentiator for fetes and community events where cash is in decline. Particularly popular with PTAs, schools, and community groups that run a mix of free and paid events. Estimated fee on a £10,000 event: approximately £525 to £550 (based on published 2026 pricing, rounded to the nearest £25).

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Skiddle

Skiddle charges approximately 10% plus 25p per ticket (buyer-facing). Its real value comes from a discovery network built around nightlife, music, and festivals. It is only worth the fee if your fundraiser is a genuinely discovery-led club night or festival-style event. For a PTA quiz night or a village hall Christmas dinner, the audience is wrong and the fee is high. Estimated fee on a £10,000 event: approximately £1,025 (absorbed across attendees).

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Tito

Tito is Ireland-based but widely used in the UK for B2B conference and developer-event ticketing. Charities and not-for-profit organisations pay 2.5% with no monthly subscription and a per-ticket cap (approximately €25 per ticket). A good fit for conference-style fundraising events or sector summits. Estimated fee on a £10,000 event: approximately £250 (based on published 2026 pricing, rounded to the nearest £25). Limited fundraising features outside ticketing.

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GalaBid

GalaBid combines silent auctions, raffles, ticketing, and donations in one mobile-bidding platform, with tiered pricing and a donor-covered fee option. It has over ten years of UK and international track record at gala dinners, golf days, and school fundraisers. The platform excels when the auction is the primary revenue engine and ticketing is secondary. Pull full fee details from the Zeffy vs GalaBid compare page. Estimated fee on a £10,000 event: variable by tier and whether the donor-covered model applies.

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Givergy

Givergy is UK-built and runs a "Keep it FREE" initiative: the platform charges UK charities nothing, funding itself through an optional donor-covered fee at checkout. Award-winning UK gala presence. Like GalaBid, Givergy is an auction-and-event tool rather than a general-purpose ticketing platform. Use it when a gala silent auction is the heart of your event, not for a fete, sponsored run, or quiz night.

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Why ticketing fees hit small UK charities hardest

A 3% to 8% fee on a large commercial event is a rounding error in a seven-figure budget. The same 3% to 8% on a £10,000 PTA summer fete or village hall Christmas dinner is the difference between funding another term of after-school club and cancelling it. Every 3% in fees is real money that never reaches the cause.

Here is the maths most ticketing platforms do not put on their pricing page. Say you sell 250 tickets at £40 to a community fundraiser:

• Gross raised: £10,000

• Eventbrite total fees (Flex or Pro plan plus attendee service fee plus card processing, based on Eventbrite's published 2026 UK pricing): approximately £900 to £1,000

• Ticket Tailor total fees (flat per-ticket rate plus Stripe processing, based on published 2026 pricing): approximately £200 to £350

• TicketSource: £0 to the organiser (buyer absorbs booking fee at checkout)

• Zeffy total fees: £0

The fee load is real money, derived directly from each platform's published fee schedule, and it compounds across every event you run each year.

There is a second layer of cost that most comparisons overlook. Direct Debit accounts for roughly 31% of all UK charity donations (via GoCardless and Bacs processing). Any ticketing platform that captures a donation add-on at checkout should support Direct Debit alongside card payments. And UK charities typically pay for 3 to 5 separate tools to cover fetes, autumn appeals, Christmas raffles, and sponsored runs: Eventbrite for tickets, JustGiving for donations, a separate raffle tool, a spreadsheet for volunteers. Consolidating to one free platform removes not just the per-ticket fee, but the monthly subscription stack.

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Match the ticketing platform to your event type

The right ticketing platform depends entirely on the event you are running. Here is how to match the tool to the use case.

• Gala dinners with table seating and silent auctions: Zeffy (unlimited ticket types including tables and VIP, donation upsells at checkout, Gift Aid declaration capture on any donation top-up) or GalaBid and Givergy if the auction is the primary revenue engine.

• Sponsored runs, walks, and challenge events: Zeffy for any event outside the TCS London Marathon or Great Run series. Those flagship events require Enthuse, which holds the official partnership until 2034 and is effectively mandatory if your charity holds those places. For your own community 5K or charity walk, Zeffy handles ticketing plus built-in peer-to-peer fundraising in one login.

• Village fetes, school summer fairs, and community carnivals: Zeffy (free ticketing plus Tap-to-Pay on a phone for on-site walk-ups) or TryBooking specifically for PTAs and schools that want the free tap-to-pay app included.

• Christmas raffles and small society lotteries: Zeffy (integrated raffle handling). Any UK charity selling raffle tickets in advance must register a small society lottery with the local council under the Gambling Act 2005 (Gambling Commission guidance). Registration costs £40 initially and £20 on annual renewal. Key limits: £20,000 in ticket sales per single draw; £250,000 annual aggregate across all lotteries; at least 20% of proceeds to the good cause; maximum single prize of £25,000. An incidental non-commercial lottery where tickets are sold and drawn at the same event needs no registration. Eventbrite, Ticket Tailor, and TicketSource do not handle small society lottery compliance; Zeffy is built for this use case.

• Church concerts, amateur dramatics, and community theatre: TicketSource (zero organiser fee, familiar to church and theatre audiences, strong UK telephone support) or Zeffy.

• Multi-day conferences and sector summits: Tito or Eventcube. Zeffy is built for fundraising events, not multi-track virtual conference platforms; use a dedicated conference tool for complex multi-day programming.

• Museum and gallery timed entry: This is not Zeffy's primary use case. A US-based specialist such as SimpleTix handles timed entry and season passes, though it falls outside this UK comparison.

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5 features every volunteer-run UK charity needs in ticketing software

When your team is made up of volunteers, trustees, or a one-person staff member juggling outreach and event planning, the ticketing platform has to do most of the heavy lifting. Here is what to insist on.

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£0 in platform and processing fees

Most platforms take 3% to 8% of ticket revenue in fees. On a £10,000 event, that is £300 to £800 out of your programme budget. Choose ticketing software that charges £0 so every ticket sale goes to your mission. Zeffy is the only platform on this list where £0 is the real cost, not a headline rate with asterisks.

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QR code check-in via mobile app

Long check-in queues frustrate supporters and overwhelm volunteers stuck with paper lists. Look for QR code scanning that lets any volunteer check guests in instantly from their smartphone: no training, no card reader, no dedicated check-in station. Zeffy includes this built into the mobile app at no cost.

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Tap-to-Pay on a phone for day-of sales

Walk-up attendees and at-the-door upgrades are where small events leave money on the table. The right platform lets volunteers take card payments using just their phone: no hardware POS, no card reader to buy or charge. Zeffy includes Tap-to-Pay on your phone for in-person events, plus Apple Pay and Google Pay, at no extra cost.

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Gift Aid declaration capture and supporter management

Manually chasing Gift Aid declarations after every event and maintaining a supporter list in a spreadsheet is a weekends-and-evenings task volunteers should not face alone. Choose software that captures a compliant Gift Aid declaration at checkout (donor full name, home address, charity name, and taxpayer confirmation) and stores every ticket buyer in a searchable supporter record for later submission via HMRC Charities Online (HMRC Gift Aid guidance).

One detail many small charities get wrong: Gift Aid cannot be claimed on the ticket price itself, because the buyer receives a benefit (the event admission). It can only be claimed on any voluntary donation the buyer adds at checkout. A good platform makes this distinction clear in the checkout flow and captures the declaration only against the donation portion. Your charity must also be HMRC-recognised (a separate registration from your Charity Commission registration; HMRC issues a Charities Reference Number). Declarations must be kept for at least 6 years after the last donation they cover.

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Unlimited ticket types, discounts, and group sales

Galas need table seating. Walkathons need team registration. Membership events need free RSVP tickets alongside paid ones. Look for a platform that supports unlimited ticket types (VIP, early bird, group, complimentary sponsor, pay-what-you-can) without charging extra per type. Zeffy includes this with no upgrade fees.

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What small UK charities told us about ticketing costs

The following themes come directly from interviews with real UK charity and community-group fundraisers. No case studies have been fabricated.

Per-ticket fees price small charities out. A fundraiser at a UK village hall told us: "All of these platforms apart from Zeffy charge an overhead per ticket, which would probably make them too expensive for us." That friction is the defining reason small organisations running fetes and quiz nights abandon general ticketing tools: on a £5 ticket, a 10% booking fee is 50p the cause never sees.

Gift Aid is a survival mechanism. A UK charity director explained: "Every pound that you donate, we get twenty-five pence back. Charities love that, and actually they survive on that." Any ticketing platform that cannot capture a Gift Aid declaration on a donation top-up at checkout is leaving real money on the table at every ticketed event.

Transparency about fees matters as much as the fee level itself. A UK fundraising manager noted that supporters were concerned that platform charges had been "added without their knowledge." The most effective model for UK charities is one that is transparent to both the charity and the supporter: when a donor sees clearly that an optional £5 contribution on top of their £50 ticket goes to platform costs, it converts better and generates far less complaint than a hidden service fee buried in the checkout total.

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How we evaluated these UK charity ticketing platforms

We scored each platform on five criteria that matter most to volunteer-run and small-staff UK charities.

• Total fee load on a £10,000 event (250 tickets at £40): derived from each platform's published 2026 fee schedule, not vendor marketing. Figures rounded to the nearest £25.

• Charity-native features: Gift Aid declaration capture at checkout; supporter management; regular-giving support via Direct Debit or card; UK GDPR compliance under the Data Protection Act 2018; alignment with the Fundraising Regulator Code of Fundraising Practice (current version effective 1 November 2025, including Section 9 on online platforms).

• Volunteer and at-the-door usability: Tap-to-Pay on a phone, QR code check-in, setup under 30 minutes, no training required.

• Event-type breadth: paid tickets, free RSVPs, auctions, raffles, peer-to-peer fundraising, and recurring memberships in one login.

• Pricing transparency: public published pricing versus demo-gated custom quotes.

Where a platform offers a "charity discount", we tested whether that discount actually changes the maths on a £10,000 event or merely shaves a few pounds off an enterprise price point.

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Zeffy is the best online ticket sales platform for UK charities (100% free)

Small UK charities are too often forced to choose between tools that are affordable and tools that actually work. Most ticketing platforms eat into fundraising totals with per-ticket fees, processing costs, or required upgrades, and those that do not tend to be enterprise-priced, demo-gated, or too narrow for a community gala.

Zeffy is the only zero-fee ticketing and donation platform built specifically for charities, with no hidden costs, ever. Over 100,000 charities and community groups have raised more than £2 billion on Zeffy across galas, fetes, auctions, raffles, festivals, and recurring member events, without sacrificing any of the money they worked to raise. Eventbrite costs approximately £900 to £1,000 on a £10,000 event. Zeffy: £0, the same ticketing tools, no fees. Find out more about how a no-fee fundraising platform changes the maths on every event you run.

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Frequently asked questions

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