0% Commission Ticketing: How Can It Be Free?

“Free ticketing” and “0% commission” sound too good to be true — so how does it actually work, and where’s the catch? Here’s a straight answer.

The three costs of selling a ticket

Every paid ticket can carry three separate costs:

• Platform / booking fee — the ticketing company’s cut. This is what “0% commission” removes.
• Card processing — what Stripe (or similar) charges to take the payment, around 1.5% + 20p in the UK. Unavoidable on paid tickets.
• Subscription — a monthly fee some platforms charge regardless of sales.

A zero-commission platform charges £0 for the first and third, and passes the second through at cost.

So how do free platforms make money?

• Buyer-side booking fees — “free to organisers”, but the fee is added to your buyers’ total.
• Subscriptions or upgrades — a free tier that nudges you towards a paid plan.
• Advertising — the platform is funded by ads rather than fees. Ticketable works this way: a small, tasteful sponsor presence (for example on the printable ticket) funds the platform, so organisers and buyers pay no platform fee.

The catch to watch for

The single thing to check is who really pays. “Free” that simply moves the fee onto your buyers still raises your effective ticket price. Genuinely free means no platform fee for either side. It’s also worth checking whether the platform holds your money (paying out after the event) or lets you use your own Stripe (paid directly, daily).

How Ticketable does it

Ticketable charges a 0% platform fee, passes Stripe through at cost, runs on your own Stripe account with daily payouts, and is funded by light advertising — not by charging organisers. See the best free ticketing platforms in the UK for how that compares, or how ticketing fees actually work.

Frequently asked questions