How to Sell Tickets Online for an Event, on Your Own Website
Published · Comparisons
There are three ways to sell tickets on your own website. You can link from your site to an event page on a marketplace like Eventbrite or Posh, embed a ticketing tool like Eventbrite's embedded checkout or Ticket Tailor's widget in a site you already run, or use a website that sells tickets itself. All three charge something on every paid ticket, plus card processing, so the real choice is where the buyer pays, who keeps the buyer list, and how much work each event takes.
CloserAccess wrote this guide and is one of the options in it, as a website with ticketing built in. Every competitor price below comes from that company's own pages, checked November 9, 2026.
| Way to sell | Examples | Where the buyer pays | Fee per paid ticket (US) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Link to a marketplace page | Eventbrite, Posh | On Eventbrite's or Posh's page | Eventbrite 3.7% + $1.79, plus 2.9% processing; Posh 10% + $0.99 |
| Embed a ticketing tool | Eventbrite embedded checkout, Ticket Tailor | In a widget or window on your page | Eventbrite's fees still apply; Ticket Tailor $0.85, plus processing |
| A website with ticketing built in | CloserAccess | On your own site | Free to start; per-sale fee (rate not published), plus Square processing |
The three ways, in plain terms
Link to a marketplace page. You create the event on Eventbrite or Posh, and a "Get tickets" button on your site sends people there. It's the fastest start and the only route with a crowd of buyers built in: Eventbrite's pricing page describes a discovery marketplace that connects local buyers to your events, and Posh can show an event on its Explore feed and your organizer profile. The checkout, the receipt and the next event the buyer sees all belong to the marketplace.
Embed a ticketing tool. You paste the ticketing company's code into the website you already have. Eventbrite's embedded checkout shows tickets on your page or in a window over it. Ticket Tailor's box office widget lists your events as a list or a calendar. Posh's embeddable iframe lets buyers pick tickets on your page, then finish on Posh's hosted checkout.
A website with ticketing built in. The event page, checkout and buyer list are all part of your site. CloserAccess works this way. So do the big website builders: Wix charges a 2.5% ticket service fee, separate from processing, and Squarespace's help center sells events as service products next to a calendar page. Our guide to the best website builder for nightclubs compares the builders side by side.
What each way costs
No route makes paid tickets free. Card processing always applies, and so does some kind of platform fee.
Eventbrite. The US fee is 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket, plus 2.9% payment processing worked out on the whole order, service fee and tax included. Buyers pay it on top of your price by default, or you tick "Absorb fees" and it comes out of your sales. Free tickets cost nothing, and no monthly plan is required. Embedding the checkout on your site doesn't change the fee. On a $20 ticket it comes to $3.18, and Eventbrite fees explained shows the math.
Posh. Posh's own blog puts its fee at 10% + $0.99 per paid ticket, processing included, with a $0 subscription. We found no separate fee schedule, so confirm it when you sign up. The buyer sees one all-in price: your ticket price, any custom fees, and Posh's fee. Eventbrite vs Posh vs your own website compares the two at $10, $30 and $100.
Ticket Tailor. A flat fee per ticket, not a percentage. Its US pricing page lists $0.85 per paid ticket on pay as you go, or from $0.30 when you buy credits upfront. The first 5 tickets are free, free tickets cost nothing up to 5,000 a year, registered charities get 50% off, and there's no subscription. Processing is separate: you connect Stripe, PayPal or Square, and the page lists 2.9% + $0.30 as Stripe's example US rate. A $20 ticket on pay as you go costs $0.85 plus $0.88 at Stripe's example rate, $1.73 in all. You can add a booking fee to pass it on. To keep the checkout on your own address, Ticket Tailor's cost article lists a custom domain at $8 a month, or White label, which also removes its logo, at $49 a month.
A CloserAccess website. There are two ways in. You can build it yourself for free: no monthly fee, no setup cost and no card to start, with the site at yourname.closeraccess.com. A platform fee applies only when a customer pays you, at a rate CloserAccess doesn't publish (ask before you start), shown as its own line on each transaction. Or the CloserAccess team builds it as a Starter Website, Premium Website or Digital Master, at a fixed price quoted before any work starts, with the fee rate set in your quote. Cards run through your own Square account at Square's own rate, which CloserAccess doesn't mark up, and the money settles to that account. The fees page lists which sales carry the platform fee.
Plan for one difference. On CloserAccess the platform fee and Square's processing come out of your sale, and there's no setting to pass the platform fee to the buyer, so build it into your price. Because the rate isn't public, we can't put a number next to Eventbrite's $3.18. Ask for it, then run your own ticket price through each option.
Step by step: selling tickets on your own website
Step 1: Pick the setup
- A one-off event that strangers need to find: a marketplace page, linked from your site and socials.
- A website you already like, and a few events a year: embed Ticket Tailor or Eventbrite's checkout.
- The same nights every week, plus tables, birthdays and regulars: a website with ticketing built in, so every night, request and buyer sits in one place.
You can mix them. CloserAccess has an Eventbrite integration, so a night can also be listed on Eventbrite for reach while regulars buy from your own site.
Step 2: Build the event page
Every event page needs the name, date and door time, the address, the price and what it includes, any age rule, your refund policy, a flyer, and one clear buy button. Check it on a phone and keep the button near the top, because people who tap the link in your bio arrive on a phone.
If the night repeats, give it one page that lists the upcoming dates, so the same link works every week. On CloserAccess, a weekly night runs as an event series with one page of upcoming dates. Ticket Tailor uses recurring events, where each date is an "occurrence" sharing the event's details and ticket types.
Step 3: Set ticket types and limits
Before sales open, decide which tickets you sell (general admission, early bird, a group price, VIP), how many in total for your room, how many per buyer, when sales stop, and whether you'll sell at the door.
Eventbrite's pricing page lists multiple ticket types and waitlists. In Ticket Tailor's recurring events, the capacity you set applies to each date, and overrides let you edit dates, times and capacity later. Posh offers private ticket tiers and per-customer purchase limits.
Tables, birthdays and private bookings often work better as requests than as tickets, because the price depends on the date and the group. On a CloserAccess site they're booked as services, which can start as a request that gets a quote or take a deposit up front.
Keep free events free. Eventbrite charges nothing on free tickets, Ticket Tailor nothing on up to 5,000 a year, and CloserAccess's fee only applies when a customer pays you.
Step 4: Take payment
- Eventbrite collects the money, takes its fees and pays out three business days after the event ends, and a US bank may take 2-3 more.
- Posh pays out free in 3-5 business days by ACH. Instant payouts cost 5% and need $2,000 in total sales on Posh.
- Ticket Tailor doesn't touch the money. Sales land in your own Stripe, PayPal or Square account almost immediately, though reaching your bank can take about a week.
- CloserAccess takes cards through Square, with Apple Pay where the browser supports it. Money settles to your own Square account on Square's schedule.
Then decide who covers fees: the buyer by default on Eventbrite, a booking fee you add on Ticket Tailor, one all-in price on Posh, and your sale on CloserAccess.
Step 5: Check people in at the door
None of these needs a hardware scanner. Eventbrite's Organizer app has mobile check-in and can sell at the door for a $1 service fee per paid ticket plus 2.9% processing in the US, and that processing can't be passed to the buyer. Ticket Tailor has a free check-in app. On CloserAccess, each buyer's confirmation email carries a QR code, door staff scan it on a phone, and a door screen shows the night's bookings. Whichever you use, test a scan before doors open.
Step 6: Promote, and repeat for weekly nights
After the first night, the job is getting last week's crowd back.
- Use one link. Put your event page or your site's links page in your bio. Every CloserAccess site can have a links page at /links, on the same site as your tickets.
- Reach past buyers. On CloserAccess, ticket holders get automatic event reminders, and you can email your own customer list and export event bookings as a CSV. Posh's blog lists free unlimited SMS to past and present attendees among its promoter tools.
- Post dates early, so people can plan around them.
- Borrow reach when you need it. List a night on a marketplace for new faces, and send everyone who knows you to your own page.
For club nights, Eventbrite alternatives for nightclubs compares Eventbrite, Posh and DICE on fees, door entry and tables.
Honest trade-offs
Your own site has no built-in crowd. Eventbrite's marketplace and Posh's Explore feed reach people who've never heard of you. CloserAccess lists its businesses on its own discovery pages, with free promotion there on done-for-you packages, but that's a directory of businesses, not a feed of tonight's events.
Embedding needs a website and someone to paste code. Eventbrite's help article says embedded checkout needs your site's HTML and an HTTPS certificate, that Eventbrite can't help add the code, and that buyers are sent to your Eventbrite listing if the event stops qualifying. Ticket Tailor's checkout opens in a new window unless you connect a custom domain.
Who keeps the buyer. On your own site, buyers land in your customer list. Ticket Tailor says the same on its Eventbrite comparison page: your buyers are your customers, and it won't fill their inboxes with other events. On a marketplace, other organizers' events are a tap away.
CloserAccess's limits. No published fee rate, Square only (no PayPal), US dollars only, and no point-of-sale hardware, so door tools run in a phone browser. There's no drag-and-drop editor either: you edit pages through form fields with a live preview, and bigger design changes go to the team.
When a marketplace or a ticketing tool is the better choice
- Eventbrite suits occasional events that need new buyers, free events, which cost nothing there, and anyone who doesn't want to run a website.
- Posh suits nightlife promoters whose sales run through promoter teams, kickbacks and texts to past guests, and who want Posh's Explore feed.
- Ticket Tailor suits an organizer with a website they already like who wants a low flat fee per ticket and a choice of Stripe, PayPal or Square. Charities get half off.
- A website with ticketing built in suits a business with the same nights every week, table and birthday requests, and regulars it wants under its own name. If that's you, start a free site or ask for a quote.
Three CloserAccess businesses that run their events from their own sites
Klub Kingz is a New York party crew that hosts at partner venues. Its two weekly nights, Secret Garden Saturdays at VShow KTV in Queens and Soul Session Sundays at Essence LIC, each have their own page, with dates posted well into 2027 on the Klub Kingz events calendar. Because the crew moves between rooms, its site is where followers check where the party is this week. It also has a VIP table booking page and a birthday package.
Starlets is a 21+ venue in Woodside, Queens, with five named weekly nights, each on its own page with upcoming dates and that night's entry offer. Tables, birthday nights and buyouts start as requests on Starlets' booking page, where the form asks for the date, group size and a budget range, and the club answers with a quote.
Peace Foundation TT shows the free-event version. Its Walk for Peace events in Trinidad and Tobago are free, people can RSVP through its site to hear about the next one, and donations from $2 or any amount sit on Peace Foundation TT's ways to give, on the same site.
Frequently asked questions
Can I sell tickets on my own website without Eventbrite?
Yes. Embed a tool like Ticket Tailor's widget or Posh's iframe, or use a website with ticketing built in, such as CloserAccess, Wix or Squarespace. Each charges a fee or a plan price, plus card processing.
How much does it cost to sell tickets on your own website?
Eventbrite's embedded checkout carries its usual 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket, plus 2.9% processing on the order. Ticket Tailor charges $0.85 per ticket on pay as you go, plus your processor's fee. CloserAccess is free to start, with a per-sale platform fee at a rate it doesn't publish, plus Square's processing.
Can I sell tickets online for free?
Free tickets, yes: Eventbrite charges nothing on them, Ticket Tailor nothing on up to 5,000 a year, and CloserAccess's fee only applies when a customer pays you. Paid tickets always carry card processing plus a platform fee.
Do I need a scanner to check people in?
No. Eventbrite's Organizer app and Ticket Tailor's free check-in app run on a phone. On CloserAccess, door staff scan each ticket's QR code on a phone, and a door screen shows the night's bookings.
Can I sell on my own site and still list on Eventbrite?
Yes. CloserAccess has an Eventbrite integration, so a night can sit on Eventbrite for reach while regulars buy from your site. Ticket Tailor's pricing page also says you can use other ticketing companies alongside it.
What's the easiest way to sell tickets for a weekly party?
Give the night one page that lists its upcoming dates, so the same link works every week. Ticket Tailor does this with recurring events, and CloserAccess with event series on your own site.
Prices checked November 9, 2026, on each company's own pages. Plans and fees change, so check the linked pages before you decide.