Great for free events, but they hold funds for paid tickets
Updated September 03, 2021

Great for free events, but they hold funds for paid tickets

Mark Michelson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Eventbrite

We produce a weekly online show involving a fireside chat and networking. Eventbrite is great for creating a landing page and registration for this weekly show--and it's free. We also produce in-person events and have used Eventbrite in the past for our paid ticketing. However, now Eventbrite changed their payouts to only pay event producers after an event closes. Our monthly events are starting this fall. Unfortunately we had to find another ticketing platform for our paid in-person events because we can't sustain cash flow with Eventbrite holding our cash for six months or longer. And there's no interest on the cash Eventbrite holds. Each event has around $50k in ticket sales.
  • Creating landing pages that stand out and are trusted.
  • Communicating with attendees pre and post event.
  • The integration with Zoom is good, though there were some recent changes that have confused our attendees on our weekly virtual show.
  • Offering other options for merchant processing--Stripe, PayPal, Square, etc.
  • Hard to repurpose the weekly events for replay viewing. Have to copy the event and replace the online link with the video link to Youtube.
  • Represents our brand well. Like that there is an organizer profile.
  • Easy to use. Interface is very intuitive.
  • I like how it renders the images when shared on social.
  • Eventbrite is still holding our funds from 2019 for an event that was postponed.
  • My money is not working for me when it is sitting with Eventbrite. They only pay out a few weeks after an event. If you are producing an event where you have upfront costs, you have to pay all of those costs using funds other than ticket sales. Eventbrite does not offer any interest on the money they are holding, which in my case is a six-month lead time from start of ticket sales to end of event.
Eventbrite is excellent for free events and does a great job with virtual events. Eventbrite does not offer an alternative to merchant processing. Freshtix and Passage allow me to use our own merchant processing systems. With Eventbrite, you have to use their processor and they hold all money until two to three weeks after an event. We used to receive daily payouts.

Do you think Eventbrite delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Eventbrite's feature set?

Yes

Did Eventbrite live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Eventbrite go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Eventbrite again?

Yes

Whova, Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Zoom
Easy to use, free for online events. Great platform--trusted by many.

Not as good for paid events anymore since they changed their payout policy.

Using Eventbrite

4 - Marketing, Production, Social Media and Accounting
4 - Must be familiar with ticketing platforms and uses. We have our marketing team overseeing most of our Eventbrite postings. We also link Eventbrite to MailChimp and Whova so we can tell who has signed up for various events. Basic level of skill needed including use of web platforms, filling in forms, copywriting.
  • Registration for our free weekly virtual show
  • Ticketing sales for our in-person events
  • Promotions of previous event revordings
  • Virtual show hosting for free
  • Building our mailing list
  • Scheduling larger meetings, not just events
  • Building mailing lists
  • Creating workshops and training events
Excellent platform and easy to use to create events. Eventbrite sets the standard for simple, effective and safe ticketing platforms. Our customers trust Eventbrite and we've always done well when we use this platform for ticketing. They have recently updated some of the virtual connectivity tools which make it even easier to set up and promote virtual events.

Evaluating Eventbrite and Competitors

Yes - We were using a local ticketing platform that was designed for concerts. Not as flexible as Eventbrite for setting up meetings and virtual events. We needed a platform that rendered our events better on social sharing links and provided a good image for our events and brand. I also like the organizer page where our customers/attendees can see more info about the organizer.
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Prior Experience with the Product
The platform has to be easy to use for all of our staff. Updates and changes happen fairly frequently these days, so we needed something flexible and with good payout terms. Early on during the pandemic, Eventbrite held all funds until after an event. Just recently (within the past 2 months) they have moved back to allowing weekly payouts up to 80% in advance. It's critical to have cash flow, but also to ensure our audiences that they can get refunds if we need to postpone (again)
There are a lot of features Eventbrite doesn't have such as countdown clocks.

I'm not as concerned about price because we pass on fees to our ticket buyers. Our ticket agerages are higher than most events, with roughly $500 per ticket. Eventbrite was able to provide a contract to cap the fees, which is nice and expected with high ticket costs like ours.

Eventbrite Support

Eventbrite has improved their customer support recently. They've made a big effort to reconnect with customers since last year. When Covid hit, they pivoted quickly into virtual and made free registration possible for virtual meetings. Before Covid it was hard to reach anyone for support, but now I can tell they have people connecting with customers once again. It's interesting because they have specialists who focus only on one area of the platform, such as marketing or payments. The specialists can't help with areas outside their expertise, but they are good at helping customers understand how to use the platform for specific functions.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
I have a premium account with Eventbrite. It offers "Tailored partnership and unlimited product usage for growing and operating large and complex events." I produce weekly virtual shows and use Eventbrite for free registration. Haven't had to contact customer support for the free events. Also produce monthly in-person meetings, which were scheduled for this fall but now rescheduled for spring due to covid. Was easy enough to change the dates on Eventbrite that I didn't need support. One area I might get in touch with them about is ease of logging into the event via their platform. I have had some complaints from attendees that accessing the meetings are difficult in the Zoom integration. They made some updates to this recently which are supposed to improve this by allowing attendees to connect directly to Zoom.

I haven't had to ask for any help, but I am looking at streamlining the process for registration and promotions of our weekly shows.



Eventbrite contacted me this summer to let me know they were offering advance payouts again. When Covid hit and everything shut down in the event industry, Eventbrite made a decision to hold all payments until after an event ended. As a producer of events with average ticket price of $500, this really hurt cash flow, as we have huge expenses before the event such as venue rental, video crews, our event platform, etc.. I refunded all tickets last year when we had to postpone all of our events. Last year and this year have sucked for event producers like me. No one wants to pay for virtual conferences or meetings. The decision by Eventbrite at the time caused me to search for other ticketing platforms that offered advance payouts.

I was skeptical at first when an Eventbrite commercial manager reached out to me to set up a zoom meeting. She was very personable and clearly understood my situation. I was delighted to hear they had changed their policy to allow up to 80% advance payments, with weekly payouts. They sent a new agreement which I was happy to sign. Hopeful that we can continue on schedule with our in-person meetings in spring 2022. Counting on Eventbrite for our main revenue stream. For now, focused on setting up sponsors.

Using Eventbrite

Eventbrite is very easy to use. I can set up an event in about 10 minutes. It's also helpful to be able to copy previous events which have customized registration forms that are integrated with MailChimp and Whova, our event app/hybrid platform.

I love how URL's from Eventbrite render in social media. Very clear hero images with easy one click access to registration pages. Most importantly, I think it's one of the most trusted ticketing platforms available.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Setting up events
  • App integrations with Zoom, MailChimp and Whova
  • I love how the background automatically takes the color scheme from our hero/brand images
  • Setting up notification emails after a ticket is purchased
  • Setting up replays of events. We have weekly shows and I want to have registration for attendees so we can keep them in the loop. We record every show and post it on YouTube. Can't keep the original link to the Zoom recording because of storage, and the vent on Zoom ended. Was using Eventbrite to promote the replays for a few months but it was fairly time consuming. Would be great if I could repurpose an event that ended as a replay instead of having to copy the event and set it up with the link to the video on YouTube.
  • Viewing attendee lists in one screen
Yes - Great. I love seeing those ticket sales coming in when I'm out of the office. Also can manage checkins on site using the organizer app and QR codes.

They have 2 apps, one for organizers and one for attendees. Both are exceptionally easy to use. The organizer app has dashboard reporting optimized for mobile so I can monitor sales from anywhere.