The Best Eventbrite Alternatives for Nonprofits in 2026

If you run events for a nonprofit, you have probably watched Eventbrite quietly eat into your revenue. The fees look small on paper — until you do the math on a full event. This article breaks down what Eventbrite actually costs, what to look for in an alternative, and six platforms worth considering. We built one of them (CompleteEvent), so we are upfront about that bias, but we will give you honest numbers on all of them.

Why Nonprofits Are Leaving Eventbrite

Eventbrite charges 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket. On a $25 ticket, that comes out to roughly $2.72 in platform fees — before Stripe or any other payment processor takes its cut. Now multiply that across a real event.

Say you are hosting a fundraising dinner with 150 paid attendees at $25 per ticket. That is $3,750 in gross ticket revenue. Eventbrite takes approximately $408 in platform fees alone. Add Stripe processing (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) and you lose another ~$154. You are now down $562 before you have paid for the venue, the caterer, or the centerpieces.

For a nonprofit where every dollar counts, $408 in platform fees is not a rounding error — it is a line item that your board will ask about. And here is the part that really stings: those fees show up on the checkout page. Attendees see a $25 ticket become $27.72 at checkout, and some of them abandon the purchase. You lose revenue twice — once to the fee, and once to the friction it creates.

Eventbrite also pushes its own branding on your event page, encourages attendees to create Eventbrite accounts, and cross-promotes other events alongside yours. For an organization trying to build its own brand and donor relationships, that is counterproductive.

What to Look for in an Eventbrite Alternative

Before jumping to a list of tools, it helps to know what actually matters for nonprofit event management. Here is what to prioritize:

• No per-ticket platform fee, or a very low flat monthly fee. Per-ticket percentage fees scale against you. The more successful your event, the more you pay. A flat monthly fee or a small fixed per-ticket charge is far more predictable and budget-friendly.
• Registration, confirmation emails, and capacity management out of the box. You should not need to duct-tape together a form builder, an email service, and a spreadsheet. The platform should handle registration forms, send automatic confirmation emails, and enforce capacity limits without extra tools.
• Your brand on the event page, not the platform's. Your event page should look like it belongs to your organization. It should not be plastered with the platform's logo or filled with links to competing events.
• No forced attendee account creation. Requiring attendees to create an account on a third-party platform adds friction and drives drop-off. The best tools let people register with just their name and email.
• Support for both free and paid events. Many nonprofits run a mix — free community events, paid galas, ticketed workshops. Your platform should handle all of these without awkward workarounds or separate pricing tiers.

Six Eventbrite Alternatives for Nonprofits

1. CompleteEvent

Full disclosure: this is our platform. CompleteEvent offers a Free plan with 25 attendees and 1 event, a Starter plan at $15/mo with 100 attendees and unlimited events (1% platform fee on paid tickets), and a Pro plan at $39/mo with unlimited attendees and 0% platform fee. It was designed specifically for nonprofits and small organizations that need registration, confirmation emails, session scheduling, and call for abstracts — without attendee-facing fees. On the Starter plan, that same 150-attendee, $25-ticket event costs you $15/mo + $37.50 in platform fees (1% of $3,750) — compared to Eventbrite's $408. Sign up here to try the free plan.

2. Luma

Luma is free for events under 50 people and has strong social sharing and community-building features. It is a good choice for small community gatherings and recurring meetups. However, once you hit paid events or need larger capacity, pricing starts at $39+/mo plus a 3% platform fee that stacks on top of Stripe's 2.9% processing fee. That combined ~6% cut makes it expensive for larger paid events, but for small free events with a social component, it is genuinely good.

3. Ticket Tailor

Ticket Tailor is a UK-based platform that charges a flat £0.25 per ticket (roughly $0.30 USD) with no monthly fee and no attendee service fees — the per-ticket cost is absorbed by the organizer. This pay-as-you-go model works well for organizations that run events irregularly and do not want to commit to a subscription. For that same 150-ticket event, you would pay about $45 in platform fees — a fraction of Eventbrite's $408. The trade-off is that Ticket Tailor is limited in session scheduling and conference features, so it is better suited for straightforward ticketed events than multi-track conferences.

4. Wild Apricot

Wild Apricot is best for membership-based organizations that also run events. It combines membership management, a member directory, dues collection, and event registration into one platform, starting at $60/mo. If you manage an active membership base and want event registration tied to member records, it is a strong fit. If you just need event management without the membership layer, it is overkill and overpriced for what you get.

5. Tito

Tito has a clean, developer-friendly interface that is popular with tech conferences. It charges a 5% platform fee on paid tickets with no free tier for paid events. The product itself is well-designed and the check-in experience is smooth, but 5% is steep — on your 150-ticket event at $25 each, that is $187.50 in platform fees. Better than Eventbrite, but still a significant cut. Less suitable for budget-conscious nonprofits, more at home in the tech conference world.

6. Meetup

Meetup charges a flat $98–$198/yr with no payment processing built in. It is best for recurring free community meetups where the main value is audience discovery — people actively browse Meetup looking for things to attend, so it gives you built-in reach that other platforms do not. The interface feels dated and the organizer tools are basic. If your events are paid, you will need a separate ticketing tool. But for free, recurring community gatherings where discoverability matters, it still fills a niche.

Comparison Table

How to Choose

Rather than overthinking it, match your situation to the right tool:

• Running free events only, under 50 people: Luma or CompleteEvent Free. Both handle this well at no cost. Luma has stronger social features; CompleteEvent has more event management depth.
• Paid events, budget-conscious nonprofit: CompleteEvent Starter at $15/mo gives you unlimited events with a 1% platform fee. On a $3,750 event, that is $52.50 total (subscription + fee) versus Eventbrite's $408 in platform fees. The savings are real and compounding over multiple events per year.
• Membership organization that also runs events: Wild Apricot. The $60/mo is steep if you only need events, but if you are managing members, dues, and events together, it consolidates everything.
• Recurring free meetups where discoverability matters: Meetup. The flat annual fee is reasonable and the built-in audience discovery is something no other platform on this list offers.
• UK-based, prefer pay-as-you-go: Ticket Tailor. No monthly commitment, straightforward per-ticket pricing, and the fees stay on the organizer side so your attendees see a clean price.

The Bottom Line

Eventbrite built a strong marketplace for event discovery, and for large public events where that discovery matters, it can still make sense. But for nonprofits running their own events with their own audience — fundraisers, galas, workshops, conferences — the per-ticket fee model works against you. The alternatives listed here each solve that problem differently: flat monthly fees, low per-ticket charges, or percentage fees that are meaningfully lower than Eventbrite's.

We built CompleteEvent because we saw nonprofits and small organizations losing hundreds of dollars per event to platform fees they did not need to pay. If that sounds like your situation, create a free account and see if it fits. No credit card required, no time limit on the free plan. If one of the other tools on this list is a better match for your needs, use that instead — the important thing is that you stop overpaying.