Eventbrite charges 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket on their Flex plan. Sell a $50 ticket and they take $3.64. Sell 1,000 of those and you've handed over $3,640 just for the privilege of using their checkout page.
Ticketmaster is worse. Universe, Humanitix — they all take their cut too.
If you already have a WooCommerce store with Stripe or PayPal connected, you already have payments, customer accounts, order management, and email notifications. The only thing missing is the event layer — dates, venues, check-in, and PDF tickets with QR codes.
We build WordPress plugins, so we spend a lot of time testing what's out there. We set up a staging site and installed every major WooCommerce event ticketing plugin we could find — created test events, ran tickets through checkout, scanned QR codes from a phone.
Here's what we found.
What Eventbrite Actually Costs You
The per-ticket fees are just the beginning. Here's what you're really giving up when you use a third-party ticketing platform:
Money. Eventbrite's pricing ranges from 3.7% + $1.79 per ticket (Flex plan) to 6.95% + $1.79 (Pro plan). For free events, they now charge organisers too. The math gets uncomfortable fast:
| Scenario | Eventbrite Fees | Self-Hosted Plugin Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 200 tickets at $25 | ~$1,098 | $49–69/year |
| 500 tickets at $50 | ~$2,745 | $49–69/year |
| 1,000 tickets at $50 | ~$5,490 | $49–69/year |
| 2,000 tickets at $100 | ~$10,980 | $49–69/year |
Brand presence. Your event page lives on eventbrite.com with Eventbrite's branding, their upsells, and their recommendations for competing events. Every ticket sale builds their brand, not yours.
SEO value. When someone searches for your event, Eventbrite's domain gets the ranking authority. Your own website gets nothing.
For a one-off charity gala, Eventbrite is probably fine — the convenience is worth the fee. But if you run events regularly and already have a WooCommerce store, the numbers stop making sense.
What to Look For in a Self-Hosted Solution
After testing a bunch of plugins, here's a checklist of what actually matters — not marketing checkboxes, but things that come up when you're actually trying to run an event:
- QR code check-in from a phone browser. No app downloads, no special accounts. Open a page, point the camera, scan. Green means valid. Red means already used.
- Uses your existing WooCommerce checkout. This is the biggest one. If a plugin builds its own cart and payment flow, you lose the entire advantage of self-hosting. Your payment gateways, tax settings, coupon system — all of it should just work.
- Block Checkout and HPOS support. WooCommerce's modern checkout and High-Performance Order Storage are the current standard. Plugins that don't support them are already falling behind.
- Recurring event support. For anyone running weekly workshops or monthly meetups, creating a new event every time is tedious. Look for daily, weekly, monthly patterns with individual occurrence editing.
- Seating charts. Not everyone needs this, but for reserved seating venues, a visual seat picker that prevents double-booking saves enormous headaches.
- Waitlist system. Selling out is good. Having no way for people to get notified when spots open is not.
- Calendar and countdown displays. Gutenberg blocks or shortcodes to show events on your site.
The Plugins We Tested
We split these into two categories: WooCommerce-native plugins (use your existing checkout) and standalone event systems (manage their own payment flow).
WooCommerce-Native Event Plugins
These plug directly into your WooCommerce products, checkout, and payment gateways.
FooEvents for WooCommerce is probably the most well-known WooCommerce ticketing plugin. The base plugin starts at $99/year and covers ticket generation, QR check-in (via their dedicated app), and attendee management.
What we liked: reliable, well-documented, and the base plugin is solid for straightforward ticketing. What to know: seating charts, multi-day events, and PDF customisation are separate add-ons at $49–79 each. A full-featured setup runs $250–350/year. The add-on model means you only pay for what you need, but the total can climb if you need everything.
Events & Ticketing Manager for WooCommerce by Plugify ($49/year) is a newer entry on the WooCommerce Marketplace. It covers single and multi-session events, QR code validation, PDF tickets, and quantity-based discounts. Attendee forms with custom fields are a nice touch.
Clean and affordable for straightforward single events. It doesn't have recurring events, seating charts, waitlists, or dynamic pricing — so you'd outgrow it if your events get more complex.
Event Booking Manager for WooCommerce (WpEvently) by MagePeople has a free version on WordPress.org with 7,000+ active installs. Basic event creation and WooCommerce checkout work in the free tier. The Pro version adds PDF tickets, attendee management, and QR scanning via add-on.
Worth trying if budget is the primary concern. The free version is genuinely usable for simple events. Costs accumulate if you end up needing the full feature set through multiple add-ons.
Event Tickets for WooCommerce ($69/year) is our own plugin — full disclosure, we built it. It covers the full checklist in a single install: recurring events with individual occurrence editing, visual seating charts, waitlists with auto-notifications, dynamic pricing (early bird, last-minute, quantity-based, role-based), and browser-based QR check-in that works from any phone without an app.
What we think works well: everything runs on your existing WooCommerce checkout — no separate payment system. Five Gutenberg blocks and four shortcodes handle calendar views, event lists, and countdown timers. The $69/year flat price includes every feature with no add-ons to buy separately. What to know: it's newer than FooEvents or The Events Calendar, so it doesn't have the same track record or community size yet. We're biased toward it (obviously), but we built it specifically because we saw gaps in what was available.
Standalone Event Systems
These manage events independently. Some can connect to WooCommerce, but they don't use your existing checkout by default.
The Events Calendar + Event Tickets by StellarWP is the most popular WordPress event plugin — period. The free version is a powerful calendar with no ticketing. Event Tickets (free add-on) adds basic RSVP. For WooCommerce integration, you need Event Tickets Plus ($99/year). For recurring events, Events Calendar Pro ($99/year).
The community is huge, the documentation is excellent, and the ecosystem is proven at massive scale. If you need a calendar-first solution, this is the safest bet. The modular pricing means you can start free and add what you need. The full stack runs $198–300/year.
Events Manager by Marcus Sykes is a long-standing free plugin with 70,000+ active installs. Calendars, locations, bookings, recurring events, BuddyPress integration — it does a lot for free.
The Pro version adds PayPal/Stripe payments, PDF tickets, QR scanning, waitlists, and coupons. But it runs its own booking and payment system, not WooCommerce. There is a separate WooCommerce add-on ($79/year), but it's rated 1.7/5 on the Marketplace and hasn't been updated for modern WooCommerce. The core plugin is impressive. The WooCommerce bridge hasn't kept up.
Event Espresso is a standalone event registration system with its own payment processing. Recurring events, waitlists, custom forms. Plans start at $99.95/year.
If you don't use WooCommerce, Event Espresso is a capable standalone system. For existing WooCommerce stores, the overlap of managing two payment flows and two order systems adds unnecessary complexity.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Here's how everything stacks up based on our testing:
| Feature | Event Tickets for WooCommerce | FooEvents (Full) | Events & Ticketing (Plugify) | WpEvently Pro | The Events Calendar + Tickets Plus | Events Manager Pro | Event Espresso |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (all features) | $69/year | ~$250–350/year | $49/year | ~$150–250/year | ~$198–300/year | $99.95/year (own system) | $99.95/year |
| Uses WooCommerce checkout | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (with Plus add-on) | Via $79 add-on (poorly rated) | No (own system) |
| QR code check-in | Browser-based | App | QR | Via add-on | App | Pro | Yes |
| Seating charts | Yes | $79/year add-on | No | Via add-on | No | No | No |
| Recurring events | Yes | Limited | No | Yes | $99/year add-on | Yes | Yes |
| Waitlist system | Yes | No | No | Via add-on | No | Yes (Pro) | Yes |
| Dynamic pricing | Yes | No | Quantity discounts only | No | No | No | No |
| Block Checkout + HPOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial | N/A | N/A |
| Gutenberg blocks | 5 blocks + 4 shortcodes | Limited | Countdown only | Shortcodes | Calendar (add-on) | Calendar (built-in) | Calendar |
| Plugins needed | 1 | 2–4 | 1 | 1 + add-ons | 2–4 | 1–2 | 1 |
The Events Calendar has the largest ecosystem. If community size, documentation quality, and long-term track record matter most to you, nothing else comes close. The modular pricing means you only buy what you need.
FooEvents is the most established WooCommerce-native option. It integrates cleanly and has years of proven reliability. The add-on model keeps the base cost down but can climb if you need seating or multi-day support.
Event Tickets for WooCommerce packs the most into a single plugin. Seating charts, dynamic pricing, waitlists, recurring events, and browser-based QR check-in for $69/year with no add-ons. Again — it's our product, so factor that bias in.
Budget picks exist. WpEvently's free version and Events Manager's free version are both genuinely usable starting points.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sell free event tickets on WooCommerce?
Yes. Create a free product in WooCommerce and link it to your event. Customers go through checkout without paying and get registered as attendees with full ticket functionality — QR codes, PDF tickets, check-in tracking.
Does WooCommerce event ticketing work with Stripe and PayPal?
Any WooCommerce-native event plugin works with whatever payment gateways you already have connected. Stripe, PayPal, bank transfers — if it works with your store, it works for tickets.
How does QR code check-in work without a dedicated app?
Browser-based check-in (offered by some plugins) opens a page in any web browser. Select your event, grant camera access, point at QR codes. The system validates against your database in real-time. Any phone, tablet, or laptop with a camera works. Other plugins like FooEvents use their own dedicated app instead.
Can I run recurring events without recreating them each time?
Most premium plugins support recurring patterns. Set a recurrence rule (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) and the plugin generates individual occurrences you can edit or cancel separately.
What happens when my event sells out?
Plugins with waitlist features activate automatically when tickets sell out. Customers join a queue and get notified when spots open from cancellations or capacity increases. Not all plugins include this — check the comparison table above.
Is this compatible with modern WooCommerce?
Check specifically for Block Checkout and HPOS (High-Performance Order Storage) support. These are WooCommerce's current standards and some older plugins haven't caught up yet.
The Bottom Line
If you run events regularly and already have a WooCommerce store, there's no great reason to keep paying percentage-based platform fees on every ticket. You already have the payments infrastructure. You just need the event layer on top.
The plugin ecosystem for WooCommerce events has matured. There are solid options at every price point. The right choice depends on what you actually need — how complex your events are, whether you need seating charts, how much you value ecosystem size versus all-in-one simplicity.
Test a couple on a staging site before committing. Run a few orders through. Scan some QR codes with your phone. The best way to find what works for your workflow is to try it.
If you want the all-in-one option — seating charts, dynamic pricing, waitlists, recurring events, and browser-based QR check-in in a single plugin for $69/year — check out Event Tickets for WooCommerce.
