The $1.79 That's Quietly Eating Your Event Budget

By Francis Antobre, founder of EventCobby

Let me show you some math that most ticketing platforms hope you never do.

Sell a $25 ticket on Eventbrite in 2026 and here's what happens: a 3.7% + $1.79 service fee, plus 2.9% payment processing on the order. Total damage: about $3.44 per ticket — 13.8% of your revenue, gone. On a $10 community ticket, it's worse: roughly $2.45 in fees, nearly a quarter of the ticket's value.

And here's the part that stings: the flat $1.79 doesn't scale. Whether your ticket costs $10 or $100, that $1.79 shows up every single time. The cheaper your ticket, the harder you're punished. Community fundraisers, local gigs, workshops — the events with the thinnest margins pay the highest effective rates.

Who actually pays?

"But the buyer pays the fees," you say. Sure — by default, those fees get tacked onto checkout. Your $25 ticket becomes $28.44 for the attendee. Higher sticker shock at checkout means fewer completed purchases. Or you absorb the fees, and they come straight out of your pocket. Either way, somebody in your community is paying the platform — and it isn't the platform.

There's also no cap. Sell a $500 VIP ticket or a $1,000 sponsor package and the fees scale right along with it. A 200-person conference with GA and VIP tiers can lose thousands to fees alone.

The alternative I built

I started EventCobby with one pricing principle: listing is free, always. No monthly subscription. No upfront costs. You pay one small fee only when a ticket actually sells — and you choose whether to pass it to the buyer or cover it yourself.

That's it. No flat per-ticket penalty that punishes your $10 tickets. No fee stacking that turns a $25 ticket into a $28.44 checkout.

Why this matters beyond the math

High fees don't just cost money — they change what events get made. When a quarter of a $10 ticket goes to fees, organizers stop running small community events. They raise prices, or they don't bother. The events that make neighborhoods worth living in — the fundraisers, the open mics, the local markets — are exactly the ones the fee structure hurts most.

I built EventCobby so those events make sense again. List free. Sell tickets online. Print tickets for door sales. Keep more of what you earn.

Your event budget should go to your event — not to your ticketing platform.

List your next event free at eventcobby.com.