Eventbrite vs FrankTix (2026): An Honest Fee & Feature Comparison

In March 2026, Eventbrite completed its $500 million acquisition by Bending Spoons, an Italian tech company known for buying popular apps and aggressively "optimizing" them — typically through fee increases, layoffs, and product pivots. The entire Eventbrite C-suite resigned at closing.

For event organizers currently on Eventbrite, this raises a real question: is now the time to switch?

This isn't a hit piece. It's a detailed, honest comparison of what both platforms offer in 2026 — fees, features, support, and long-term reliability.

Fee Comparison: The Number That Matters Most

Eventbrite's Essentials plan charges 3.7% + $1.79 per ticket in service fees, plus ~2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in payment processing. These fees are paid by the buyer on top of the ticket price (though organizers can choose to absorb them).

Let's run the math on a real event:

The difference at scale is not marginal — it's the difference between a profitable event and a tight one.

FrankTix charges a flat fee per event, regardless of ticket count or price. For small events it may be comparable to Eventbrite. For anything over 100 tickets, it's dramatically cheaper.

What About Buyer Fees?

Eventbrite allows organizers to either absorb fees or pass them to buyers. Most small organizers pass them to buyers — meaning your attendees see a $50 ticket priced at $56.25 at checkout. This consistently hurts conversion rates and damages your brand's trust.

FrankTix charges buyers $0 in fees. The ticket price is the total price. This is baked into our architecture — there's no option to add buyer fees because we don't believe in them. The FTC's 2025 Junk Fees Rule agrees with us.

The Bending Spoons Factor

Bending Spoons is not a strategic acquirer that understands live events. They are a financial acquirer that buys underperforming software companies and extracts value through:

• Fee increases (documented across Meetup, Vimeo, Remini)
• Significant headcount reductions
• Product feature cuts or paywalling
• Aggressive monetization of existing user base

Eventbrite's entire senior leadership team left at acquisition close. The product roadmap is now in the hands of a team that has never run a ticketing business.

This doesn't mean Eventbrite will get worse — it's possible Bending Spoons invests properly. But organizers considering a multi-year dependency on a platform should factor this uncertainty into their decision.

Feature Comparison

Where Eventbrite Still Wins

Eventbrite has significant advantages in some areas that FrankTix doesn't have — yet:

• Discovery: Eventbrite's marketplace drives organic discovery for events. If you're not building your own audience, their platform brings you traffic. FrankTix is pure infrastructure — you bring your own audience.
• Brand recognition: "Eventbrite link" is still shorthand for "event registration" in many markets. Buyers trust it instinctively.
• Ecosystem integrations: Mailchimp, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zapier — Eventbrite has years of third-party integrations. FrankTix has a developer API but fewer native integrations today.
• Nonprofit tools: Eventbrite has specific features for nonprofits. FrankTix doesn't have dedicated nonprofit tiers yet.

Who Should Switch?

The honest answer depends on your situation:

Switch to FrankTix if: you sell 100+ tickets per event, fees are hurting your margins, you have high-demand sales where bots are a problem, you operate in Brazil (PIX + Portuguese), or you want long-term pricing stability from an independent platform.

Stay on Eventbrite if: you rely heavily on Eventbrite's discovery marketplace to find attendees, your events are small and low-stakes, or you use many Eventbrite-specific third-party integrations you'd need to rebuild.

How to Migrate from Eventbrite

If you decide to switch, the process is straightforward:

1. Create your FrankTix account (free, no credit card)
2. Connect Stripe — payouts go directly to your account
3. Recreate your event: ticket types, pricing tiers, promo codes
4. Download your attendee list from Eventbrite and import into your CRM
5. Update links in your email campaigns, social bio, and website

For upcoming events already sold on Eventbrite, you can complete those events on Eventbrite and start new events on FrankTix — no need to migrate existing orders.