The cheapest way to sell tickets to a business networking event in Australia

Most business networking events sell a modest ticket: a breakfast at $35, an after-work drinks night at $25, a lunch with a speaker at $50. At those prices the ticketing fee is a noticeable share of what people pay, and over a year of monthly events it adds up. This guide works out what each common platform charges at the prices networking groups actually use, and the choices that make the biggest difference to the cost.

We are a ticketing platform ourselves, so our own fees are in the same table. Where another platform is cheaper, we say so.

What you are actually paying for

Selling a ticket online has up to four costs. It helps to separate them before comparing anything.

• The platform’s fee. A fixed amount per ticket, a percentage, or both.
• Card processing. Someone pays the card network. Some platforms build it into one fee, others list it separately.
• A subscription. Some platforms charge a monthly plan, either required or optional.
• Getting paid. A payout fee, or a wait until after the event before you can touch the money.

The other question is who pays. If the buyer pays the fee on top, you keep your ticket price and the attendee pays a little more. If you absorb it, the attendee pays your price and you receive less.

The fees at networking ticket prices

We read each platform’s own pricing page on 22 October 2026. Fees change, so check the current page before you decide.

• TryBooking (trybooking.com/pricing): $0.50 per paid ticket plus 2.5% processing, and its page says all its fees include GST.
• Humanitix (humanitix.com/au/pricing): 4% plus $0.99 per paid ticket, shown excluding GST. Charities and schools pay 2.5% plus $0.50.
• Eventbrite (its Australian help article on what it costs organisers): 5.35% plus A$1.19 per paid ticket, with no separate processing fee listed.
• Luma (luma.com/pricing): a 5% platform fee on paid tickets on its free plan, plus Stripe’s card fee, taken out of the price you set.
• One Ticket: a booking fee that combines our platform cut and the card processing cost, paid by the buyer on top of your price.

Here is the fee on a single ticket, worked out from those published figures and rounded to the cent:

Luma works differently, so it is not in the table. Its 5% comes out of your price rather than being added on top: $0.75 on a $15 ticket, $1.25 on $25, $1.75 on $35 and $2.50 on $50, plus the card fee. Luma’s help centre says it has no option to add fees on top of the ticket price, so to keep $50 you would raise the price.

TryBooking has the lowest published fee at every one of these prices. One Ticket comes next, then Humanitix’s standard rate, then Eventbrite. If your group is a registered charity, Humanitix’s reduced rate matches TryBooking’s.

Who pays by default matters as much as the rate

The headline rate does not tell you how much comes out of your pocket.

• TryBooking charges the $0.50 ticket fee to the buyer by default and the 2.5% processing fee to the organiser, according to its help centre. Either can be switched. So on a default TryBooking event, a $35 ticket costs the buyer $35.50 and you lose about 88 cents to processing.
• Humanitix passes its fee on to the buyer by default, with options to absorb, split or let the buyer choose.
• Eventbrite charges its fees to the buyer by default, and you can absorb them.
• Luma takes its fee and the card fee from the host.
• One Ticket adds the booking fee on top for the buyer, so the $35 you set is the $35 you receive. Free tickets carry no fee at all.

A year of monthly breakfasts

Here is an example, not a promise. Say your group runs a $35 breakfast every month with 40 people, which is 480 tickets a year. At the published rates, worked out from the unrounded fees:

On TryBooking’s defaults the total is lowest, but you carry the processing part yourself unless you pass it on. On One Ticket the total is higher, and your group carries none of it. Which is cheaper for the group depends on whether you count your own money or your members' money, and both are fair ways to look at it.

Six ways to cut the cost

1. Sell more than one ticket per order where it makes sense. On One Ticket the card network’s fixed 30 cents is charged once per order, not per ticket. Two $25 tickets in one order carry a $2.60 booking fee, not $2.90. A company booking a table is the obvious case; see selling a table of eight to a company.

2. Make sponsored events free. A free ticket costs nobody anything on any of these platforms. If a sponsor covers the night, invoice them directly and give attendees a free ticket. See running a sponsored networking event with free entry.

3. Do not pay for a plan you do not use. None of these platforms requires a monthly subscription to sell tickets. Eventbrite and Luma sell optional paid plans. One Ticket’s Free plan has no monthly cost, no setup fee and no payout fee. Our Pro and Team plans add features, not a lower booking fee, and you do not need them to sell tickets. Pro and Team are open now: upgrade any time in Settings › Plan. Limited-time offer: A$1 for your first year (first 100 organisers), then A$29/month for Pro or A$79/month for Team. Cancel anytime.

4. Price in round numbers and let the fee sit on top. A $35 ticket that costs the buyer $36.88 rarely puts anyone off. Shaving the price so the total lands on exactly $35 leaves an odd figure on every receipt. See how much to charge for event tickets.

5. Use a member price instead of a second event. One event with a member ticket and a guest ticket is cheaper to run and simpler for everyone than two. See member and non-member pricing.

6. Take cash at the door if people want to pay that way. On One Ticket, a cash or bank transfer sale recorded at the box office carries no booking fee, because we did not process the payment. See taking cash at the door alongside online bookings.

Do not forget when you get paid

For a group paying a venue deposit, timing can matter more than a few cents. Defaults differ. TryBooking’s own gateway pays out when you request it after the event, and Eventbrite sends its default payout three days after the event, according to their help centres. With One Ticket the money goes into your own Stripe account. Until your first paid event has gone cleanly it is paid out two days after each event; after that, it is paid out as it sells. There is no payout fee from us.

How One Ticket’s fee is worked out

Our platform cut is $0.35 for tickets up to $5, $0.45 up to $10, $0.70 up to $25, $0.95 up to $50 and $1.45 up to $100, then $1.45 plus 1.5% of the amount over $100. Card processing is added at what it costs us. The buyer pays the total on top of your price. It is the same on every plan.

The full table is on the pricing page, and the step-by-step is in the fees guide. For every platform’s fee at any price, see ticket fees by platform. For the wider picture across all event types, see the cheapest event ticketing platforms in Australia and booking fee vs processing fee.

The short version

If the lowest fee per ticket is all that matters, TryBooking’s published fees are the lowest at networking prices, and you should check its defaults on who pays processing. If you want your group to receive the whole ticket price with nothing to pay yourself, and you run the same event every month, One Ticket’s fee sits in the middle of the range, with no subscription to start. Whichever you pick, a free ticket for a sponsored night and one order for a table are the two choices that save the most.