Selling event tickets on WooCommerce without the per-ticket tax

If you run events and a WordPress site, the ticketing math is quietly
brutal. Eventbrite takes roughly $1.79 + 3.7% per ticket. Sell 300 tickets at
$40 and you've handed over ~$500 before your own payment processor takes its cut.
And the "free" WordPress ticketing plugins mostly aren't — the common pattern is a
free RSVP tier with the actual paid-ticket feature locked behind a $75+ upgrade,
sometimes just to turn on Stripe.

Here's the thing: if you already run WooCommerce, you don't need any of that.

Why WooCommerce-native ticketing avoids the fees

WooCommerce already has your payment gateway configured — Stripe, PayPal, whatever
you use. It already handles tax, currency, receipts, and refunds. A ticket is just a
product. So "event ticketing" doesn't need to be a separate platform with its own
cut; it can be a thin layer on top of the checkout you already run.

That changes the fee structure completely:

• No per-ticket platform fee. You pay your normal payment-processor rate (~2.9%
  • 30¢) and nothing else. On 300 tickets at $40 that's the difference between keeping ~$11,600 vs ~$11,100 — and none of it routed through a third party.
• The money lands in your own account, same as every other WooCommerce order — not held by a ticketing company on their payout schedule.
• No forced paywall on payments. Taking money should not itself be the premium feature.

What "good enough" ticketing actually needs

For the vast majority of organizers — a workshop, a supper club, a meetup, a class
series — the real requirements are small:

1. Put a price on an event and take payment through your existing checkout.
2. Issue a QR-coded ticket by email, automatically, once the order is paid (not when someone abandons checkout — that should never issue a ticket or eat a seat).
3. Scan the QR at the door to check people in — no separate hardware, no app.
4. Optionally, multiple ticket types — General / VIP / Early bird — each with its own price and its own capacity that sells out independently.
5. An attendee list and CSV export.

That's it. Seat maps and reserved seating are a genuinely bigger problem, but most
organizers don't need them and shouldn't pay for a platform that assumes they do.

The build/buy version

I build small WordPress tools, and I made exactly this so I'd stop recommending
Eventbrite to people who already had WooCommerce: Event Tickets & Registration.
The free plugin does unlimited RSVP events with QR tickets and door check-in; the
Pro add-on adds paid tickets through your
own WooCommerce checkout and multiple ticket types — one-time price, no per-ticket
cut, ever. It's a separate download and not required; the free tier stands on its
own.

But the real point stands whether you use it or not: if you're on WooCommerce,
you're already paying for the infrastructure ticketing platforms resell back to you.
Stop paying the per-ticket tax on top.