Sway vs CM.com: which ticketing platform for your event?
Compare Sway and CM.com on who pays the fees, when you get paid, and organiser tools. On Sway the buyer pays 3% + €0.30 and you receive the full ticket price.
| Feature | Sway | CM.com |
|---|---|---|
| Fees paid by the buyer | 3% + €0.30 per paid ticket, VAT included. No fees on a free ticket. | Published ticketing line: €0.79 per General Admission ticket, €0.99 per seated ticket. Payment-method pricing is on request; ask them for a quote if you need a full checkout total. |
| Fees paid by the organiser | No extra commission: you receive the price you set (e.g. a €20 ticket → €20) on a standard card. | The published figures above are the ticket lines. Payment methods and larger museum or attraction setups are priced on request. |
| Payout timing | The money reaches your account within a week, even before the event. Sway does not hold your ticket money. | Their payout calendar is not spelled out on the public ticketing price page; ask them. On Sway the money reaches you within a week, even before the event. |
| Marketing tools | Automatic notifications to people who follow you; email and custom push on paid plans; an ambassador programme (personal codes, credits, rewards); Meta and TikTok pixels; Swapy, your team's AI assistant, free on every plan. | Hosted or embedded shops, access control, branding, reporting, and seated maps on the seated line. Not a scene app with line-ups and set times like Sway. |
| Discovery / audience | The Sway app and site, focused on raves, clubs and electronic festivals: search by genre, city and artist, with line-ups and set times. | Organiser shops, not an electronic-music discovery app. |
| Niche | Electronic music (techno, house, raves, festivals). Tickets in 16 currencies. | General events, seated shows, and museum or attraction setups. Sway is built for electronic music and sells tickets in 16 currencies. |
| Site and photos | A site on your own domain from the Studio plan, fed by your Sway events. Photo galleries per event. | A hosted or embedded ticket shop with branded tickets, emails and checkout. Sway offers a site on your own domain from the Studio plan, fed by your events. |
CM.com is the ticketing product of CM.com, used by organisers who want a hosted or embedded ticket shop, including in Belgium and the Netherlands. Sway is an app and a ticketing platform built for electronic music: line-ups, set times, door check-in, and organiser tools in one place.
Both can sell a paid ticket. The difference sits in what is published about the fee, when the money reaches you, and whether you want a venue box office, a large marketplace, or a scene app with line-ups and discovery.
The notes below match what is public in November 2026. The published ticketing line is €0.79 per ticket for General Admission and €0.99 per ticket for seated. Payment-method pricing is on request on that page — not published as a single add-on you can check the same way as Sway. Larger museum and attraction setups are priced on request. If your contract says something else, your contract wins.
A €20 ticket
On Sway, the buyer fee is published and the same on every standard plan: 3% + €0.30 per paid ticket, VAT included. On a €20 ticket the buyer pays €0.90 and you receive €20.00 on a standard card.
On CM.com the published General Admission line is €0.79 per ticket; seated is €0.99. Payment methods are priced on request, so ask them if you need a full checkout total on a €20 ticket.
In the US, the price a buyer sees on Sway is all-in: the event page shows the price with fees included. In US dollars the service fee is 4.5% + $0.35 per paid ticket.
Tools, discovery and the scene
Sway puts together what an electronic-music team needs: tickets (early bird, promo codes, pay-in-instalments), order control (resend, refund), door check-in and offline scanners, guest list, line-up and set times, sales insights, photo galleries, ambassadors, and Swapy to ask how a night is selling or to draft a campaign. Creating a page and an event is free. Email campaigns, custom push notifications and discovery boosts are growth tools on paid plans. Swapy is free on every plan, Basic included.
CM.com is built as a hosted or embedded ticket shop with access control, branding, reporting, and seated maps on the seated line. It sits next to a broader messaging and payments stack. It is not a discovery app organised around electronic-music line-ups the way Sway is.
When to choose Sway, and when to stay on CM.com
Sway makes sense if you want a published buyer fee, the full ticket price in your account within a week — including before the event — and ticketing, check-in, line-up, galleries, ambassadors and an assistant in one place, on an app ravers use to find electronic events.
CM.com can be the better fit if you want seated maps, a branded shop inside a broader messaging and payments stack, or dedicated museum and attraction tooling.
Both can be the right fit. It depends on your contract, where people already buy, and what you want to keep: the ticket price, the cash-flow calendar, or a particular discovery network.
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See also what Sway does for promoters, for an event and pricing. Nearby comparisons: Sway vs Shotgun, Sway vs DICE, Sway vs Eventbrite, Sway vs EventSquare, Sway vs Weeztix.
Frequently asked questions
Does CM.com publish a public ticket fee?
How do Sway fees compare to CM.com?
When do I get paid on Sway and on CM.com?
Is CM.com a discovery app like Sway?
I already sell on CM.com. Can I move to Sway?
Does Sway work outside Europe?
Last reviewed 5 November 2026
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