Sway vs Resident Advisor: which ticketing platform for your event?
Compare Sway and Resident Advisor 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 | Resident Advisor |
|---|---|---|
| Fees paid by the buyer | 3% + €0.30 per paid ticket, VAT included. No fees on a free ticket. | No published standard ticket fee found in November 2026. Ask them for a quote. |
| Fees paid by the organiser | No extra commission: you receive the price you set (e.g. a €20 ticket → €20) on a standard card. | Listing, promotion and ticketing terms are not published as a single public rate comparable to Sway. No figure to quote here. |
| Payout timing | The money reaches your account within a week, even before the event. Sway does not hold your ticket money. | Payout timing is not published as a single calendar comparable to Sway's 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. | Editorial coverage, reviews and a global listings guide, with ticketing on some events. Not an organiser workspace with check-in, galleries, ambassadors and an assistant built in. |
| 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. | A major electronic-music discovery platform: clubs, raves, artists and a global guide. Sway is also a discovery app, built around line-ups and set times together with organiser tools. |
| Niche | Electronic music (techno, house, raves, festivals). Tickets in 16 currencies. | Electronic music worldwide. In Sway's sample, Resident Advisor ticket links appear in several European countries. |
| Site and photos | A site on your own domain from the Studio plan, fed by your Sway events. Photo galleries per event. | Editorial pages and event listings on Resident Advisor. A personal site on your own domain is not the product in the same way as Sway Studio. |
Resident Advisor is a well-known electronic-music publication and platform where people discover clubs, raves and artists — and where some events also sell tickets. 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 Resident Advisor notes below match what is public in November 2026. No published standard commission comparable to Sway's buyer fee was found in November 2026. Listing, promotion and ticketing terms can differ. Resident Advisor does not publish a standard ticket fee; ask them for a quote. If your contract says something else, your contract wins.
What is public about the fees
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.
Resident Advisor is first a place people go to find electronic music. Ticketing sits beside that. Their fees are not published as a single public rate; ask them for a quote.
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.
Resident Advisor is known for editorial coverage, reviews and a global listings guide. That discovery is the product. Sway puts ticketing, check-in, line-ups, galleries, ambassadors and an assistant in one organiser workspace, on an app ravers also use to find nights.
When to choose Sway, and when to stay on Resident Advisor
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.
Resident Advisor can be the better fit if its listings and editorial audience are how people already find you, or if you want to keep selling tickets next to that guide. The two are not the same product: one is a publication with tickets, the other is an organiser app with discovery.
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 XCEED, Sway vs Ticketclub, Sway vs Skiddle.
Frequently asked questions
Does Resident Advisor publish a public ticket fee?
How do Sway fees compare to Resident Advisor?
When do I get paid on Sway and on Resident Advisor?
Is Resident Advisor a discovery app like Sway?
I already sell on Resident Advisor. Can I move to Sway?
Does Sway work outside Europe?
Last reviewed 5 November 2026
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