Sway vs Skiddle: which ticketing platform for your event?
Compare Sway and Skiddle 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 | Skiddle |
|---|---|---|
| Fees paid by the buyer | 3% + €0.30 per paid ticket, VAT included. No fees on a free ticket. | By default the customer pays 10% of the face value + 27p, with a £1 minimum. Promoters can instead pay that fee as a commission deducted from the face value. |
| 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 and selling incur no separate promoter cost on the published line; the booking fee is either added for the customer or deducted as commission if you choose to pay it. |
| 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 set in the promoter account; ask them if it is not written there. 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. | UK nightlife listings, promoter tools and a browsing marketplace crowd. 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. | A UK events and nightlife marketplace, not an electronic-music discovery app organised around line-ups. |
| Niche | Electronic music (techno, house, raves, festivals). Tickets in 16 currencies. | UK clubs, gigs and nightlife. 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. | Event listings on the Skiddle marketplace. Sway offers a site on your own domain from the Studio plan, fed by your events. |
Skiddle is a UK events and nightlife marketplace where promoters also sell tickets to a browsing crowd. 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. Skiddle's promoter help (updated 17 August 2026) says there is no cost incurred to the promoter to sell on the platform. Instead, a booking fee is added to the ticket face value and is generally paid by the customer. The default booking fee is 10% of the face value + 27p, with a minimum of £1. Promoters can choose to pay that fee themselves: it then becomes a commission deducted from the face value, at the same rates. 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.
Skiddle's official example on a £20 ticket: 10% = £2, plus 27p, so a £2.27 booking fee; the customer pays £22.27 by default. This page does not convert that pound example into euros. Sway's published euro line stays 3% + €0.30.
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.
Skiddle is built as a UK nightlife and events marketplace: listings, promoter tools and a browsing crowd that already shops there. It is not a discovery app organised around electronic-music line-ups the way Sway is, though both reach people looking for a night out.
When to choose Sway, and when to stay on Skiddle
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.
Skiddle can be the better fit if your crowd already browses and buys on that UK nightlife marketplace, or you want to be listed there as well as on a scene app.
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 Resident Advisor.
Frequently asked questions
Does Skiddle publish a public ticket fee?
How do Sway fees compare to Skiddle?
When do I get paid on Sway and on Skiddle?
Is Skiddle a discovery app like Sway?
I already sell on Skiddle. Can I move to Sway?
Does Sway work outside Europe?
Last reviewed 5 November 2026
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