Sway vs Stager: which ticketing platform for your event?
Compare Sway and Stager 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 | Stager |
|---|---|---|
| Fees paid by the buyer | 3% + €0.30 per paid ticket, VAT included. No fees on a free ticket. | You can add a custom service cost so the online-ticket fee is offset toward the buyer. The published online-ticket fee itself is €0.87 in the 0–2,500 tickets-per-year band. |
| Fees paid by the organiser | No extra commission: you receive the price you set (e.g. a €20 ticket → €20) on a standard card. | €0.87 per online ticket (0–2,500 tickets/year), then a custom quote; plus published processing (iDEAL 0%, cards 2%, Bancontact 1.5%, PayPal 3.5%) and €0.50 excluding VAT per payout. Two users free, then €12.99/user/month. |
| Payout timing | The money reaches your account within a week, even before the event. Sway does not hold your ticket money. | Funds are split immediately to the payment account and paid out on a regular basis. A payout costs €0.50 excluding VAT. Public pages do not promise a single calendar such as within a week, 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. | Venue workspace: users, messaging and reporting next to ticketing. Not a scene app with line-ups, galleries and an ambassador programme 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. | People reach a Stager shop from the organiser or venue. It is not an electronic-music discovery app like Sway. |
| Niche | Electronic music (techno, house, raves, festivals). Tickets in 16 currencies. | Venues and promoters, with a strong presence in Belgium in Sway's event sample. |
| Site and photos | A site on your own domain from the Studio plan, fed by your Sway events. Photo galleries per event. | Per-organiser shops on Stager domains. A personal site on your own domain is not the product in the same way as Sway Studio. |
Stager is a ticketing and venue-management platform used by venues and promoters, especially 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 Stager notes below match what is public in November 2026. Online tickets cost €0.87 each in the 0–2,500 tickets-per-year band; above that the rate is a custom quote. You can add a custom service cost so that fee is offset toward the buyer. Two users are free, then €12.99 per user per month. 2,500 messages per month cost €10, then €0.0025 per extra message. Payment processing is published separately: 0% on iDEAL, 2% on cards, 1.5% on Bancontact and 3.5% on PayPal. A payout costs €0.50 excluding VAT. If your contract says something else, your contract wins.
What the published rates mean on a €20 ticket
On Sway, the buyer pays €0.90 on a €20 ticket (3% + €0.30, VAT included) and you receive €20.00 on a standard card.
On Stager, the published online-ticket fee in the 0–2,500 tickets-per-year band is €0.87 per ticket. You can add a custom service cost to offset that toward the buyer. Payment processing sits on top (0% iDEAL, 2% cards, 1.5% Bancontact, 3.5% PayPal), and a payout costs €0.50 excluding VAT. The mix depends on how people pay and whether you offset the €0.87.
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.
Stager combines ticketing with venue tools (users, messaging, reporting). Funds are split immediately to the payment account and paid out on a regular basis — the public pages do not promise a single calendar such as within a week, before the event. 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 Stager
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.
Stager can be the better fit if you already run a venue workspace on it, you want ticketing tied to venue users and messaging, or your buyers in Belgium and the Netherlands know that checkout.
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 Weeztix, Sway vs Paylogic.
Frequently asked questions
Does Stager publish a public ticket fee?
How do Sway fees compare to Stager?
When do I get paid on Sway and on Stager?
Is Stager a discovery app like Sway?
I already sell on Stager. Can I move to Sway?
Does Sway work outside Europe?
Last reviewed 5 November 2026
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