Sway vs ticket.io: which ticketing platform for your event?
Compare Sway and ticket.io 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 | ticket.io |
|---|---|---|
| Fees paid by the buyer | 3% + €0.30 per paid ticket, VAT included. No fees on a free ticket. | No single public rate in November 2026. Costs can be passed on as a pre-sale fee; the individual quote sets the amount. |
| Fees paid by the organiser | No extra commission: you receive the price you set (e.g. a €20 ticket → €20) on a standard card. | Individual quote: a system fee plus a payment-provider fee. No public percentage to quote here. |
| Payout timing | The money reaches your account within a week, even before the event. Sway does not hold your ticket money. | Escrow accounts are part of the public offer. The public pages do not state 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. | Organiser ticketing for clubs and venues, with pre-sale fees and escrow. 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 ticket.io shop from the organiser or venue. It is not an electronic-music discovery app. |
| Niche | Electronic music (techno, house, raves, festivals). Tickets in 16 currencies. | Clubs, venues and promoters, with a strong presence in Germany 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 ticket.io domains. A personal site on your own domain is not the product in the same way as Sway Studio. |
ticket.io is a German ticketing platform used by clubs, venues and promoters, especially in Germany. 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 ticket.io notes below match what is public in November 2026. The public pricing page describes a system fee plus a payment-provider fee, with an individual quote. An organiser can pass costs on as a pre-sale fee (VVK-Gebühr). Escrow accounts (Treuhandkonten) are part of the offer. No public rate card lists a single percentage anyone can recompute. 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.
ticket.io publishes the shape of the fee (system fee + payment-provider fee) and that quotes are individual. It does not publish a figure that would let anyone recompute a €20 ticket the same way as Sway.
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.
ticket.io is organiser ticketing for clubs and venues, including pre-sale fees and escrow accounts. 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 ticket.io
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.
ticket.io can be the better fit if you already sell through a German club or venue shop on it, you want an individual quote with escrow accounts, or your buyers 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 Paylogic, Sway vs Weeztix.
Frequently asked questions
Does ticket.io publish a public ticket fee?
How do Sway fees compare to ticket.io?
When do I get paid on Sway and on ticket.io?
Is ticket.io a discovery app like Sway?
I already sell on ticket.io. Can I move to Sway?
Does Sway work outside Europe?
Last reviewed 5 November 2026
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