Every fall, a lot of venues and promoters do the same thing without really thinking about it, which is let their ticketing contract roll over for another year. There’s no comparison and no gut check on whether the platform still fits the way the business has grown, because it renewed last year and the year before that, so it just does it again.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone and you’re not doing anything wrong. Most organizers are buried in the actual work of booking talent, running the box office, and keeping fans happy, so contract review understandably slides to the bottom of the list. But October, with the busy season winding down and next year’s calendar taking shape, is a great time to spend an afternoon asking whether your platform is still earning its spot or just taking the path of least resistance.

Here are ten questions to help you answer that honestly, along with how Sellout responds to each one so you can compare us to your current provider the same way you’d compare any other vendor.

1. What does a ticket really cost your fans?

Surprise charges at checkout are one of the fastest ways to sour a fan on your event, and regulators have taken notice. Since May 12, 2025, the FTC’s Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees has required live-event ticket sellers to show the total price up front with all known fees included, and to steer away from vague labels like “service fee” or “processing fee,” as TechCrunch reported. The agency is following through as well, with StubHub agreeing to a $10 million settlement over allegations that it advertised prices without the all-in total.

Ask your provider to walk you through exactly what a fan sees at every step of checkout, and whether you could explain the fee structure to a fan in a single sentence. Sellout’s fee is 3.5% plus $1 per ticket, and you choose whether fans cover it or you absorb it, which means your full ticket price stays in your account. Card processing runs through Stripe at 2.9% plus $0.30 per order, and the whole breakdown lives on our pricing page.

2. Are you paying for features you never open?

Take a look at your last few invoices and see whether you’re being charged for premium tiers or add-on modules that your team has never touched. Plenty of legacy platforms built their pricing around bundles designed for arenas, so if you’re paying arena prices for a 400-cap room, that deserves a second look. Sellout gives every organizer the full suite from day one with no subscriptions and no locked tiers, and events that are free to attend are free to run on the platform.

3. How fast does the money land in your account?

Artists want their deposits and vendors want to be paid, and neither of them cares what your settlement schedule looks like. Ask exactly when funds are released and whether that depends on the event date. Sellout pays out daily, and the comparison table on our pricing page shows that several other platforms hold funds until after the event, with waits that run from about three days to around ten.

4. Who picks up when something breaks on show night?

When scanning stalls an hour before doors, minutes matter, and a 48 hour support queue tells you how that story ends. The easiest test is to contact your provider right now and see how long it takes to reach a real person who understands the pressure of a live event. Sellout offers phone and live chat support from people who have worked events themselves, and Matt Leow, Executive Director of the MT Brewers Association, put it simply: “You won’t find better customer or technical support anywhere.”

5. How long does it take to launch a new event?

If building a show eats up an afternoon, you pay that cost every time you add a date to the calendar. Ask someone from the platform to build a real event while you watch, and count how many screens stand between a blank page and a live ticket link. Sellout’s step-by-step builder is designed to get you live in minutes, and Hayden Wilson, Events Coordinator at Bridger Brewing, says it made his summer concert series easier to run, summing up the experience in a single word: “transformative.”

6. Does it fit the way your events actually work?

A comedy night with general admission and a gala with assigned tables ask very different things of a ticketing system, and workarounds love to appear at the worst possible moment. Find out whether your platform handles assigned seating and tiered pricing natively, and whether you can sell add-on items alongside the ticket. Sellout supports custom seating charts along with ticket tiers, and add-on items are part of the package too, with a $0.50 fee per seated ticket paid by attendees when you use assigned seating.

7. How smooth is the line at the door?

Your fans’ first impression of the night is often the line outside, so ask how check-in works when the signal gets spotty and how groups are handled. Sellout supports mobile scanning and digital will call, and a whole group can walk in on a single QR code so one scan gets everyone through together. A mobile box office is built in for selling right at the door.

8. Can you sell wherever your fans already are?

Every time a fan has to leave your website to buy a ticket, you risk losing them somewhere along the way. Ask whether checkout can live directly on your own site and how many clicks a returning buyer has to get through. With Sellout you can embed checkout on any website, and returning customers can finish a purchase in about ten seconds, which makes a real difference in the first hour of an on-sale when demand peaks.

9. Can you actually get to your own data?

Your sales numbers and attendee insights are some of the most valuable assets you have, and pulling a report shouldn’t feel like submitting a request and hoping for the best. Ask whether you can watch sales in real time and whether reports are built for you or pieced together by hand after the fact. Sellout provides live sales insights and auto-generated reports, so you can adjust pricing or push a promotion while tickets are still moving.

10. What does leaving look like, and who can vouch for the platform?

Ask for the exit terms in writing, including any setup costs, contract lengths, and penalties tied to ending your agreement, and then ask to talk with an organizer who runs events like yours. Jason Wickens, CEO of Live from the Divide, has been with Sellout for many years after trying larger, well-known competitors, and his verdict is that it’s “simply a superior product.” That kind of firsthand comparison is exactly what any provider should be willing to hand you.

See why organizers switch

If any of these questions struck a nerve, the best next step is to see Sellout in action with your own numbers on the table. Schedule a demo and we’ll walk you through real fee comparisons, payout timing, and what switching could mean for your bottom line and your fans, all before your next renewal date arrives.