This post was updated July 2020.
When I originally wrote this article in 2011, most people were using Eventbrite when they needed to sell tickets for an event.
However, we’ve come a long way since then, almost 10 years at the time of this update.
The solution I originally wrote about and promoted in this article was a plugin created by 9seeds called WP Event Ticketing.
That plugin has been abandoned. It has not been updated for five years as of this update.
A new Solution for 2020 & Beyond
I have a few solutions you can chose from. Each of these plugins have a free version and a premium version with more features and integrations.
If you currently use WooCommerce, then I have great news. Each of these plugins as an existing woo integration.
Options 1: Tickera
You can get the FREE version of this plugin at the WordPress repository.
I picked this plugin because it has some pretty sweet features.
Attendee Checkin: You can do this with mobile apps, barcode scanning and desktop Chrome apps.
WooCommerce Integration: This is great if you already use Woo because now you can just use your current payment processor and checkout process.
Pick Your Seat: Create fancy floor-plans and layouts of your venues and let your attendees decide where they want to sit.
And there is a bunch more! These are just a couple of the features I thought were cool!
Biggest disadvantage to this plugin: The free version only works with the 2Checkout Payment Gateway.
But if you do decide to use the paid version, you will be surprised by the affordability of this plugin!
You can checkout all the features and add-ons for this ticketing plugin here.
Option 2: Event Tickets
You can get the FREE version of this ticketing plugin on the WordPress repository as well.
This plugin comes from a reputable plugin developer, Modern Tribe, Inc.. And this plugin is pretty robust as well.
The free version of this ticket plugin offers a better payment gateway than Tickera. Out of the box you can use PayPal.
Online & OnSite Events: You can easily sell tickets for different types of events.
Mobile Ticketing Apps: Also has the ability to manage tickets and attendees from a mobile app.
3rd Party Plugin Integration: You can integrate the Event Tickets plugin with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. Again, save yourself some work if you’re already using these commerce plugins.
The paid version of this plugin is also extremely affordable, and you can learn all about it here.
The Wrap Up
There are other plugins out there in the WP market. And you could probably even come up with a way to setup your own with different commerce plugins.
However, the two options introduced above are built to solve the problems associated with ticketing.
So if you can spend a little bit of money and save yourself hours of time and frustration, it is worth looking into these event ticketing plugins for WordPress.
Thank you for the kind words!
Your welcome! Thanks for contributing to the the community! I look forward to the “pro” version.
Thank you so much for the very nice write up!
Your speculation about the pro version is spot on. We ARE adding additional payment gateways (authorize.net to start, possibly others in future updates). We are also adding the ability to manage multiple events and a bunch of other features that should make it a pretty solid business level ticketing system.
John, thanks for filling in some of the blanks! I know a lot of people will enjoy separating from Eventbrite and it’s nice that they have a solid solution to support their needs with the additions to the plugin in the “pro” version.
Hi There,
Just wondering, when attendees have received their e-tickets, how do we protect against people just reprinting and selling on? Do their names appear on the tickets? I see we have an attendee list, but is there a foolproof way of ensuring that only one set of tickets is sold to a given person?
Penny