The Hidden Cost of Traditional Ticketing Platforms for South African Schools

Most ticketing platforms take a percentage of every ticket sold. See what that really costs your school — and why SchoolTix charges a flat R500 per event instead.

What Ticketing Platforms Are Really Costing Your School

Published: July 2026 | Category: School Finance & Events | Reading time: 5 min

When a South African school decides to move its event ticketing online, the first instinct is usually to reach for whichever platform is most well-known. It is easy. It is fast. And it feels safe.

But there is a question that very few school administrators, finance officers, or governing body members stop to ask before they create that first event: how much of our ticket revenue are we actually going to keep?

The answer, for most general-purpose ticketing platforms, is less than you think. Often quite a lot less.

How Most Ticketing Platforms Charge Schools

The standard pricing model across the online ticketing industry is commission-based. The platform takes a percentage of every ticket sold — typically somewhere between 5% and 10% of the ticket price — plus, in many cases, a fixed fee per transaction on top of that.

This model makes a lot of sense for a commercial concert promoter selling five thousand tickets at R800 each. The platform earns its keep through volume and high ticket prices.

It makes considerably less sense for a South African school selling two hundred tickets at R80 each to a year-end concert.

Let us look at what that actually means in practice.

The Maths That Most Schools Never Do

Imagine your school is running a standard year-end concert. You have 300 seats, you price tickets at R100 each, and you sell out. That is R30 000 in ticket sales — a meaningful amount for a school event.

Now imagine the ticketing platform takes 8% of every ticket sold.

| Scenario | Ticket Price | Tickets Sold | Gross Revenue | Platform Fee | What Your School Keeps | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Small event | R80 | 150 | R12 000 | R960 | R11 040 | | Medium concert | R100 | 300 | R30 000 | R2 400 | R27 600 | | Large prize-giving | R120 | 500 | R60 000 | R4 800 | R55 200 | | Annual fundraiser gala | R250 | 400 | R100 000 | R8 000 | R92 000 |

That R8 000 on your annual fundraiser gala? That is the cost of three months of stationery. It is a set of new sports jerseys. It is a contribution to the school minibus fund. It is money that your community raised — for your school — going to a commercial technology company that had no interest in your event beyond the fee it earned.

And this happens for every event. Every term. Every year.

The Problem Goes Deeper Than Just the Fee

The commission model creates a structural conflict of interest that most schools do not notice until they have been using a platform for a while.

General ticketing platforms are designed to maximise revenue per ticket. The higher your ticket price, the more they earn. The more tickets you sell, the more they earn. This incentive is fine for commercial events — but it is completely misaligned with how schools work.

Schools are not commercial event promoters. They are community institutions running events for parents, learners, and staff. In many cases, event ticket revenue goes directly back into the school — to fund equipment, bursaries, building maintenance, or the very next event. Taking a percentage of that revenue does not just reduce the school's income. It reduces the community's investment in itself.

There is also the complexity problem. General-purpose platforms are built for all events — everything from corporate conferences to music festivals to professional sports. They come with settings, options, and features that have nothing to do with a school prize-giving. School administrators end up navigating interfaces designed for professional event planners, spending time they do not have learning tools they do not fully need.

What Schools Actually Need from a Ticketing Platform

Talk to a school administrator, a fundraising coordinator, or a finance officer who has run school events, and the wish list is actually quite short:

• Sell tickets online so parents can buy from their phones at any hour
• Manage seating so families can choose where they sit
• Scan tickets at the gate without needing expensive equipment or trained staff
• Report on sales so the finance team knows what came in
• Keep the money — all of it, or as close to all of it as possible

That last point is the one that general-purpose platforms consistently fail to deliver. They treat school events like any other commercial transaction, taking their cut regardless of whether the school is a community fundraiser, a non-profit governing body, or a struggling independent institution trying to stretch every rand as far as it will go.

A Different Model: Built for Schools, Priced for Schools

SchoolTix was built specifically for South African schools, and that starting point changes everything — including the pricing.

Instead of taking a commission on every ticket sold, SchoolTix charges a flat R500 per event.

That is it. One payment. No percentage. No per-ticket fee. No surprise deductions when the revenue comes through.

Whether your school sells 50 tickets or 500, whether your ticket price is R50 or R500, the fee to run your event on SchoolTix is R500.

Let us put that in context:

| Scenario | Gross Revenue | Commission Platform (8%) | SchoolTix (R500 flat) | Saving with SchoolTix | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Small school play | R6 000 | R480 | R500 | -R20 | | Standard concert | R30 000 | R2 400 | R500 | R1 900 | | Large prize-giving | R60 000 | R4 800 | R500 | R4 300 | | Annual fundraiser | R100 000 | R8 000 | R500 | R7 500 |

For most school events — anything with a total revenue above R6 250 — SchoolTix's flat fee is less than what a commission-based platform would take. For larger events, the saving is substantial. A school running six or eight events per year could easily retain R20 000 to R40 000 that would otherwise leave the school community entirely.

The R500 Is a Tool, Not a Profit Centre

The flat R500 per event was not arrived at by working backwards from a revenue target. It was set at a level that makes SchoolTix sustainable as a platform while making it genuinely accessible to every school — including smaller schools, township schools, and independent schools operating on tight budgets.

The goal is not to maximise what SchoolTix earns from each event. The goal is to give South African schools a professional, reliable ticketing system that does not penalise them for doing their jobs well. If your school sells more tickets because the online experience is better, your school keeps that revenue. SchoolTix does not benefit from your success at the expense of your community.

This is what it means to build a product that is genuinely aimed at helping schools rather than simply serving them as a market.

What You Get for R500

For a flat R500 per event, SchoolTix gives your school:

• Online ticket sales — parents buy from their phones, no cash required
• Allocated seating — custom venue layouts, parents choose their own seats
• QR code tickets — issued automatically, unique per ticket
• Gate scanning — scan tickets on any smartphone, no special equipment needed
• Sales reporting — real-time visibility of who has bought tickets and what has come in
• Reduced cash handling — no cashbox, no reconciliation headaches, no risk of loss

These are not stripped-down features on a cheaper tier. This is the full SchoolTix platform, available for every event your school runs, for R500.

A Question Worth Asking Before Your Next Event

Before your school sets up its next event on any ticketing platform, it is worth asking one simple question:

At the end of this event, how much of the money our community spent on tickets will come back to our school?

For a commission-based platform, the answer depends on how many tickets you sell and at what price. For SchoolTix, the answer is straightforward: everything except R500.

Your school's events exist to raise funds for your learners, to bring your community together, and to celebrate what your students achieve. Every rand of ticket revenue that leaves the school community through a platform fee is a rand that was not spent on a bursary, a textbook, or a coat of paint on the hall where your children perform.

SchoolTix was built on the belief that South African schools deserve a ticketing system that understands this — and prices accordingly.

Ready to see what SchoolTix looks like for your school's next event? [Get in touch and we'll walk you through it.]