How to set up a page and sell paid tickets before the night

Set up an event page and sell paid tickets before the night. Covers what independent hosts need, the steps, and the tools that can do it.

By Uncommon Comforts · 2026-10-19

Uncommon Comforts is published by the team behind Connections, whose products are compared here alongside other tools.

To sell paid tickets before the night, set up your payment account, create the event page with a paid ticket, check the page on a phone, and share the link with the people you want to come.

Option	Platform fee	Plan price
Connections Events Free plan ^[1]	3% on each sale ^[1]	Start with no card ^[1]
Connections Pro plan ^[1]	See the published fee information ^[1]	$39.99 ^[1]
Other ticketing tools	Check the fee page before you choose	Check the price page before you choose

What you need before you start

Start with the facts a buyer will look for: the event name, the date and start time, the address or meeting point, a short description, and an image that works as a banner. Write these down before you open any tool, because a page with missing details loses buyers at the moment they decide.

Paid tickets are taken with a card payment service. Stripe is a separate company that handles card payments. Check which service your tool uses and whether you must open an account with it before the night, since that account can take time to approve.

Decide your ticket names and prices in advance, and note the seat limit for the room. A limit you set late is harder to change without confusing people who already bought.

Gather your contact list too. If you have sold tickets before, export the guest list from the tool you used, so people who came before can hear about the new event.

Finally, set aside a quiet block of time to build the page, and a separate block to buy one ticket yourself at a test price. Buying the ticket yourself shows you exactly what a buyer sees.

Step by step

Pick the tool and make your account. Compare the fee and price pages of each option before you commit, and look for a plan you can start without a card if you are only testing.
Create the event. Enter the name, date, start time, address, and a short description that says who the event is for and what happens there.
Add a paid ticket. Give it a clear name, such as General admission, and the price buyers will pay.
Connect your payment account and make one test purchase at a small price. Confirm that the money appears where you expect.
Set the seat limit and decide what happens when the event fills. Some tools keep a waitlist, so check whether yours does.
Look at the page on a phone. Check the date, the place, the ticket price, and the buy button.
Set up messages to people who have bought, so they know the event is coming.
Share the link where your audience already reads, and check sales the day before. Confirm that the guest list matches the tickets you expect to scan at the door.

Tools that can do it

Other tools that sell paid tickets exist. This guide has no published facts about them, so read each one's fee and price pages and compare them with the points in this guide.

Connections Events is made by the team that publishes this site. A host adds a ticket with a name and price from the ticket menu on the event page ^[1]. If your past events are listed on another site, a host pastes that page, ticks the events they want, and each becomes an unpublished draft ^[1]. A guest CSV exported from Luma, Eventbrite or Meetup lands on a past event's roster and the guests become the host's contacts ^[1].

On the night, guests carry a QR ticket and the host scans it at the door to check them in ^[1]. A guest can add their event ticket to Apple Wallet ^[1]. Guests get automatic reminders 24 hours and 1 hour before an event ^[1].

Co-hosts are free ^[1]. The host's analytics tab shows a sales figure over time and a sales-by-ticket-type table ^[1]. When a guest cancels or capacity is raised, the free seats are filled and each guest is told they are in ^[1]. A host can copy a Register link or a ready-made card to put a registration button on their own website ^[1]. Guests can add photos once the event starts, and the album shows on the event page ^[1].

On Free, the platform fee is 3% on sales, and on every paid plan it is 0% ^[1]. A new event with no photo gets a designed cover from a gallery of 36 across nine kinds of event ^[1]. People who follow a host get an email when the host publishes a public event ^[1]. The account menu includes an option to install the app ^[1].

Common mistakes to avoid

Publishing before you have tested the purchase path is a frequent error. Buy a ticket yourself, then check the confirmation you receive and the message that follows it.

Leaving payment setup until the week of the event creates delays. Connect the payment account early, so a problem with payouts does not surface on the night.

Changing prices or the seat limit after you have shared the link confuses people who already planned to attend. Settle the details first, then share.

Relying on a single message to fill the room is risky. Plan a second message close to the event, and let people who have bought know the date and place again.

Forgetting how people will get in is another common problem. If you check tickets at the door, decide who will do the scanning and test the scan on your phone beforehand.

Ignoring the fee lines wastes the margin you planned. Read each tool's fee page, and note whether a card fee applies on top of any platform fee.

Frequently asked questions

Is Connections Events free to start?

Yes, you can start on the free plan with no card, and nothing is published and nobody is emailed until you say so ^[1]. On Free, the platform fee is 3% on sales ^[1]. Card payments are handled by Stripe, a separate company, and Stripe's card fee also applies to sales ^[1]. Before you add a paid ticket, read the fee lines so you know what a buyer's payment covers and what you keep.

Does Connections Events take a cut of paid ticket sales?

On Free, the platform fee is 3% on sales, and on every paid plan it is 0% ^[1]. Stripe is a separate company that handles card payments, so the card fee is charged by Stripe. Compare the total cost of each plan with the number of tickets you expect to sell before you decide which one fits the event.

How are guests checked in at the door?

Guests carry a QR ticket, and the host scans it at the door to check them in ^[1]. A guest can also add their event ticket to Apple Wallet ^[1]. Before the event, test the scan on the phone you will use at the door. Keep a printed guest list as a backup in case a phone runs out of charge or loses signal, and decide ahead of time who will do the scanning so the door is not left unstaffed when guests arrive.

Do guests get reminders before the event?

Guests get automatic reminders 24 hours and 1 hour before an event ^[1]. You do not need to send them by hand, though you may still want a personal message to people you know well. Check that the reminders go to the email address buyers entered, and ask a friend to buy a test ticket so you can see the message that arrives. A clear event page with the place and start time means the reminder carries the right details.

Can past events be brought over to a new page?

A host pastes their Luma, Eventbrite or Meetup page, ticks the events they want, and each becomes an unpublished draft ^[1]. A guest CSV exported from Luma, Eventbrite or Meetup lands on a past event's roster and the guests become the host's contacts ^[1]. Drafts stay unpublished until you choose to publish them, so you can review each one first. Export your guest files from the old tool before you close that account, since the export is what keeps your list.

Connections Pro is $39.99, removes the event, guest and manager walls, and its sales pay no platform fee, only Stripe's card fee. ^[1] Connections Free costs $0, and going over a limit stops the feature rather than billing you. ^[1]

Try Connections Events

Sources

Connections Events' own description of itself (the product of this site's publisher)