Cloomba vs Eventbrite
Last reviewed: May 2026
Eventbrite is the established name in event ticketing — used by everyone from food festivals to corporate conferences. Cloomba is a different category of product: a community-oriented event platform that happens to handle paid tickets, rather than a ticket marketplace that happens to host event pages.
What both do well
- Free events on a hosted page, with cover, description, RSVP
- Paid ticketing through a built-in payment flow
- Guest list management and CSV export
- Check-in tools for the door
When Cloomba is the better fit
You want truly free free events. Cloomba's free events cost the organiser nothing — no listing fee, no per-RSVP charge, no "free tier with limits". Eventbrite historically applied per-ticket fees even on free events on some plans; the exact terms shift over time, but Cloomba's commitment is simpler: free events are always free.
You're an EU organiser. Cloomba's servers are in Amsterdam (EU-West) and the product is GDPR-by-design. Eventbrite is a US company; your attendee data flows through US infrastructure under whichever transfer mechanism Eventbrite has in place at the time.
You're running a community, not a transaction. Cloomba ships with a media wall, comments and reactions, organiser updates, and calendars — built for the conversation around an event, not just the moment of buying a ticket.
Your pricing is simple and predictable. Cloomba is a flat 5% + standard payment processing on paid tickets, with no per-event surcharges. Eventbrite's pricing has historically combined a percentage and a flat per-ticket fee, with tiers that change. See Pricing & Fees.
You want a modern, fast UI. Cloomba is built on TanStack Start with server-side rendering and real-time updates. Eventbrite's organiser tooling is feature-rich but generationally older.
When Eventbrite is the better fit
- You need their marketplace and SEO. Eventbrite shows up in Google search for "events in [your city]" and has an established audience browsing the marketplace. Cloomba's discovery is just starting.
- You're a professional promoter with venue/series tooling needs. Eventbrite has decades of features for ticketing companies — reserved seating, complex multi-tier pricing, advanced fraud tools, integrations with Mailchimp / Salesforce, dedicated sales support for large events.
- You need refund-protection or insurance add-ons. Eventbrite offers these; Cloomba does not.
- Your event has 5,000+ paid attendees and you need vendor experience at that scale today.
Pricing snapshot (May 2026)
| Cloomba | Eventbrite | |
|---|---|---|
| Free events | Truly free | Free plan available; historically with per-ticket fees on some tiers |
| Paid events | 5% + standard payment processing | Mixed: % + flat per-ticket fee, varying by plan and country |
| Subscription | None | Multiple paid tiers (Essentials / Professional / Premium) |
| Hosting | EU (Amsterdam) | US (with international processing) |
Eventbrite's exact rates depend on your plan and country and change periodically — check their current pricing page.
Honest bottom line
If you're running community events, meetups, classes, or conferences in Europe and don't need a marketplace audience, Cloomba is simpler, cheaper for free events, EU-hosted, and built around the post-event experience as much as the RSVP. If you're a professional promoter selling thousands of tickets and you need every Eventbrite feature plus its discovery surface, stay there.