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Event Registration & Ticketing

pretix

EU-Made Report an error

Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by pretix GmbH · pretix.eu

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pretix: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai pretix: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

pretix at a glance

Vendor
pretix GmbH
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates pretix 3/5, the mean of 6 judges. pretix GmbH of Heidelberg (Amtsgericht Mannheim, HRB 738451) sells event registration and ticketing as a hosted service and as self-hostable open-source software. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 29 Oct 2026 to 1 Nov 2026; evaluated by the panel 30 Oct 2026. all sources

pretix alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Conference Organiser

Weighted verdict

Runs the annual congress of a trade association: 900 attendees over two days, member and non-member prices, workshops with twenty seats each, and half the bookings made by an assistant for three colleagues at once. Wants the shop on the association's own site, invoices that a company's accounts payable accepts without a phone call, badges printed at the door from the same data, and session check-in that counts towards continuing-education points.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Conference Organiser

Panel median The Conference Organiser This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Conference Organiser
Ticket shop, checkout & registration 4 of 5 3.5 of 5
Payments, payouts, fees & refunds 3 of 5 3.5 of 5
VAT, invoices & accounting handoff 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Check-in, badges & on-site sales 4 of 5 4 of 5
Attendee data & the customer relationship 3 of 5 3 of 5
European sovereignty 2 of 5 2 of 5

Ticket shop, checkout & registration

How this is scored

How a ticket or a registration is sold: ticket types and categories, member and early-bird prices, discount codes, bundles and add-ons, a shop embeddable on the organiser's own website or under its own domain, custom questions per ticket and per attendee, group and company bookings, capacity limits and waiting lists, reserved seating with a seating plan, recurring dates and course series, several languages, and an accessible mobile checkout.

0 — Not a ticketing or registration tool; tickets cannot be sold and registrations cannot be taken in the product.

3 — An event page on the platform with a few ticket types and a fixed sign-up form; embedding, custom questions, capacity rules or seating are basic or not described.

5 — Several ticket types with prices, quotas and sale periods, discount codes, custom questions per attendee, a shop embeddable on the organiser's website as a widget or link, capacity limits with a waiting list, and a checkout that works on a phone.

8 — A white-label shop under the organiser's own domain and design, reserved seating with a seating-plan editor, add-ons and bundles, group and company bookings with several attendees per order, conditional questions, member prices by code or login, recurring dates and course series, several languages, and the checkout's accessibility stated.

10 — A shop that fits any event: multi-event and season tickets, timed entry and seat holds, a checkout that the organiser can extend (API, custom fields synced to a CRM), an accessibility conformance statement (WCAG level named), and the conversion and drop-off of the checkout reported to the organiser.

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The Conference Organiser

The captured pages show a shop we can run under our own domain with a free SSL certificate, a graphical seating-plan editor with seat blocking, add-on products for bundles, a waiting list, custom questions in free text, multiple choice and file upload, and shop languages German, Dutch and English, with an EN 301 549 accessibility statement for the shop. We found no public information on group or company bookings with several attendees per order — which is exactly how half of our congress registers — nor on conditional questions or member prices by code or login. 1 2 7

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Payments, payouts, fees & refunds

How this is scored

How the money moves: payment methods offered to buyers (cards, PayPal, SEPA direct debit, invoice, local methods), whether the organiser connects its own payment account or the platform collects as merchant of record, when the revenue is paid out (continuously, before the event, or after it), the per-ticket and payment fees and whether they can be passed on to the buyer, refunds of single tickets and of a cancelled event, ticket transfer and resale, and chargebacks.

0 — No payment of any kind; the product only collects free registrations.

3 — Online card payment through the platform; payout timing, fee model, refunds or buyer-paid fees are basic or not described.

5 — Several payment methods including cards and PayPal or SEPA, the fee per ticket stated with the option to pass it to the buyer, the payout schedule stated, and refunds of single orders and of a cancelled event issued from the product.

8 — A choice between the organiser's own payment account (Stripe, PayPal, Mollie or similar) and platform collection, payouts before the event stated with their conditions, invoice and bank transfer for business buyers, partial refunds and refund policies set per event, ticket transfer or resale by buyers, and chargeback handling explained.

10 — Full control of the money: the merchant of record named for each set-up, payout timing and any reserve held published, every fee itemised per order, refunds, transfers and resale with the organiser's rules enforced, and the cancellation process for an event documented end to end.

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The Conference Organiser

The money model is documented and works in our favour: attendees pay the ticket price directly to the organiser and pretix never processes the money, with free choice among more than thirty named payment providers plus our own bank, SEPA direct debit via a downloadable SEPA-XML file, and bank transfer marked manually, by CSV statement upload or automatically; Stripe payouts are stated as usually within a few days. We found no public information on refunds of single orders or of a cancelled event, partial refunds, ticket transfer or resale, or chargeback handling. 1 3 7

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VAT, invoices & accounting handoff

How this is scored

How ticket revenue reaches the books correctly: the VAT rate set per ticket or product (reduced rates for concerts and culture, exemptions for education and seminars), gross and net prices shown, invoices to buyers in the organiser's name with consecutive numbers, business buyers with company name and VAT ID, reverse charge for cross-border events, cancellation invoices and credit notes, the platform's own fee invoice, e-invoicing, and exports to DATEV or named accounting systems.

0 — No receipts or invoices; the organiser has to produce every invoice outside the product.

3 — An order confirmation or simple receipt per booking; VAT rates, invoices in the organiser's name, business buyers or accounting exports are basic or not described.

5 — VAT rate configurable per ticket, invoices generated in the organiser's name with its tax details and consecutive numbers, company name and address captured for business buyers, cancellation invoices on refund, and a sales export as CSV or to at least one named accounting system.

8 — Several VAT rates in one order, net prices for business buyers, VAT IDs validated and reverse charge applied, e-invoices (XRechnung or ZUGFeRD) for public and business buyers, a DATEV export with booking data, the platform's fee invoice separated from ticket revenue, and whether the platform sells as agent or in its own name stated.

10 — Tax handled per country: VAT rules for events in several EU countries documented with the place of supply, invoices and credit notes stated as compliant with national invoice law, a reconciliation of payouts, fees and ticket revenue per event, and a GoBD-compliant archive or audit export.

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The Conference Organiser

Automatic invoice generation with configurable contents, ZUGFeRD and Peppol e-invoices, a DATEV Rechnungsdatenservice delivering invoice data straight to our tax adviser, reverse-charge invoices under § 13b UStG for cross-border EU sales, gross demo prices shown including 19 per cent VAT, and a clear statement that pretix is not the seller of the tickets — an accounts-payable story our members' finance departments can accept. We found no public information on VAT ID validation, net prices for business buyers, several VAT rates in one order, or a GoBD-compliant archive export. 2 3 7

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Check-in, badges & on-site sales

How this is scored

What happens at the door: a check-in app that scans tickets on phones or scanners, offline scanning and several devices at once, entrances and time slots, check-in lists by name, badge printing with attendee data and QR code, box office and on-site sales with card terminals, walk-in registration, session and room check-in at conferences, attendance certificates, and live attendance figures.

0 — No check-in; tickets cannot be validated at the event.

3 — Tickets with a QR code and a guest list to tick off by hand or in a simple app; offline use, several devices, badges or on-site sales are basic or not described.

5 — A free check-in app for iOS and Android that scans tickets on several devices at once, works offline and syncs, a searchable guest list, and live check-in numbers in the dashboard.

8 — Badge printing with attendee data and QR codes, access rules per entrance, session or day, box office sales on site with a named card terminal, walk-in registration, dedicated scanner hardware supported or rented, and attendance certificates for courses.

10 — On-site operations at scale: self-service kiosks or turnstile integration, session check-in feeding continuing-education credits, cashless or on-site payments reconciled with online sales, and the hardware, offline limits and failover documented.

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The Conference Organiser

pretixSCAN scans on several devices in real time with duplicate prevention, and an asynchronous offline mode keeps a local copy of attendee data that syncs when connectivity returns; badges print in our own design and live for scanned tickets at the door, check-in lists can be restricted per product and run independently — covering our twenty-seat workshops — pretixPOS sells on site over ZVT-interface terminals with quota sync and central accounting, and attendance certificates are issued for all attendees with one click, the basis our continuing-education points need. We found no public information on walk-in registration or self-service kiosks and turnstiles. 1 3 4

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Attendee data & the customer relationship

How this is scored

Who the ticket buyer belongs to: whether the organiser is the controller of attendee data and the platform its processor, or the platform a controller in its own right; whether buyers must create an account on the platform; whether the platform markets other events to the organiser's buyers or lists the event on its own marketplace; consent for the organiser's newsletter collected in the checkout; messages to attendees; attendee data exportable at any time; and deletion and anonymisation after the event.

0 — The organiser receives no attendee data at all; the platform keeps the buyer relationship entirely.

3 — A guest list visible to the organiser; who is controller, the platform's own marketing to buyers, export or deletion are basic or not described.

5 — Attendee data exportable by the organiser at any time, the organiser named as controller with a data processing agreement offered, buyers able to book without a platform account, newsletter consent for the organiser collectable in the checkout, and messages to attendees from the product.

8 — A white-label set-up in which buyers see only the organiser, the platform stated not to market other events to the organiser's buyers (or the opt-out explained), the platform's marketplace listing optional, deletion and anonymisation of attendee data after the event configurable, and attendee data synced to a named CRM or via API and webhooks.

10 — The organiser owns the relationship and can prove it: the controller and processor roles documented for every data flow, no platform account or platform marketing by default, retention set per event and enforced, and a complete export of orders, attendees and answers that a successor tool can import.

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The Conference Organiser

The roles are documented — we act as data controller and pretix as processor under Art. 28 GDPR, with a data processing agreement signable in the account — alongside a white-label shop under our own domain, customer accounts that let us build our own customer base, a documented REST API, and check-in lists exportable as CSV or PDF. We found no public information on whether buyers need a platform account, newsletter consent collected in the checkout, messages to attendees from the product, or deletion and anonymisation after the event. 2 4 7 8

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where attendee, order and payment data are hosted, and who the subprocessors are (hosting, payment providers, email delivery, analytics, support). Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; attendee lists show who goes where and when, and a conference list holds names, employers and dietary or accessibility answers, so the whole chain counts, not only the database.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, subprocessors unnamed, and no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement exist, but hosting location is unstated or non-EU and the subprocessors are not listed.

5 — EU hosting available and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, but parts of the chain (payments, email, analytics, support) run through non-EU providers without a stated safeguard.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessors listed with their locations, a data processing agreement published, and security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2) stated.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor, a self-hosted or on-premises option or data export and deletion documented, and certifications published with their scope rather than implied.

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The Conference Organiser

The contracting entity is fully documented: pretix GmbH, Berthold-Mogel-Straße 1, 69126 Heidelberg, Deutschland, registered at Amtsgericht Mannheim under HRB 738451 with VAT ID DE337556328, claiming Made in Germany, GDPR conformity, ISO 27001 certification and hosting on 100 per cent green electricity. We found no public information on where attendee, order and payment data are hosted, the ownership structure, or the names and locations of subprocessors. 1 7 8

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

How this is scored

Whether an organiser can compute the real cost of an event from public pages alone: the fee per ticket or per registration (fixed, percentage or both), payment processing fees, whether fees are charged to the organiser or added to the buyer's price, free events, subscriptions or credit packs, payout and refund fees, add-ons (seating, white label, badges, box office), hardware rental, minimums and term, and VAT on the fees.

0 — No public prices at all; every organiser is a sales call.

3 — A starting price or "free for free events" exists, but the fee for paid tickets, payment fees or who pays them is unclear.

5 — The fee per ticket and the payment processing fees are public with the main inclusions, but at least one commonly needed piece (refund fees, white label, seating, box office, hardware) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every fee published with its rule (per ticket, percentage, cap), the share paid by buyer and organiser stated, add-ons and hardware priced, payout and refund fees listed, and VAT treatment of the fees stated.

10 — Complete price computability: the cost of an event derivable for a given ticket price, ticket count and payment mix, with every add-on, hardware, support and payout fee and the cancellation and data-return terms published.

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The Conference Organiser

A pricing page and a prices document are published, test events carry no fees, and the payment model makes clear that provider fees are negotiated directly with the organiser's chosen provider, with strongly discounted Mollie fees for pretix customers. We found no public information on the fee for paid tickets, the split between buyer and organiser, or refund, payout and add-on prices, so I cannot compute what our 900-person congress would cost from the captured pages. 1 3 6 7

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error

Questions about pretix

Is pretix European?

Yes. whats-best.ai classifies pretix as EU-Made.

Where does pretix store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

Does pretix have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

What are the best alternatives to pretix?

As of 3 Nov 2026, the panel rates Converia (3/5), doo (3/5) and Ticket Tailor (3/5) highest among the other 13 Event Registration & Ticketing products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Converia (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: pretix alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Do you know more about pretix? Tell us Report an error on this page

Sources (9)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage pretix.eu Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Features page (ticket shop) pretix.eu Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Features page (payments) pretix.eu Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Features page (check-in) pretix.eu Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Documentation (fiscal and tax requirements) docs.pretix.eu Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Pricing page pretix.eu Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Legal notice pretix.eu Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Data protection / gdpr page docs.pretix.eu Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Code repository (open-source licence) — found from the homepage github.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →