# Universe — Event Registration & Ticketing

Universe by Universe Experiences, Inc. holds a panel rating of 2/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 2.5/5), as of 2026-10-30. Provenance: Rest of world; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: Universe Experiences, Inc. (https://www.universe.com/)
- Category: [Event Registration & Ticketing](https://whats-best.ai/software/event-ticketing.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): Rest of world
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/event-ticketing/universe
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/event-ticketing/universe/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/event-ticketing/universe/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-11-04 · evaluated 2026-10-30 · oldest source captured 2026-10-29

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Universe Experiences, Inc.
- 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

## The panel's verdict

Universe, an event registration and ticketing platform, scores highest on shop and registration at 6 to 7: an embeddable checkout for the organiser's own website, custom checkout questions, add-ons in one transaction, guest waitlists, and timed-entry schedules with per-timeslot pricing and quotas in nine languages, though judges found no public information on reserved seating or member pricing and the vendor positions itself for general admission and timed-entry events. Weakest are sovereignty at 1 to 2 — the contracting entity is Universe Experiences, Inc. of Toronto, local Ticketmaster entities act as data controllers outside North America, and judges found no public information on hosting location or subprocessors — and invoicing and tax at 2 to 3, with no public information on invoices in the organiser's name or accounting exports. Payments and fees span 4 to 6, attendee data ownership 3 to 4, check-in and onsite 4 to 4. Judges did not materially split; the captured pages give two different pictures of buyer data — the homepage markets control of all customer data, the privacy policy names the platform as data controller.

**Speaks for it:**
- Checkout embeds on the organiser's own website via out-of-the-box widgets, a single snippet of code, or a developer API for a branded purchase experience.
- Custom checkout questions, add-ons in one transaction, guest waitlists and nine languages, with timed-entry schedules priced per timeslot.
- Buyers can pay by credit and debit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay and regional systems like Alipay, with full or partial refunds and ticket transfers from the product.
- Open API, developer portal and 5,000+ Zapier partner integrations alongside scheduled recurring reports.
- Per-ticket fees published with caps — "2% + €0.75 per ticket (Capped at €9.95 per ticket)" on Starter and "4.5% + €0.99 per ticket (Capped at €19.95 per ticket)" on Standard — with free events free of charge.

**Held against it:**
- Invoicing and tax scored 2 to 3, with no public information on invoices in the organiser's name, consecutive numbers, VAT-ID capture or accounting-system exports.
- Sovereignty scored 1 to 2, with Universe Experiences, Inc. of Toronto as contracting entity, local Ticketmaster controllers outside North America, and no public information on hosting location or subprocessors.
- No public information on payout timing, chargeback handling, or the payment processing fee amount that the published fees exclude.
- No public information on offline or multi-device scanning or badge printing, while RFID access control and onsite support sit at the unpriced Pro tier.
- No public information on a data processing agreement naming the organiser as controller, while the privacy policy describes marketing to buyers by email, push, SMS and social media.

**Best for:**
- You run general admission or timed-entry events and want the checkout embedded in your own website.
- You sell direct to consumers by card and wallet and want refunds and ticket transfers handled inside the product.
- You want to move attendee data through an open API and 5,000+ Zapier integrations into your own tools.

**Avoid if:**
- You need invoices issued in your organisation's name with consecutive numbers and VAT-ID fields for business buyers.
- Your compliance review requires a data processing agreement, a stated hosting location and named subprocessors before attendee data is collected.
- You sell reserved seating with a seating plan or member-priced tickets, as the vendor positions itself for general admission and timed-entry events.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price, or the judge found no public information on that criterion.

| Criterion | The Conference Organiser | The Venue Promoter | The Course Provider | The Revenue Accountant | The Data Protection Officer | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Ticket shop, checkout & registration | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Payments, payouts, fees & refunds | 2.5/5 | 2/5 | 2.5/5 | 3/5 | 2.5/5 | 2/5 |
| VAT, invoices & accounting handoff | 1/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1/5 |
| Check-in, badges & on-site sales | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Attendee data & the customer relationship | 1.5/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 |
| European sovereignty | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 |
| Pricing transparency | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r |
| **Weighted verdict** | **2/5** | **2/5** | **2/5** | **2/5** | **1.5/5** | **1.5/5** |

### The judges

- **The Conference Organiser** (v1.0): 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.
- **The Venue Promoter** (v1.0): Books bands and DJs into a 250-capacity club, four nights a week, and pays the artists their guarantee before the show. Needs the ticket money before the event rather than three weeks after, a fee that buyers pay on top of a twelve-euro ticket, a door app two volunteers can run on their phones without signal in the basement, and the buyers of last month's show on a list the club can mail, not the platform.
- **The Course Provider** (v1.0): Runs a small adult education business: evening courses over eight weeks, weekend workshops for coaches, and a few seminars that employers pay for. Wants registrations with the questions each course needs, a waiting list that fills a cancelled seat by itself, VAT that is right for exempt teaching and taxable workshops in one shop, invoices to employers in her own name, and cancellation rules her terms can point to.
- **The Revenue Accountant** (v1.0): Keeps the books for a concert promoter and two conference organisers and gets a payout statement each month that nets ticket sales, refunds and platform fees into one number. Wants to know who sold the ticket in whose name, which VAT rate applied to each ticket, a fee invoice kept apart from the revenue, credit notes for every refund, and an export that reaches DATEV without a spreadsheet in between.
- **The Data Protection Officer** (v1.0): Advises a federation of sports clubs whose events collect names, employers, dietary needs and the odd wheelchair note. Reads the ticket buyer terms before the feature list, because they say whether the platform is a processor or a controller with its own newsletter. Wants a DPA that names the organiser as controller, subprocessors with their countries, and attendee lists that are deleted after the event instead of kept for marketing.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Has seen "free for free events" turn into a fee on every paid ticket that buyers blame the organiser for, payouts held until a week after the show, and a platform that emails the organiser's audience about a rival's concert. Reads "your data belongs to you" next to buyer accounts on the platform's own app, and an export that stops at names and emails — and asks what leaving would cost.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting location | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting options | Not determined | — | — |
| Open source | Not determined | — | — |
| Data processing agreement | Not determined | — | — |
| Transfer impact assessment | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- Security measures: yes [S6]

**Data**
- Collected: contact and billing information on account/ticket purchase; browser, device, IP address, location, referrer when using sites/apps; customer support interactions recorded; social media data; accessibility/health details; geodemographic data… [S6]
- Retention: kept as long as required for services, stated purposes and legal obligations, then securely deleted [S6]
- User rights: erasure or restriction · copy of information · correct, amend or update · contest automated decisions · withdraw marketing consent · object to personalisation [S6]

**Hosting**
- International transfers: Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission · Binding Corporate Rules · Binding Corporate Processor Rules [S6]

**Integrations**
- API: branded native purchase experience · yes [S3]
- Graphql API: GraphQL API · yes [S4]
- Graphql explorer: GraphQL Explorer · yes [S4]
- Oauth flows: OAuth · Auth Code Grant Flow · Client Credentials Flow [S4]
- Restful API: RESTful API · yes [S4]
- Ticketmaster listing: yes [S1]
- Zapier API: yes · 5000 [S1]

**Legal**
- Data controller: customers outside North America are controlled by local Ticketmaster entity · Universe Experiences Inc [S6]
- Data controller by country: Ticketmaster Suomi OY · Ticketmaster Spain S.A.U. · Ticketmaster Australasia Pty Ltd · Ticketmaster GmbH · N.V. Ticketmaster Belgium S.A. · Ticketmaster Danmark A/S · Ticketmaster SAS · Ticketmaster Schweiz AG · Ticketmaster UK Limited · V… [S6]
- Dsa active recipients: 2026-03-18 · 469571 [S7]
- Entity: Universe Experiences, Inc. [S7]
- Indemnity: user indemnifies Universe including attorneys' fees [S7]
- Liability limitation: disclaims indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental, special, punitive damages and lost profits [S7]
- Registration: 816 763 601 RC 0001 · Canada · 783795-0 · 1 Blue Jays Way, Suite 3900 Toronto ON M5V 1J3, Canada [S7]
- Termination no refund: no [S7]
- Terms change: changes effective immediately upon posting [S7]

**Pricing**
- Free events: yes · yes · yes · yes [S5]
- Nonprofit pricing: special pricing rates for official nonprofits and charities [S5]
- Page available: yes [S1]
- Standard fee: EUR · 4.5 · 0.99 · 19.95 [S5]
- Starter fee: EUR · 2 · 0.75 · 9.95 [S5]
- VAT excluded: yes · yes [S5]

**Product**
- Add ons: yes · yes [S3]
- Automated access prohibited: robots/spiders prohibited without prior express written permission [S7]
- Automated decisions: no [S6]
- Brand customization: Personalize standard event listing with photos, videos and more [S3]
- Buyer email reminders: automatic email reminders · resend tickets · transfer tickets · upgrades · full or partial refunds [S2]
- Cctv marketing use: yes · yes [S6]
- Childrens data: yes [S6]
- Conversion tools: conversion tools offered [S2]
- Copyright termination: repeat/court-confirmed infringers terminated [S7]
- Countries: 25 [S1]
- Currency support: 135 [S3]
- Custom questions: yes [S3]
- Customer data ownership: yes [S1]
- Developer portal: Universe Developer Portal with guides, documentation and support [S4]
- Distribution partners: 1000 [S1]
- Embeddable checkout: yes [S1]
- Embeddable widgets: yes · no [S3]
- Event creation speed: Create an event listing in minutes, go live, and start selling tickets the same day [S2]
- Event manager capabilities: edit event details · enable or disable tickets · modify prices · duplicate listings [S2]
- Fan data marketing: yes [S1]
- Group size browsing: buyers can find available tickets by group size on desired dates [S2]
- Guest waitlists: yes [S3]
- Inventory filters: yes [S3]
- Language support: 9 [S3]
- Location services: device settings · yes [S6]
- Marketing channels: email · push and web notifications · SMS · social media [S6]
- Monthly app users: 14M monthly app users [S1]
- Monthly visitors: 100M+ monthly visitors [S1]
- Payment methods: credit cards · debit cards · Google Pay · Apple Pay · Alipay [S3]
- Personal use only: site content restricted to personal, non-commercial use [S7]
- Positioning: Ticketing partner for general admission and timed-entry events [S1]
- Pre sales: yes [S3]
- Pro features: Sell on Ticketmaster, dedicated account manager, pricing and marketing strategy, onsite support, RFID access control, sponsorship network, partner marketing, partner affiliate channels, dynamic pricing, contact center support [S5]
- Qr digital tickets: yes · yes [S2]
- Recurring reports: yes [S1]
- Reengagement emails: yes [S3]
- Rights exercise channel: Webform [S6]
- Self serve or account teams: yes · yes [S2]
- Self service date change: buyers can change date and time of order based on organizer-set rules [S2]
- Seller model: Universe is an open ticketing platform hosting listings and selling tickets for Sellers; events administered by Sellers [S6]
- Site warranty: service provided as-is and as-available, no error-free or uninterrupted guarantee [S7]
- Standard features: team permissions, cardholder presales, payment plans, tiered ticketing, priority email support [S5]
- Starter features: sell on website or Facebook, StripeConnect payouts, unlimited ticket types/add-ons, custom checkout questions, real time analytics, scan and sell at door, help center, email support [S5]
- Ticket labels: yes [S3]
- Timed entry schedules: timed-entry schedules with bulk changes across all timeslots [S2]
- Timeslot inventory control: set quantity and availability of ticket types per timeslot [S2]
- Timeslot pricing: adjust prices by timeslot [S2]
- Urgency indicators: yes [S3]
- View supported currencies: View supported currencies [S5]

**Support**
- Customer support coverage: 19 · 9 [S1]
- Faq hidden fees: yes [S5]
- Faq pass fees to buyers: passing fees to buyers [S5]
- Faq tax: charging tax on tickets [S5]
- Faq trials nonprofits: fees charged · hidden fees · passing fees to buyers · additional fees · tax on tickets · tier differences · tier choice · upgrade/downgrade · free trial · nonprofit pricing [S5]
- Faq upgrade downgrade: upgrade or downgrade plans [S5]
- Help center: yes [S1]
- Help resources: help center FAQs, contact form, ticket status, organizer contact, refund information [S7]
- Local account team: yes [S1]
- Pro contact center: Pro · contact center support [S5]
- Standard priority email: Standard · priority email support [S5]
- Starter email: Starter · online help center · email support [S5]
- Starter free start: get started for free [S5]

## Questions

### Is Universe European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Universe as Rest of world.

### Where does Universe store data?

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

### Does Universe have a free plan?

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

### What are the best alternatives to Universe?

As of 3 Nov 2026, the panel rates [pretix (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/event-ticketing/pretix), [Converia (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/event-ticketing/converia) and [doo (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/event-ticketing/doo) 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 [pretix](https://whats-best.ai/software/event-ticketing/pretix) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Universe alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/event-ticketing/universe/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- 5 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 2 legal facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 pricing fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 subprocessors fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 sovereignty dimension could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and is shown as unknown.
- 6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor homepage: https://www.universe.com/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S2] Features page (creating events): https://www.universe.com/features-create (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S3] Features page (checkout): https://www.universe.com/features-convert (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S4] Developer documentation: https://developers.universe.com/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S5] Pricing page: https://www.universe.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S6] Privacy policy: https://www.universe.com/privacy (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S7] Terms of service: https://www.universe.com/terms-of-use (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S8] Terms of service — found from the homepage: https://www.universe.com/terms (checked 2026-11-01)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Universe — Event Registration & Ticketing", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-11-04. https://whats-best.ai/software/event-ticketing/universe

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/1209?target=page