Hi.Events

Open-source event ticketing, honestly reviewed. No marketing spin, just what you get when you stop handing 3.7% of every ticket to Eventbrite.

TL;DR

• What it is: Open-source (AGPL v3) event ticketing and management platform — think Eventbrite, but self-hosted, zero platform fees, and your attendee data stays on your server [1].
• Who it’s for: Nightlife promoters, festival organizers, independent venues, community groups, and conference hosts who sell tickets regularly and are tired of per-ticket fees eating into margins [2].
• Cost savings: Eventbrite charges 3.7% + $1.79 per ticket. Hi.Events charges 0.75% + 40¢ on its cloud tier (passable to buyers), and $0 platform fee self-hosted — only Stripe’s standard 2.9% + 30¢ remains [2]. On 250 tickets at $100, that’s roughly $1,085 more in your pocket versus Eventbrite.
• Key strength: Stripe Connect instant payouts — you receive funds before the event ends, not days or weeks later. Every promoter testimonial on the site mentions this first [2].
• Key weakness: AGPL v3 license, not MIT. If you want to embed Hi.Events inside a closed-source SaaS product, you’ll need a commercial license. For a solo promoter self-hosting their own events, this is irrelevant [1].

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What is Hi.Events

Hi.Events is a drag-and-drop event ticketing platform you can run on your own server. You create an event, configure ticket types, customize your checkout page, and share a link. Attendees pay via Stripe, receive QR-coded tickets by email, and you scan them at the door from any phone. The company pitches it as “an open-source alternative to Eventbrite, Tickettailor, Dice.fm” — that framing is accurate. It covers the same surface area as those incumbents [1][2].

The project was clearly designed around the pain points of recurring-event organizers: nightlife promoters, festival directors, and venues running weekly club nights. The GitHub description positions it for “concerts, conferences, and everything in between” but the website makes clear the primary audience is promoters who are losing 10% of revenue to Dice.fm or Resident Advisor [2].

As of this review, Hi.Events sits at 3,605 GitHub stars with an AGPL v3 license. The README has been translated into 13 languages — German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Turkish, Hungarian, and Polish. That’s an unusual investment for a project at this size, and signals the team is actively targeting a global organizer market rather than coasting on English-speaking early adopters [1].

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Why people choose it over Eventbrite, Dice.fm, and RA

The case is almost entirely financial, and the numbers are blunt enough to make the argument without any editorial help.

Versus Eventbrite. Eventbrite charges 3.7% + $1.79 per ticket on their standard tier — fees that organizers cannot waive or pass through on free events. For a paid event at $100/ticket, that’s $5.49 per ticket taken off the top before you see the money. Hi.Events charges 0.75% + 40¢ on its cloud tier, passable to buyers, so the organizer nets $0 in platform fees. Self-hosted, the platform fee drops to zero — only Stripe’s 2.9% + 30¢ remains [2]. Three of the four testimonials on the Hi.Events homepage come from Eventbrite refugees: “We’ve used Hi.Events now for a few events and really love it… We’re definitely never going back to Eventbrite.” [2]

Versus Dice.fm and Resident Advisor. Both platforms charge approximately 10% per ticket — the standard nightlife tax. For a promoter running 300-person club nights at a $25 average ticket, that’s $750 gone per event, roughly $36,000 per year on a weekly schedule. A promoter quoted directly on the website: “The instant payouts are a lifesaver. We used to wait weeks for Dice to pay out. Now we get funds before the night even ends. Door check-in is lightning fast too.” [2]

On data ownership. This is the second most cited reason after cost. Eventbrite, Dice, and RA own your attendee relationships — if you leave, you leave without your email list. Hi.Events stores everything on your server and exports on demand via CSV or XLSX [1][2]. For recurring event organizers trying to build a direct audience, this matters significantly more than any individual UI feature.

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Features: what it actually does

Ticketing and sales:

• Flexible ticket types: paid, free, donation-based, tiered pricing, registration-only [1]
• Hidden and locked tickets accessible only via promo codes — useful for early bird, guest list, and VIP tiers [1]
• Promo codes with fixed or percentage discounts, usage limits, and expiry [2]
• Product add-ons for merch, drink tokens, and table upgrades [1]
• Capacity management with shared limits across ticket types — a single venue capacity pool for VIP and general admission [1][2]
• Waitlist with automatic ticket offers when capacity frees up [2]
• Tax and fee support: VAT, service fees, pass-through or absorbed by organizer [1][2]

Checkout and branding:

• Drag-and-drop event page builder [1][2]
• Customizable PDF ticket designs [1]
• Branded organizer homepage listing all events [2]
• Embeddable widget — a few lines of JavaScript, works on WordPress, Wix, React, or any HTML page [1][2]
• SEO tools: custom meta tags, Open Graph images for social previews [2]

Attendee management:

• Custom checkout questions: text, dropdown, checkbox, date, address, phone fields [2]
• Advanced search, filtering, and export to CSV or XLSX [2]
• Full and partial refunds [1][2]
• Bulk messaging by ticket type [1]
• QR code check-in with scan logs and access-controlled check-in lists [1][2]

Analytics and integrations:

• Real-time sales dashboard [1][2]
• Affiliate and referral tracking with custom codes and exportable reports [1][2]
• Advanced reporting across sales, tax, and promo code performance [2]
• Webhooks for Zapier, Make, and CRM integrations [1][2]
• Full REST API [1]

Operations:

• Multi-user roles with admin and organizer permissions [2]
• Stripe Connect instant payouts — funds transfer before the event ends [2]
• Offline payment methods [1]
• Automatic invoicing and event duplication [1][2]
• 12+ language support across checkout and management UI [1]

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Pricing: SaaS vs self-hosted math

Hi.Events Cloud: The website publishes a single fee structure — 0.75% + 40¢ per ticket, passable to buyers or absorbed by the organizer. When passed to buyers, the platform costs the organizer $0. Stripe’s 2.9% + 30¢ applies separately, billed directly by Stripe [2]. Subscription tier details beyond this fee structure are not published on the public website as of this writing.

Self-hosted: Platform license is $0 under AGPL v3 [1]. VPS costs $5–20/month. Platform fees: $0 — only Stripe’s standard rate applies.

Fee comparison per $100 ticket:

Platform	Platform fee	On 250 tickets	Payout timing
Hi.Events self-hosted	$0	$0	Instant (Stripe Connect)
Hi.Events Cloud (passed to buyer)	$1.15	$287.50 (buyer pays)	Instant
Eventbrite	$5.49	$1,372.50	4–7 days post-event
Dice.fm	~$10.00	~$2,500	Varies
Resident Advisor	~$10.00	~$2,500	Varies

[2] (fee data from Hi.Events website pricing comparison)

Concrete savings for a nightlife promoter running 20 events per year, 250 attendees at $100 average ticket:

• Eventbrite: 20 × $1,372.50 = $27,450/year in platform fees
• Hi.Events self-hosted: $0 in platform fees + ~$120/year VPS
• Annual savings: ~$27,330

Even on smaller events — 50 attendees at $25 — Hi.Events self-hosted saves roughly $2,400+ per year versus Eventbrite’s percentage cut. The math compounds fast for anyone running a recurring series.

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Deployment reality check

The README’s primary deployment path is Docker Compose, with a one-click DigitalOcean deploy button provided directly in the repository [1]. This is the fastest path to a working instance for someone with basic server familiarity.

What you actually need:

• A Linux VPS with 1–2GB RAM (2GB recommended)
• Docker and docker-compose installed
• A domain name with SSL (Let’s Encrypt via Caddy or nginx)
• A Stripe account with Connect enabled for instant payouts
• An SMTP provider for ticket confirmation emails — this is not optional

What can go sideways:

• Stripe Connect has additional identity verification requirements for instant payouts. Budget a few days for Stripe onboarding, not a few minutes.
• SMTP misconfiguration fails silently. Attendees who don’t receive their QR ticket confirmation will show up without proof of purchase — test email delivery before going live.
• The AGPL v3 license means any web service you build on top of Hi.Events must also be released under AGPL v3. Using it internally to sell your own event tickets is fine. Building a white-label ticketing SaaS on top of it without opening that code is not [1].
• No built-in backup tooling is documented — standard Docker volume management applies. Set up automated backups before processing real ticket sales.

Realistic time estimate for someone with Docker experience: 1–3 hours to a working instance including domain and Stripe Connect. For someone without Linux server experience: a full afternoon with a guide, or a one-time deployment cost from a technical contractor.

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Pros and cons

Pros

• Per-ticket fee elimination. Self-hosted means $0 in platform fees on every sale. This is the entire value proposition and it’s a legitimate one for any organizer running more than a handful of paid events per year [2].
• Instant Stripe payouts. Funds arrive in real time via Stripe Connect, not after the event. For club promoters who need to cover costs on the night, this changes the operational math significantly [2].
• Embeddable ticket widget. A few lines of code sell tickets directly from your existing site — no redirect to a third-party platform, no brand dilution, no “Powered by Eventbrite” on your attendees’ confirmations [1][2].
• Affiliate tracking built in. Custom referral codes, tracked conversions, exportable reports. This sits behind paid enterprise tiers on Eventbrite and is absent entirely from Dice and RA [2].
• Full branding control. Event pages, PDF tickets, and checkout are all customizable with your logo and colors [1][2].
• True data portability. Export your entire attendee list at any time. Your email list stays yours when you switch platforms [2].
• Active multilingual investment. Thirteen language translations at 3,605 stars is a visible signal of active development and international ambition [1].

Cons

• AGPL v3, not MIT. This is a hard constraint for anyone who wants to embed Hi.Events in a commercial closed-source product. The license requires derivative works that are served over a network to also be open-sourced [1].
• Stripe-only payment processing. Stripe is unavailable in a number of countries and some buyers prefer alternatives. No PayPal, no regional payment gateway support is listed in the feature set [1][2].
• No native virtual events. In-person ticketing and QR check-in are well covered. Streaming, webinar integration, or hybrid event delivery are not mentioned in the feature list.
• No dedicated mobile check-in app. Door scanning runs in a mobile browser. This works, but it’s less polished than a native app at a high-volume door [2].
• No independent third-party reviews found at time of writing. No G2, Capterra, or Trustpilot presence was found during research. The testimonials on the website are curated by Hi.Events. For a tool you’re routing real event revenue through, the absence of independent coverage is worth noting.
• 3,605 GitHub stars — growing, but not a project with years of high-volume production stress-testing documented publicly. For large-scale events (5,000+ attendees), load-test your instance before selling tickets [1].

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Who should use this / who shouldn’t

Use Hi.Events if:

• You run recurring events — weekly club nights, monthly concerts, annual conferences — and per-ticket platform fees represent meaningful revenue loss.
• You’re on Dice.fm or Resident Advisor paying ~10% per ticket. The savings math is unambiguous.
• You want instant Stripe payouts rather than waiting a week post-event.
• You want to sell tickets directly from your own website without redirecting buyers to a third-party platform.
• You’re comfortable with Docker deployment or willing to pay someone once to set it up.
• You want affiliate tracking without paying for an enterprise plan.

Skip it (stay on Eventbrite) if:

• You run one or two events per year and per-ticket cost is negligible relative to setup time.
• You need Eventbrite’s marketplace discovery — people browsing for local events find Eventbrite listings; they won’t find your self-hosted page.
• You have no technical capability or budget for server setup and maintenance.
• Your events require payment methods beyond Stripe.

Skip it (use Pretix) if:

• You’re running large-scale conferences with complex multi-session registration, badge printing, and workshop capacity management. Pretix is older, more mature, and purpose-built for enterprise conference logistics. Hi.Events wins on checkout UI; Pretix wins on operational depth.

Skip it entirely if your primary use case is virtual events — streaming, webinars, or hybrid formats with video delivery need a different stack.

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Alternatives worth considering

• Eventbrite — the incumbent. Massive marketplace discovery advantage, 3.7% + $1.79/ticket, no self-host option. Worth it only when discovery from the Eventbrite platform is your primary growth channel.
• Tickettailor — ~$0.65/ticket flat fee, no percentage cut, no self-host. A solid middle path if you want lower fees without self-hosting complexity.
• Dice.fm — music and nightlife focused, strong venue integration, 10% fees. Better for discovery in the electronic music market; significantly worse for revenue retention.
• Pretix — open-source (also AGPL v3), Python-based, stronger for complex conference and trade show workflows. More setup complexity, more operational power.
• Tito — developer-friendly, well-designed, conference-focused, no self-host. Simpler setup than Hi.Events, no fee savings.
• RegFox — $0.99 per registrant flat fee, no percentage, no self-host. Favorable economics for high-ticket-price events where a flat fee beats percentage pricing.

For the target audience — promoters leaving Dice or RA — the realistic shortlist is Hi.Events self-hosted versus Tickettailor: zero platform fees with your own infrastructure, or Tickettailor’s flat fee for simpler managed operations.

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Bottom line

Hi.Events is a well-built, honest alternative for organizers who sell tickets regularly and want the platform fee to disappear. The pitch is simple: run it on a $10/month VPS, connect Stripe, and the 3.7% Eventbrite was extracting vanishes entirely. For a nightlife promoter running weekly events, that’s tens of thousands of dollars per year that stays in the business instead of funding a ticketing platform’s margins.

The trade-offs are real. There’s no marketplace discovery — attendees browsing for events won’t find your self-hosted page. Stripe is the only payment gateway. The AGPL license complicates any commercial embedding use case. And at 3,605 stars with no independent review coverage yet, it doesn’t carry the track record of a platform that’s processed billions in ticket sales across every edge case.

But for its core use case — a recurring event operator with their own audience who wants to sell tickets without surrendering a percentage — the math is compelling, the feature set covers everything that actually matters at the door, and the testimonials from former Dice and Eventbrite users all land in the same place: they’re not going back.

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Sources

1. Hi.Events GitHub Repository and README — github.com. https://github.com/hieventsdev/hi.events (3,605 stars, AGPL v3 license, feature documentation, deployment instructions)
2. Hi.Events Official Website — hi.events. https://hi.events (homepage feature list, pricing fee comparison, organizer testimonials, event type documentation)