pretix review
A flexible open-source choice for ticketing, registration, and onsite event operations.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
pretix is an event ticketing and management platform for conferences, festivals, exhibitions, workshops, museums, swimming pools, and other in-person events. It combines configurable online ticket shops, registration data collection, paid and free ticket sales, payments, attendee communications, check-in, reporting, and point-of-sale support. Event teams can use it as a hosted service or deploy the open-source Community and Enterprise editions themselves. It is a strong fit for organizers that want control over ticketing and onsite operations, especially when self-hosting or open-source software is a priority.
The pricing structure gives teams distinct operating choices. pretix Hosted charges 2.5% of the ticket price excluding taxes, with no monthly fees and a free quota of 500 free tickets per calendar year; it also includes unlimited users. pretix Community is free forever, open-source, self-hosted, and supports unlimited ticket volume. Enterprise Starter is a self-hosted enterprise edition priced at €499 per year, with support and license points included. Its price depends on annual order and revenue scale, making the Hosted option easier to understand for smaller or variable programs and the self-hosted editions more relevant to teams that can manage deployment.
Operational depth is the main strength. pretix supports multiple check-in lists, entry and exit scanning, online and offline check-in through pretixSCAN, attendee badge generation and live printing, scheduled and targeted emails, exhibitor lead scanning, POS integration, event-spanning reports, and a REST API with device authentication. PayPal, Stripe, Mollie, pretixPOS, and pretixSCAN cover core payment and onsite workflows, while web, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, API, and self-hosted access broaden deployment options. Choose pretix for configurable in-person ticketing and onsite control; choose an alternative if your event program requires formats beyond in-person events or a fixed monthly pricing model.
pretix pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Free self-hosted Community edition with unlimited ticket volume
- Online and offline check-in with scanning and badge printing
- Broad tools for ticketing, emails, exhibitors, POS, and reporting
- Where it doesn't
- Designed for in-person events rather than multiple event formats
- Hosted pricing is tied to ticket revenue instead of a fixed monthly fee
- Enterprise pricing varies by annual order and revenue scale
pretix fact sheet, pricing and score →
Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.
Last updated · How we research and update