Affordable Ticketing Software for Africa
SoldOutAfrica charges 5% per ticket sold. There is no monthly subscription, no setup fee, and no charge for an event that does not sell. If you run one concert a year you pay for one concert. Attendees pay with M-Pesa, card, or mobile money across Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa, in their own currency.
Most ticketing platforms sold in Africa are priced for somewhere else: a monthly licence in dollars, a service fee stacked on a processing fee, and a checkout that assumes a credit card. That model charges a Nairobi organizer running four events a year the same as a venue running four a week, and it charges their audience twice — once for the ticket and again on the currency conversion. A single percentage on a local payment rail is a straighter deal, and it is the whole of our pricing.
What the fee includes
- Unlimited events and unlimited ticket types per event
- M-Pesa, card, and mobile money checkout on every event
- Early-bird, tiered, group, and VIP pricing
- QR tickets delivered by SMS and email, with gate scanning on any phone
- Real-time sales dashboard and attendee exports
- Promo codes, flash sales, and gift cards
- Affiliate program that pays your promoters per ticket sold
- Your own event page with a shareable short link
What you are never charged for
- No monthly subscription or platform licence
- No setup or onboarding fee
- No charge for creating an event that never sells
- No charge for free tickets — RSVPs and invites cost nothing
- No separate fee for scanning or for the organizer dashboard
Worked example
Say you are selling 500 tickets at KES 2,000 for a show in Nairobi. That is KES 1,000,000 gross. At 5% per ticket the platform fee is KES 50,000, and the remainder settles to your M-Pesa or bank account. Mobile money and card processing costs charged by Safaricom or the card network are the standard published rates and are separate.
If the same show sells 50 tickets instead of 500, you pay KES 5,000. Nothing is charged up front and nothing is charged if it sells nothing at all — which is the point of per-ticket pricing for an industry where half the risk sits in whether people turn up.
Volume and enterprise
High-volume promoters, venues, and festival groups selling consistently every month can negotiate a lower rate, white-label event pages on their own domain, USSD ticket purchases for feature-phone audiences, and API access for their own systems. Talk to us about volume pricing.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does it cost to sell event tickets in Kenya?
- SoldOutAfrica charges 5% per ticket sold and nothing else — no monthly fee, no setup fee, and no charge for events that do not sell. Mobile money and card processing costs charged by Safaricom or the card network are separate and are the standard published rates.
- Is there a monthly fee for ticketing software?
- Not with SoldOutAfrica. Many ticketing platforms sell monthly plans that you pay whether or not you run an event that month. This platform is pay-per-ticket, so an organizer running four events a year pays exactly four events' worth.
- Who pays the ticketing fee — the organizer or the attendee?
- That is your choice. You can absorb the fee into your ticket price so the attendee sees one round number at checkout, or pass it on as a separate line. Most organizers absorb it, because a clean price converts better.
- When do I get paid for tickets I have sold?
- Payouts go to M-Pesa or a bank account you nominate. You can see money accumulating in your dashboard in real time as tickets sell, rather than waiting until after the event to find out how you did.
- Do I pay anything for free events?
- No. Free tickets, RSVPs, and invite lists cost nothing. You still get QR codes, gate scanning, and the attendee list — the fee only applies when money changes hands.
- How does this compare to Eventbrite or Pesapal pricing?
- Eventbrite adds a service fee plus a payment processing fee per ticket and prices in foreign currency, which costs Kenyan buyers again on conversion. Pesapal's rate is part of a wider payments contract. SoldOutAfrica is a single percentage on a local rail.
Compare us directly against Eventbrite and Pesapal Events, or see the full feature list.