Best Xola Alternative: TicketingHub

Stop losing bookings at the last screen

The most dangerous moment in any online sale is the final screen — and with Xola, that's exactly where your customer discovers a "partner fee" added on top of your ticket price. When the total jumps above the advertised price, some buyers walk, and it's your brand they blame. TicketingHub takes the opposite approach: a flat 3% per online booking, built into what you already charge, so checkout shows one number and more visitors finish booking. No setup fee, no monthly fee, and the platform is rated 5.0 on Capterra.

Xola is a genuine no-subscription platform, and this comparison is closer on cost than most. The difference is in what your customer sees — here's how the two actually compare.

What is Xola?

Xola is a US booking and marketing platform for tours and activities, priced on a single commission-only model — there are no subscription tiers, and every account gets full feature access regardless of size. Setup, onboarding and live support are included at no extra cost.

Its feature set includes point of sale plus online ticketing, digital waivers, staff and equipment management, customer management and marketing tools, and reporting. Xola's own pricing page states a rate of 2.39% plus $0.30 per booking (rates vary outside the US), describing it as a "partner fee" assessed to the customer — not folded into your listed ticket price.

That structure means the total your customer pays at checkout is your ticket price plus Xola's fee, shown as its own item, rather than one number you set. Whether that matters to you depends on how your customers react to seeing an added line at checkout.

What the pricing models mean for your checkout

Xola charges no monthly fee and one transaction fee: 2.39% plus $0.30 per booking, added to the customer's total at checkout rather than deducted from your revenue. TicketingHub charges a flat 3% per online booking with no monthly fee and no separate checkout line item — the price is the price, and the fee is TicketingHub's cost of running the platform, not the customer's.

Run the honest numbers: assume $10,000 in monthly bookings at an average order value of $50 — 200 bookings. Xola's fee comes to 2.39% of $10,000 ($239) plus 200 times $0.30 ($60), for $299. TicketingHub's 3% comes to $300. At this volume and order size, the two land almost identically in total cost to run the platform — so do the maths for your own catalogue with confidence.

The real difference isn't the total — it's who sees the fee, and what happens as your ticket prices change. Xola shows its fee as a separate charge on the customer's receipt; TicketingHub's fee is built into what you already charge, so checkout shows one number, not two. And Xola's flat $0.30-per-booking component scales with booking count: at a $20 average order value (500 bookings), Xola's fee rises to $389 against TicketingHub's unchanged $300, because TicketingHub tracks revenue, not transaction count. The cheaper your tickets, the more the per-booking cents add up against you.

Xola vs TicketingHub, side by side

• Pricing — Xola: 2.39% + $0.30 per booking, billed to the customer as a separate "partner fee." TicketingHub: flat 3% per online booking, built into your price.
• Monthly fee — Xola: none. TicketingHub: none.
• Setup — Xola: none, per its pricing page. TicketingHub: none.
• Contract — Xola: not published in our research. TicketingHub: no contract, pay as you earn.
• Booking widget — Xola: online ticketing included in every plan. TicketingHub: one line of code, brand-matched, multi-language and multi-currency.
• Magic Link — Xola: not published as a named feature in our research. TicketingHub: self-serve reschedule, cancel and voucher conversion.
• Point of sale — Xola: POS + ticketing included. TicketingHub: POS for iOS and Android, works offline, connects to printers, cash registers and PDQ machines.
• Waivers — Xola: digital waivers included. TicketingHub: digital waivers via Smartwaiver integration.
• Support — Xola: live support included, per its pricing page. TicketingHub: 24/7 chat and email support, free migration help.

Why operators switch to TicketingHub

The price you advertise is the price they pay

When a customer's total jumps above the advertised ticket price on the last screen, some abandon the booking — and it's your brand on that page, not your software vendor's. TicketingHub's 3% is built into what you charge: no surprise line, no last-second hesitation, no awkward questions at the till about why the website added a fee.

A checkout that keeps your website the star

TicketingHub's widget embeds on any website with one line of code, styled to match your brand, selling in multiple languages and currencies — and it's lightweight and fast, so it never slows down the page it sits on. Visitors stay on your site, in your brand, all the way to the confirmation screen.

Bookings that rescue themselves

Magic Link lets customers reschedule, cancel to a voucher, or amend their own booking without contacting you — you keep the revenue and skip the email. Abandoned-cart recovery emails follow up automatically on incomplete checkouts: Shannon R., a small business owner, told Capterra they "noticeably reduced the number of people that don't book." That's lost revenue quietly coming back on its own.

Fill your calendar from beyond your own traffic

TicketingHub's OTA channel manager keeps real-time availability synced with Viator, GetYourGuide and other resellers from one dashboard, so marketplace demand fills the slots your own marketing can't reach — with no double-bookings. Operators using it saw OTA sales grow 401% between 2022 and 2025.

What reviewers say about Xola

Third-party comparisons of tours-and-activities platforms tend to note two things about Xola: a modern, easy-to-use interface, and the same pattern seen with other commission-based platforms — the price shown to the operator isn't the full price the customer pays, because the partner fee is added at checkout. We could not access a current, verified star rating on G2 or Capterra during this research, so treat that pattern as directional rather than a scored rating. The operator cost of that pattern is subtle but real: it's paid in the bookings that never complete.

Who is Xola right for?

• US-based operators who want a no-subscription, all-features-included platform with waivers and staff scheduling built in.
• Operators comfortable with their customer seeing a separate "partner fee" line at checkout.
• Teams that value bundled onboarding and live support without a tiered plan to navigate.

Who is TicketingHub right for?

• ✅ Operators who want no surprises at checkout — the advertised price is what the customer pays.
• ✅ Teams selling internationally who want customers to book in their own language and currency, out of the box.
• ✅ Operators who want OTA distribution to Viator and GetYourGuide at the same flat rate as direct sales.
• ✅ Teams that want quieter inboxes — self-serve rescheduling and abandoned-cart recovery do the admin for you.
• ✅ Anyone who wants 24/7 support and a free, guided migration.

What operators say about TicketingHub

Oliver M., an executive director, on Capterra: "Overall its been been an invaluable tool and system for my business, helping us both grow and expand." The growth shows up in the case studies too: Lions Water Adventure Park went from around $50K to $260K in online revenue in a year on TicketingHub, and Egypt's Sound and Light Shows grew ticket sales over 500%.

FAQs about switching from Xola

How does switching from Xola to TicketingHub work?

It costs you an afternoon, not a season. Our team helps migrate your products, waiver setup and existing bookings for free. There's no setup fee, so you can list a single product on TicketingHub and test the widget and checkout experience before moving everything across.

Is TicketingHub cheaper than Xola?

At typical order sizes the two platforms land close to the same total cost — the worked example above shows $299 versus $300 on $10,000 of monthly bookings at a $50 average order value. The practical difference is what your customer experiences: Xola's fee is itemised separately on their receipt, while TicketingHub's is built into your listed price — and at lower ticket prices, Xola's per-booking cents tip the total in TicketingHub's favour.

Can I try TicketingHub before I leave Xola?

Yes, with nothing to cancel if you stay. There's no contract and no setup fee, so you can run TicketingHub alongside Xola for a single product and watch how your customers respond to a one-price checkout.

Give your customers a checkout with no surprises

Every booking abandoned at the fee line is revenue you already earned and then lost. Switching costs nothing to test: free setup, free migration, first product live in minutes, 3% per booking as you earn — and nothing added at your customer's checkout, ever.