Attractions and cultural sites sell entry, not tours. A castle, historic house, garden, observatory or visitor centre has hundreds of guests arriving across the day, a ticket desk that still matters, and a growing share of visitors who booked on Tiqets, GetYourGuide or Viator before they arrived.
The right ticketing software keeps every one of those channels in step with your real capacity, gets people through the gate quickly and doesn't take an unreasonable share of each ticket.
This guide compares six platforms attractions often shortlist: Bookeo, Checkfront, FareHarbor, ROLLER, TicketingHub and Ventrata. It covers what each one publishes about price, a worked cost example and the tests to run in every demo.
Disclosure: We make TicketingHub. We've included platforms that cost less than us in some situations, and we say where TicketingHub doesn't fit.
What attractions need from ticketing software
- Timed entry with a capacity per slot. Spread arrivals across the day and stay within your safety limits. Every channel (website, ticket desk, resellers) has to draw from the same live capacity, or you'll oversell.
- A fast ticket desk. Walk-ups still matter for most sites. Staff need to sell, take card or cash and print or scan in seconds, from the same inventory as online sales.
- Quick scanning at the gate. Phones or handheld scanners that read QR codes and barcodes, ideally still scanning if the Wi-Fi drops. Larger sites may need turnstiles.
- Reseller and OTA connections. Tiqets, GetYourGuide, Viator, Klook, Headout and local tourism partners sell a big share of attraction tickets. Live connections avoid manual reconciliation.
- Flexible ticket types. Adult, child, concession, family, carer, group and school bookings, add-ons such as guided tours or audio guides, and gift vouchers.
- Pricing by date and demand. Different prices for peak days, school holidays and quiet weekdays, and early-bird prices for people who book ahead.
- Clear reporting. Visitors expected today, sales by channel, and numbers you can hand to your accountant or board without rework.
Six platforms compared
Prices are what each company publishes, checked on 13 November 2026, before card processing fees. Where a vendor doesn't publish a price, we say so.
| Platform | Published pricing | Who pays the fee | Strong points for attractions | Check before you sign |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bookeo | €10.95 to €89.95 a month in Europe (prices differ by region). No booking commission. | No booking fee, only card processing. | Low fixed cost, built-in POS, memberships and bundles, gift vouchers, Viator and GetYourGuide links. | The largest plan covers 3,000 bookings a month. Reseller links beyond Viator and GetYourGuide are limited. |
| Checkfront | $99 a month plus 3% of online bookings. No fee on in-person, phone, OTA or API bookings. | You choose: absorb it or add it for guests. | Time slots, mobile scanning, dynamic pricing, Viator, GetYourGuide and Google Things to Do. | No dedicated ticket-desk POS is named. Check how walk-up sales and gate entry work at volume. |
| FareHarbor | Not published as one price. Its help centre names a 6% booking fee, paid by guests, for businesses under $35,000 of online bookings a year. | Guests, per FareHarbor's help centre. | No monthly fee, memberships, walk-up tools, large partner network. | Your guests pay the fee on top of your ticket price. Get a written quote for larger volumes. |
| ROLLER | Quote only. Monthly plans (Lite, Pro, Premium, Enterprise); setup costs extra. | Not published. | POS, food and drink, memberships and gate access in one system. Strong for high-footfall venues. | Gate access control and channel management are paid add-ons. Compare the full monthly cost, not just the plan. |
| TicketingHub | 3.5% per booking with no monthly fee, or 2.75% plus $30 a month (12 months). From $1.25M a year: $560 a month plus 1.9%. | You choose: absorb it or add it for guests. | One rate on every channel, ticket desk included. Timed entry, offline gate scanning, turnstiles, Viator, GetYourGuide and OCTO resellers. | No built-in memberships with member cards, no Gift Aid, no food and drink tills. |
| Ventrata | Quote only. | Not published. | Built for large heritage and cultural estates: POS, kiosks, offline barcodes, access control, live occupancy. | Pricing and contract length are negotiated. Usually a better fit for large, multi-site estates than single venues. |
A worked cost example
Take an attraction selling $300,000 of tickets a year: 70% online and 30% at the ticket desk. Card processing is charged on top by your payment provider with every platform here, so it's left out.
- TicketingHub, pay as you go: 3.5% of every booking, ticket desk included = $10,500 a year, no monthly fee.
- TicketingHub, subscription: 2.75% of every booking plus $30 a month = $8,610 a year, or $7,749 if you pay the year upfront (10% off).
- Checkfront: $99 a month plus 3% of online bookings only ($210,000) = $7,488 a year. Ticket-desk sales carry no fee.
- Bookeo: a flat monthly plan with no booking commission, so the cheapest here by far, as long as you stay under its plan's booking limits and it has the features you need.
- FareHarbor, ROLLER and Ventrata: no published price at this size, so ask for a written quote and compare it on the same basis.
If most of your sales are at the desk, Checkfront's online-only fee is hard to beat. If most of your sales are online and come through resellers, compare total cost across all channels, not just the headline percentage.
Six tests to run in every demo
- Sell your busiest slot from three places at once. Book the last tickets in a slot on your website, at the ticket desk and through a reseller, and check that nothing is oversold.
- Scan with the Wi-Fi off. Ask how gate scanning behaves when the connection drops, and how it syncs back.
- Build your real ticket list. Family tickets, concessions, carers, school groups and an add-on. Watch how long it takes and what the guest sees on a phone.
- Redeem a reseller ticket. Scan a Tiqets or GetYourGuide voucher at the gate and see how it appears in your reports.
- Change a price for a holiday weekend. Then check it updated on every channel.
- Ask who pays the booking fee. Is it added to the guest's price or taken from your payout, and can you choose?
Where TicketingHub fits, and where it doesn't
TicketingHub suits attractions that sell timed entry online, at a ticket desk and through resellers, and want one price for every channel:
- Timed entry with a capacity per slot, shared live across your website, ticket desk and resellers.
- The TicketingHub Outpost app (iOS and Android) for selling and scanning at the gate. Scanning keeps working offline; selling and card payments need a connection. It works with SumUp, Zettle and Stripe Tap to Pay, ticket printers from Star and Sunmi, and turnstiles.
- Reseller connections to Viator, GetYourGuide, Airbnb and Rezdy, plus OCTO-connected partners and others through a channel manager. See our Tiqets, Headout and Klook pages.
- Pricing by date and season, early-bird prices, gift vouchers and a booking widget in 23 languages.
It's not the right fit if you need built-in memberships with member cards, Gift Aid claims, or food, drink and retail tills in the same system. Venues that need those often look at ROLLER or an enterprise system such as Ventrata. For more on attraction-specific setups, see attraction booking software and heritage site booking software.
