How Much Does It Cost To Build An Event Ticket Booking App?

People love going out and having fun. Not everyone can afford a weekend trip out of the station.

These are the two factualities that the event planning and, specifically, the event ticket booking market is based on.

The factualities that are single-handedly holding the uprising demand for the online event ticket booking market on applications and websites.

Let’s talk about the industry in detail in this article, specifically from the front of technicalities and the event management and ticket booking app development cost.

What the Event Management App Development Market Looks like?

Currently, the online event management app development market is growing at a rapid speed as people seem to be much more interested in booking online tickets than offline. As per reports, the online events ticketing market size was valued at $56.36 billion in 2021 and is expected to touch the valuation of $74.67 billion from the year 2022 to 2027, at a CAGR of 4.8%.

Which smartphone utilization at its peak, online ticket sales have found their own popularity due to the flexibility and convenience of the process. The event organizers or service providers are now developing appealing and user-friendly mobile interfaces that have resulted in faster and quicker ticket purchases without any hassle. 

Also, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has boosted the sales of online ticket booking, thereby increasing the demand for mobile event app development.

Why does your Event Management Business Need an App?

Event ticket booking apps are now becoming significant as people want the ease of accessing the information on their mobile devices. Besides offering event information, the event app owner can decide the level of creativity which needs to be applied to ensure high engagement of the users. Currently, there are several options like splash screens, interactive exhibitor maps, banners, coupons, notifications, discounts, multiple events, single events, social activity feeds, and much more, all of which come in the events ticket booking system. 

The online ticket sales app works best for the event organizing business. Such businesses can easily leverage the power of an event organizer app meant to cater to the specific requirements of the customers. Here are some of the major advantages that an event management app has to offer.

1. Managing Team

For making an event successful, team management is of utmost importance. With the help of an event management mobile application or event planning app, you can do it in a better way. For proper team management, you would require the involvement of your crew members, managers, logistics supervisors, onsite coordinators, tradesmen, and other team members. An event planning app can help you to synchronize your team better.

2. Boosts Users’ Interest in Events

An event planning app is one of the best tools for creating a buzz amongst your users to attend an event. With the help of an event app development company, you can build an intuitive and appealing event management mobile app that can create hype about a particular event before its commencement among the audience. In case you need to update any specific information,  you can do it directly through push notifications and keep your users informed.

3. Easy Supervision

With event planner app development, it becomes much smoother and easier for the app owners to supervise an ongoing or upcoming event. As an app owner or organizer, you can easily manage the data of the upcoming events and also handle the team with just a few clicks. 

4. Get Real-Time Analytics

For fine-tuning your online ticket sales app, you need to keep a constant check on the analytics. With the help of the real-time analytics feature, you can improve your user experience and make smart decisions.

Factors that Influence the Cost of Event Ticket Booking App

The event management app development is quite a complex task and before we move on to discuss the cost, features, and other event app-related categories, let’s check out the factors that influence the cost of developing one.

1. Developer’s Experience 

One of the most important factors that influence the event management app development cost is the developers’ skill and expertise involved in the project. The team must have some experience in developing a robust event management mobile application or mobile event app software that generates great RoI.

2. API Integration

API integration will make your online ticket sales app more accessible to a larger group audience. It is one feature that makes the users check in and out of the application. For example, if you integrate your event scheduling platform with a digital wallet, then it becomes easier for the clients to pay for the ticket or book the make directly online. 

API integration will offer you will seamless connectivity that will allow you to automate your business processes by sharing embedded data between the systems and applications. However, this will increase the overall cost of developing an event ticket booking app.

3. App Platform 

Another factor in the cost estimation part of your mobile event app development is the app platform that you choose. Most event management applications are either developed in Android or iOS or both. In case you want your users to have the accessibility of your online ticket sales app on all devices, then you can choose cross-platform app development. Depending on the type of platform you choose, your event management app development cost would differ. 

4. UX and UI

An eye-catching event planning app with a straightforward UI and UX is something that would make you stand out in the crowd. The type of user interface you choose will determine the cost of developing your event planning app. 

The interfaces are generally more costly than the usual ones, so depending upon the type of UI or UX you plan to opt for, your app will show its performance. It is better to choose an interface that actually goes with all your requirements rather than choosing between the costly and cheap ones.

5. Chatbots

Communication is now an integral part of our daily lives, and we rely on devices to stay connected with our peers. The same happens in business too. We are connected to our customers with a messaging platform that is better actually managed by the bots. In fact, bot texting is re-shaping the relationship between the customers and the service providers. Owing to its immense benefits, a chatbot can pay off for sure. Also, you need to keep on optimizing the bots to enhance the user experience.

6. Safety and Security

The security of your customers should be on high priority. Be it a secured database of the customer’s detail or a secured payment gateway, you need to ensure that your event organizer app has it all. If you need an extra layer of protection for your event ticket booking app, you can even go for that; of course, that would incur a bit more expense.

Top Categories for Ticket Booking App Solutions

The entire event management app development services are bolstering every year, owing to the high demand for event ticket booking app solutions. Here is a list of a few popular categories for online event ticket booking. 

Musical Shows

A lot of people are fond of music shows, and currently, there’s a lot of buzz about it. Having an online ticket sales app, you can easily showcase and promote the real talent of singers and musicians and also bring in more revenue to the business by selling tickets online. Your users can get all the details about the timings of the show and live performances, everything on the event booking app.

Sports Shows

Sports event is one of the top industries that will never fade away in terms of popularity and revenue. There are many sports events such as football, baseball, hockey, cricket, basketball, and more for which sports fans buy online tickets. People who are crazy sports fans are always running after booking tickets online, as getting tickets right at the venue is impossible. With an event ticket booking app, your users can get the ease of booking tickets for their favorite sports at their own convenience.

Movie Shows

Gone are the days when people used to stand in queue and purchase tickets for movies. Buying movie tickets online is very popular as people can directly book tickets at their convenience, choosing the preferred movie, time slot, and seat selection. 

Cultural Events

There are various events and activities that often happen in the cities and towns under the regional and cultural categories. Other than that, it also includes picnics, camping, sports, events, parties, art and craft events that are all managed by the local and council communities. With an online ticket sale app, an individual can purchase tickets for cultural events.

Conferences and Seminars

A conference management app also offer tickets for various conferences and seminars that are held by top businesses. People also book events tickets for discussing various topics and conference in seminars which involves mainly college students or business persons.

Top Players in the Event Management Industry

These brands have not just helped maintain the constant demand that the sector is witnessing, but they also have set a growth tangent that a number of entrepreneurs are willing to be a part of.

Now that we have peeked into the event industry in a digital capacity and the top players who have entered the space, the next thing to attend to is a lot more technical.

We are now going to look into the ground level of how ticket booking app development services work.

Starting with the list of the must-have features first.

The Must-Have Features of Event Management and Ticket Booking App

The feature set that entrepreneurs work around to develop event planning and ticket booking apps like Eventbrite or Ticketmaster, while different on the most intricate level, contains elements that are not common but also must-haves.

The starting point of all the features is that when you develop an event planning application, you don’t develop one but two versions of the application –

1. For the users
2. For the App Admin.

Let us look at both of them individually.

User Panel 

An interactive user panel lets your customers book online tickets seamlessly with several other advanced features to explore. 

1. Filter

This function shows the user events or movies according to their varied preferences like location, timing, ratings, etc.

2. Event Listing

The screen would contain a list of all the events and movies happening or showing in a particular city or state.

3. Details of Event

For all the individual events, there would be screens containing the details – the details of the event, the price of the ticket, terms and conditions, etc.

4. Ratings

This is the section of the event page where users can give a rating of the event after having attended it. This is also where they can see what people are talking about at the event.

5. eTicket and mTicket

Every event planning and ticket booking app gives users the functionality to enter their mobile number and email addresses, where the ticket gets sent automatically after they have purchased it.

6. Download Ticket

In addition to the automatic generation of tickets in the face of SMS and emails, users are also given the ease to download the ticket for a much quicker find.

7. GPS

Using this feature, users are easily able to locate the venue and also see the distance between their current location and the venue.

8. Booking History

With this feature, users will be able to view the history of their bookings from inside their application.

9. Settings

The option that is mainly present in the menu option enables the users to view and modify their profile details, check the option of whether they want to be sent a notification or not, and also select their preferred ticket type.

10. Booking Screen

The ticket booking app solution should also factor in a booking screen that would help them select a seat of their choice.

Admin Panel

Being the admin of the event ticket booking system, you will be able to handle and manage all the bookings and registrations with an all-inclusive smart dashboard. 

1. Dashboard

The dashboard feature gives the admin the ease to get a comprehensive look at how the application is performing – the download rate, engagement count, events genre that are getting maximum hits, etc.

2. User Management

This part of the admin side of the app deals with managing the user base. It shows the business what issues users are sharing with the support team and the individual ways they are interacting with the application.

3. Shows Management

One of the most important elements that answer how much it costs to build event management and ticket booking app is the management of shows. Through the feature, admins are able to add events and modify their details.

4. Venue Management

The one thing your partnered mobile event app experts should specialize in is creating a provision for the admins to keep the venue details updated in real-time.

5. Booking Management

The next crucial part of ticket booking app development on the admin side is booking management. This is the feature that helps keep the admin updated with the number of bookings happening on the application and the timing of them.

6. Content Management

This part of the admin app deals with the management of all the content that is live in the application – details of the event, ensuring terms and conditions are updated, etc.

7. Push Notification

This is the section wherein admins enter the notification content and schedule the timing of when it will go out.

Advanced Features to Implement in your Event Scheduling Platform

The core features are the base of your event planning app, but the advanced feature integration into your event planner app development solutions will make your app worthwhile in the market. Here are some of the top advanced features:

Live Audio Streaming 

This is one of the most advanced features that you can implement in your mobile event app. With this additional feature, you can let your users broadcast live videos with high resolution and watch from anywhere, anytime, without any network disturbance. 

Chatbot Assistant 

Currently, AI and co-technologies have occupied the entire mobile app development phase. Almost 90% of mobile apps are now built with AI and ML analytical capabilities. By leveraging such advanced technology features, you can integrate the AI-powered chatbot assistant feature into your event management app. 

These virtual chatbots can respond to your user’s queries 24*7 accurately, along with improving app personalization. These AI chatbots help people in finding the best events in the city.

Creative User Interface

Mobile apps with a simple and plain layout will ensure your users have the best visual experience with no glitches. Also, it increases your audience base in a short span of time. 

Therefore, never go with extra ornamentation or app designs that are too complex to understand or use. Complex mobile apps eat up the user’s time, therefore, leading to frequent uninstallation rates.

QR Code Scanner 

This advanced feature helps the attendees and organizers for quick verification for the in-person events. With QR code scanners, event management companies can easily verify or authenticate the virtual tickets. 

Third-Party Plugins

Going for the integration of third-party plugins like Google Digital Payments, Search Bars, Google Slides, YouTube, and WebView for watching the entire video content will also enhance the functionality of your events ticket booking app.

Now that we have looked into the must-have feature set that goes into answering how much it costs to build an event management and ticket booking app, it is time to look into the next functional element.

Tech Stack Required in an Event Planning App

The toolset or tech stack that we follow to offer Eventbrite-like app development services includes a range of robust backend tools and an intuitive frontend stack. In addition to those, we add APIs that are designed to offer your users a seamless experience throughout.

Here is the complete technology stack for your event management application.

Content Delivery Network- Cloudflare/Amazon CloudFront

Database Systems – Cassandra, HBase, MongoDB, Postgress

Hosting: Amazon EC2

Cloud Environment – AWS, Google, Azure

Email – Mail Chimp Integration

Push Notifications – Twilio, Push.io, Firebase

SMS, Voice, and Phone Verification –Twilio, Nexmo

Payment Services – PayPal, Net banking, Braintree & Stripe, eWallets

Real-time Analytics –Spark, IBM, Cisco, Hadoop, Apache Flink

Map Navigation – Google Maps

UI – BootStrapJS, ReactJS

How Much Does it Cost to Build an Event Management and Ticket Booking App?

The most honest answer to the cost to make a mobile app like Eventbrite, which looks into both management and ticket booking is dependent on a number of factors. Just like your usual mobile app development cost estimate.

But with that said, if you are looking for an event management app that works around the exact list of features that we enlisted above, the cost range can be estimated.

Even if it’s an approximate level.

Now without beating around the bush, let’s give you a clear answer.

The event management and ticket booking app development cost range will fall somewhere in the range of $50,000 and $80,000, considering you are creating the application along the lines of the technology and feature set that we shared.

This cost range is one that includes everything from design to development and maintenance of your mobile app.

Now that we have looked at the event planning software features and prices, it is time to delve into the ways you can earn back the invested amount.

How to Make Money On Your Event Ticket Booking App?

After spending a whopping amount like the one we estimated above, it becomes a little obvious for entrepreneurs to look for ways to make money back and then grow it.

But how do you go about it?

What are the different ways to make money off of your event booking application app?

Well, there are multiple methods that you can apply to earn back the invested money, and that too at a much greater valuation. Methods that are followed by a number of event management industry entrepreneurs are followed.

A. Commission on Ticket:

You can add an additional commission charge on the price of the ticket that your users pay – an amount that the partnered event organizers or cinema hall managers would have to pay.

This is one of the most stable ways to make a profit for the event organizers and hall managers who are always willing to invest in ways to fill in the seats.

B. Advertisement:

You can introduce an advertising model inside the app which would allow you to earn money in return for showing videos or event ads to the customers. You can even introduce an additional mode of in-app advertising payment based on the clicks that the app gets.

C. Event Management Charges:

Although not very common, many businesses offer event management services to their partnered organizers in return for an amount. The idea behind this is that they will deploy their in-house team to manage the event for their partners. Also, they give the option to promote the event to their clients as well.

D. Merchandise Distribution:

While this would require expansion on your front, it can prove to be a great option when you have partnered with organizers who have established themselves immensely in the market.

The way it works is that the official merchandise is put in to be promoted and sold inside your application. The money that the businesses make is on the basis of the commission that they make on every sale.

So here are the four commonly used ways you can earn money at the back of all the efforts and money that your partnered event management app development company and you have put in.

Bottomline

Whether you want to build an event management app with MVP or an advanced app with complex features, the success of your event management mobile app will only depend on the expertise of your mobile app development company. 

Also, if you are worried about the cost, then remember that to ensure your app’s success, you need to implement essential functions and features in your app as they are the backbone of it. You can get in touch with an event management app development company like Appinventiv and get an app ready for scaling.

FAQs

Q. How can you successfully grow your event management app?

A. An event management application can be utilized for managing various aspects of a particular event, right from handling online registration to creating an attendees list. To grow the user base, the event planning apps should also offer their users a free trial period that would include a few freemium features in exchange for their email address.

The event ticket booking app should also incorporate a calendar feature that allows users to create a calendar event for the same. It is also important for such event management mobile apps to offer various tools and templates for users who have little or no experience in handling event management applications.

Q. How long does it take to build an event management mobile app?

A. The event planner app development process usually takes around 12 to 14 weeks to build. However, it all depends on the complexity of your application. In case you require highly customized designs with advanced features along with high-end release platforms, then it would take a bit longer to create a fully-scalable and customizable event management application. This also overall influences the overall event management app development cost.

Q. What are some of the risks associated with event ticket booking app development?

A. An event and conference management app faces various risks related to users’ safety, payment transactions, management of personal information, and other legal and logistical challenges when it comes to handling events on a large scale. 

Therefore, it is important to have strong authentication and an end-to-end secured mechanism to ensure the users’ safety. You also need to implement a strong security protocol and fraud prevention mechanism in your event management app so that the users can make secured payments through online gateways.

Q. What are the types of event organizer apps?

A. Event ticket booking apps and their role are versatile. They can be utilized for several purposes. Let’s check the various types of mobile event applications meant for various platforms:

• Event apps for professional business meetings: With conference app development, businesses can now organize meets, conferences, and seminars in both offline and online modes. This type of conference management app allows organizers to offer a hybrid experience to the participants. 

For instance, Bizzabo is one of the best examples of an all-in-one event platform. It ensures a great virtual event experience. This app even allows the event organizers to interact and engage with the attendees with in-app chats, virtual polls, and social media sharing features. 

• Personal event app development: These are also known as the local event organizing apps that allow the event organizers to perfectly plan, promote, implement and deliver highly engaging, in-person, virtual event experiences to all the attendees.
• Event organizing app for festivities: Event booking apps for celebrating festivals are one of the most impressive events app categories. These types of apps notify the festival celebration that is organized at local spaces. Thus, the users never miss out on any particular festival occasion. One of the best examples of a festival event app is the Sched app. This application is suitable for organizing festivals, theme-based occasions, and professional conferences. People can book their space, register, and collaborate with other people virtually.

Q. What are some of the benefits of an event management mobile application?

A. Event management applications have notable benefits. Here are some of them:

• An event ticket booking app helps you boost the online ticket sales of your business. 
• An event organizer app helps you to keep your team organized and avoid miscommunication. 
• The app also enables you to schedule numerous occasions with ease. 
• It also allows the users the comfort of booking events, movies, and shows at their own convenience.

THE AUTHOR

Sudeep Srivastava

Co-Founder and Director