Event ticketing

How to Connect Square to SimpleTix and Start Selling Tickets

  • Vikram Bodas
    by Vikram Bodas • April 16, 2026

How to Connect Square to SimpleTix and Start Selling Tickets

If you need square ticketing that works for online sales and the box office, you do not need a messy setup. You need a way to connect Square to SimpleTix and manage online and onsite ticket sales in one workflow.

Square can make sense for organizers who already use Square hardware or want to accept gift cards and catalog upsells. Meanwhile, SimpleTix gives you the ticketing layer: timed entry, season passes, reserved seating, check-in tools, and simple pricing at $0.79 + 2% per ticket, with no contracts or subscriptions.

Why use square ticketing with SimpleTix

The main reason is simple. You get Square for payments and POS tools, plus SimpleTix for event ticketing.

That matters if you sell more than basic admission. For example, you might need season tickets, timed entry, Flex Passes, or onsite scanning. You may also want online checkout and in-person sales to work together instead of feeling patched together.

Common use cases include:

  1. Farms and agritourism spots selling timed admissions and add-ons
  2. Attractions that need re-entry or multi-use passes
  3. Venues that sell online, at the door, and through staff devices
  4. Festivals handling rushes at gates and box office windows
  5. Organizations already using Square hardware for in-person sales

If that sounds familiar, this is the kind of square ticketing workflow worth setting up.

What you can do after you connect Square

Once connected, you can use Square with SimpleTix for POS, gift cards, and catalog upsells.

On the SimpleTix side, you also get tools built for ticketing, including:

  • General admission with timed entry and capacity management
  • Reserved seating with interactive seat maps
  • Season tickets for GA and reserved events
  • Flex Pass with attendee photo verification
  • Promo codes, BOGO offers, and quantity discounts
  • Waitlists and abandoned cart recovery emails
  • Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passes
  • Offline scanning through the Organizer app
  • Point-of-sale mode for in-person sales

How to set up square ticketing in SimpleTix

The flow is straightforward.

1. Create your event in SimpleTix

Start with the event itself. Choose the event type that matches how you sell.

You can set up:

  • General Admission for timed entry
  • Reserved Seating for assigned seats
  • Season Tickets for repeat attendance
  • Flex Pass for multi-use or re-entry access

Timed entry can be useful if you want to spread arrivals and control capacity.

2. Connect your Square account

Next, connect Square inside your SimpleTix account. This step ties your payment setup to your ticketing workflow.

If you already use Square for onsite sales, you can keep using Square hardware while SimpleTix handles the event logic.

3. Match your selling flow to your event

Now decide how people will buy. Most organizers need more than one path.

A simple setup might include:

  • Online checkout from your website
  • Box office sales for walk-ups
  • Staff sales from mobile devices
  • Upsells from your Square catalog
  • Gift card acceptance at checkout or POS

That mix is where square ticketing becomes practical.

4. Test a full purchase before launch

Do one online test order. Then do one in-person test sale.

Check the basics:

  • Payment goes through
  • Ticket confirmation email arrives
  • Mobile or PDF ticket looks right
  • Wallet pass options appear if enabled
  • Scanner reads the ticket
  • Staff permissions look correct

This step helps you catch problems before launch. It also gives staff a real example to practice with.

Best square ticketing use cases

Not every organizer uses Square the same way. That said, a few setups come up often.

Season passes and memberships

If you sell repeat access, SimpleTix gives you season tickets for both GA and reserved seating. Memberships can also be sold online and at the box office.

This is useful for venues, attractions, and community organizations. For example, you can offer member-only pricing or complimentary tickets for certain tiers.

Onsite sales with Square hardware

Some events do most of their volume at the gate. Others still need fast walk-up sales even if online presales are strong.

SimpleTix has point-of-sale mode and works with Square hardware. That gives staff a way to handle in-person sales without using a separate ticketing process.

Farms, attractions, and timed admissions

This is a common fit for square ticketing. Farms and attractions often need timed entry, add-ons, and flexible onsite sales.

Festivals and high-volume entry

Festivals often need presales, gate sales, and fast scanning. Staff may also be spread across entrances and sales points.

SimpleTix supports offline scanning, scan-only mode, and hardware scanner support.

Common setup mistakes to avoid

A Square connection is only part of the job. The bigger issue is usually workflow.

Here are the mistakes that cause trouble:

1. Selling tickets without testing onsite scanning

Do not assume checkout is the finish line. If scanning fails at the gate, your line backs up fast.

Instead, test with the exact devices your team will use. Also test offline mode if your venue has weak service.

2. Forgetting staff roles and permissions

Too many people with full access creates risk. Too few permissions slows down sales.

SimpleTix includes user role management. Set staff access before doors open, not during the rush.

3. Skipping add-ons and upsells

If you already use Square catalog items, use them. For instance, parking, merch, tastings, or feed cups can raise order value without adding friction.

4. Using one sales plan for every event type

A reserved-seat theater show is not a timed-entry attraction. A season pass setup is also different from a one-night event.

Pick the event structure first. Then build the payment and POS flow around it.

Tips to make square ticketing work better

Once the basics are live, improve the setup with a few small moves.

Send your first sales email early

Start promoting before doors open, then follow up with reminder emails as the event gets closer.

SimpleTix supports email blasts and automated reminder emails.

Add custom attendee questions only if you need them

Every extra field adds friction. So only ask for information you will actually use.

For example, ask for arrival date, waiver details, or membership ID if it matters operationally. Otherwise, keep checkout short.

Use timed entry to smooth arrivals

If people all show up at once, staffing gets expensive fast. Timed entry helps spread load across the day.

That can be especially helpful for farms, museums, and holiday attractions.

Train staff on one real sale and one real scan

Do not hand staff a login and hope for the best. Instead, run a five-minute practice session.

Have each person complete one sale and one scan. They will make fewer mistakes when the line forms.

Is SimpleTix a good fit for square ticketing?

If you already use Square, want onsite sales, or need more than a basic checkout page, SimpleTix is worth a look. It fills the ticketing gap without adding contracts or subscriptions.

It is a strong option if you need timed entry, season passes, reserved seating, Flex Passes, or easy box office tools. You can also pass fees to attendees or absorb them yourself, and there are no fees on free events.

If you want a simpler way to run square ticketing, SimpleTix is built for that.

Latest News

Related Articles

Editors pick

Eventbrite Pricing 2026: Fees, Refunds & What’s Actually Changed

  • Vikram Bodas
    by Vikram Bodas • July 8, 2026

Eventbrite pricing 2026 is a lot for event organizers to sort through. There are longstanding policies that quietly cost paid-event operators real money, and there is genuine news under new ownership. This guide covers what the fees actually cost you today, what actually changed under the Bending Spoons acquisition, and how the alternatives compare on real numbers. Below is the honest breakdown, sourced to Eventbrite's own pricing page and SEC filings. Eventbrite pricing 2026: current fee structure As of 2026, Eventbrite charges 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket for the service fee, plus 2.9% for payment processing. In-person sales carry a $1 + 2.9% fee. There is no per-ticket fee cap. For a quick benchmark of total organizer-side fees: On a $25 ticket, fees total about $3.44 (13.8%) On a $50 ticket, fees total about $5.09 (10.2%) On a $100 ticket, fees total about $8.39 (8.4%) On a $500 ticket, fees total about $34.79 (7.0%) On a $1,000 ticket, fees total about $67.79 (6.8%) The fees scale with ticket price with no ceiling. That is the story for anyone selling premium tickets, season passes, VIP tiers, or corporate packages. Eventbrite pricing 2026: no per-ticket fee cap Eventbrite does not cap total ticket fees. This has been true since 2018, when Eventbrite removed the previous cap during its IPO. For most organizers selling everyday tickets ($20 to $50), the absence of a cap rarely comes up in the math. But for organizers selling premium tickets, the uncapped structure translates into real per-event cost. Take a conference selling three ticket tiers on Eventbrite: $150 general admission: fee about $12.34 (8.2%) $400 VIP ticket: fee about $27.09 (6.8%) $800 sponsor ticket: fee about $50.90 (6.4%) For a 200-person conference with a mix of GA and VIP tickets, that translates into hundreds of dollars...

Editors pick

Haunted House Ticketing Software: Timed Entry, Scanning & Capacity Control for 2026

  • Vikram Bodas
    by Vikram Bodas • July 8, 2026

If you run a haunted attraction, October is your Super Bowl. So how you sell tickets from June through September decides how the whole season goes. This guide covers what haunted house ticketing software actually needs to do in 2026, how to pick one, and what SimpleTix costs for haunts of any size. What haunted house ticketing software needs to do Selling haunted house tickets is not like selling concert tickets. First, capacity is measured in throughput per hour, not in seats. Second, weather can shut you down without warning. Third, most of your revenue happens across three or four weekends. And fourth, your staff is often in costume at 9pm in a field with spotty cell service. So the ticketing software has to handle all of that. Here is the checklist most haunt operators use: Timed entry with per-slot capacity control so lines stay manageable Fast scanning at the gate, including offline mode for outdoor venues Re-entry passes for multi-attraction ticketing Add-ons for photos, upcharges, VIP fast-pass Group and family bundles so a family of five is one checkout, not five Waitlists for when peak-hour slots sell out Attendee wallet passes so guests are not fumbling for paper Same-day or fast payouts during the season crunch If your current tool cannot do all of that, it is worth switching now. The last thing you want is to be debugging your ticketing at 8pm on the first weekend of October. How does timed entry work for haunted houses? Timed entry lets you release a fixed number of tickets per time slot (typically every 15 or 30 minutes) so guests arrive in waves instead of a single 7pm crush. For a walkthrough haunt with a 45-minute experience, that usually means 20 to 40 guests per 15-minute window. So over a four-hour...

Eventbrite Alternative

Partiful Just Launched Ticketing: What Event Organizers Need to Know

  • Vikram Bodas
    by Vikram Bodas • June 5, 2026

Partiful just launched ticketing. As of June 2, 2026, hosts can now sell tickets directly inside the Partiful app on iOS, Android, and web. Initially, the feature is rolling out to U.S. hosts. Then broader availability is planned in the coming months. If you have run events before, you probably already know Partiful. It is the social-first invitation platform with millions of monthly active users. Until now, every paid event on Partiful had to push guests off-platform to actually buy a ticket. So this launch closes that gap. But here is the question every event organizer needs to ask. Is Partiful's new ticketing the right platform for your event? Or is it built for a different kind of host? Below is the honest breakdown. What Partiful Ticketing actually does Partiful's launch covers the basics every casual social host needs: Ticket tiers with multiple pricing levels Capacity limits to cap attendance Promo codes for special guest pricing QR code check-in at the door SMS notifications to attendees Staff permissions so bouncers or co-hosts can check guests in Sales tracking for real-time payouts and attendance Also, payment processing runs through Stripe. Then payouts are available roughly three days after the event ends. Meanwhile, free tickets carry no fees. Paid ticket fees scale with event size and ticket price. So Partiful shows hosts the exact fee during setup, and hosts can pass it on or absorb it. CEO Shreya Murthy framed the launch this way: "Ticketing has always lived outside the social experience of an event — you buy a ticket somewhere else, then figure out who's going. We think that's backwards." So if your event lives or dies on word of mouth and the "who else is going" dynamic, Partiful's pitch is real. The platform is built around social discovery, dynamic invites,...

Sell More Tickets—More Easily

Attractions, seasonal events, performing arts centers and festivals love SimpleTix because it makes selling tickets… Simple!

GET STARTED FOR FREE