Chobble Tickets vs Bookwhen
Bookwhen is a UK booking platform for classes, courses and events, with memberships, class passes and monthly booking allowances. This page compares its pricing, features and data handling with Chobble Tickets.
Open source & flat fee Bookwhen alternative
Chobble Tickets is a booking and ticketing platform whose source code is published, so you can read, change and run your own copy. Bookwhen is not open source and does not offer a self-hosted edition.
Neither platform lists a separate per-ticket platform fee. Bookwhen's subscription plans differ by booking volume and features, while Chobble charges one prepaid hosting price for all current Chobble Tickets features. Payment processing costs extra on both platforms.
Pricing comparison
Bookwhen's pricing page lists the following UK prices, checked on 10 September 2026. The amounts below include the VAT shown on that page; payment processing costs extra.
| Bookwhen plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing | Bookings per month | Team members | Booking pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | £0 | £0 | 50 | 1 | 1 |
| Lite | £14.40 | £144 | 300 | 2 | 1 |
| Standard | £22.80 | £228 | 800 | 5 | 3 |
| Plus | £46.80 | £468 | 1,800 | 10 | 6 |
Free supports free events only. Lite adds payments, discounts, ticket transfers and Zoom integration. Standard adds memberships, class passes, vouchers, reminders, waiting lists and attendance tracking.
Bookwhen also lists custom Enterprise plans and offers charities and non-profits a 20% discount, arranged through support before subscribing. Its plan guide describes a Gold tier with 4,000 monthly bookings, but the public pricing page does not give a price for it.
A booking means one transaction, not one ticket or attendance. Ten people booked together, or several class dates booked in one checkout, count as one booking against the allowance.
Bookwhen's usage guide says temporary booking overuse does not interrupt service. Continued overuse may lead to a request to upgrade; Bookwhen does not automatically upgrade the plan.
Chobble's managed hosting costs £50/year or £5/month, including updates, backup tools, support and all current features. There are no monthly booking limits, feature tiers or per-sale platform fees. Charities, community groups, artists and musicians pay £25/year; this discount does not apply to monthly billing.
Bookwhen's free plan costs less than Chobble's managed hosting for organisers whose free events fit its limits. For paid events, Chobble's annual hosting costs £94 less than Bookwhen Lite's £144 annual price including VAT, before payment processing.
Payment processing
Bookwhen lists no separate per-ticket platform fee, but online payments carry processing charges. Its updated Stripe integration uses rates set by Bookwhen, so Stripe's standard pricing may not apply. The published UK rates include 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards and 2.8% + 20p for premium UK cards.
Bookwhen says accounts using Stripe before 26 August 2026 are likely still on its legacy integration, where Stripe sets the rates, with migration planned. PayPal is another option with its own processing fees. Free bookings and bookings marked as paid offline carry no processing charge from Bookwhen.
Chobble Tickets sends ticket income directly to your own Stripe, Square or SumUp account. The chosen provider charges its normal rates, separate from Chobble's hosting price.
Feature comparison
Bookwhen's class tools cover ongoing memberships and credits for future sessions. Chobble Tickets handles individual event bookings and packages of specified listings, rather than recurring membership billing or a balance of class credits.
Both platforms share some features
- Free and paid events
- Recurring events and multiple ticket types
- Custom booking questions
- Email confirmations after booking
- Booking exports for use in a spreadsheet
- Booking pages embedded in an existing website
Bookwhen has features Chobble Tickets doesn't
- Memberships: collect recurring membership payments and offer exclusive tickets on Standard and higher plans. Chobble Tickets can collect a one-off membership payment, but does not automatically renew it.
- Class passes: sell credits that customers redeem against future classes on Standard and higher plans. Chobble's packages book specified listings together, rather than providing credits for later use.
- Reminders and waiting lists: Standard and higher plans can send scheduled reminders and notify people when a place becomes available. Chobble Tickets has organiser-sent bulk email, but no built-in scheduled reminders or waiting list.
- Online classes: Lite and higher plans can create Zoom meetings automatically. Standard and higher plans also support protected YouTube and Vimeo event pages. Chobble organisers can send an external meeting link by email, but it has no built-in Zoom meeting creation.
- Telephone support: Plus includes support by requested callback alongside online support. Chobble provides written support rather than a telephone support centre.
Chobble Tickets features and differences
- Your own domain: host bookings at an
address you own. Bookwhen's
URL guide
lets you choose an address under
bookwhen.com; it does not offer hosting on your own domain. - Organiser-only branding: booking pages, tickets and emails carry no Chobble branding. Bookwhen's paid plans let you add your logo, header and colours, but full removal of Bookwhen branding is not documented in its customisation guide.
- A public website: publish content pages, news posts and a contact form alongside bookings. Bookwhen provides hosted booking pages and an embeddable schedule.
- Event management through an API: an API lets other software connect to the platform. Chobble's admin API can create, edit and delete events; Bookwhen's documented API reads public event data.
- Same-product self-hosting: run the complete product on your own infrastructure with no Chobble software fee. Infrastructure and configured services cost extra.
Data ownership
Bookwhen stores booking data as a service provider acting on the organiser's instructions. Its data processing agreement prohibits selling that personal data or using it for unrelated commercial purposes. This is separate from its visitor and account-holder privacy policy, which describes Bookwhen's own marketing.
You can export Bookwhen customer lists, bookings and attendances as CSV files, which open in a spreadsheet. Customer exports include marketing opt-ins. The agreement allows Bookwhen to access personal data to solve technical problems and support queries or keep the service working.
Chobble Tickets encrypts stored names, emails and free-text answers. Reading them requires credentials for an authorised user with a key, including a recovery owner if you enable one. Operational details such as dates, quantities and prices remain readable by the application.
Chobble Tickets lets you download a complete database backup and export event setup as a versioned JSON file, a structured file another Chobble Tickets host can import. The setup export is separate from attendee and payment records; those are included in the database backup.
Ending a paid term
Bookwhen allows cancellation at any time without a cancellation fee. Its plan guide says downgrading to Free keeps paid features until the paid period ends, and annual plans are not refundable. On leaving the service, its data processing agreement gives you 30 days to request return or deletion of personal data in writing.
Chobble uses prepaid hosting, not automatic subscription renewal. It does not store card details to renew a term. If the term ends without renewal, the site enters read-only mode for 24 months, with full read access and exports but no new bookings.
You can restart payments during that period without paying for the read-only months. After 24 months in read-only mode, Chobble deletes the site and database.
When Bookwhen might be the better choice
- You run weekly classes where members pay automatically and book using credits bought in advance.
- You need cancelled places offered to a waiting list and reminders sent without staff sending each message.
- You teach online and want the booking system to create Zoom meetings.
- You run free events within the Free plan's allowances and do not need its paid features.
When Chobble Tickets might be the better choice
- You run events with seasonal peaks in sales and want a hosting price that does not depend on monthly booking volume.
- You want the booking site at your own web address, with information pages and news alongside events.
- You need another system to create and update your event programme.
- You want to move the same ticketing software and its database to another host, or maintain a changed version yourself.
Who runs Bookwhen?
Bookwhen is provided by Bookwhen Ltd, a UK company incorporated on 27 February 2014. Its company number is 08914060.
Chobble Tickets is provided by Chobble, a community interest company. This UK company structure keeps its assets for community benefit, and Chobble does not distribute profits to shareholders.
Sources
These sources were checked on 10 September 2026. Prices and features may change; check the linked pages before choosing a service.
- Bookwhen pricing
- Bookwhen help centre
- Choosing a Bookwhen plan
- Booking allowances and overuse
- Bookwhen Stripe processing rates
- Bookwhen features and exports
- Booking page customisation
- Booking page addresses
- Linked-account class search portal
- Bookwhen API schema
- Bookwhen privacy policy
- Bookwhen data processing agreement
- Bookwhen terms
- Bookwhen Ltd on Companies House
- Chobble Tickets pricing and limits
- Chobble Tickets features