Little Box Office vs TryBooking
TryBooking and Little Box Office are both capable ticketing platforms for events, performances, fundraisers, attractions and other activities.
Both offer online and in-person ticket sales, reserved seating, reporting, customer data, event-day tools and integrations. The key differences are pricing, control over the customer-facing experience, and the level of support and involvement you want from your ticketing provider.
TryBooking focuses on accessible, self-service ticketing. Little Box Office combines broad functionality with a more hands-on service and greater control over the ticketing experience.
The Quick Answer.
When to choose TryBooking: TryBooking is a capable, self-service ticketing platform with straightforward pay-as-you-go pricing. It suits organisations that are happy to manage their own setup. It has a strong range of event features, including reserved seating, table plans, timed sessions, memberships and donations. Its standard pricing works out cheaper, especially for small events. It offers UK-based phone, email and chat support.
When to choose Little Box Office: LBO is designed for organisations that want a more hands-on service and more control over the ticketing their customers see. Ticketing can be built into your own web presence, with custom-domain options and a full website builder, rather than sitting on a TryBooking URL. LBO also offers wider functionality, including CRM, season tickets, dynamic pricing, custom reporting and an extensive range of integrations. Onboarding, data migration and training are included, with phone and email support seven days a week. For most clients fees start at around 4%, with considerably lower rates for large businesses, which makes LBO very price competitive.
Comparison at a Glance.
Little Box Office
Around 4% all-inclusive, with lower rates for larger organisations
Greater control over the ticketing environment and integration with your own website; full CMS capability
Custom-domain options and integration with your own web presence
Broad integration ecosystem and advanced operational functionality
Onboarding and migration
Seven-day phone and email support, with hands-on onboarding and training
TryBooking
Standard: 5% + 15p per paid ticket. With Stripe: 75p per ticket plus Stripe processing fees.
Branded event pages, embedded booking and a White Label URL option
Standard event URLs use the TryBooking domain
Selected integrations include Xero, Google Analytics, Meta and TikTok
Self-service setup
UK-based phone, email and chat support
Features
Little Box Office
TryBooking
Around 4% all-inclusive, with lower rates for larger organisations
Standard: 5% + 15p per paid ticket. With Stripe: 75p per ticket plus Stripe processing fees.
Greater control over the ticketing environment and integration with your own website; full CMS capability
Branded event pages, embedded booking and a White Label URL option
Custom-domain options and integration with your own web presence
Standard event URLs use the TryBooking domain
Broad integration ecosystem and advanced operational functionality
Selected integrations include Xero, Google Analytics, Meta and TikTok
Onboarding and migration
Self-service setup
Seven-day phone and email support, with hands-on onboarding and training
UK-based phone, email and chat support
Branding and customer experience.
TryBooking gives organisers good control over the appearance of their event pages. You can add your own branding and use a White Label URL to remove TryBooking's header and logo. You can also embed its event pages and booking process into your own website.
The distinction is that the event remains within the TryBooking platform and its standard event URL is generated by TryBooking.
LBO gives organisations greater ownership of the ticketing environment itself. Ticketing can be integrated into the organisation's own web presence without requiring web development, helping the customer journey feel like part of the organisation rather than a separate third-party service.
For organisations where brand consistency and control over the customer journey matter, this is a significant difference.
Functionality and integrations.
Both platforms offer much more than basic ticket sales.
TryBooking supports reserved seating, table plans, timed sessions, memberships, donations, custom forms, discount codes, reporting, mobile scanning and in-person sales.
LBO offers these core capabilities alongside features including season tickets, sophisticated seating, access control, customer segmentation, targeted email, custom reporting, dynamic pricing, refund protection and a broader integration ecosystem.
TryBooking integrates with services including Xero, Google Analytics, Meta, TikTok and its API.
Which Platform is Cheaper?
Little Box Office clients generally start at around 4% of ticket sales, with lower rates available for larger organisations. The agreed rate includes payment processing, with no setup fee, monthly platform fee or per-user charges.
TryBooking's standard UK pricing is 5% + 15p per paid ticket, including payment processing. Its alternative Stripe Connect model is 75p per ticket + Stripe processing fees.
Face value
£40.00
£100.00
LBO fees
£2.40
£5.70
TryBooking standard fees
£2.30
£5.60
TryBooking with Stripe fees
£2.30
£4.70
Order
Face value
LBO fees
TryBooking standard fees
TryBooking with Stripe fees
£40.00
£2.40
£2.30
£2.30
£100.00
£5.70
£5.60
£4.70
(Based on LBO's standard 4% rate. Larger organisations pay less than shown here).
How we calculated this:
LBO: 4% platform fee + 1.5% + £0.20 per order (standard UK Stripe processing). 4% is our starting rate for most clients; larger organisations are offered lower rates, so this will affect the comparison significantly.
TryBooking standard fees: 5% + £0.15 per paid ticket.
TryBooking with Stripe fees: £0.75 per paid ticket + 1.5% + £0.20 per order (standard UK Stripe processing).
(Note: These are worked examples on the same face-value order, not a personalised quote, sourced from LBO and TryBooking pricing pages).
Payments and support.
With LBO, ticket revenue goes directly into the connected payment account as tickets are sold, with the LBO fee charged according to the agreed rate.
TryBooking's standard model processes payments through TryBooking. Its Stripe Connect option sends payments directly to the organiser's Stripe account.
Both provide human support. TryBooking offers UK-based phone, email and chat support. LBO provides seven-day phone and email support, together with onboarding, training and live data migration.
The difference is therefore not simply support, but how much of the implementation and ongoing ticketing operation you want your provider to handle with you.
Already on sale on TryBooking? No problem.
Switching to Little Box Office is straightforward. Our team handles the onboarding, data migration and setup with you, including live customer and event data, so you can move across without having to rebuild everything yourself. We’ll help configure the system, train your team and support you through going live.
Which approach might suit you?
TryBooking
Straightforward self-service ticketing
Cheaper for small organisations
Strong range of event features
Ticketing embedded into your existing website
For organisations happy to manage their own setup
Little Box Office
Rates start around 4%, with lower rates for larger organisations.
Greater control over the customer-facing ticketing experience
Extensive selection of integrations
Wide range functionality such as CRM, customisable reports and website builder
Included onboarding, migration and training
One-to-one customer human support
FAQs
Little Box Office provides a more hands-on service, greater control over the customer-facing ticketing environment, wider functionality and and extensive range of integrations.
Your next step.
Ask us anything we haven't covered, or book a demo to see the platform in action.