I want to know how Tickera works

Tickera is a self-hosted event ticketing system that lives entirely on your own WordPress site. There’s no SaaS dashboard, no third-party platform, no commission siphoned off your sales. You install one plugin (plus optional add-ons for things like seating charts or WooCommerce integration), and your site becomes a fully functional ticket-selling store — events, tickets, payments, attendees, check-in, all of it. Here’s the full picture.

What Tickera actually does

In plain terms, Tickera turns any WordPress site into a ticket store. You create an event, you create one or more ticket types (General Admission, VIP, Early Bird, whatever), you embed a “buy tickets” widget on a page, and customers can purchase. The plugin handles:

• Event records (date, venue, description, image)
• Ticket types and pricing
• Cart and checkout flow (built in, or via WooCommerce if you prefer)
• Payment processing through your own gateway (Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.Net, etc.)
• PDF ticket generation with QR codes and barcodes
• Confirmation emails with ticket attached
• Attendee records (each ticket is tied to a named attendee)
• Check-in at the door using the Checkinera mobile or web apps
• Reporting on sales, attendees, check-in status, revenue

You control everything from your standard WordPress dashboard — no separate login, no separate platform.

Why “self-hosted” matters

Because Tickera runs on your own site:

• You keep 100% of ticket revenue minus your payment processor’s fee. Tickera takes 0% commission, forever.
• Funds settle to your own payment gateway account. There’s no middleman holding the money. See all supported gateways.
• You own the customer relationship and the data. Attendees are users on your site, not strangers on someone else’s platform. Read where customer data is stored.
• You set your own branding. The whole thing looks like part of your site because it is part of your site.

This is the structural difference between Tickera and platforms like Eventbrite. Eventbrite is great if you want to plug into a marketplace and don’t mind giving up a cut and the brand experience. Tickera is the opposite — you do more of the setup, you keep all the upside.

Getting started, step by step

1. Install

Buy a license on the pricing page (or grab the free version from WordPress.org to test the waters). Install and activate it the usual way — upload to your site, click Activate.

2. Run the setup wizard

The first time you activate Tickera, a setup wizard appears. It walks you through:

• Naming your ticket store
• Choosing a currency
• Picking and configuring a payment gateway
• Setting up the basic store pages (cart, checkout, my-account)

Five minutes, no decisions you can’t change later.

3. Create your first event

Go to Tickera → Events → Add New. Enter the title, dates, venue, description, featured image. Save. The event is now a published item on your site. (See creating an event for the full walkthrough.)

4. Create ticket types

For that event, create one or more ticket types — General Admission $25, VIP $75, Student $15, etc. Each has its own price, quantity available, sale window. (See ticket types documentation.)

At this point, technically, you’re already ready to sell. The next step is just making the tickets visible to your visitors.

5. Add a buy widget to a page

Drop a Tickera shortcode or Gutenberg block onto your event page (or any page — landing page, homepage, dedicated tickets page). Visitors see the ticket types and a buy button. Full list of shortcodes and blocks.

6. Watch tickets sell

When someone completes checkout:

1. Their payment is processed by your gateway (the money goes straight to your account)
2. Tickera generates a unique PDF ticket per attendee, with a QR code and barcode
3. An email goes out to the buyer with the ticket attached (and/or a download link)
4. An order record and attendee record are created in your WordPress dashboard

You can customize ticket layouts (logo, fonts, colours, fields) in the ticket template builder.

7. Check attendees in at the event

On the day of the event, scan tickets with one of the Checkinera check-in apps:

• Checkinera mobile apps for Android and iOS — use your phone camera to scan QR/barcodes.
• Checkinera web app — turns any browser (laptop, tablet) into a check-in station.

Each scan validates the ticket in real time against your site’s database. Valid? Wave them in. Already used? You see “already checked in at 19:42” and you can decide what to do. Invalid? You see why.

Add-ons for when the basics aren’t enough

Tickera’s core does straightforward event ticketing well. The 25+ official add-ons handle the special cases:

• Seating Charts — interactive floor plans for theatres, cinemas, stadiums, banquet halls
• Bridge for WooCommerce — sell tickets through your existing WooCommerce store
• Custom Forms — collect custom info from each attendee at checkout
• Event Listing — display a paginated, filterable list of upcoming events
• Event Calendar — a calendar widget showing your upcoming events
• CSV Export — bulk export of attendees and orders
• Mailchimp, Sendloop, Customer Connect — sync attendees to your email marketing
• Restricted Content — gate parts of your site behind a valid ticket purchase

Start simple, add as you grow.

Try it before you buy

If you want to see Tickera in action with real settings, real events and real check-out flows, request a playground account: tickera.com/playground-request/. We send you login credentials to a fully functional Tickera site where you can break things, change settings, create test events, run mock check-outs — exactly as you would on your own production site. No card details required for the playground.

You can also browse live theme demos to see what the buyer flow looks like with various event themes applied.

Related questions

• Does Tickera require WooCommerce?
• Where is my event and customer data stored?
• Can I include QR and barcode on the ticket?
• Which theme should I use with Tickera?