Little Box Office vs Spektrix
Which platform fits your venue?
Spektrix and Little Box Office are both established ticketing platforms used by theatres, arts organisations, attractions, festivals and other event organisers. They both offer CRM, marketing and donations, and offer advanced ticketing tools to manage complex venues with a wide range of requirements.
They, however, take rather different approaches. Spektrix is geared towards clients with large box office teams and high turnover. They also have a sizeable community of users, some of whom are large enough to send staff to attend events and network with each other. Little Box Office focuses on providing mid-sized organisations with small admin teams powerful ticketing tools, straightforward implementation and a close working relationship with the people behind the system.
Spektrix headline rates look very attractive (2% or even less) versus most providers, but accessing these rates requires separate implementation costs and are subject to minimum annual charges (£12.5k or higher). When all these are taken into consideration, Spektrix’s pricing remains competitive for large organisations, however Little Box Office’s pricing is better for smaller, mid-sized clients.
Spektrix implementation costs include, in most cases, the development of a bespoke website with budgets of £5k to £10k and often more. This website will also be subject to recurring hosting and maintenance charges. Dedicated hardware such as high-end printers and scanners is also required.
Little Box Office functionality includes full website building capability (CMS) with no integration, maintenance and hosting costs. Furthermore, LBO’s software is compatible with any printer from BOCA to small Citizen label. Scanning works on most (iOS and Android) phones or dedicated scanning devices and even allows offline scanning. The vast majority of LBO clients use the hardware they already have.
With an annual turnover in ticket sales of £500k we are probably on par percentage wise but when you include the integration, maintenance and hosting costs, we are still cheaper. The lower your turnover, the more competitive we are. For example, at £100k LBO (4%) is £4k, while Spektrix is £12.5k.
The Quick Answer.
Spektrix: A comprehensive platform with a large community of users, extensive opportunities to learn from other organisations using the system.
Little Box Office: A ticketing platform offering the same range of functionality, with a simpler approach to setup and day-to-day use, greater control over the website and checkout experience, flexible reporting and a closer relationship with the support team.
The most important differences are cost, website control, ease of implementation, reporting and the level of day-to-day flexibility you get from the system.
Comparison at a Glance.
Little Box Office
Rates start around 4%, with lower rates for larger organisations.
Full website CMS included.
Build and schedule your own formatted reports.
Short training for different roles, plus on-demand one-to-one sessions and resources.
Works with all printers and most mobile devices.
Direct relationship with the LBO team.
No contract or exit fee.
TicketSource
Revenue-based pricing (1.4% to 2%) with a minimum annual charge; current G-Cloud listing shows £12,500 to £250,000 per year.
Spektrix-hosted subsite or checkout integrated in third-party website.
Standard reports plus custom reporting; requires Spektrix staff to create these.
Upfront extensive training programme.
Only supports a limited range of hardware.
Support and consultancy provided by a large support team.
Contract with no data extraction charge on exit.
Features
Little Box Office
TicketSource
Rates start around 4%, with lower rates for larger organisations.
Revenue-based pricing (1.4% to 2%) with a minimum annual charge; current G-Cloud listing shows £12,500 to £250,000 per year.
Full website CMS included.
Spektrix-hosted subsite or checkout integrated in third-party website.
Build and schedule your own formatted reports.
Standard reports plus custom reporting; requires Spektrix staff to create these.
Short training for different roles, plus on-demand one-to-one sessions and resources.
Upfront extensive training programme.
Works with all printers and most mobile devices.
Only supports a limited range of hardware.
Direct relationship with the LBO team.
Support and consultancy provided by a large support team.
No contract or exit fee.
Contract with no data extraction charge on exit.
Pricing.
Little Box Office rates start at around 4% of ticket sales and with considerably lower rates for larger organisations.
Spektrix uses a tailored commercial model based on factors including revenue and ticket volume. Its current UK Government Digital Marketplace listing gives a price range of £12,500 to £250,000 per unit per year, while its pricing documentation gives examples of revenue-based service charges that reduce as volume increases.
But the percentage is only part of the cost. Spektrix implementation can add £5,000–£10,000 or more, and organisations using an external website can also have ongoing integration, maintenance and hosting costs. Spektrix does offer a hosted subsite, but this is a relatively basic option and most organisations that want a fully developed website experience will need an external website. In addition, the investment in printers and scanners will be significant as only a small number of high-end industry-standard are supported.
For an organisation processing £100,000 a year, for example, an LBO rate of 4% would be £4,000, compared with the Spektrix minimum of £12,500 before additional website and implementation costs.
At around £250,000, an LBO rate of 3.5% would be £8,750, compared with the £12,500 Spektrix minimum before those additional costs.
At around £500,000, the percentage cost may be more comparable, but once integration, maintenance and hosting costs are included, LBO can still be cheaper.
The important point is not simply which percentage looks lower. It is what the annual cost actually works out to for your organisation, including the cost of getting the system integrated and running.
Website and checkout.
This is one of the clearest practical differences between the platforms.
Little Box Office includes a full website CMS as part of the platform. Organisations can customise layouts, the booking journey, design, terminology and customer communications, with a full API available when a more bespoke integration is required.
Spektrix provides a hosted subsite or an integrated checkout. Styling can be customised, but the underlying checkout structure and customer journey remain more constrained. Most organisations end up paying for a custom website that integrates with Spektrix. The hosted subsite provides a basic option, but organisations wanting a more developed website experience will generally need an external site and the associated integration, maintenance and hosting costs.
For organisations that want their ticketing experience to feel like a natural part of their own website, rather than a separate ticketing system, LBO gives them more control.
That can also reduce the need for an additional web development project to get the ticketing experience looking and working exactly as required.
Training and getting started.
Both platforms provide training and support but structure it differently to match their target audience. The difference is the amount of time staff may need to spend initially to learn the system. Spektrix’s clients with larger dedicated box office teams can commit to days or even weeks to a training programme. LBO clients are less likely to have staff available for full-time training and can only commit to shorter sessions that can be completed when required.
With LBO, typical training is around 30 minutes for front-of-house staff and up to three hours for system administrators and box office managers, supplemented by short on-demand video modules and live support whenever required.
Spektrix provides a much more extensive training programme. Front-of-house training can involve several hours, while administrator training can take considerably longer, with larger clients sometimes undertaking several weeks of training before being signed off to manage the system themselves.
The question is not whether Spektrix and Little Box Office provide training. We both do. The question is how much time your team is able to spend learning and administering the system before starting selling tickets.
Reporting.
Both platforms provide reporting, but LBO takes a particularly self-service approach.
With LBO, users can create as many customised reports as they need. Reports can also be automatically generated and emailed to the people who need them on a daily, weekly or other schedule.
Spektrix provides extensive standard reporting and supports custom reports. However, its documentation says custom reports may need to be updated after platform changes, and some report formatting is handled through its support team rather than created entirely by the customer.
For finance teams, managers and boards, reporting is not just a feature. It is part of the everyday operation of the organisation. LBO puts more of that control directly in the hands of the people using the system.
Hardware.
LBO is designed to work with hardware organisations already have. Tickets can be printed using any printers, from BOCA to small Citizen label printers, while tickets can be scanned using most (iOS and Android) phones or dedicated scanning devices.
Spektrix supports specific ticket printers and scanning hardware from its approved hardware ecosystem.
For a permanent theatre with established equipment, this may not be particularly important. For festivals, temporary venues, pop-up events or organisations wanting to keep hardware costs down, flexibility can make a difference.
Support: people who know you.
Both companies offer knowledgeable support.
Spektrix has invested heavily in support, training and community. Its current community includes 22,000 peers, and it runs online events, user Hubs and networking opportunities where customers can share ideas and learn from one another.
That is a genuine benefit for organisations that value being part of a large professional network.
LBO takes a different approach. The emphasis is on a direct relationship with the LBO team. When you contact us, you're speaking to people who know your organisation, your setup and how you work.
So the choice here isn't between support and no support. It is between a large community and broad consultancy network on one side, and a closer one-to-one relationship with your ticketing provider on the other.
Which approach might suit you?
Spektrix
Lower cost for large organisations > Ticket sales over £500k per year
Known ticketing, CRM, marketing and fundraising platform
Large community of users
User events, networking and professional development
Extensive upfront training and consultancy
Strong choice for organisations that want a known system and value the wider Spektrix community
Little Box Office
Lower cost for smaller and mid-sized organisations
Easy-to-use ticketing, CRM, marketing and fundraising platform
Straightforward implementation and training
Greater control over website and checkout
Self-service reporting and scheduled reports
Flexible hardware requirements
Flexible training options
Direct relationship with the LBO team
How to switch to Little Box Office.
Switching to Little Box Office is straightforward. We've migrated more than 150 organisations and handle the onboarding, data migration and setup with you, including live customer and event data. We'll help configure the system, train your team and support you through going live.
FAQs
For example, at £100,000 of annual ticket sales, an LBO rate of 4% would cost £4,000, compared with the Spektrix minimum of £12,500 before additional website and implementation costs. At £250,000, an agreed LBO rate of 3.5% would cost £8,750, compared with the £12,500 Spektrix minimum before those additional costs.
At higher levels of ticket sales, the percentage difference becomes smaller, but website and other associated costs still need to be considered.
LBO also offers CRM, marketing and fundraising, alongside a full website CMS and ticketing platform.
Spektrix provides a more extensive upfront training programme, with larger clients sometimes undertaking several weeks of training.