Little Box Office vs TicketSource
Which platform fits your venue?
Both Little Box Office (LBO) and TicketSource provide highly capable ticketing tools for UK event organisers. Choosing between them usually comes down to the scale of your operation and how much control you need over your branding, reporting, and box office logistics.
Here is an objective look at how the two compare, so you can decide which setup works best for your next run of shows.
The Quick Answer.
When to choose TicketSource: TicketSource is an accessible, functional platform that is well-suited for beginners, one-off events, and community groups. Their utilitarian dashboard relies on standard drop-down menus and tabular data lists, which is intuitive for simple events but becomes cumbersome to use for more advanced setups. They offer daytime digital support channels like WhatsApp and live chat.
When to choose Little Box Office: LBO is designed specifically for venues and festivals that need a modern, flexible software without the administrative headache. LBO sets itself apart by allowing you to create events very quickly (in under two minutes), operate under a fully white-labelled ticketing site (including a custom domain), and create unlimited customised reports. LBO also provides a fully responsive mobile web dashboard and a dedicated Android Box Office app for face-to-face transactions. Furthermore, LBO's fee structure is far more cost-effective, especially for premium tickets.
Comparison at a Glance.
Little Box Office
Theatres, arts centres, festivals, attractions, schools, and ongoing event programmes.
Fast event creation (under two minutes), easy cloning, and unlimited customisable reporting.
White-label. Accounts can run on a littleboxoffice.com subdomain or on a full custom domains. Full CMS capability.
Fully responsive web dashboard plus a dedicated Android Box Office app for face-to-face sales.
Standard 4% rate with much lower rates for larger businesses and premium tickets.
Live data migration included at no charge. Historical migration scoped and costed transparently.
TicketSource
General-purpose ticketing, one-off shows, community events, and fundraisers.
Utilitarian dashboard. Event creation can involve navigating complex nested drop-down menus.
Event pages run on TicketSource's domain. Layouts remain relatively rigid.
Ticket scanning app available, but the mobile web admin dashboard feels like a shrunk-down desktop site.
Standard published booking fees apply (typically 7% + VAT, or 4.5% + VAT if using Stripe). Scales steeply on premium tickets.
No dedicated migration service found for organisers moving from another platform.
Features
Little Box Office
TicketSource
Theatres, arts centres, festivals, attractions, schools, and ongoing event programmes.
General-purpose ticketing, one-off shows, community events, and fundraisers.
Fast event creation (under two minutes), easy cloning, and unlimited customisable reporting.
Utilitarian dashboard. Event creation can involve navigating complex nested drop-down menus.
White-label. Accounts can run on a littleboxoffice.com subdomain or on a full custom domains. Full CMS capability.
Event pages run on TicketSource's domain. Layouts remain relatively rigid.
Fully responsive web dashboard plus a dedicated Android Box Office app for face-to-face sales.
Ticket scanning app available, but the mobile web admin dashboard feels like a shrunk-down desktop site.
Standard 4% rate with much lower rates for larger businesses and premium tickets.
Standard published booking fees apply (typically 7% + VAT, or 4.5% + VAT if using Stripe). Scales steeply on premium tickets.
Live data migration included at no charge. Historical migration scoped and costed transparently.
No dedicated migration service found for organisers moving from another platform.
Event Setup and Dashboard Experience.
Because TicketSource aims to accommodate everything from a generic music gig to a complex theatrical layout, their event creation process forces creators to navigate an intimidating maze of nested drop-down menus, dates, and configuration forms. The backend is built for utility rather than modern aesthetic trends. While highly intuitive for some, it lacks the slick, drag-and-drop sleekness of newer platforms.
LBO removes the friction from event creation. You can build a new event in under two minutes, easily clone existing setups, and configure a wide range of event types without getting bogged down in complex forms.
Reporting and Internal Communication.
TicketSource provides powerful analytical capabilities, but identifying exactly which report to pull to check sales trends or balance payout statements can be highly confusing. Furthermore, their tools for blasting updates to past ticket purchasers are relatively limited, with no clear internal log to verify who successfully received a system email if a customer claims they missed it.
LBO provides unlimited customisable reports, allowing you to see exactly the data you need. You can also schedule these reports to be generated and emailed automatically at set times and to specific recipients.
Branding and the Booking Journey.
Your booking page should look like your venue, not like your ticketing software supplier.
TicketSource hosts your event pages on their own domain. While you can embed your own colour schemes and banners, the front-end layout remains relatively rigid and generic. You cannot customise the booking journey or map a custom domain (e.g. yourbrand.com), meaning buyers are always aware they are interacting with a third-party application.
We provide a clean and customisable checkout experience that keeps your customers focused entirely on your events, full custom domains are natively available. You keep 100% ownership of your customer data to build your own mailing list, and LBO never uses it for its own marketing.
Which Platform is Cheaper?
When you turn over serious ticket volume, every percentage point impacts your bottom line.
TicketSource charges 7% + VAT on standard processing, or 4.5% + VAT if you connect your own Stripe account. While this percentage model is affordable for cheap community tickets, it scales up painfully for high-end events. LBO solves this by offering lower negotiated rates to clients with expensive tickets, or tiered pricing structures with different rates for different pricing bands.
Even on standard-priced tickets, Little Box Office is cheaper in both examples below when compared to TicketSource's standard payment processing and their Stripe integration.
Face value
£40.00
£100.00
LBO fees
£2.40
£5.70
TicketSource fees
- Standard: £3.36
- With Stripe: £2.96
- Standard: £8.40
- With Stripe: £7.10
LBO savings
- Standard: £0.96 (29%)
- With Stripe: £0.56 (19%)
- Standard: £2.70 (32%)
- With Stripe: £1.40 (20%)
Order
Face value
LBO fees
TicketSource fees
LBO savings
£40.00
£2.40
- Standard: £3.36
- With Stripe: £2.96
- Standard: £0.96 (29%)
- With Stripe: £0.56 (19%)
£100.00
£5.70
- Standard: £8.40
- With Stripe: £7.10
- Standard: £2.70 (32%)
- With Stripe: £1.40 (20%)
(Based on LBO's standard 4% rate. Larger organisations pay less, so they save more than shown here).
How we calculated this:
• LBO: 4% platform fee + 1.5% + £0.20 per order (standard UK Stripe processing).
• TicketSource (Standard): 7% + VAT per paid booking, minimum £0.25 + VAT, card processing included.
• TicketSource (with Stripe): 4.5% + VAT per paid booking. Stripe then charges their standard UK card processing fees (1.5% + £0.20) directly.
Mobile Responsiveness and Check-In.
Managing an event rarely happens from behind a desk. Although TicketSource launched a major revamp of its ticket-scanning app to make gate check-in much faster, some organisers note that accessing the admin web dashboard via a mobile browser feels like navigating a shrunk-down desktop site.
LBO’s admin web dashboard is fully responsive across all devices. We also offer a dedicated Android Box Office app specifically designed to process face-to-face transactions seamlessly from a tablet or phone.
Already on sale on TicketSource? No problem.
If you are already selling tickets and want to move, you don't need to wait until your event is over, or start ticket sales from scratch, to switch.
LBO's live data migration is included at no charge, so your existing events and orders can move across while sales are still open. Before switching, we work with you to confirm the exact fields, order history, access codes, seating plans, and customer permissions that need to move. That gives both teams a clear migration checklist rather than treating every data set as identical. Migrating older, historical data from before you switch is scoped and costed separately, so you know that cost upfront. Our software takes care of the complex box office admin, backed by responsive human support whenever you need a hand.