Leaderboard › On The Stage
On The Stage
Ticketing, marketing and fundraising for theaters and live arts.
Overall score out of 100, from the published formula.
Team Size uses LinkedIn-style ranges. "Unknown" means we found no reliable public figure; we don't guess. Sources: About On The Stage (New York, NY).
Pros & cons
Our summary from this vendor's published pricing, features and sources.
✓Pros
- Published fee schedule: on Performing Arts Essential, a $1.45 booking fee plus 5% processing, about $2.02 on a $10 ticket. No monthly or setup fee is listed.
- Free events, $0 tickets, 100%-off promo tickets and comps carry no booking fee; K-12 and Higher Ed plans also skip the booking fee on cash sales.
- Broad theater toolset: reserved seating, subscriptions and memberships, donations, gift cards, patron management and box-office-only concessions.
- Print-on-demand show merch, produced per order and drop-shipped to the buyer, with no OTS fee on it.
- Day-of-show support from 30 minutes before showtime to 30 minutes after curtain.
–Cons
- Two fees on every order: a $1.25–$1.95 booking fee per ticket plus a 5% (Essential) or 4% (Plus) processing fee, about $4.02 on a $50 ticket on Performing Arts Essential.
- Add-ons and fundraising items each carry the full booking fee (add-ons even on cash sales); streaming adds $1 per ticket with a $50 minimum per program.
- Subscriptions cost 5% and need an active Order Form, and OTS says all fees can change at its discretion.
- Missing a few tools others include: no volunteer management, public API, SMS marketing or SSO.
Pricing
All-in fees include card processing where the vendor publishes it.
Booking fee per ticket by plan: K-12 Essential $1.25, K-12 Plus $1.65, Higher Ed Essential $1.45, Higher Ed Plus $1.95, Performing Arts Essential $1.45, Performing Arts Plus $1.95 (no booking fee on cash sales for K-12 and Higher Ed plans). Plus a processing fee of 5% (Essential) or 4% (Plus) of the total order value. Add-ons and fundraising items carry the booking fee; streaming +$1 per ticket ($50 minimum per program); subscriptions 5%. Free, $0 and comp tickets free. Enterprise by Order Form. Score uses Performing Arts Essential.
- Credit Card Processing
- Paid in addition to your ticket feesOTS charges a processing fee of 5% (Essential) or 4% (Plus) of the total order value on top of the per-ticket booking fee; with your own merchant account OTS rebates 2.9% + $0.30.
- Who pays fees
- Usually passed to buyers; custom fees supported.
- Contracts / fixed fees
- Season subscriptions require a signed Order Form (a separate signed agreement; Subscription Terms auto-renew for the same length, e.g. 36 months, unless cancelled in writing within 60 days of renewal). Terms make OTS the exclusive ticketing agent, cash sales included. No monthly or setup fee listed; $50 minimum per streamed program; fees subject to change at OTS's discretion.
- Payouts
- Daily direct deposits via OTS Payments (Stripe).
- Support
- Dedicated OTS Customer Support team; chat and email support, including day-of-show help.✓ Human Support~ Weekend Support✓ Nighttime Human Support
Chat/email support for day-of-show issues from 30 min before showtime to 30 min after curtain, plus M–F business hours; blog says support is available nights and weekends. Source · checked 2026-10-26
Score breakdown
Six weighted categories, applied identically to every system.
Features
Scored features count toward the 30% Features category. Each status links to the vendor page we checked.
Patron management. Source
Box-office-only add-ons (merch, concessions) with box office pricing. Source
Gift cards in the Patron Portal and as payment type. Source
Native processing, flexible payouts. Source
Hard ticket printing on the Plus plan (printer not included). Source
Custom checkout questions. Source
More features
Not in overall scoreSubscriptions & memberships. Source
Checkout and widget carry your branding. Source
Migrates historical patron, order, donation and subscription data. Source
Print-on-demand show and organization merch, produced per order and drop-shipped to the buyer. Source
Serves organizations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Source
✓ Yes: verified on a cited source · ~ Claimed: commonly advertised but not yet verified (half credit) · ◐ Limited: functionally partial, e.g. read-only, partner-only, reminders-only, regional (half credit) · — Not found: no credit; may still exist.
Compare On The Stage
Side-by-side sheets with the top-ranked alternatives.
Change log
Verification updates and observed changes to On The Stage's features, pricing and website, newest first.
- Feature
We verified live human support (dedicated OTS Customer Support team by chat and email, including day-of-show help): marked Yes. Overall score changed from 59.5 (#24) to 65.4 (#22), together with the scanning update. Source
- Feature
We verified Mobile Scanning: marked Yes (scan with a phone, tablet or laptop camera). Source
- Note
Added payout timing: daily direct deposits via OTS Payments (Stripe). Source
- Note
Added headquarters: New York, New York. Source
- Feature
We verified International: serves organizations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Source
- Feature
We verified Hard Ticket Printing: marked Yes (Plus plan; printer not included). Overall score changed from 61.8 (#20) to 63.5 (#19). Source
- Note
On The Stage contract score set to reflect its signed, auto-renewing Order Form for season subscriptions; methodology clarified. Source
- Feature
We verified On-Demand Merch: marked Yes. Print-on-demand show and organization merch, produced per order and drop-shipped to the buyer. Source
- Note
Directory scoring update: API, SMS Marketing and SSO now count toward the Features score (17 scored features, up from 14). Overall score changed from 46.6 (#23) to 42.3 (#23). Source
- Note
On-Demand Merch added to the directory as a filter (not scored); On The Stage is the only vendor verified so far.
- Note
Rewrote the pros and cons summary.
- Pricing
On The Stage now publishes its fees (schedule as of Sept 10, 2025): a per-ticket booking fee by plan ($1.25–$1.95) plus a 5% (Essential) or 4% (Plus) processing fee. The old Basic, Empower and Platinum plans are retired. Source
- Pricing
Added fee math using Performing Arts Essential ($1.45 + 5%): $2.02 / $2.27 / $2.77 / $4.02 on $10 / $15 / $25 / $50 tickets. Marked as an estimate because the page doesn't say whether the 5% includes the booking fee. Overall score changed from 42.3 (#24) to 61.8 (#20). Source
- Pricing
Credit card processing: Paid in addition to your ticket fees. OTS adds a 5% or 4% processing fee on top of the booking fee. Source
- Note
Rewrote the pros and cons for the published fee schedule. Source
Sources
Checked 2026-10-26.
- Pricing (fee schedule as of Sept 10, 2025): https://www.onthestage.com/company/pricing
- Terms of Service (Order Form, auto-renewal, exclusivity; checked 2026-10-20): https://www.onthestage.com/company/terms-of-service
- OTS fee schedule (Google Doc embedded in the pricing page): https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTrt-qHcRnIdkaJp0ve5TJ_T8uz_Mkc3f2UKUSHJNbOrT7D4mT7sX51nzkIMBl_7WuUlzmHDRRzs_6z/pub?embedded=true
- Ticketing features: https://onthestage.com/box-office/ticketing/
- FAQ / pricing model: https://onthestage.com/about/faqs/
- Custom fees: https://onthestage.com/revenue-accelerators/custom-fees/
- Logo source: https://www.onthestage.com/hubfs/favicon-1.png
- Venue page: https://onthestage.com/
- Contact / support: https://www.onthestage.com/company/contact
- Box office and ticket scanning: https://www.onthestage.com/solutions/manage-box-office
Suggest a correction
Corrections are checked against public sources or vendor documentation before anything changes. Submissions are never published automatically.