Can I run booking and ticketing from my phone?

BANDANA ships a native iOS app covering the pre-show loop — booking request, confirmation, advance with the band, and the ticket page — so a booking agent can confirm a date from anywhere. VenuePilot's iOS apps are for box office and will call on show night, with booking and advancing in the browser. Different halves of the night: their app starts at the door, ours stops there. On Android or desktop, BANDANA runs as a web app with everything except offline reading.

Is BANDANA tix cheaper than VenuePilot?

On platform fee, yes: BANDANA charges a flat 25 cents per ticket and VenuePilot publishes a flat $0.75. Both run payouts through your own Stripe account, so Stripe's processing rate applies either way. VenuePilot includes more back-office tooling in exchange.

Yes. VenuePilot ticketing is non-exclusive, and BANDANA is free for booking, advances, and open mics whether or not you sell tickets through it.

Comparison

BANDANA tix vs VenuePilot

Reviewed August 2026

BANDANA tix is available to any venue today. Booking, advancing, and the rest of BANDANA are free and open too.

Want help getting set up?

VenuePilot is an independents-first venue platform with booking, event management, website widgets, and non-exclusive ticketing at a published flat $0.75 platform fee, paid out through the venue's own Stripe account. It is the closest thing to BANDANA's model on the market, and a genuinely good product for a room that wants full back-office tooling delivered in the browser. BANDANA tix is smaller in scope and cheaper per ticket at a flat 25 cents. It also treats the band as a user: the act requests the date, gets confirmed, and fills in its own bio, photos, and gig details on the shared advance page that then builds the ticket page. The entire pre-show loop is designed to run from a native iOS app rather than a desk. The apps aim at different nights. VenuePilot ships iOS apps for box office and will call, pointed at the door on show night. BANDANA's app is pointed at the booking desk in the weeks before it, and does no door scanning at all. Android and desktop users get the full BANDANA web app, which does everything the iOS app does except offline reading.

BANDANA dashboard on a phone listing a band and a venue the same person runs — One dashboard for every band you play in and every room you run.

A BANDANA gig advance page showing set times, backline and band details — One advance page the venue and every band on the bill share.

A venue booking calendar in BANDANA with open and closed dates marked — One shared calendar with the dates you are actually taking requests on.

Incoming band booking requests listed for a venue in BANDANA — Requests arrive in one queue instead of five inboxes.

A venue's public BANDANA booking form embedded on a website — The request form, embedded on your own site and styled like your room.

A venue's upcoming shows calendar embedded on its own website — Your upcoming shows on your site, dropping off after the show's day ends.

Recurring open mic and jam sessions listed for a venue in BANDANA — Recurring open mic and jam nights generate themselves week to week.

Editing a BANDANA tix ticket page with a hero image and rich text description — Build the ticket page visually, using what bands already submitted.

A live public BANDANA tix ticket page styled with a venue's colors — The public page carries your venue's colors and fonts.

A fan buying a ticket in BANDANA tix with pricing and fees shown — Checkout shows the price and fees plainly before anyone pays.

A venue's upcoming ticketed shows with sales counts in BANDANA — Upcoming and past ticketed shows with sales counts in one list.

Public page styling card in a venue's Info tab with background, accent, and font choices — Pick the background, accent color, and fonts your public pages and embeds use.

What VenuePilot focuses on

A full, browser-based venue operating system for independents: booking, offers, settlements, reporting, websites, and flat-fee ticketing.

BANDANA and VenuePilot, side by side

Competitor details below are from their own public pages, checked August 2026. Pricing changes — confirm on their site before you decide. VenuePilot pricing

Running it from a phone: BANDANANative iOS app for everything before the show: take the request, confirm the date, advance with the band, publish the ticket page. Not the door — no scanning or box office.; VenuePilotBox Office app for iOS, iPadOS, and Android sells and scans tickets and pairs with card readers; booking and advancing run in the browser
Android and desktop: BANDANAFull web app, everything the iOS app does except offline reading; VenuePilotBox office and will call apps on iOS, plus Android; the rest of the platform is browser-based
BANDANA's platform fee: BANDANA25 cents flat per ticket; VenuePilot$0.75 flat per online ticket, published; no platform fee on walk-up sales
Payment processing: BANDANAStripe's standard rate, charged by Stripe; VenuePilotStripe as well — their docs require connecting Stripe for card payments
Where the money lands: BANDANAThe venue's own connected Stripe account; VenuePilotThe venue's own Stripe account
Who fills in the show details: BANDANAThe band, on the shared advance page; VenuePilotVenue staff, in the calendar's tech, production, and hospitality fields
Band-side tooling: BANDANASongs, chords, set lists, recordings, scheduling — free; VenuePilotNo band-side product; artist info is stored as venue-side records
Booking to ticket: BANDANARequest, confirm, advance, ticket — one thread; VenuePilotCalendar holds, artist details, and advancing feed the same event
On your website: BANDANASingle-ticket and full event calendar embeds; VenuePilotWebsite and widget tooling for venues
Back-office depth: BANDANALighter: no settlements, offers, or P&L tooling; VenuePilotStronger here: offers, settlements, reporting, and event cash advances via UpFront
Availability: BANDANAGenerally available — any venue can activate ticketing, and booking and advancing are free; VenuePilotGenerally available, non-exclusive ticketing

What you get	BANDANA	VenuePilot
Running it from a phone	Native iOS app for everything before the show: take the request, confirm the date, advance with the band, publish the ticket page. Not the door — no scanning or box office.	Box Office app for iOS, iPadOS, and Android sells and scans tickets and pairs with card readers; booking and advancing run in the browser
Android and desktop	Full web app, everything the iOS app does except offline reading	Box office and will call apps on iOS, plus Android; the rest of the platform is browser-based
BANDANA's platform fee	25 cents flat per ticket	$0.75 flat per online ticket, published; no platform fee on walk-up sales
Payment processing	Stripe's standard rate, charged by Stripe	Stripe as well — their docs require connecting Stripe for card payments
Where the money lands	The venue's own connected Stripe account	The venue's own Stripe account
Who fills in the show details	The band, on the shared advance page	Venue staff, in the calendar's tech, production, and hospitality fields
Band-side tooling	Songs, chords, set lists, recordings, scheduling — free	No band-side product; artist info is stored as venue-side records
Booking to ticket	Request, confirm, advance, ticket — one thread	Calendar holds, artist details, and advancing feed the same event
On your website	Single-ticket and full event calendar embeds	Website and widget tooling for venues
Back-office depth	Lighter: no settlements, offers, or P&L tooling	Stronger here: offers, settlements, reporting, and event cash advances via UpFront
Availability	Generally available — any venue can activate ticketing, and booking and advancing are free	Generally available, non-exclusive ticketing

Choose VenuePilot if

You need settlements, offers, and financial reporting built in
You run a larger room or several rooms with a real box-office workflow
You want a vendor team to migrate you and build custom web work

Choose BANDANA if

Every cent per ticket matters at your price points
You want the bands you book working in the same tool, for free
You would rather the act submitted its own assets than chase them by email
You confirm dates and advance shows from your phone, weeks before the doors open

Common questions

Can I run booking and ticketing from my phone?: BANDANA ships a native iOS app covering the pre-show loop — booking request, confirmation, advance with the band, and the ticket page — so a booking agent can confirm a date from anywhere. VenuePilot's iOS apps are for box office and will call on show night, with booking and advancing in the browser. Different halves of the night: their app starts at the door, ours stops there. On Android or desktop, BANDANA runs as a web app with everything except offline reading.
Is BANDANA tix cheaper than VenuePilot?: On platform fee, yes: BANDANA charges a flat 25 cents per ticket and VenuePilot publishes a flat $0.75. Both run payouts through your own Stripe account, so Stripe's processing rate applies either way. VenuePilot includes more back-office tooling in exchange.
Can I use both?: Yes. VenuePilot ticketing is non-exclusive, and BANDANA is free for booking, advances, and open mics whether or not you sell tickets through it.

TWENTY-FIVE CENTS A TICKET. THAT'S THE FEE.

BANDANA tix covers the last step of a workflow that started as a booking request. The band requests the date from available options, the venue confirms it, and the band fills in its own bio, photos, and gig details on a shared advance page. Those exact submissions build the ticket page — no chasing assets over email, no retyping a bio into a ticketing back end. Other platforms connect booking to ticketing, but the artist is a record in the venue's database rather than an account submitting the content.

No contract, no sales call, and one number you can agree on before you sell a ticket.