Migration Plan — Eventbrite to Shopify (DECIDED)
Decision: Keep everything on Shopify — no Eventbrite embed. Checkout stays on the store, so Eventbrite's per-ticket fees are eliminated entirely.
Fee comparison per ticket
| Ticket | Price | Eventbrite fees (3.7% + $1.79 + 2.9% processing) | Shopify Payments (Basic: 2.9% + $0.30) | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Session I or II | $397 | ~$28.48 (7.2%) | ~$11.81 (3.0%) | ~$16.67 / ticket |
| Session III | $297 | ~$21.95 (7.4%) | ~$8.91 (3.0%) | ~$13.04 / ticket |
| Complete Experience | $897 | ~$62.01 (6.9%) | ~$26.31 (2.9%) | ~$35.70 / ticket |
| Per 100 tickets at ~$450 average | ~$1,800 saved | |||
Eventbrite US fees: 3.7% + $1.79 service per paid ticket + 2.9% payment processing (Eventbrite pricing). Shopify Payments on Basic: 2.9% + 30¢ online (Shopify pricing). No booking app needed with this structure.
The build (native Shopify, no booking app)
- One product per city, product type "Workshop" — e.g., "Live Workshop — Savannah, GA (December 14, 2026)".
- 4 variants per product = the Eventbrite ticket structure: Session I — Build & Sell (9 AM–12 PM) $397 · Session II — Operate, Scale & Profit (1–4 PM) $397 · Session III — Leadership & Legacy (4:30–6:30 PM) $297 · Complete Academy Experience $897.
- Inventory per variant = seats per session — sessions sell out automatically; no booking caps, no app subscription.
- Smart collection "Live Workshops" (product type = Workshop) powers a browsable city directory.
- Pilot created (DRAFT status, not visible to customers): Columbus GA (Nov 16), Nashville TN (Nov 18), Savannah GA, Charleston SC, Greenville SC (Dec 14) — each with 20 placeholder seats per ticket, ready for real capacities.
- Next steps: (1) confirm ticket prices/structure and seat counts; (2) activate pilot products; (3) batch-create the remaining ~70 cities from the tour sheet; (4) point the homepage workshop-finder Register buttons at the Shopify products (theme edit in a draft theme copy); (5) reminders via Shopify Email or existing email tool — the one thing Eventbrite did that Shopify won't natively.
Tour data source: the homepage workshop finder's Google Sheet feed (80 cities, Nov 13–Dec 14, 2026). Ticket structure verified from the Savannah Eventbrite event page.
Eventbrite Setup on Shopify — What It Would Take
Goal: customers click a city, see that city's workshop dates/sessions, and book. Three ways to get there, from no-app to full app.
Path 1 — Keep Eventbrite, embed it on the store (no new booking app)
Eventbrite provides official embeddable widgets: a checkout modal (customers buy without leaving the page) and event listing/calendar widgets. You paste a small HTML snippet into a Shopify page or custom Liquid section. For the city flow: create one page or section per city (e.g., /pages/workshop-atlanta), each embedding that city's Eventbrite events, and link the city buttons on the Workshop page to them.
- Cost: $0 to Shopify — but Eventbrite's service fees still apply to every ticket, and checkout happens on Eventbrite, so customers leave your branded flow.
- Official checkout widget: Eventbrite embedded checkout docs.
- For an auto-updating calendar of all cities, free/low-cost widgets from SociableKIT or Elfsight, or Shopify calendar apps that sync Eventbrite (The Shop Calendar, InlightLabs Events Calendar).
Path 2 — Native Shopify only, no apps at all
Shopify has no built-in booking calendar, but you can approximate it with products and variants:
- One product per city (or one product with a City option). Variants = Date × Session, and inventory per variant = seats per session, so sessions sell out automatically.
- Variant limits are no longer a blocker: all plans now support up to 2,048 variants per product (3 options max — City × Date × Session uses exactly 3, so ticket types would need a separate product or line-item properties).
- City selector: a Workshop page with city buttons linking to per-city products, or a "Workshops" collection with storefront filters (the free Shopify Search & Discovery app enables filtering by product option like City).
- Trade-offs: no calendar UI, no automated reminders, no waitlists, manual variant/inventory management, and some themes/apps don't render more than 100 variants well.
Path 3 — A booking app (real Eventbrite-style experience)
A booking app gives you a calendar, per-session capacity, reminders, and rescheduling inside Shopify checkout. BookThatApp fits the multi-city, 3-session model best (location-based scheduling, per-variant capacity, no transaction fees).
Booking App Pricing — BookThatApp vs. Sesami vs. Appointly
Verified November 13, 2026 — confirm on the Shopify App Store listings before committing.
| Plan tier | BookThatApp | Sesami | Appointly (Apntly) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 — 10 bookings total, no product limit | $0 — development stores only | $0 — 1 service/event, 1 team member, unlimited bookings |
| Basic | Lite $25/mo — 50 bookings/mo, 1 staff, 1 booking type | Small $19/mo — 5 resources, 1 location | Starter $5/mo — unlimited services & team members |
| Premium | Premium $49.95/mo — 350 bookings/mo, 10 staff, deposits & bonds | Pro $129/mo — 20 resources, 1 location, group appointments (20 seats) | Pro $9/mo — group appointments, custom questions, Zoom/Meet, deposits |
| Business | Business $110/mo — 1,000 bookings/mo, 20 staff, all booking types, API | Premium $299/mo — 40 resources, 2 locations (+$99/mo each extra), 100-seat groups | — (no tier above Pro) |
| Enterprise | Custom — up to 5,000 bookings/mo, up to 90 staff | Custom — unlimited resources, locations, white-label, SLA | — |
Fees, limits & multi-city fit
| Dimension | BookThatApp | Sesami | Appointly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transaction fees | None — flat monthly fee | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Booking limits | Hard monthly caps: 10 / 50 / 350 / 1,000 / 5,000 | No monthly caps — limits on resources, locations, group seats | Unlimited bookings on all plans |
| 3 sessions/day per event | Native — capacity per time slot on event schedules | Yes — group appointments allow multiple bookings per slot (Pro+) | Yes — group appointments on Pro |
| Per-city locations | Location-based scheduling, no per-location fees | 1 location below Premium; 2 on Premium (+$99/mo each); unlimited = Enterprise | No location management — model each city as a separate service |
| Variant-level scheduling | Strong — per-variant capacity, units (party size), hide-calendar | Partial — variants carry durations/ticket types | Not documented |
Planning verdict
Fastest to launch: Path 1 — embed Eventbrite per city on the Workshop page (a day of work, but Eventbrite fees continue). Lowest long-term cost with full control: Path 3 — BookThatApp Premium ($49.95/mo) or Business ($110/mo) depending on monthly attendee volume; each attendee reservation counts toward the plan's booking cap. Zero subscription: Path 2 — native variants, if the manual management workload is acceptable.
Sources: BookThatApp listing · Sesami pricing · Appointly listing · Shopify variant limit changelog · Eventbrite embedded checkout.