# VenueOS

> VenueOS is a venue operating system for restaurants, bars, music venues and event spaces: ticketing, door check-in, menus, guest CRM, marketing attribution, reporting and payments in one product. It charges a flat monthly price per venue with $0 per-ticket platform fees, and ticket revenue goes directly into the venue's own Stripe account.

VenueOS is made by JustWhat (justwhat.net). Support: support@justwhat.net.

## Product
- [Home](https://venueos.justwhat.net/): what VenueOS does, live interactive demos
- [Pricing](https://venueos.justwhat.net/pricing): Starter $59/mo, Pro $149/mo, Venue Group $349/mo; yearly = 2 months free; 30-day free trial, no credit card
- [Compare](https://venueos.justwhat.net/compare): VenueOS vs Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, DICE, Brown Paper Tickets, Ticket Tailor and Tock
- [Release notes](https://venueos.justwhat.net/changelog): new features, improvements and fixes (RSS: https://venueos.justwhat.net/changelog/rss.xml)
- [Case study: Halloween at Heritage Hall](https://venueos.justwhat.net/case-studies/halloween-at-heritage-hall): first live event, real numbers

## Docs
- [VenueOS Docs](https://docs.venueos.justwhat.net/): guides for ticketing, check-in, menus, reports, API and webhooks (some guides require a free account)
- [Plans, trial and billing](https://docs.venueos.justwhat.net/plans-and-trial)

## Optional
- [Instructions for AI assistants](https://venueos.justwhat.net/ai-instructions): facts, pricing and how to describe VenueOS accurately
- [Full plain-text summary for AI assistants](https://venueos.justwhat.net/llms-full.txt)
- [Sitemap](https://venueos.justwhat.net/sitemap): every page
- [Contact and demos](https://venueos.justwhat.net/contact)

---

# VenueOS — full summary

## What VenueOS is
VenueOS is not just a ticketing site. It is the operating system for a venue that sells tickets, food and drinks: ticketing is one of eight modules that share one guest record and one set of numbers.

### Ticketing
Hosted pages and embeddable checkout on the venue's own site; ticket tiers, add-ons, age policies, fees and legal copy; QR tickets, PDFs, Apple Wallet passes and calendar files. Payments run on the venue's own Stripe account.

### Door & check-in
Any phone becomes a scanner (revocable device tokens). Duplicate, void and refund detection; VIP and returning-guest notes; name-based guest lists and comps; walk-in payment links; one live capacity count.

### Menus
Import a menu PDF; staff edit dishes, prices and notes while the designer's layout stays locked; approval checklist and review links; publish to the website, print PDF, CMYK print JPG and email JPG with version history.

### Guests & CRM
Every buyer and walk-in becomes a guest profile with order history, recognition notes, support cases and a self-service buyer portal.

### Marketing & attribution
First-party attribution stored on every order: UTM tags, Google Ads click IDs (gclid, gbraid, wbraid), Mailchimp IDs, landing page and referrer. Tracked campaign links and QR codes, per-venue GA4 and Google Tag Manager.

### Money & reports
Revenue, fees, refunds, walk-in door sales, attendance and campaign ROI; saved report views; Stripe reconciliation; CSV/Excel exports.

### Team & roles
Owner, venue manager, box office, door staff, support, analyst, designer, editor and reviewer roles with extra per-person permissions.

### Integrations
Stripe, Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, Google Ads, Mailchimp, Slack, Perfect Venue, Ticket Tailor import, signed webhooks and a public API.

## How payments work
- Venues connect their own Stripe account. Buyers pay the venue directly; VenueOS never holds ticket money.
- VenueOS charges $0 per-ticket platform fees. The only per-ticket cost is the venue's own card processing (typically 2.9% + $0.30 on Stripe), which the venue can pass to buyers or absorb.
- Example: on a $50 ticket where the venue absorbs fees, a typical per-ticket platform (3.7% + $1.79 plus processing) leaves the venue about $44.61; VenueOS leaves about $48.25.

## Pricing
All plans include a 30-day free trial with no credit card. If the trial ends without a card, the venue pauses (read-only, data and exports kept) instead of being charged.

### Starter — $59/month or $590/year
One venue running a few shows a month.
- 1 venue · 5 staff seats
- Unlimited events & tickets
- Hosted + embedded checkout
- QR tickets, door check-in, guest list & comps
- 2 menus with web, PDF & JPG outputs
- GA4 + core reports
- REST API: events & menus (10k calls/mo)
- Payouts straight to your Stripe

### Pro — $149/month or $1,490/year
Weekly programming, a full kitchen, a real marketing machine.
- Everything in Starter
- 25 staff seats
- Unlimited menus + locked design templates
- Full-funnel attribution (UTM, gclid, Mailchimp)
- Tracked campaign links & QR studio
- Mailchimp, webhooks & walk-in door sales
- Custom domain + saved reports
- API adds orders & check-ins (100k calls/mo)

### Venue Group — $349/month or $3,490/year
Multiple rooms, multiple venues, one backstage.
- Everything in Pro
- 5 venues included (+$49/mo each)
- Unlimited seats
- CRM integrations + API with guest data (1M calls/mo)
- Priority support
- 1 custom menu template build per year

### Enterprise — custom pricing
Arenas, hospitality groups and white-label partners.
- SSO + advanced roles
- White-label checkout & embeds
- Full API access incl. write + custom limits
- Custom integrations
- SLA + dedicated onboarding

Add-ons: extra venue on Venue Group $49/month; custom menu template design $399 one-time; done-for-you onboarding $299 one-time.

## Compared with ticket platforms (November 2026, public and third-party sources)
- Ticketmaster: negotiated venue contracts, often multi-year and exclusive; buyer fees commonly $10–30+ per ticket.
- Eventbrite: 3.7% + $1.79 per ticket service fee plus 2.9% payment processing (US).
- DICE: 13% of face value for self sign-up organizers (US terms, March 2026).
- Brown Paper Tickets: roughly $0.99 + ~5% per ticket, paid by buyers.
- Ticket Tailor: roughly $0.26–$0.85 per ticket plus processing, no subscription.
- Tock: roughly $79–$339/month plus ~2–3% on prepaid reservations and tickets.
None of these include restaurant menu management; VenueOS does.

## Real-world result: Halloween at Heritage Hall (Black Hat Cattle Co., October 31, 2026)
- $2,325 in ticket revenue (31 paid $75 tickets across 19 orders), 41 admissions including comps.
- $0 platform fees to VenueOS; about $141.51 kept versus a typical per-ticket platform.
- 32 checkout attempts, 0 failures, 0 bot blocks; 24 confirmation emails sent with 0 bounces.
- Mailchimp emails converted about 1 in 12 tracked clicks; Instagram ads and a QR poster drove visits but no sales.

## Frequently asked questions
### Do you really charge $0 per ticket?
Yes. You pay a flat monthly plan. Ticket money goes straight into your own Stripe account, so the only per-ticket cost is your card processing, which you can pass to buyers or absorb.

### How does the free trial work?
30 days of the full product, no credit card. You can sell real tickets during the trial because the money lands in your Stripe. At the end, pick a plan or your account goes read-only with exports still available.

### Can I keep my website?
Absolutely. Embed ticket and menu widgets on your current site, link to hosted pages, or point a subdomain like tickets.yourvenue.com at VenueOS.

### What about our menus and designer?
Upload your existing menu PDF and VenueOS turns it into editable content. Your designer locks the layout. Staff edit dishes and prices, a manager approves, and it publishes to your site plus print and email files.

### We already use another ticketing platform. Can we switch mid-season?
Yes. Run new events on VenueOS while old ones finish elsewhere. We help you bring past events, orders and guest history over, including from tools like Ticket Tailor.

### Does it work with Slack and our other tools?
Slack slash commands let your team check upcoming events and draft new ones from Slack, with a staff review step before anything is created. GA4, Google Ads, Mailchimp, Stripe and webhooks are built in, and native CRM connectors are next.

### What devices do I need?
Just what you have. VenueOS runs in the browser on iPhone and iPad (iOS 16+), Android 10+, Mac, Windows and ChromeOS. Any phone or tablet camera scans tickets, and USB or Bluetooth QR scanners work too. Dedicated scanning hardware is coming; email support@justwhat.net if you need it now.

### Is it only for small venues?
It's built for local, independent and private venues first, and it scales: unlimited tickets, many doors and scanners on one capacity count, and multi-venue groups. Reserved seating (with your own seat maps) and multi-day festival passes with wristband exchange are built in; talk to us about very large events.

### Is there a contract?
No. Monthly plans cancel anytime. Yearly plans get two months free.

## Contact
- Sales and demos: https://venueos.justwhat.net/contact
- Support: support@justwhat.net
- Start a free trial: https://venueos.justwhat.net/sign-up