Why switch

What CaptiFi gives you that DesignMyNight doesn't

The booking fee is higher than CaptiFi Events on every ticket above GBP3: 10%, 8% and 6% against 7.5%, 6% and 4.5%

Ticket buyers arrive as the platform's audience first: there is no guest WiFi layer building a first-party list for you

Bookings are a separate paid product: Access publishes Access Collins Evo from GBP149 per site per month, and GBP135 a month for its standard booking system (theaccessgroup.com, read 21 September 2026)

Neither product captures guests who walk in without booking, which is most of the people in a venue on any given night

Ticketing and WiFi marketing stay two systems, so the buyer list and the guest list never meet

Is DesignMyNight a bad product?

No. DesignMyNight is a serious platform with real strengths. Here's where it genuinely shines: Venues whose main problem is being discovered. If you need strangers to find your event and you are happy to pay 10% under GBP40 for that reach, a discovery site with editorial and newsletter placement does something CaptiFi does not do at all. If that sounds like you, DesignMyNight may be the right fit. CaptiFi is built for venues who want simpler pricing, hardware included (refundable hold), and every integration included from the Growth plan up.

Side by side

The five-minute comparison

Feature by feature comparison of CaptiFi and DesignMyNight
Feature
Booking fee on a GBP15 ticket	GBP1.13 (7.5%)	GBP1.50 (10%)
Booking fee on a GBP45 ticket	GBP2.70 (6%)	GBP3.60 (8%)
Booking fee on a GBP100 ticket	GBP4.50 (4.5%)	GBP6.00 (6%)
Booking fee on a GBP2 ticket	GBP0.30 (30p minimum)	GBP0.20 (10%)
Card processing included in the fee	Yes	Yes
No fee on free tickets	Yes	Yes
Venue chooses to absorb or pass on the fee	Yes	Yes
Fee source and read date	CaptiFi fee schedule, 21 September 2026	designmynight.com/work-with-us/tonic-ticketing, read 21 September 2026
Monthly platform fee for ticketing	included in the CaptiFi subscription	none, per their own page
Money paid into the venue's own Stripe account	Yes	not stated on their page
Listing on a consumer discovery site	No	Yes
Guest WiFi data capture	Yes	not a WiFi vendor
Ticket buyers added to your own marketing list	Yes	platform audience
Email marketing and automations	included	via Access Collins, sold separately
Automated Google review requests	Yes	not listed on their ticketing page
Door check-in from a phone	Yes	Yes
Your next event shown on the WiFi welcome screen	Yes	No
Events widget for your own website	Yes	Yes
Bookings and reservations	reservation check-in only	Access Collins, sold separately

Read the full CaptiFi vs DesignMyNight comparison

Proof

A real venue on CaptiFi

Case Study

PytchAir

hospitality

How Johnny Palmer turned guest WiFi on his Boeing 727 Airbnb into a direct marketing channel: 400+ guest emails captured monthly and a 35% return booking rate.

400+

Emails Per Month

35%

Return Booking Rate

Read the case study

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Want the numbers? See full CaptiFi pricing.

The fee

What each platform takes from a ticket

DesignMyNight publishes its Tonic Ticketing fees: no fee on a free ticket, 10% at GBP39.99 and under, 8% from GBP40 to GBP69.99, and 6% at GBP70 and above, with card processing included and the venue choosing whether to pass the fee to the buyer. Tonic charges the venue no monthly fee for ticketing. CaptiFi Events works the same way and charges less on every ticket above GBP3: 7.5% up to GBP20, 6% up to GBP50 and 4.5% above that, card processing included, and nothing on a free ticket. A 30p minimum applies, so on a ticket under GBP3 the CaptiFi fee is the higher of the two. Figures read on 21 September 2026.

Booking fee on the same ticket price, CaptiFi Events against DesignMyNight's Tonic Ticketing
Ticket price	DesignMyNight	CaptiFi Events	You keep
Free	No fee	No fee	Level
GBP2	GBP0.20 (10%)	GBP0.30 (30p minimum)	GBP0.10 less: the one case they win
GBP15	GBP1.50 (10%)	GBP1.13 (7.5%)	GBP0.37 more
GBP45	GBP3.60 (8%)	GBP2.70 (6%)	GBP0.90 more
GBP100	GBP6.00 (6%)	GBP4.50 (4.5%)	GBP1.50 more

On a sold-out 300-capacity night at GBP15 a head, the gap is about GBP111 on one event. Sell out a ticketed night every week and it is over GBP5,700 a year, on tickets sold to people who already drink in your venue. CaptiFi retail pricing runs in six currencies, and the fee bands have their own thresholds in each one.

The real difference

Whose audience are you selling to?

DesignMyNight is a discovery site first. Its pitch to a venue is reach: your event goes in front of an audience the company describes as up to 3.9 million monthly users, with editorial and newsletter placement available. That is a real service, and for a venue nobody has heard of it can be worth 10%. The buyer, though, belongs to the platform. They found the event there, they will look there again next month, and your list is no longer than it was.

CaptiFi starts from the opposite end. Every guest who connects to your WiFi joins your guest list with their consent recorded, so by the time you announce an event you already have the people who drink in your venue. They buy on your own event page, the money goes to your own Stripe account, and the buyer lands back in your list tagged as a ticket buyer, ready for the next announcement. Your next event also appears on the WiFi welcome screen, so someone standing at your bar tonight is told about it without you paying anyone for the introduction.

That is why most venues end up doing both for a while. Keep a discovery channel for the nights you need strangers, and stop paying a finder's fee on the regulars who were coming anyway.

The migration

What moving your ticketing to CaptiFi looks like

You start a 30-day CaptiFi trial and connect your own Stripe account for paid tickets, which is the step that makes your venue the merchant rather than the platform. You create the event, add ticket types that are paid or free, and publish it to your venue's own events page. Buyers pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, get an email with one QR code per ticket, and your door staff scan them from a phone. An events widget puts the same listings on your own website.

Free events need no Stripe account at all, so an RSVP night can go up on the first day. Events and ticketing is included on the CaptiFi Growth plan and above, so check the plan before you start the trial if ticketing is the reason you are here. Nothing stops you listing the same event on a discovery site while you build your own audience; the two are not exclusive, and the fee you pay only ever applies to tickets sold through that channel.

An honest note

When DesignMyNight is the right answer

If your problem is that nobody knows the event is on, a listing site solves something CaptiFi does not attempt. CaptiFi has no consumer audience to put your event in front of, no editorial team and no nights-out newsletter. It sells tickets to the list you already have. If that list is small today, the WiFi will build it, but it will not fill a room this Friday.

There is also the plain platform cost. Tonic charges a venue nothing per month for ticketing and earns from the booking fee alone, so if tickets are the only thing you need, their platform costs you nothing to hold and CaptiFi costs you a subscription. The comparison worth making is the fee per ticket plus everything else that subscription does: the WiFi capture, the guest list, the email and the review requests.

The same goes for bookings. DesignMyNight's sister product, Access Collins Evo, is a full booking system. CaptiFi does not take table bookings; it checks imported reservations in against your WiFi so you know who actually showed up. If you need a diary, keep one.

Common questions

DesignMyNight alternative FAQs

How much cheaper is CaptiFi than DesignMyNight on ticket fees?

Lower in every published band. DesignMyNight charges 10% at GBP39.99 and under, 8% from GBP40 to GBP69.99 and 6% at GBP70 and above. CaptiFi charges 7.5% up to GBP20, 6% up to GBP50 and 4.5% above that. On a GBP15 ticket that is GBP1.13 against GBP1.50, on GBP45 it is GBP2.70 against GBP3.60, and on GBP100 it is GBP4.50 against GBP6.00. Both include card processing and charge nothing on free tickets. Figures read on 21 September 2026.

Who holds the ticket money?

With CaptiFi, your venue does. Paid tickets are charged to your own Stripe account, your name appears on the buyer's statement, and Stripe pays you out on your normal schedule. CaptiFi never holds ticket money; the booking fee is taken from the payment as it settles.

Do I keep the ticket buyers' details?

Yes. Every buyer is added to your CaptiFi guest list and tagged as a ticket buyer, with marketing consent recorded only where they gave it. You can email that segment on its own for the next event, which is the part a discovery listing does not give you.

Can I run free events without connecting Stripe?

Yes. Free tickets and RSVPs never touch Stripe and carry no fee on either platform. Connecting Stripe is only needed before your first paid ticket goes on sale.

Does CaptiFi replace Collins for bookings?

No. CaptiFi does not take table bookings. It imports the reservations you already took and marks them attended or no-show by matching them against WiFi sign-ins, so you learn who actually turned up. If you need a booking diary, keep the one you have.

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