CaptiFi vs DesignMyNight
A balanced 2026 comparison: feature matrix, pricing, ideal-customer profiles, and an honest verdict on which platform fits your business.
Quick verdict: CaptiFi or DesignMyNight?
DesignMyNight sells reach: its Tonic Ticketing fees of 10%, 8% and 6% are the price of being listed in front of its audience, with no monthly fee to the venue. CaptiFi sells ownership: your own event page, your own Stripe account, a lower fee on every ticket above GBP5 at 7.5%, 6% and 4.5% with card processing included, and every buyer added to the guest list your WiFi is already building. Venues that need discovery should keep a discovery channel.
What is DesignMyNight?
DesignMyNight is a UK nights-out discovery site that also sells software to the venues it lists. Its ticketing product, Tonic Ticketing (marketed as Tonic Evo), handles paid tickets and free events, and its sister product Collins (now Access Collins Evo) handles bookings. The operating company is WFL Media Ltd and both products sit under The Access Group. The pitch to a venue is reach: tickets listed on designmynight.com go in front of an audience the company describes as up to 3.9 million monthly users (self-reported, read 21 September 2026), with editorial, social and newsletter placement available. Tonic charges the venue no monthly fee, stating on its own page that it is free for event organisers who list with them as primary ticket seller (read 21 September 2026); it earns from the booking fee instead. Those published fees, read the same day, are no fee on free tickets, 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. CaptiFi is not a discovery site: it sells tickets from your own event page to the guest list your WiFi already built, at a lower fee on every ticket above GBP5.
Feature comparison
| 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 | GBP0.50 (50p 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 | table bookings with deposits, and reservation check-in, on Growth and above | Access Collins, sold separately |
Last reviewed 7 October 2026. Pricing and features change: check the DesignMyNight site for the most current information.
DesignMyNight strengths
- A genuine discovery audience: tickets are listed on designmynight.com, which the company describes as reaching up to 3.9 million monthly users (self-reported)
- Editorial, social and newsletter placement available to listed venues
- Card processing included in the booking fee, with no separate add-on charges
- The venue chooses whether to absorb the fee or pass it to the buyer
- A free ticket scanning app for door check-in
- No monthly fee to the venue for ticketing: Tonic states it is free for event organisers who list with them as primary ticket seller (read 21 September 2026), earning from the booking fee instead
- Sits alongside Collins for bookings, so bookings and ticketing can come from one supplier
Where CaptiFi differs
- The booking fee is higher than CaptiFi Events on every ticket above GBP5: 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
Honest recommendations
Pick DesignMyNight if
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.
Pick CaptiFi if
Venues with an audience of their own, or one they could have. If people already come to you, CaptiFi turns the WiFi they connect to into a guest list, sells them tickets at a lower fee on every ticket above GBP5, pays into your own Stripe account, and puts the buyer back into the list you market to next month.
Pricing side by side
CaptiFi
£39/month billed annually
or £49/month month-to-month
- Hardware included (refundable deposit)
- Every integration included on Growth and above
- 30-day free trial.
DesignMyNight
Tonic Ticketing booking fees, quoted from designmynight.com on 21 September 2026: free tickets no fee, 10% at GBP39.99 and under, 8% from GBP40 to GBP69.99, 6% at GBP70 and above, card processing included. Tonic itself charges the venue no monthly fee. Access publishes Access Collins Evo, the separate bookings product, from GBP149 per site per month, and a GBP135 fixed monthly fee for its standard booking system (theaccessgroup.com, read 21 September 2026). CaptiFi Events charges 7.5% up to GBP20, 6% up to GBP50 and 4.5% above that, card processing included and nothing on free tickets, on top of a CaptiFi subscription. A 50p minimum applies, so on tickets under GBP5 the CaptiFi fee is the higher of the two, at GBP5 the two are equal, and above GBP5 CaptiFi is lower at every price. On a GBP15 ticket that is GBP1.13 against GBP1.50; on GBP45, GBP2.70 against GBP3.60; on GBP100, GBP4.50 against GBP6.00.
Last reviewed 7 October 2026. Check the DesignMyNight site for current pricing.
How switching from DesignMyNight works
Start your free trial
Sign up in minutes. 30-day free trial. Hardware included (refundable deposit), and no plan payment is taken during the trial.
Connect your WiFi
Point your existing access points at CaptiFi (UniFi, TP-Link Omada, Cisco Meraki, Aruba, MikroTik, Ruckus and more) or plug in the starter device we ship.
Switch off DesignMyNight
Rebuild your splash page, turn on email and review automation, and cancel your DesignMyNight subscription once you're confident.
Weighing up a move? Read the DesignMyNight alternative guide or see all comparisons.
CaptiFi vs DesignMyNight FAQs
Is CaptiFi cheaper than DesignMyNight?
Tonic Ticketing booking fees, quoted from designmynight.com on 21 September 2026: free tickets no fee, 10% at GBP39.99 and under, 8% from GBP40 to GBP69.99, 6% at GBP70 and above, card processing included. Tonic itself charges the venue no monthly fee. Access publishes Access Collins Evo, the separate bookings product, from GBP149 per site per month, and a GBP135 fixed monthly fee for its standard booking system (theaccessgroup.com, read 21 September 2026). CaptiFi Events charges 7.5% up to GBP20, 6% up to GBP50 and 4.5% above that, card processing included and nothing on free tickets, on top of a CaptiFi subscription. A 50p minimum applies, so on tickets under GBP5 the CaptiFi fee is the higher of the two, at GBP5 the two are equal, and above GBP5 CaptiFi is lower at every price. On a GBP15 ticket that is GBP1.13 against GBP1.50; on GBP45, GBP2.70 against GBP3.60; on GBP100, GBP4.50 against GBP6.00.
When should I pick DesignMyNight over CaptiFi?
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.
When is CaptiFi the better choice?
Venues with an audience of their own, or one they could have. If people already come to you, CaptiFi turns the WiFi they connect to into a guest list, sells them tickets at a lower fee on every ticket above GBP5, pays into your own Stripe account, and puts the buyer back into the list you market to next month.
Competitor names and logos are trade marks of their respective owners and are shown only to identify the products being compared. CaptiFi is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any company named on this page. Feature and pricing notes describe each product as we found it on its public website when we last reviewed it, and may since have changed; check the vendor's current terms before you buy. Trade mark notices.
CaptiFi is a guest WiFi marketing and captive portal platform for restaurants, bars, pubs, cafes, hotels, gyms, salons, retail and short-term rentals, built by CaptiFi Ltd in the UK and sold in GBP, USD, EUR, CAD, AUD and NZD to venues worldwide.