CaptiFi vs DesignMyNight - Honest Comparison (2026)

Quick verdict: CaptiFi or DesignMyNight?

These two sell different things. DesignMyNight sells reach, and 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 GBP3 at 7.5%, 6% and 4.5% with card processing included, and every ticket buyer added to the guest list your WiFi is already building. Venues that need discovery should keep a discovery channel. Venues selling to their own regulars are paying a finder's fee for people who already know where the door is.

About DesignMyNight

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 GBP3.

www.designmynight.com

Side by side

Feature 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

Last reviewed 2026-09-21. Pricing and features change - check DesignMyNight's 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 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

Who should pick what

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 in every band, pays into your own Stripe account, and puts the buyer back into the list you market to next month.

Pricing

Pricing side by side

CaptiFi

$59/month billed annually

or $69/month month-to-month

Hardware included (refundable hold)
Every integration included on Growth and above
30-day free trial.

See full CaptiFi pricing

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 30p minimum applies, so on tickets under GBP3 the CaptiFi fee is the higher of the two; above GBP3 it 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 2026-09-21. Check DesignMyNight's site for current pricing.

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

The switch

How switching from DesignMyNight works

1

Start your free trial

Sign up in minutes. 30-day free trial. Hardware included (refundable hold), and nothing is billed during the trial.

2

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.

3

Switch off DesignMyNight

Rebuild your splash page, turn on email and review automation, and cancel your DesignMyNight subscription once you're confident.

Start Free Trial Book a Demo

Weighing up a move? Read the DesignMyNight alternative guide or see all comparisons.

Common questions

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 30p minimum applies, so on tickets under GBP3 the CaptiFi fee is the higher of the two; above GBP3 it 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 in every band, pays into your own Stripe account, and puts the buyer back into the list you market to next month.