Thrivia vs Townscript for an independent organiser
On Townscript's own published example, a ₹1,000 ticket costs the buyer ₹1,023.60 and pays the organiser ₹946.80, so ₹53.20 comes off the organiser's price and ₹23.60 is added to the buyer's. Thrivia charges 4.9% inclusive of GST when the payment gateway collects, and nothing at all when the attendee pays your own UPI VPA directly. The two differ on money, settlement and what each product is actually built to sell, including where Townscript is the better buy.
Townscript is the default answer for independent event organisers in India and has been for years. If you run one-off ticketed events in cities, read the Townscript column first and take it seriously.
Townscript's own arithmetic
With India and INR selected, Townscript's pricing page prices a ₹1,000 ticket end to end. Read on 19 September 2026:
- The buyer pays ₹1,023.60, which is the ticket plus a 2% platform fee of ₹23.60 including GST.
- A 2% Townscript fee of ₹23.60 comes out of the organiser's side.
- A 2% payment gateway fee of ₹23.60 comes out as well.
- ₹5 of TCS at 0.5% and ₹1 of TDS at 0.1% are deducted from the payout.
- The organiser receives ₹946.80.
So ₹53.20 comes off the organiser's ₹1,000, and a further ₹23.60 is added to the buyer's price on top of it. On 400 tickets at ₹300, which is a ₹1.2 lakh gate, the organiser-side share is a few thousand rupees per event.
Thrivia's two models
Thrivia charges for collection, not for listing, and there are two ways to collect.
Manual. You publish your own UPI VPA. The attendee pays it from any UPI app, uploads the reference, and the booking waits in a verification queue until you confirm the credit landed. There is no platform fee, because Thrivia is not in the payment. The cost is the work: somebody clears that queue.
Gateway. A payment gateway collects through Thrivia and the rate is 4.9%, inclusive of GST, applied last on the GST-inclusive subtotal. It is 3.71% payment processing plus a 1.19% platform margin. You decide per event whether the attendee sees it as an added fee or you absorb it. The gateway settles to your own account on its standard T+2 cycle. The gateway rate is not a fixed list price: bring the MDR you are paying today and Thrivia will match it.
| Model | Buyer pays | Organiser receives |
|---|---|---|
| Townscript, per its own published example | ₹1,023.60 | ₹946.80 |
| Thrivia, gateway mode, organiser bears the fee | ₹1,000 | ₹951 |
| Thrivia, manual mode, attendee pays your VPA | ₹1,000 | ₹1,000, once you have verified it |
The gateway row is 4.9% of ₹1,000 and nothing else; there is no separate gateway line, because the 4.9% already contains it. The manual row is unbilled labour rather than free money, and at four hundred tickets it is a real job.
Who holds the money between the sale and your bank
Townscript settles on a schedule you pick: daily, weekly, or after the event, with new organisers generally starting weekly. The money reaches Townscript first and is remitted to you net of its fees and the statutory deductions above.
In manual mode the money goes from the attendee's UPI app to your bank and Thrivia only ever sees a reference number you confirm; it is yours from the moment it lands. In gateway mode a payment gateway collects through Thrivia and settles to your own account on its standard T+2 cycle. The one exception is a booking where the attendee opted into the 1% Thrivia Guarantee at checkout: that booking's revenue shows as Held in your Finance view until the attendee checks in. It is an accounting line, not custody of the money.
How operators do this today
| How it works today | Where it breaks | What Thrivia does instead |
|---|---|---|
| You list an event, sell tickets, and the platform pays out after the event or on a weekly cycle. | For a one-night event that is fine. For a trip whose supplier advances are due six weeks before departure, the payout cycle is a financing decision. | Manual mode pays you as the attendee pays. Gateway settles to your own account on the gateway's standard T+2 cycle. |
| Everyone pays in full at checkout. | A ₹28,000 trek does not sell like a ₹500 gig. Asking for the whole amount up front loses bookings a deposit would have held. | A booking can take a deposit now and carry the balance as owing, so the seat is held and the remaining money is a number you can chase. |
| You need a public marketplace that brings you audience you did not already have. | Nothing breaks. Townscript's discovery, its category pages and its years of SEO are a real asset you do not get by leaving. | Nothing worth pretending about. Thrivia sells your storefront and your links to your own audience. If discovery is the reason you are on Townscript, that reason survives this page. |
Pick Townscript if
- Your events are single-date, city-based and sold to a public that browses, and the marketplace itself brings you buyers.
- You want one flat published rate and no decision to make about who bears the fee.
- You need the ticketing conventions of a large platform: assigned seating maps, big-venue gate flows, reserved categories.
Pick Thrivia if
- What you sell has a date, a capacity and a deposit: treks, retreats, workshops, multi-day trips.
- Most of your buyers come from your own Instagram and WhatsApp rather than from a marketplace's search box.
- You would rather take UPI into your own bank and pay nothing than pay a percentage for a payment you could have collected yourself.
If you are comparing the wider field rather than these two, the event organisers page covers what to look for, and the UPI collection guide covers the manual path in detail.
Common questions
What does Townscript charge in India?
With India and INR selected on 19 September 2026, Townscript's pricing page publishes a 2% Townscript fee and a 2% payment gateway fee on the organiser side, a 2% platform fee charged to the buyer, and TCS at 0.5% and TDS at 0.1% deducted from the payout. Its own worked example puts a ₹1,000 ticket at ₹1,023.60 to the buyer and ₹946.80 to the organiser.
What does Thrivia charge?
Nothing when the attendee pays your own UPI VPA directly in manual mode, because Thrivia is not in that payment. When the payment gateway collects through Thrivia, the rate is 4.9% inclusive of GST, applied last on the GST-inclusive subtotal, made up of 3.71% payment processing and a 1.19% platform margin. You choose per event whether the attendee or you bears it.
How fast does each one pay out?
Townscript settles daily, weekly or after the event depending on the option on your account, with new organisers generally starting weekly. Thrivia is not in either path: in manual mode the attendee's UPI payment goes straight to your bank, and in gateway mode the payment gateway settles to your own account on its standard T+2 cycle rather than on a day the platform picks. The exception on the reporting side is a booking where the attendee opted into the 1% Thrivia Guarantee, which reads as Held until check-in.
Can I take a deposit and collect the balance later on either platform?
That is the main functional difference. Thrivia models a booking with an amount still owing, so a seat can be held on a deposit and the balance chased against the same record. Check Townscript's current feature set directly if partial payment is the deciding factor for you.
Is Townscript cheaper than Thrivia?
On the published figures, no. Townscript's own example pays the organiser ₹946.80 on a ₹1,000 ticket and charges the buyer ₹1,023.60, against 4.9% in Thrivia's gateway mode and nothing in manual mode. Townscript's marketplace discovery is not something Thrivia offers, so the comparison is not only about the rate.