There is a meaningful difference between a ticketing platform that collects your money and one that lets you keep it in your own account. It comes down to one setup choice: whose payment account the ticket money flows into. This guide explains why connecting your own Stripe to your event page is the better default, how it works, and what to expect for payouts, refunds and reporting.
Two models for taking payment
When an attendee pays for a ticket, the money has to land somewhere. There are two common arrangements:
- The platform collects. The money goes into the platform’s account. The platform then pays you out later — minus its commission, and often only after the event. You are trusting a third party to hold your revenue and release it on their schedule.
- You collect. The money goes straight into your payment account — your Stripe, your Revolut Pay, your PayPal. The platform never touches the funds; it just provides the page and the checkout. You get paid the moment someone buys.
The second model is almost always better for the organizer, and it is how Kefi is built: you connect your own account and the funds land directly with you, with 0% commission taken by Kefi.
Why your own Stripe wins
Connecting your own account changes four things in your favour:
- Cash flow. You get ticket money as it comes in, not weeks later. That pays the venue deposit and the artist advances before the event, out of ticket sales rather than your savings.
- Ownership. It is your money in your account under your name. There is no platform balance to reconcile and no payout to chase.
- Trust and branding. The charge on your attendees’ card statements comes from your business, which reduces confusion, chargebacks and “I don’t recognise this charge” emails.
- Control of refunds. Because you hold the funds, you can issue a refund directly, on your terms, without waiting on a platform’s refund queue.
You still pay the standard payment-processing fee — Stripe’s or PayPal’s own per-transaction cost — because moving money always costs something. But that goes to your processor, not to the ticketing platform on top.
How the connection actually works
Connecting your own Stripe is not a copy-paste of secret API keys. It uses Stripe’s standard connected-accounts flow:
- You click connect on your event’s payment step.
- You are sent to Stripe to log in (or create an account) and authorise the connection.
- Stripe hands back a token that lets the event page create charges into your account — without the platform ever seeing your Stripe password or having standing access to your balance.
From then on, every ticket purchase is a charge on your Stripe. You can watch the payments arrive in your own Stripe dashboard in real time, exactly as you would for any other Stripe payment. Prefer a different processor? Kefi also supports Revolut Pay and PayPal, so you can take payment through whichever account you already run your money through.
Payouts, refunds and reporting
A few practical points once you are connected:
- Payouts follow your processor’s schedule, not the platform’s. With Stripe that is typically a rolling daily or weekly payout to your bank, which you control in your Stripe settings.
- Refunds are yours to issue. Because the charge lives in your account, you refund from there — full or partial — without a middle layer.
- Reporting is unified. Your ticket income shows up in your own Stripe reports alongside anything else you run through it, which makes bookkeeping and your accountant’s life much simpler.
- Taxes are cleaner. Money you received is money in your account, with your processor’s records to back it up — not a third-party payout you have to reconcile against their fee statement.
Set it up for your event
Getting paid into your own account is a five-minute step, not a project:
- Build your event page and add your ticket tiers and prices.
- On the payment step, choose your processor and connect your own Stripe, Revolut Pay or PayPal.
- Publish. From that moment, every ticket sold pays straight into your account.
That is the whole point of the setup: the platform does the work of selling and checking in, and the money is yours from the first sale.
Kefi lets you connect your own payment account on Pro and Business, take real payments with 0% commission, and keep every cent of your ticket revenue in an account you own. You can build your page and connect your account today. Start free and connect your Stripe →