BrightStar's pricing is built around per-ticket fees rather than a subscription. There's no monthly bill to remember, no hidden line items, and no cost sitting on your account when you aren't selling tickets. This piece walks through what each of the three tiers — Seva, Elevate, and Amplify — actually costs, what each one includes, and how to think about which one fits the gathering you're running, whether that's a single kirtan circle or a full weekend retreat.
How the per-ticket fees break down across tiers
Seva carries no BrightStar platform fee at all. There's no minimum ticket price, so a donation-based or entirely free sitting works fine, and there's no maximum, so a full retreat can run on Seva too. Elevate charges a low per-ticket fee made up of a small flat amount plus a small percentage of the ticket price, applied to each ticket and shown live in your local currency right at checkout — no surprise conversion later. Amplify charges a higher per-ticket fee, again a flat amount plus a percentage, in exchange for the full marketing suite layered on top. In every case, Stripe's own processing fees apply separately and are not part of BrightStar's fee — that charge belongs to Stripe regardless of which tier you're on. Charging per ticket instead of per month means a quiet season, or an event that never sells out, never costs you anything beyond what actually moves through the door.
What every tier includes, even the free one
Unlimited events, unlimited ticket types, QR code tickets, the zero-login scanner, basic analytics, email confirmations, and mobile-responsive event pages come with every tier, Seva included. Ticketing itself is never the thing being withheld to push an upgrade. The zero-login scanner matters in a very ordinary way at the door of a kirtan or a sound bath: whoever is checking people in doesn't need an account or a password fumbled on a phone in low light — they just scan. QR tickets work the same way whether you're running one intimate circle or ten retreats a year, since ticket types and events are unlimited from the start.
What you get when you move up to Elevate or Amplify
Elevate adds discount codes, custom checkout questions, donation add-ons, abandoned cart emails, affiliate tracking, advanced analytics, and priority support on top of everything in Seva. That's the layer that matters once you're running early-bird pricing for a retreat, asking dietary or accommodation questions at checkout, or adding a donation option for a scholarship spot. Amplify adds everything in Elevate plus geo-targeted email campaigns, Meta retargeting on Facebook and Instagram, access to BrightStar's 350K buyer network, real-time campaign analytics, and a dedicated success manager. That tier is built for the moment an event needs to reach beyond your existing list — a festival or larger gathering trying to fill capacity rather than just process the people who already know about it.
Deciding who pays the platform fee
BrightStar gives you two ways to handle the fee, set per event under Event Settings and then Pricing. With Pass to Buyer, the default, the fee is added on top of the ticket price at checkout: a $100 ticket becomes $106.19 once the $2.74 platform fee and $3.45 processing fee are added, and you receive the full $100 minus Stripe's cut. With Absorb into Price, the fee instead comes out of the ticket price, so on that same $100 ticket you'd receive $93.81 after both fees. Passing the fee to the buyer keeps your budgeted revenue per ticket intact, which matters when a retreat's numbers depend on a fixed take per bed. Absorbing it keeps the price a buyer sees at the door lower, which can matter for a donation-style kirtan where the sticker number is part of the invitation.