What Planning Pod charges
Planning Pod charges 2.39% + $0.29 on every paid booking, plus card processing on top. Below: what that comes to over a year at three volumes, what is not in that number, and what the same job costs when you own it instead of renting it.
What Planning Pod publishes
Venue software 'Yearly Pricing Starting at $149 per month' (annual-billed); packages priced by number of booked events; event+business mgmt packages from $59/mo paid yearly (search snippet). Unlimited users. pct/fixed = card processing via PaySimple from 2.39% + $0.29, ACH $0.64. Pricing pages themselves show no numbers (JS).
Those are Planning Pod's own published numbers, read on 21 September 2026. Vendors change pricing without announcing it, so check the live page before you sign anything — and check your own last invoice, which is the only number that is definitely yours.
A year of Planning Pod fees, at three volumes
Worked straight off the published rate. Card processing is left out of every column, because it is charged whoever takes the money.
| A year of | Planning Pod | Built and owned | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 bookings at $2,0002.39% of $2,000 + $0.29 = $48.09 a booking, 50 times | $2,405a year | $240.45a tenth of what you pay them | $2,16490% of the bill |
| 200 bookings at $2,0002.39% of $2,000 + $0.29 = $48.09 a booking, 200 times | $9,618a year | $961.80a tenth of what you pay them | $8,65690% of the bill |
| 600 bookings at $2,0002.39% of $2,000 + $0.29 = $48.09 a booking, 600 times | $28,854a year | $2,885a tenth of what you pay them | $25,96990% of the bill |
We do not publish a price of our own, because it is worked out against yours: a tenth of what the platform costs you, with hosting, fixes and changes included. The volumes are illustrations at a stated price per booking, not a promise about your business — send your own bill and the figure is exact.
What you would own instead
- The part you actually useMost of a platform like Planning Pod goes unused. We rebuild the parts your business runs on and leave the rest out.
- The code and the dataYours, in your own account, exportable on any day for any reason.
- A price that does not scale with your takingsa tenth of what you pay now — hosting and changes included, and it does not grow with your takings.
When to stay put
- You use nearly all of itIf your team lives in every corner of Planning Pod and the bill is small, replacing it is work for no gain.
- The fee is tiny against your marginRun the numbers above on your real volume first. If it is noise, leave it.
- It is the only place your customers can find youA marketplace that brings you buyers is selling you demand, not only software. That is worth paying for.
Planning Pod pricing, asked and answered
What does Planning Pod cost?
Planning Pod charges 2.39% + $0.29 on every paid booking, plus card processing on top. Venue software 'Yearly Pricing Starting at $149 per month' (annual-billed); packages priced by number of booked events; event+business mgmt packages from $59/mo paid yearly (search snippet). Unlimited users. pct/fixed = card processing via PaySimple from 2.39% + $0.29, ACH $0.64. Pricing pages themselves show no numbers (JS).
What would Planning Pod cost me over a year?
On 200 bookings at $2,000, Planning Pod's published fees come to about $9,618 a year (2.39% of $2,000 + $0.29 = $48.09 a booking, 200 times). Built and owned, that year is about $961.80 — a tenth of what you pay now — and you keep the $8,656 difference.
Who pays Planning Pod's fee — me or my customer?
You do — it comes out of your payout, so the price your customer sees is not the amount you keep.
Is card processing included?
No. Taking the money is a separate cost, normally around 2.9% + $0.30 an order, and it is charged whoever you use. The figures on this page leave processing out on both sides so the comparison is like for like.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Planning Pod?
That depends on what you actually use it for. Most businesses use a small part of a platform like this — take the money, hold the record, send the confirmation, show the list. That part can be built once and owned, and we price it against your own bill: a tenth of what you pay now, instead of a share of every booking forever. You keep the code and the data, and the old system keeps running beside it until the new one is proven.
What the others charge
Same category, same treatment — each one read from the vendor's own pricing page.
- What Tripleseat chargesTripleseat doesn't publish its pricing — it is quoted per contract.
- What HoneyBook chargesHoneyBook charges 2.7% + $0.10 on every paid booking, plus card processing on top.
- What Perfect Venue chargesPerfect Venue runs $59 a month plus 3.8% of every booking.
Reading on the same subject
- When not to build custom softwareSeptember 29, 2026 · An honest list of when custom software is the wrong call: a small flat bill, a product you use fully, network vendors, mandated systems, unsettled processes.
- How to read a SaaS invoice line by lineSeptember 23, 2026 · Read a SaaS invoice by asking what each line scales with: base plan, seats, add-ons, usage, payment processing, taxes, credits and billing period.
Keep reading
Tell us what Planning Pod costs you
Send your last invoice or just the rate you are on, and we will tell you what the same work costs built and owned — and say so plainly if you are better off where you are.
Hiro costs about a tenth of what you pay now, quoted against your own bill. Hosting, fixes and changes included, and no per-seat fees.