How much does it cost to run an online raffle?

TL;DR

The three meaningful costs of running an online raffle are platform commission, payment processing, and promotional email. On Raffair the total for a £25,000 sellout is around £1,100 — 2.5% commission (£625), Stripe processing at cost (about £475), and zero subscription. Comparable platforms typically charge 10–15% in commission, often plus a four-figure annual subscription, putting the same raffle nearer £3,500.

Platform commission

Most raffle platforms charge a percentage of gross ticket revenue. The headline rates range from around 2.5% at the cheap end to 15% at the expensive end. A few charge less headline commission but bundle it with a subscription or featuring fees that recover the difference.

On Raffair it's a flat 2.5% with a £5 per-raffle floor — see the line-by-line breakdown on the pricing page.

Payment processing

Card processing is its own cost layer, separate from commission. Stripe's published UK rate is 1.5% + 20p per Checkout session for UK / EEA cards (international cards higher). Some platforms bundle this into the commission and quote a single rate; others, including Raffair, pass it through at cost so you can see exactly what you're paying.

A subtlety: the 20p is per Checkout session, not per ticket. Bundling tickets into a single basket reduces the fixed-fee burden meaningfully on low ticket prices.

Promotional email

Many platforms charge per-recipient for promotional email, which gets expensive fast on larger raffles. On Raffair the first 5,000 promotional emails per raffle are free, and additional emails are billed at £1 per 1,000 sent.

Worked example: a £25,000 raffle

A creator sells 2,500 tickets at £10 each and promotes the raffle via email to 5,000 recipients.

• Commission: 2.5% of £25,000 = £625.
• Stripe processing (assuming most tickets sold in baskets of 5, so ~500 Checkout sessions): roughly £475.
• Email: £0 (within the free allowance).
• Subscription: £0.

Total host cost: ~£1,100. Same raffle on a 15% platform: ~£3,750 in commission alone. Same raffle on a 10% platform with a £996 annual subscription: ~£3,500.

Sensitivity check: at a 50% sellout (£12,500), Raffair costs ~£550; the 15% platform would charge £1,875.

More on the wedge: pricing — how to run a raffle online (UK).