Explara has been running since 2008 and has the module list to prove it — badges, point of sale, accommodation, abstract submissions. It charges a monthly plan and limits how many people may register. That single difference decides which of the two suits you.
Two different businesses under the same two words
Both platforms say "events and memberships". Explara means a professional body that runs a conference each year and keeps a member register between them: committees, invoices, a directory, a call for papers. MintLink means one person with a door or a calendar — a studio selling a ten-class pack, a musician selling forty tickets to a rooftop set.
Neither reading is wrong. They just produce completely different software, and the pricing model follows the reading.
You pay Explara to list. You pay MintLink when it sells.
Explara's plans run Starter $0, Growth $9/month, Pro $25/month, and each one caps registrations at 100, 1,000 or 5,000 registrations a month by plan with membership capped at 200, 1,000 or 2,500 members by plan. On top of the plan there is a transaction fee of 4% on their own gateway, about 1% if you bring your own. MintLink charges 5% of a paid ticket and nothing else: no subscription, no registration ceiling, no event ceiling.
The case that hurts most is the free event. An organiser running a free community meetup for 400 people pays Explara a subscription and may still hit a registration cap. On MintLink that event costs nothing, because there is nothing to take a percentage of.
Side by side
MintLink Tickets and Explara — Explara figures read from their published pricing pages on 12 September 2026
MintLink Tickets
Explara
Monthly plan
None
Starter $0, Growth $9/month, Pro $25/month
Transaction fee
5%, 8.26% all in
4% on their own gateway, about 1% if you bring your own
Registrations allowed
None
100, 1,000 or 5,000 registrations a month by plan
Events allowed
None
1, 5 or 10 a month by plan
Members allowed
None
200, 1,000 or 2,500 members by plan
Free events
Free, with no ceiling on registrations
Counted against the registration cap
UPI at checkout
Yes, built in
Depends on the gateway you connect
Multiple sessions on one event
Yes, with combo tickets holding a seat in each
Modelled as separate events
Organiser-set refund policy
Date-wise tiers, settled against a 5% floor
Refunds handled, no published policy engine
Printed badges and on-site POS
No
Yes
Team seats
Front-desk check-in devices only
5 to 30 by plan, with roles
Multi-currency
INR only
100+ currencies
Class packs, freezes, joining fees
Yes, in Memberships
Not modelled
Where Explara is genuinely the better choice
If any of these describe your event, they will serve you better than we will and it is worth paying them.
You run a conference with a badge table. Printed badges, a walk-up point of sale, room blocks and a paper-submission workflow are all real products there and none of them exist here.
You sell to an international audience. They take 100-plus currencies. We take rupees.
You have a committee, not a founder. Their plans include 5 to 30 team seats with roles. Our only multi-person feature is a check-in device token that can do nothing except scan people in.
Where we are ahead, and it is structural
Sessions are the scarce thing. Tickets draw seats from sessions rather than a flat pool, so a weekend pass genuinely holds a place in every session it spans instead of being three tickets you hope nobody double-books.
The cancellation policy is code, not a promise. You set date-wise refund tiers; the system works out the buyer's refund and your share, holding back a 5% platform floor, and an admin queue settles it.
Memberships speak gym. Credits, freeze days, a joining fee that rides the first payment only. See MintLink Memberships.
Nothing is capped. No plan, no registration ceiling, no member ceiling.
Frequently asked questions
What does Explara charge?
A monthly plan at $0, $9 or $25 plus a transaction fee of about 4% on their own gateway or 1% if you connect your own. Their India-facing pages quote a different structure again, including 5% plus ₹25 on a free tier. Both were read on 12 September 2026, so get a written quote.
Does Explara cap how many people can register?
Yes. Their published plans cap registrations at 100, 1,000 or 5,000 a month and memberships at 200, 1,000 or 2,500. MintLink Tickets has no registration or member cap on any plan, because there are no plans.
Is MintLink cheaper than Explara?
For a free event, yes — free events are free here and count against a cap there. For paid tickets it depends on volume: our 5% platform fee has no subscription under it, so at low and medium volume we are cheaper, and at very high volume a flat monthly plan can win.
Can MintLink print badges or take payment at the door?
No. Explara sells both. If your event needs a badge table and a walk-up counter, that is a real reason to choose them.
Does MintLink do memberships like Explara does?
Differently. Explara models a member register for an association. MintLink models an active membership: visit credits, freeze days, a joining fee on the first payment, a scannable member pass and a front-desk check-in screen.