Free to use. No monthly payments. 5% of sales, that’s all.
Unlimited events, unlimited tables, full analytics, for every organizer. The 5% is on table sales. On tickets you pay nothing, and the buyer pays the service fee.
No card required to sign up
$0
To sign up, run events and draw floor plans
5%
Of the table subtotal, deducted from proceeds
$0
Charged by us to your vendors, on every booking
We take 5% of each table sale, split off as the vendor pays.
Stripe splits it off at the moment of the charge, and the rest goes to your Stripe account, less Stripe’s own processing fee. There’s no invoice to settle and nothing to cancel.
The 5% is on the table price only.
Charge your own processing fee and we take no share of it. No minimum and no flat component. 5% of a $15 table is 75 cents.
Refund the booking and the 5% comes back.
The vendor’s full payment goes back, our fee goes back with it, and the table returns to the map.
Vendor receipt
Riverbend Card Show
Paid to Riverbend Card Shows
Two lines on the receipt, the price you set and an optional processing fee. Both go to you.
Tickets are free for you to sell.
Sell admission to your show from the same place you sell tables. Captain Expo takes nothing out of your ticket sales. The buyer pays a service fee of 3% + $0.50 per ticket, and sees one price for each ticket with the fee included, so a $10 ticket shows as $10.80.
You pay
$0
On every ticket you sell
The service fee is added to the buyer’s total, so it never comes out of your ticket price. Tables are unchanged: 5%, paid by you, and your vendors see no fee.
The buyer pays
$0.80
3% + $0.50 per ticket
On a $10 ticket the service fee is $0.80, so the buyer pays $10.80. On a $20 ticket it is $1.10.
On a refund
$10.80
Back to the buyer, fee included
Refund an order from Captain Expo, or cancel the show, and the buyer of a $10 ticket gets all $10.80 back.
Stripe’s processing is charged to your Stripe account, on the whole payment with the service fee included, the same as on a table. Your own processing fee, if you set one, applies to ticket orders too.
AI map credits, only if you want them.
Upload a floor plan and AI detection marks out the tables, so you edit a drawn floor instead of drawing one. It’s optional. You can always draw your map by hand, for free. Every organizer gets 2 free credits on signup and 5 more when Stripe connects, and a pack of 10 is $10 if you want more.
On signup
2
Free credits, immediately
Enough to run detection on a floor plan and see the result before you connect anything.
On connecting Stripe
5
More once Stripe connects
Added when Stripe Connect onboarding completes, which every organizer who sells does anyway.
Optional refills
$10
For a pack of 10
Only if you want more. It’s a one-time payment with no subscription attached, and the credits don’t expire.
Only a successful run spends a credit. If a detection fails, you keep it. Drawing and editing a floor plan by hand is unlimited and free.
Questions about the 5%.
Eight questions about the fees, credits and Stripe.
Who actually pays the 5%?
You do, and only after a table has been paid for. Stripe deducts it from your proceeds at the moment of the charge, so there's no invoice to settle and no bill at the end of the month. If you sell nothing, you owe nothing.
Will my vendors see a Captain Expo fee at checkout?
No. There's no Captain Expo line on a vendor's checkout, and no setting that would put the fee onto them. They see the table price you set, plus your own processing fee if you charge one, and that's the whole receipt.
What about Stripe's processing fees?
Those are Stripe's standard rates, charged by Stripe, and separate from our 5%. You're the merchant of record, so card processing is billed to your Stripe account as it would be if you took the payment yourself. Our 5% is calculated on the table subtotal alone, and we take no share of what Stripe charges. On a ticket order, Stripe's rate applies to the whole payment, service fee included, and is billed to your Stripe account the same way.
What happens to the fees when I refund?
Our 5% comes back to you. A table refund returns the vendor's full payment and our 5% at the same time, and the table goes back on the map. A ticket refund from Captain Expo returns everything the buyer paid, service fee included, and cancelling a show does the same for every ticket order on it.
What happens when something goes wrong with a payment?
If a vendor's payment fails or their checkout expires, the tables go back on the map once the hold runs out, so nothing stays reserved against a payment that never cleared. Checkout takes cards, including Apple Pay and Google Pay, so a payment clears while the table is held. Disputes and chargebacks are raised against your own Stripe account, because you're the merchant of record, so you answer them and any loss or fee is yours.
Is there a free trial, or a plan I graduate onto?
Neither. Captain Expo is free to use, with no monthly payments. Every organizer gets unlimited events, unlimited tables and full analytics. Drawing floor plans, opening applications, reviewing vendors and sending announcements are all free. Captain Expo takes 5% of table sales.
What does a detection credit actually do?
One credit runs AI detection over one floor plan. You upload a PDF or an image, and it comes back with the tables marked out, so you edit a drawn floor instead of starting from a blank one. Only a successful run spends a credit. You get 2 when you sign up and 5 more when Stripe Connect onboarding completes. After that, packs of 10 are $10 if you want more. They are optional, because drawing the floor by hand is free and unlimited.
Can I charge my vendors a processing fee of my own?
Yes. Each event can carry its own processing fee, set by you and shown under your name at checkout, on tables and ticket orders alike. It exists so you can recover what the card companies charge you. On tickets it is worked out on each ticket's price and included in the price each ticket shows. Captain Expo takes none of it, and neither our 5% nor the ticket service fee is calculated on it.