The Event Scenario: Yaw's Student Seminar & Election
Let us look at a real-life scenario to compare Vootely and Ayatickets.
Imagine Yaw is a student leader at his university. He is organizing a student seminar called the "Future Leaders Forum". He expects 500 students to buy tickets to attend.
At the end of the seminar, Yaw also needs to run a secure election to choose the next President of the Student Association. Yaw wants his students to buy tickets easily, check in fast, and vote securely without cheating. Let us compare Ayatickets and Vootely for Yaw's event.
Commission Rates Compared
Students have limited budgets, so keeping fees low is very important to Yaw.
Ayatickets Fees: Ayatickets charges organizers a 5% commission. However, they charge buyers a 4.0% processing fee for mobile money and card checkouts.
Vootely Fees: Vootely charges organizers 7% commission, and buyers pay a 2.5% flat handling fee to cover secure payments.
For online student buyers, Vootely is cheaper because the buyer fee is only 2.5% compared to Ayatickets' 4.0%. This makes Vootely more attractive for students on a tight budget.
Gate Gating: App vs Web Scanners
Yaw needs to check in 500 students quickly at the door to prevent long lines. He assigns 3 student ushers to scan tickets.
Ayatickets Gating: Ayatickets requires ushers to download a separate mobile application called "Aya Logbook". If an usher's phone has no storage space, or they have a weak network signal to download the app at the gate, they cannot scan, leaving Yaw short-handed.
Vootely Gating: Vootely uses the same system for everything, so there are no extra app downloads. Yaw simply generates gate scanner passes on his dashboard. His ushers open a secure URL in their phone's standard web browser to start scanning.
Why Vootely Gating Works Better for Yaw:
- Scan on Any Phone: Ushers open the gate link on any Android or iPhone web browser. No download is needed.
- Offline Support: If the university Wi-Fi or mobile internet drops, the scanner keeps working perfectly. The scans are saved and uploaded automatically when the network returns.
- Auto-Revocation: As soon as the seminar ends, Vootely automatically revokes all usher gate passes. The ushers can no longer access Yaw's attendee database or see student names and phone numbers, keeping student data secure.
The All-in-One Advantage
The biggest difference is what happens at the end of the seminar when Yaw needs to run the President election.
Ayatickets: Ayatickets is built only for selling tickets. Yaw cannot run his election on Ayatickets. He will have to print paper ballots (which is expensive and takes hours to count) or use Google Forms (where students can cheat by voting multiple times).
Vootely: Vootely has a built-in Secure Elections tool. Yaw can upload his list of eligible student voters. Vootely sends a secure, one-time voting token to each student's phone or email. Students can cast their vote securely on the same platform, and the system guarantees that each student votes exactly once. Counting is automated, instant, and 100% fair. If Yaw also wanted to run a paid nominee contest alongside the seminar, Vootely would let him set up discounted vote bundles (like 50 votes for GH₵40) so students can buy votes in bulk at cheaper rates. He can even stream the live results screen directly onto the main hall screen so students can watch the election counts update transparently in real-time.
Summary and Choice
Here is a quick summary of the features:
| Feature | Vootely | Ayatickets |
|---|---|---|
| Organizer Fee | 7.0% | 5.0% |
| Buyer Fee (Web/MoMo) | 2.5% | 4.0% |
| Check-In Method | Web Browser (No-App) | App Download (Aya Logbook) |
| Secure Group Elections | Yes | No |
| Discounted Vote Bundles | Yes | No |
If you only want standard ticketing and do not mind your ushers downloading the Aya Logbook app, Ayatickets is a fine option.
But if you want cheaper buyer fees, a secure no-app gate check-in system that auto-revokes access, and the ability to run secure student association elections or nominee voting on the same platform, Vootely is the clear winner.
