Every event organizer in Nairobi knows the post-event feeling.

The night went well. The crowd showed up. The energy was right. But when it is all over and you are packing down at 4am, you realize something — you have no idea who was actually there. A few familiar faces, some names you half-remember from WhatsApp confirmations, and a Pesapal settlement that will hit your account in a few days. That is it.

No contacts. No data. No way to reach those same people when you announce the next event.

You start from zero. Again.

The Problem With Most Ticketing Platforms

The major ticketing platforms in Kenya do a decent job of selling tickets. But they are built around one thing — their own brand and their own customer relationship. When someone buys a ticket through a third-party platform, that platform captures the buyer's name, email, and phone number. You get a payout. They get a database.

The next time you run an event, you are back on Instagram hoping the algorithm shows your post to the right people. Meanwhile, the platform is sitting on a list of everyone who has ever attended your events.

Beyond the data problem, there is the branding problem. Your event, your venue, your experience — hosted on someone else's platform under someone else's logo. For a mid-tier promoter that might be fine. For a club building a premium brand, it is a problem.

And then there is gate management. Most platforms stop at the ticket sale. What happens at the door is still a clipboard, a phone torch, and someone squinting at a screenshot. Complimentary tickets are tracked on a WhatsApp message and a scribbled A4 book. Drink redemptions are handled with a stamp or a wristband that gets lost or duplicated. None of it is in your system.

What Guestlist Does Differently

Guestlist is a ticketing platform built around the organizer, not the platform. Every feature is designed around one principle — the event belongs to you, and everything that comes from it should too.

Ticket Sales With Payments That Work

Guestlist supports M-Pesa STK Push, Visa, and Mastercard via Pesapal and Paystack integration. Buyers get an instant SMS and email confirmation the moment payment goes through. No manual follow-up. No "can you send me proof of payment." The ticket is issued automatically and lands in their inbox and messages.

Secure Gate Check-In

Every ticket generates a unique QR code. At the gate, your team scans it and the system confirms instantly — valid, invalid, or already used. For buyers without smartphones, a unique SMS code works as a fallback. No clipboards. No duplicates. No one talking their way in on a screenshot from three events ago.

Gate activity is logged in real time. You can see how many people have checked in, how many are still expected, and flag any anomalies as they happen — not the next morning.

Complimentary Tickets — Tracked in the System

Complimentary tickets are where most events quietly lose money. A guest list managed on WhatsApp or a spreadsheet is impossible to audit and easy to abuse. On Guestlist, complimentary tickets are issued through the platform by authorized users. They show up in your analytics. They go through the same gate check-in process. You know exactly how many comps were issued, who issued them, and whether they were actually used.

Redeemable Tickets

Guestlist supports redeemable tickets — where a ticket entitles the holder to something at the event, typically food or drinks. Each ticket has a tracked redemption value. When the holder redeems at the bar or kitchen, the system logs it. You can see how many redemptions have been claimed, what is still outstanding, and generate a full redemption report for reconciliation after the event.

This is a feature that most ticketing platforms do not offer at all. For clubs and venues running drink-inclusive events or food festivals, it replaces the wristband system entirely with something auditable and tied to the ticket.

Event Analytics That Actually Tell You Something

After every event, Guestlist gives you a full picture of what happened:

• Page views and ticket page traffic
• Ticket sales volume and revenue over time
• Attendance versus tickets sold
• Gate check-in activity by time
• Complimentary ticket breakdown
• Redemption tracking

Not just a payout summary. A real analytics report you can use to make decisions about your next event — pricing, capacity, timing, promotion strategy.

Your Buyer Data Belongs to You

This is the most important difference.

Every buyer who purchases a ticket through Guestlist — their name, phone number, and email — is yours. After every event, you get a full export. No platform lock-in. No terms that bury your customer data in someone else's CRM. The list you build after 10 events is your list, permanently, regardless of what platform you use going forward.

For a promoter running regular events, this is transformational. After your third event you have a warm database of 1,500 people who have already paid to attend your events. That list is your most valuable marketing asset. Text them before the next event and you are not starting from zero — you are reaching people who already know and trust your brand.

Two Ways to Use Guestlist

Lite — For One-Off Events

No subscription, no setup fee, no commitment. Create an event on guestlist.squarely.online, share the link, and start selling tickets. A 5% booking fee is added to the ticket price and paid by the buyer — the organizer receives 100% of the face value. Squarely handles the payment gateway, the SMS confirmations, and the gate check-in infrastructure.

You still get the full buyer data export after the event. It is the lowest barrier way to run a properly managed ticketed event.

Best for: One-off promoters, first-time event organizers, anyone who wants to test the platform before committing.

Growth and Platinum — For Venues and Regular Organizers

For clubs, lounges, and promoters running events on a recurring basis, the subscription model makes more sense. Your platform is deployed under your own subdomain (Growth) or your own custom domain (Platinum). Your branding is on everything — the ticket page, the email confirmations, the gate check-in interface. Buyers experience your brand at every touchpoint, not Guestlist's.

Growth — KES 5,000/month + KES 30,000 setup

• Unlimited events per month
• Your own branded subdomain (example.guestlist.ke)
• 4,000 SMS/month included
• Full analytics dashboard
• Staff training and payment gateway setup included

Platinum — KES 7,000/month + KES 45,000 setup

• Everything in Growth
• Your own custom domain (example.com)
• Branded email tickets
• Fully branded experience throughout
• 8,000 SMS/month included
• Priority support

Both plans include the full feature set — gate check-in, complimentary ticket management, redemptions, analytics, and buyer data ownership.

The White-Label Difference

Most ticketing platforms cannot be white-labeled. What you see is what you get — their brand, their domain, their checkout experience.

Guestlist is built from the ground up to operate as a white-label platform. For a high-end nightclub or a serious event brand, this matters enormously. Your clients are on your platform. Your domain. Your experience. Guestlist is the infrastructure running underneath, invisible to your buyers.

This is not a cosmetic difference. It is the difference between building a brand and renting someone else's.

Pricing at a Glance

Optional add-on: KRA eTIMS Integration — KES 20,000 one-time + KES 2,000/month. Generates KRA-compliant fiscal receipts with QR codes for every transaction. Recommended for VAT-registered venues or those with annual turnover above KES 5M.

Built From Real Event Experience

Guestlist was built by someone who has stood at the door of a live event watching a ticketing platform handle real traffic in real time. The predecessor to Guestlist ran the ticketing for 2 major events: Master KG live show at the Konqa nightclub — one of the biggest African acts, and Kudong Klan live at Alfakher. The lessons from those events — what worked, what broke, what organizers actually needed — are built into every part of Guestlist.

This is not a platform built in a vacuum. It is built from the inside of the events industry, by someone who understood what was missing.

Ready to Run Your Next Event on Guestlist?

Whether you are a first-time promoter running a one-off event or a venue looking to own your ticketing infrastructure completely — Guestlist has a tier for where you are right now.

Create your first event in minutes or book a free demo and we will walk you through the full platform.

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Guestlist is built and supported in Nairobi, Kenya by Squarely — a software company building tools for African event organizers and venues.