Snapshot
| Dimension | Ora | Luma |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Paid ticketing with brand partnerships in-product | Calendars, RSVPs, check-in, and simple paid tickets |
| Best when | A series needs ticket revenue and brand partners | A calendar and a guest list are the whole product |
| Sponsor & vendor portal | Two-sided matching, booking, scans, report | No equivalent two-sided sponsor/vendor marketplace |
| Ticket-buyer reports | Age, gender, zip, source channel, purchasing behavior | Host analytics for the calendar — not brand-facing buyer reports |
| Venue POS | Square and Toast (both live), Clover coming soon, for organizers, venues, and brands, not an RSVP calendar | RSVP calendar — not a live bar-consumption feed (Square and Toast today, Clover coming soon) |
| Fees (public) | Ora charges a platform fee on ticket revenue. The public rate is not listed on this page — for current pricing, get in touch with us at support@oraapp.com. | Free plan: 5% platform fee on paid events, plus Stripe card fees (Luma cites typically 2.9% + 30¢). Luma Plus: 0% platform fee; Stripe still applies. Free RSVPs have no platform fee. |
The wedge
Ora’s two-sided sponsor and vendor portal, plus pre- and post-event ticket-buyer reports covering age, gender, zip, source channel, and purchasing behavior.
Ora connects Square and Toast (both live), with Clover coming soon — for organizers, venues, and brands: bar spend and what the night made the venue, an event-level consumption report a room can sell, and beverage sponsorships against what was actually poured — not ticket counts.
Those are the product differences this page is willing to argue. This is not a claim about inventory size, GMV, or how many customers anyone has.
Who the POS flywheel is for
Ora connects Square and Toast (both live), with Clover coming soon. The same bar-consumption data is for organizers, venues, and brands. It sits beside the sponsor/vendor portal and the ticket-buyer reports; it does not replace them.
Organizers
Full visibility of bar spend: what was actually poured, how much money the night made the venue, and beverage-company sponsorships sold against that consumption — not ticket counts. Revenue-split is example framing only (20% of the bar), not a published Ora take-rate. For live commercial terms, get in touch with us at support@oraapp.com.
Venues
An event-level consumption report, then sell that night to brands. Twins and Hotel Van Zandt are live onboarded venues on Ora. That is a customer fact, not a quote, and this page does not publish invented night totals for those rooms as Ora reports.
Brands
Pick nights based on their product’s pour. Example framing only — not a live Ora report, and not a measured night at any named room: a Friday with $16k in tequila drinks, sponsor $5k to own the well. No fake SKUs. The buy is against consumption, not tickets.
Where Luma is stronger
Calendar and RSVP UX
Luma is the default for “here is this week’s salon.” Ora does not claim a better follow graph, a prettier calendar, or more community hosts. If the product is the calendar, stay.
Simple published paid-ticket math
Luma’s pricing page states 5% on the free plan and 0% platform fee on Plus, with Stripe on top. That is easy to explain to a volunteer treasurer. Ora does not publish a matching public take-rate here.
Where Ora is stronger
Brands are not a Luma object
You can sponsor a Luma night with an invoice. Ora is the product where the sponsor logs in, sees the ticket-buyer mix, books a tier or booth, and leaves with a report.
Reports that survive a brand committee
Age, gender, zip, source channel, and purchasing behavior — before the buy and after the door. That is a different artifact from Luma’s host-facing attendance tools.
Bar data a calendar does not hold
Ora connects Square and Toast (both live), Clover coming soon, for organizers, venues, and brands. A Luma RSVP is not that POS feed: it is not bar spend, not an event consumption report a room can sell, and not a pour a brand can buy.
Who should stay on Luma
Stay on Luma if you run a calendar people subscribe to, most seats are free or approval-based, and you want funds in Stripe on Stripe’s schedule without a brand portal.
Who should look at Ora
Look at Ora when a community night starts selling GA and a brand wants a fit score, a zip-level recap, or bar consumption from Square, Toast, and Clover — not a Luma guest CSV.
Fees
Ora. Ora charges a platform fee on ticket revenue. The public rate is not listed on this page — for current pricing, get in touch with us at support@oraapp.com.
Luma. Luma’s pricing page: unlimited free events and guests on the free plan; 5% platform fee on paid events; Luma Plus at $59/month billed annually (or $69 billed monthly) drops the platform fee to 0%. Stripe processing (typically 2.9% + 30¢) is extra on both plans.
Questions, answered
- Is Luma free for RSVPs?
- Luma’s pricing page says you can use Luma for free with unlimited events and guests. Platform fees apply to paid tickets on the free plan. Free RSVPs are not charged a Luma platform fee.
- What does Luma Plus change about paid tickets?
- Plus removes Luma’s platform fee (0% vs 5%). Stripe’s card fee remains. Plus is priced on luma.com/pricing ($59/month billed annually, $69 billed monthly, USD).
- Can a Luma calendar invite sponsors with a match score?
- Not as an in-product two-sided portal. Luma is for hosts and guests. Ora’s partner side scores fit, shows open tiers and booths, and attaches the ticket-buyer report.
- Should community meetups stay on Luma?
- Usually yes — if they are RSVP-first and nobody is buying a booth. Move the conversation to Ora when the meetup becomes a ticketed night with brand money attached.
- Does Ora copy Luma’s calendar follow model?
- This page does not claim calendar-parity. The comparison is ticketing-plus-brands versus calendar-plus-RSVP. Follow graphs are Luma’s home turf.
- Does a Luma calendar include Square, Toast, or Clover bar data for sponsors?
- Luma is RSVP and calendar software. Ora’s Square and Toast flywheel (Clover coming soon) is three-sided: organizers see bar spend and what they made the venue (example-only 20% of bar split, not a published rate); venues sell an event consumption report (Twins and Hotel Van Zandt are live onboarded venues, not quotes); brands pick nights by pour. Example only, not a live Ora report: $16k tequila, $5k well. A Luma guest count is not that.
Official Luma site: luma.com. Brands looking for events: Partners.