Festival-strong. Built for year-round.
Eventive solved the festival screening problem. Hiway solves it too, plus the eleven other months when the festival is dormant and your audience is still watching.
Eventive is built around the festival edition, and it is very good at that. Hiway covers the event too, then keeps selling once it closes. SmartLinks for late buyers, syndication to partners, and a community CRM you own. Several festivals run both, using Hiway for the eleven non-festival months.
| Feature | Hiway | Eventive |
|---|---|---|
| Festival programme tooling | Timed programmes, bundles, jury access | Deep, the strongest option for event-first festivals |
| Passes and in-person ticketing | Virtual and hybrid focus | Full in-person and hybrid support |
| Year-round selling | Core, SmartLinks, VOD sales, syndication | Limited, the product is event-centric |
| Direct-to-fan SmartLinks | Included | Not a first-class feature |
| Syndication to partners | Any destination you bring, from one upload | Not supported |
| Revenue retained | You keep 90% of every sale | Varies by agreement and transaction type |
| Payouts | Real time, into your own Stripe account | Settled after the event window |
| Forensic watermarking | Included on every paid plan | Available |
| Audience data | A CRM you own, exports to CSV any time | Limited export |
| Best fit | A festival that sells all year | Festival-first organisations |
Eventive is built for festivals and it shows in the detail. Programme scheduling, passes, bundles and the in-person side of an edition are its home ground. It handles the awkward parts of a hybrid festival properly. If your organisation exists for one event a year, and the quiet months really are quiet, Eventive fits that shape well.
Hiway suits a festival that wants to earn between editions. The catalogue that ran your programme keeps selling through SmartLinks. Every attendee lands in a CRM you own. You keep 90% of every sale, paid in real time. Plans start at £12 a month.
Plenty of festivals run both, and that is a reasonable answer rather than a fudge. Eventive for the event weeks. Hiway for the catalogue, the rest of the calendar and the audience list that would otherwise go cold.
The same catalogue that ran your programme keeps selling for the next eleven months, on the same platform.
Your programme has closed but a festival-goer still wants to watch. One link, one ticket, the same revenue.
Festival-funded films go direct to fans, then syndicate to partner platforms. One upload, continued income.
Flat and predictable. 10% on pay-per-view, with no per-transaction reconciliation.
Every attendee, ticket and view sits in a CRM you own and can export to CSV at any time.
Most festivals arrive here just after an edition closes, holding a catalogue and an audience list with no plan for either.
Upload the titles you still hold rights to. Set price, window and territory for each film, and change any of it later without a renegotiation.
Bring in the audience your last edition earned. Every viewer after that lands in a CRM you own and export to CSV whenever you want it.
One link per title, shareable anywhere. Someone who missed the programme can still watch it in March, and you still get paid.
Screener Rooms handle jury and press access with forensic watermarking. Ticketed live covers the Q and A nights, with the recording on sale straight after.
None of this requires touching your festival platform. Nothing on Hiway is exclusive and there is no minimum term, so the edition can run exactly where it runs today.
Not everything. Eventive is stronger on the machinery of a festival edition, particularly passes, scheduling and in-person ticketing. Hiway covers virtual screenings, ticketed live, screeners and year-round selling. Several festivals run Eventive for the event and Hiway for the other eleven months.
For year-round selling, usually. Hiway plans start at £12 a month, and Hiway takes 10% on pay-per-view. Eventive prices by agreement and transaction type, so the honest answer is to compare both against your own ticket numbers.
Yes. Nothing on Hiway is exclusive and there is no minimum term. Run your edition where you run it today. Use Hiway for the catalogue, the late buyers and the audience list in between.
You do. Every attendee, ticket and view lands in a CRM you own, and it exports to CSV whenever you ask for it. That list is the asset a festival usually loses at the end of each edition, and it is the one worth keeping.
Book a demo and we will walk through your festival flow and the eleven months around it.
