Spektrix vs Tessitura: the arts ticketing question

Because these two are the realistic shortlist for a mid-to-large arts organisation that needs ticketing, CRM and fundraising in one system, and because the decision is expensive to reverse. Almost every other vendor comparison in this sector is manufactured by a vendor; this one is asked by buyers.

We build neither product. Filmgrail is the moviegoer-facing digital layer that sits above a ticketing system, so we have no stake in which of these you pick — though we do have a view about what both leave out, which is at the bottom of the page.

How much technical capacity does your organisation actually have, and how much do you want to need?

Tessitura rewards organisations that can staff it. Its depth and customisability are real, and so is the requirement to have people who can exercise them. Organisations that buy it without that capacity tend to end up using a fraction of it while carrying all of its complexity.

Spektrix is designed to be run by an arts organisation without a technical department. That is a deliberate trade: less bespoke, more managed. Organisations outgrow it when their requirements become genuinely unusual rather than merely large.

Scale correlates with this but does not determine it. A large organisation with no technical staff is often better served by the lighter system than by the one it cannot operate.

Here is our interest declared plainly, so you can discount it as you see fit.

Both are built around the arts organisation's relationship with its audience and its supporters: ticketing, memberships, development, and the CRM that connects them. Both do that far better than we do, and we do not compete with it.

Neither is built around the way people choose a film. Trailers, watchlists, ratings, personalised showtimes, a native app worth opening in a week when you are not buying anything — these are not gaps in their products, because they are not trying to build them. They are simply absent, and for a venue where film is a significant share of the programme, that absence is what the audience experiences.

If that describes you, the useful question is not which of these two to buy, but what you put in front of whichever one you choose.