RumbleSeat and Gearz solve the same problem — a car club running on a Facebook group and a spreadsheet — and charge for it in opposite ways. RumbleSeat is free to use and takes 1% plus card fees on every transaction. Gearz is a flat monthly subscription with a 5% + $0.50 platform fee only on paid tickets. Which one is cheaper depends almost entirely on how much money moves through your events.
When RumbleSeat is the better call
If you run one or two free meets a year and never sell a ticket, RumbleSeat costs you nothing and Gearz would be an expense you do not need. Pick them.
| Gearz | RumbleSeat | |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs to start | Free forever on the Enthusiast plan, no card | Free, no member limits |
| Pricing model | $4.99–$19.99/month flat, predictable per month | 1% + card fees per transaction, scales with your revenue |
| Map-first event discovery | Live map of nearby meets, filterable by type, date, and club | Event listings |
| Integrated ticketing | Stripe Connect, VIP / early bird / group tiers on Crew Chief | Built-in ticketing with per-transaction pricing |
| Club roster and roles | Unlimited members, multiple admin roles, CSV export | No member limits |
| Member reputation system | Gearhead Score — XP for attending meets and logging mods | Not offered |
| Digital garage profiles | Per-vehicle build pages with mod history and cost tracking | Not offered |
| Where it is live | Pre-launch — join the waitlist or claim a founding spot | General availability |
A transaction fee is a percentage of your success — the bigger the meet, the more it costs. On Crew Chief you pay $19.99 for the month whether you sell 20 tickets or 400. On a $15 ticket sold 300 times, 1% + card fees runs well past a flat $19.99.
The Gearhead Score turns attendance into something members can point at. XP for showing up, badges, a leaderboard. Organizers get repeat attendance from people who want the streak, not just people who saw the post.
Every member gets a garage profile with the build, the mods, and what they cost. It is the part of car culture nobody else stores, and it is why members log in between meets.
If you never sell tickets, yes — RumbleSeat is free and Gearz would cost you a subscription for features you are not using. Once you sell paid tickets regularly, the flat Gearz subscription stops scaling with your revenue while a per-transaction fee keeps climbing.
Yes. Import your members and invite them by link. If you later leave Gearz, the Crew Chief plan includes CSV export so the roster stays yours.
Anyone anywhere can join the waitlist or claim a founding spot. We open city by city so each map has real density on day one — until your city opens you bring your own members rather than getting discovered by new ones. The waitlist is how we pick the order.
Gearz opens soon
Sign-ups are invite-only while we open city by city. Join the waitlist, or claim a founding spot and get in on day one. Browsing meets stays free either way.
Comparison details reflect each platform's publicly published pricing and features. RumbleSeat is not affiliated with Gearz.