A private event issues tickets like any other event, but customers browsing your store never see it. Use it for a staff party, a members’ evening, a launch for invited guests, or any event with a guest list. You don’t need a different event type: create the event as usual, then choose how guests get their tickets.
- Guests register themselves through a private link that only people you invite have. Set the event’s product to Unlisted.
- You add each guest yourself with a Shopify draft order, and never share a link.
Both ways issue real tickets that guests receive and you scan at the door.
Requirements: The Event Ticketing app installed. An event already created. For the private link, Online Store enabled on your shop.
Set the guest limit
The ticket’s inventory is your guest limit. When you create the event, set the ticket’s Inventory to the number of guests you can take, for example 300. Each ticket issued takes one from that count, and at zero the ticket shows as sold out. To change it on a saved event, see Adjusting inventory and prices, which explains the Set to and Adjust by modes.
For a free event, set the ticket’s price to 0.
Let invited guests register with a private link
- In the Event Ticketing app, open the event. Scroll to the Shopify products card and click the product. This opens it in the Shopify product editor.
- In the Status section, choose Unlisted from the drop-down menu.
- Click Save.
- Copy the product’s storefront link and send it to your guests. The link has the form
https://your-store.com/products/product-handle; read the handle from the product’s Search engine listing section. Don’t copy the address bar while you’re in the product editor, which is the admin link and only works for you and your staff.
An Unlisted product is on sale, but customers can’t discover it. It doesn’t appear in your store’s collections, storefront search, or product recommendations, and it’s left out of your sitemap and internet search results. Shopify also doesn’t allow Unlisted products on third-party sales channels. Guests with the link open the event page and check out as usual, and receive their tickets the same way as any other order.
Anyone who has the link can register, so share it only with the people you invite. If the link gets passed around, the guest limit still caps how many tickets are issued.
Event Ticketing doesn’t change a product’s status after creating it, so the event stays Unlisted when it syncs, and the app treats an Unlisted event as on sale.
If your event has several products, each one has its own status and link. Set each product to Unlisted and share the link for the product you want guests to land on.
Add guests yourself
Use a draft order when you’d rather enter each guest yourself than have them register. Set the product to Unlisted first, as in steps 1 to 3 above, so the event isn’t on your store.
- In Shopify admin, go to Orders > Drafts and click Create order.
- Click Product, search for the event’s ticket, select it, and click Done.
- Add the guest as the customer, using their email address. Their tickets go to that address.
- If the ticket isn’t already free, click its price and set the unit price to
0. - Complete the draft order.
The order stays in Shopify admin and never appears on your storefront. See Shopify’s guide to creating draft orders.
For a long guest list that you only need to check in at the door, import it from a spreadsheet instead of creating an order per guest.
Free tickets use credits
A free ticket doesn’t carry the per-ticket fee. Instead, issuing it uses 1 credit, and checking it in uses 1 more. A 300-guest free event where everyone attends uses 600 credits. Your plan includes a monthly credit allowance. See Understand your Shopify bill.
Related articles
- Storefront visibility — making a public event sellable on your store.
- Ticket types — hiding one ticket or pass while the rest of the event stays public.
- Adjusting inventory and prices — changing the guest limit or price.
- Choosing an event type — one-time, multi-date, or recurring.
FAQ
Can customers find an Unlisted event at all?
Only through its direct link. It isn’t in your collections, storefront search, recommendations, sitemap, or internet search. Anyone you give the link to, or who they pass it on to, can open it.
I set the event to Active and published it. Is that private?
No. An Active product on the Online Store sales channel can show in your collections and search. Change its status to Unlisted for an invite-only event.
Can I keep the event public but make one ticket private?
Yes. Hide that ticket’s variant from your sales channels, or put it on its own product and set that product to Unlisted. See Tickets and passes that aren’t for sale.
Can I stop more guests registering before the limit is reached?
Yes. Set the ticket’s Inventory to 0, or set the product’s status to Draft. Draft hides the event page, so the link stops working.
