Here Are the Event Ticketing Sites That Offer the Best Deals
Think back to the last five years of buying event tickets. Was it smooth sailing? Probably not: Since the COVID-19 lockdown ended, ticket revenue has skyrocketed , making tickets so hard to come by that the government has had to try to break up Ticketmaster’s monopoly .
Buying a ticket to a concert, sporting event, or other live show has never been easier (or more expensive ), but you have a few options. Most ticket sites sell the same or similar seats, but at different prices and with different requirements. Here’s how to find a good deal.
What regular ticket buyers recommend
According to Reddit users , your best bet is to go to the box office at the arena or venue to buy your tickets, as the fees are usually pretty low when buying in person. Of course, for events with waitlists or ones you plan to travel to, this isn’t always an option, although I had great luck two years ago when I called the box office, told the receptionist I was going to a show, and bought my tickets over the phone. She upgraded my room out of politeness, saying that she rarely gets to talk to people since most tickets are bought online. Still, buying tickets online is so convenient that it can be worth a few extra bucks. Let’s just make sure you don’t spend too many extra bucks.
Over the years that I’ve been buying tickets to baseball games and concerts, and especially over the last two years that I’ve been reviewing marketplaces for Lifehacker, I’ve noticed that the reputation and service quality of each of the platforms listed below has changed dramatically. Ticketmaster has always been considered expensive (spoiler alert: it still is), but it was also considered reliable. TickPick used to be the only place to buy all-inclusive tickets without surprises at checkout. Many of these apps have improved their service levels, but some differences still remain.
Testing ticketing platforms
Let’s do a real-world test of the major sites: Ticketmaster , StubHub , Vivid Seats , SeatGeek , and TickPick . We’ll also look at GameTime and a newer service called XP . The former is more suited to last-minute ticket-buyers, while the latter is still fairly new.
For the sake of transparency, I do this test every year for Lifehacker, so if you visited this page last fall, you may have seen a comparison of ticket prices for the September 14th baseball game at Chase Field, which I actually attended. This year, I’ll be doing a comparison of ticket prices for the Twins vs. Yankees game this Wednesday, which I’ll also be attending in a little over 48 hours, so my comparisons are as realistic as possible.
Wednesday’s game will be a swinging game, so prices are higher and seats are a little tighter than any other midweek game. This will give us a good idea of how these apps perform in a real rush. My tickets are in the $230 range, and I paid $47 for each. For today’s test, let’s see how much tickets cost in that range on each platform. (And I’ll tell you where I bought them, too, since I’ve already done my research.)
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster shocked me in my test this year. You can usually count on the biggest ticketing players to offer you a ton of empty seats. Not this time. There are no tickets in sections 228 through 234 for Wednesday’s game. To get to the 200 level (which I never do unless I’m forced to or watching a game I’m not interested in), you’ll have to spend at least $112 per ticket — and that’s before fees. Ticketmaster helpfully labeled these amounts as “$112+,” but won’t reveal the total until you log in and enter your payment information. Sneaky. To pay about what I paid, around $50, you’d have to get to the 400 level. Can I recommend just watching the game on TV?
StubHub
This year, StubHub has redeemed itself. Two years ago, StubHub was transparent about its pricing. Last year, it did a complete 180 and refused to divulge what “fees” I’d have to pay unless I entered my card information. This year, I can clearly see without even logging in that the seats in my chosen section are $69, including fees. Price transparency is important, especially when ticket prices are so absurdly high right now. Still, our north star is what I paid last week: $47. At most major events, you can expect ticket prices to go down , not up, as the big day approaches, assuming there are still seats available. There are still hundreds of tickets available on StubHub for the game, so this pricing analysis isn’t perfect, whether it’s a night of bobbing heads or not.
Bright seats
Vivid Seats pissed me off last year and I haven’t been back since. I used to buy all my tickets on the platform because they had a promotion where you get free tickets with every purchase. But last July, when I was going to a match I had already bought tickets for, I found out that my purchase had been cancelled without any notice. I didn’t get a push notification, email or anything like that and to make matters worse, when I contacted customer support they said they couldn’t verify my identity (despite my years of faithful use of the platform) and I was not allowed to buy replacement tickets.
Pricing and transparency are one thing, but pure functionality and access to the tickets themselves are just as important, if not more so, so I want to talk about my previous experience with the site. The rewards system is new here and I haven’t found any other marketplaces offering anything similar, so I honestly regret the free tickets I could have gotten here, but I can’t risk my tickets being cancelled in the future, so overall, Vivid Seats is a no-no for me.
In today’s test, I’ll give credit where credit is due: You can sit in the front row for $71 a ticket, including fees. I’m in row eight, by the way, and would probably pay about $25 extra for a front-row seat. (I just hate sitting up high!) Elsewhere in the same row, you can get a seat for $100 a ticket. What’s more, Vivid Seats follows the lead of many of its competitors. This year, the price is clearly marked with fees included.
SeatGeek
Last year, when I compared SeatGeek , I also refused to show the total price until I entered my card details. This year, like almost everyone else, they have greatly improved the transparency. Seats in our chosen sector are $57 per seat, the price shown includes taxes, and you can click through to the very last screen where the total price to pay is clearly visible. I admit, I never use this, not because I have anything against it, but simply because I am not used to it. The results of today’s test may make me change my ways.
TickPick
Let me start by saying that I have a bias towards TickPick and will always have respect for them because they were the platform that saved the day last year when Vivid Seats arbitrarily revoked my tickets. I have been a regular user since then; they are the platform I used to buy tickets for today’s game and Tuesday’s game, but not Wednesday’s game (more on that later). TickPick was a pioneer in all-inclusive pricing, and while today’s test showed that most competitors have followed suit, I will always respect TickPick for being the first to include fees in the price.
However, the selection here is smaller than some competitors. Although there are seats in almost all sections, there are simply fewer seats to choose from. In fact, there are no seats available in the section we are testing, but the seats in the section next to mine in the same row are $87 each. One more section and you’ll get $44 each. Overall, the prices are better here, even if the selection is not that great.
Game Time
Tickets on GameTime are even more limited, as the site is designed for last-minute purchases. In each section, you may have one or two options available. The section we’re testing has one: two tickets in row seven for $68 each, including fees. On GameTime, perhaps even more than on other platforms, you can expect prices to drop as the event approaches, as the app is geared toward last-minute purchases.
XP
Finally, I’ll tell you where I got my sweet $47 tickets to what looks like a highly sought-after game: through the new XP app. Why? I use another Claim app to get cash back on certain purchases, and XP was the deal of the week, meaning I’d get $25 back if I spent $50 there. I’m a sucker for cash-back apps , and I wanted to test something new.
Now, the tickets I purchased are obviously no longer available, but front row tickets in that section are available through XP for $70, including fees. That’s $1 less than you’d pay for front row tickets in that section at Vivid Seats. However, the selection here was also largely limited. Overall, buying XP tickets was a breeze, but like the other non-Ticketmaster platforms listed here, it’s a resale app, so the seller hasn’t transferred them to me yet, and still smarting from last year’s Vivid Seats fiasco, I’m nervous.
However, the app seems to have a decent customer service, although this is really just their marketing ploy. I received a confirmation email with contact details for the support team and a rough estimate that my tickets would be delivered no later than tomorrow.
Conclusions and things to keep in mind
In most cases, you’ll pay between $57 and $112 — sorry, “$112+” — for a seat in the general area of our test room for a game that doesn’t start for another 48 hours. That’s a huge spread in my opinion, especially considering the event is two days away and the seats aren’t even the best. This year, the winners of our head-to-head matchup were Vivid Seats and TickPick, though Vivid Seats can be tight and TickPick has limited options.
Most of them operate primarily as resale sites, though some (like Ticketmaster and SeatGeek) are also primary marketplaces. The price you pay may have less to do with the platform itself and more to do with who owns the tickets and sells them there. I knew for months that I was going to the games tonight, tomorrow, and Wednesday, but I waited until five days to buy all my tickets because I knew the sellers would lower their prices as the game got closer. That ended up saving me $5 a ticket for tonight’s game, enough to buy myself a hot dog at the stadium.
All of these platforms have improved significantly since I started testing them two years ago. Today, I never have to sign in or enter my credit card details; even in guest mode, I can clearly see prices and navigate to the purchase page, giving me more freedom to make my purchase. The biggest improvement, however, is that all platforms except Ticketmaster show the full price of tickets, including fees.
Ticketmaster had the highest prices today, but their reach is inevitable. I’ve bought tickets through the platform listed here many times and then had them emailed to me by Ticketmaster. I’m not sure why, since Ticketmaster doesn’t own any of the other platforms, but you’ll likely need an account on that marketplace to access tickets, even if you don’t use it to buy.