If you're eagerly anticipating the chance to attend your favorite artist's next concert or your next comedy show, the best place to start your search is on the top concert ticket websites. This guide will provide you with all the information you need to know about ticket hunting, including the most reliable websites to find what you're looking for.
When it comes to purchasing concert tickets online, there are numerous options available, each with its own unique features. To save time, it is essential to determine what you are looking for before beginning your search on a specific site. Consider the type of events you enjoy attending, such as theatre, music concerts, or stand-up comedy shows, before selecting the best concert ticket site.
It's important to consider a few things when buying tickets online. Firstly, think about whether you prefer to sit or stand, and also take into account the availability and price of the tickets. If the show is sold out, you may need to look at resale rates. Some ticket sites allow you to buy tickets directly after they are released, while others specialize in obtaining tickets after they have sold out. It's crucial to prioritize reliability and safety when making significant online purchases to minimize the risk of being scammed.
Remember, with the holidays and after-Christmas sales on the horizon, there may be a number of great deals on the best concert ticket sites, meaning you can get a bargain experience.
Luckily, we've done the leg work for you and rounded up this list of the best concert ticket sites to find the ultimate option for the tickets you're looking for. And if you want more specific picks, then take a look at the best sports ticket sites and best online auction sites, too.
The best concert ticket sites we recommend
Why you can trust Top Ten Reviews Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
We're on a mission at Top Ten Reviews to review everything we feature in our buyer's guide. While we haven't been able to test every entry in this guide in person, we've instead honed in on top-rated brands and used our knowledge of the best concert ticket sites to help you make the right decision.
The best concert ticket site overall
StubHub claims the top spot thanks to its clear emphasis on concert tickets, with various genres and options to sort through as you enter via the website's landing page.
You can filter by lowest price, best location, and best deal, as well as specific seat types and types of ticket delivery, meaning everyone's preferences are covered. Moreover, the FanProtect promise offers peace of mind so you can shop with StubHub confidently. This ensures you receive valid tickets before the event; if you don’t, you will either be refunded with comparable or better tickets or receive a full refund. Using a reputable secondary broker like StubHub is a fast and secure way to buy and sell concert tickets, and that’s why we think it is the best service for most people.
Many positive five-star reviews commented on how easy it is to use the mobile app and website. However, there are some negative reviews. One customer complained that after buying tickets through a reseller on StubHub and flying interstate for the concert, the tickets were canceled, and there was little support from the company.
If you don't have one of the best home computers or prefer browsing on your phone, the mobile app is easy to use and lets you access tickets on the day of the event. Once you purchase the ticket, a bar code on your phone will get you into the venue, so you don't have to worry about having access to a printer. You can also follow your favorite artists on the app and receive instant alerts about upcoming shows in your area.
Not only does StubHub allow you to buy tickets, but you can also use the platform to sell any tickets to shows you can't attend. You can use either the computer application or mobile app to sell your tickets, and StubHub will collect 10% of the sale price.
The best customer-guaranteed concert ticket site
Ticketmaster is one of the most well-known ticket sites and is most likely people's go-to destination for confidently purchasing concert tickets. The web interface is easy to use, with clear markers for different genres, and it will give you recommended concerts based on your purchase history.
Thanks to its return policy, it's also a great place to shop for tickets. The site gives you three days after your purchase to change your mind when you purchase tickets for events at venues participating in the website's Fan Guarantee program. It's also the only site we reviewed that lets you return tickets for events that have been rescheduled and not canceled, which is great for added peace of mind and avoiding losing any money unnecessarily.
Across the sites we reviewed, the prices on Ticketmaster were average, and you get the benefit of buying tickets from a primary seller. This means tickets for in-demand concerts may be cheaper on Ticketmaster than elsewhere if you can buy them in time.
Ticketmaster has many positive reviews around buying tickets in the first initial sale, but some customers complained about their re-selling process. One person commented that they would get charged a fee to buy and resell and a fee for the buyer, which increases the price significantly.
It's worth noting that Ticketmaster recently saw a lot of backlash concerning Taylor Swift tickets. They were chosen as the sole provider of the in-demand tickets and, due to unprecedented demand, had to cancel the sale of thousands of tickets, leaving many fans devastated. The site also glitched when customers were putting tickets into their baskets, causing a lot of confusion over whether they had actually secured tickets.
With this in mind, you might avoid relying on Ticketmaster as a one-stop shop for in-demand tickets, but it is still one of the most reliable websites regarding price and customer support.
The best rewards program for a concert ticket site
VividSeats didn’t have the cheapest tickets of the sites we reviewed, but concert lovers might be interested in shopping here regardless due to the impressive rewards program. You can get up to 8% credit on tickets depending on how much you spend, and if you’re a ‘Hall of Famer’ (meaning you spend over $2000 annually), this credit won’t expire.
Like some of the complaints about Ticketmaster above, there's a lack of transparency about fees on VividSeats. Sometimes, the added fees could be almost as much as the tickets themselves. The only saving grace in this is the rewards scheme that could help you save money over time, but if you're not a frequent buyer, this won't benefit you.
If you haven’t the budget to splash $2000 annually on tickets, don’t worry; your credit will last a full year. You can buy your tickets through the easy-to-use app or online, and if you have any questions, a customer service representative can answer them through the website’s live chat feature.
Customers noted that the VividSeats support network is quick to point out that they are a middle man, and this is an issue between you and the originating source of the ticket. Also, if you order in enough time, you can react and/or make alternative plans if necessary. If you make a last-second purchase, you are putting yourself at risk.
VividSeats also has a 100% buyer guarantee, making the site much more tempting. It guarantees your tickets will be valid and arrive in time for the event, and you'll get a refund for canceled events. Unlike Ticketmaster, however, VividSeats acts as a middleman between sellers and buyers, so ticket prices are set independently by the reseller and based on current "market value." This might mean that ticket prices are a lot higher than on other sites due to sellers wanting to maximize profits, which could also change quickly. A website that acts as an intermediary also poses issues in not taking responsibility for any issues that may arise, which is something that has been noted in some customer reviews.
The best concert ticket site for ease of use
See Tickets actually originated as a record shop in Nottingham, in the UK. It then grew in the digital age and, as a result, became an internationally respected ticket-selling site. It has kept its simplistic roots, with a super minimal site that's efficient and easy to handle. This is super useful in the ticket-hunting world, as it can often be a stressful and daunting task.
See Tickets has an overall rating of four stars on Trustpilot, which is much higher than some other sites. Out of the negative reviews, most mentioned difficulty when checking out for in-demand concerts, which is often a standard experience across the board.
You can search by artist, event, venue, general location, and music genre. The top navigation ribbon allows you to browse by music, theatre, festivals, dance and clubs, events, comedy, sport, and attractions so it's not difficult to find tickets for events other than your typical concert. This category system allows you to discover gigs you might not have been aware of, which is a great way to find gifts for others. It's also an easy way to search generally through a certain event type if you've decided you want to go to a sports match but don't have any preferences outside of that.
You can sell tickets to your event if you are a music star. And while the site does say it will offer refunds if the event has "significantly changed," this refund policy is pretty strict compared to a lot of the competition. Currently, See Tickets doesn't have the option to resell tickets you bought, so you'll want to choose a more dedicated ticket reselling site for this.
The best concert ticket sites for international music options
Viagogo is based in London, so it caters to the UK music scene well, but it’s also an international platform, offering tickets for US gigs and covering more than 50 countries. You will find a wide selection of music types on this site, making it great for discovery – did you know C Pop was a thing?
The interface isn't as simple as some other sites, mainly due to its cluttered look. However, it has clear signposts to different events, such as concerts, sports, theatre, and festival tickets. Viagogo is a secondary ticket sale site, meaning they only sell re-sale tickets rather than having direct relationships with artists and events companies to sell the initial batch.
Viagogo is primarily a resale site, so it's harder to monitor the reliability of tickets. As a result of this, there are a lot of poor reviews that complain about tickets being invalid or substantially higher prices than they should be.
The tickets may be more expensive than other websites as sellers can put the prices above face value if they want. This does pose an issue with events that are really sought after (cough, Beyoncé), but it's pretty standard practice across resale sites. The good news is that you can also sell your own tickets on this site. All you need to do is create an account and search for the event you have tickets for, and then you can set your own price as advised by previous sales. You can do this from any device, too, so it's good if you're on the go and need to buy or sell last minute.
While resale tickets can often feel risky, you are covered well should the event be canceled and not rescheduled, as you get a massive 125% refund on what you spent. There is also a guarantee from the company that you will receive your ticket before the time of the event. Tickets are sent via tracked courier services, so you don't need to worry about being left in the lurch minutes before the opening act.
The best website for booking
SeatGeek has a clean website, making it incredibly easy to navigate and find exactly what ticket you're looking for. You can browse tickets by city, date, or genre. There's also a category for trending events, so if you don't know exactly what you're looking for but know you're keen to bag tickets to the hottest gig, it makes it quick to locate.
SeatGeek’s transparent fees are a big draw here, making it easy to know you’re getting the best deal possible and avoid a nasty surprise when you checkout. What’s more, fees were some of the lowest we found - making SeatGeek a great all-rounder if you’re after a good price.
SeatGeek has a high four-star rating on Trustpilot and many five-star reviews. Customers enjoyed the lack of fees and ease of shopping, but some have noted that the tickets they bought were invalid at the point of entry, causing disappointment.
You can sell your own tickets on SeatGeek, too. So, if you can no longer make a gig, setting up an account and helping them find a better home is quick. The site offers dynamic pricing, so you can choose the price you sell depending on demand. This is great if you want a bit more cash in your pocket, but it does mean that those Taylor Swift resale tickets will skyrocket quickly.
Like many top concert ticket sites, SeatGeek assigns a deal score to each ticket, marking it with a color and number on a scale of zero to ten. This results in a straightforward and visually compelling arena seating chart.
We liked SeatGeek’s shiny website and modern feel. It also has a great app available to Apple and Android users. Overall, a great choice if you’re after a bargain and a choice you can feel confident about.
The best value concert ticket site
TickPick's (previously Razorgator) selling point is no hidden fees. With complaints on other sites in this roundup that booking fees can often almost equal the same price as the ticket, this is a major win. It's easy to underestimate how expensive tickets can become when you add insurance, tax, and booking fees, so it's a great way to save a little bit of cash.
The site is great for its unbeatable prices, reasonable fees, and numerous search filters to help you find the perfect seat. The grading system offered by the site is helpful for people willing to compromise on price when it comes to seat value, and we found the claim of an average 15-20% saving to be accurate.
TickPick is a lesser-known concert ticket site, so there were far fewer reviews online. Many customers were noting the severe cost increase, which is the downside to purchasing them on a resale site that lets sellers select their own price.
The customer guarantee is a fairly standard offering, and there are some good options for support, so you can be confident that there's someone to talk to if anything goes wrong. If you're selling on the ticket, you can put tickets as 'open to bidding.' This is great if the tickets are really in demand and you're looking to make a few bucks, or you can select an outright price if you want the tickets snapped up quickly. TickPick will take a substantial 10% commission, but you can always factor this into your ticket pricing.
This is our pick of best-value ticket services, as the prices were consistently the lowest in our testing. We’re confident that you’ll snap up a good deal with TickPick.
The best concert ticket site for sellers
As opposed to some of the bigger names that made the best concert ticket sites list, TicketCity wasn’t our first choice of ticket sites. However, its ticket prices were lower than some competitors, and we liked its unique approach to helping you sell tickets fast.
The site is a bit outdated, and the navigation ribbon has small text pushed to one side, but there are line-ups of the top sporting, music, and theater events for easy access. It's unclear what parameters you can search events by, so there's less chance of you stumbling across events you weren't already entering with the intention of shopping for.
Many customers were impressed by TicketCity's fair prices despite allowing sellers to pick their own. Some people, however, commented on the lack of refund when they had ticket issues out of their control, so they dock points for customer support.
Most websites let you post your tickets and set your own price, taking a cut of the money when you sell. TicketCity buys your tickets directly from you, so there’s no waiting around to see if they will sell. This is made even easier by how easy it is to sell your ticket to TicketCity, which can be done over the phone or on an online form. A great option if you’re looking to sell unwanted concert tickets. This is a benefit depending on how much time you have and how much control you want over the price of your tickets. If you're looking to maximize cash in hand, then selecting a site with dynamic pricing and bidding might be better suited for what you want.
Regarding customer support, the website has a live chat function that makes it quick and easy to find assistance. The cancellation policy is pretty standard, too, offering a refund if the event is canceled but not if it's rescheduled.
The best concert ticket site for search engine functionality
Ticketmaster owns LiveNation after being bought back in 2010, and it has more of a music focus. Unlike others on this list, it's more of a search engine than a dedicated ticket agency. We clicked through to buy tickets, and the site redirected us to SeeTickets to actually make the purchase, so it's important to know that it's mainly performing as a route to finding events.
LiveNation had the largest negative views, with many mentioning bad customer service. As LiveNation is a third-party site that puts your purchases through Ticketmaster and SeeTickets, it seems like they push the burden of customer support away, too.
With this in mind, it's a fantastically streamlined place to search for gig tickets, browse by location, genre, or date, and search directly for bands. The hero images are really helpful in making certain shows stand out and offer a visual experience that is easy to follow. The landing page also has many different trending events, so if you want to initiate the idea of buying concert tickets but aren't yet set on a specific gig, then LiveNation will be a great place to start.
There isn't much to report on the refund policies or the buying and selling experience on LiveNation, as it performs as a search engine. It redirects to Ticketmaster, too, so it's important to remember the policies of these sites you are actually shopping from.
Concert ticket site FAQs
How much do concert tickets cost?
The price of concert tickets can vary depending on who is performing, where they're performing, and how in demand the event is. Service and shipping fees differ by event and website, but our research shows the average service fee is about 23% added to the ticket cost. Standard shipping costs can also run you an extra $15, although sometimes the company wraps this into the service fee.
Most websites take about a 15% commission if you want to sell tickets. However, with websites that offer you to pick the price, you can factor this into how much you sell the ticket for. Some websites don't take a commission, and others will buy them outright to save you the trouble.
What are the ticket service’s fees?
All the online ticket brokers we reviewed charge service fees. Some also charge convenience fees, shipping, and e-ticket delivery fees. We found that e-tickets were the most cost-effective, with the delivery fees around $5 versus the $15 average fee for delivering physical tickets. Our top pick, Razorgator, doesn’t charge delivery fees for e-tickets, which is a great way to save on additional costs. Fees are unavoidable, so you might want to consider shopping around before you make your final decision.
What's the difference between primary and secondary sellers?
This is a big distinction worth knowing. A primary ticket seller is a website, like Ticketmaster, that works directly with the event to sell its tickets. That means they work out a deal based on a price that works for both. From a buyer's perspective, this is the most secure way to buy, with tickets right from the seller, meaning you get them officially. The downside is that the price might already be high, despite no official markup, since the seller and event organizer decide this and control the first batch of tickets.
Secondary ticketing sites are those that re-sell tickets for an event. This is a great option if the event is a sell-out and you still want to get a ticket or two. These will be charged at a markup, which will cost you more than the face-value ticket price in most cases. However, you can sometimes find that these are actually cheaper than primary pricing. In most cases, these come with guarantees, so even though you're buying secondary tickets, they should still be secure, get to you in time, and actually work on the day.
Which concert ticket sites can you trust?
There are a lot of horror stories involving people buying concert tickets from fraudsters or unreputable sources. Don’t worry - we wouldn’t recommend any sites we don’t think can be trusted. However, sometimes things go wrong, especially when buying through an online marketplace instead of the site itself. That’s why every site we’ve recommended has a 100% ticket guarantee.
This is a standard feature across ticket resale sites, which promises your money back if your tickets don’t arrive in time, are invalid or are not what you were promised. With the exception of Ticketmaster, they won’t give you your money back if your concert is rescheduled and you can’t make the new date. However, some will help you resell your tickets, and if an event is permanently canceled, you should expect to be refunded.
In every review, we’ve extensively checked the customer guarantee of each site and given you all the information you need to make an informed decision. We’ve also taken this into account in our ratings.
Which sites have an interactive seating chart?
All the services we reviewed allow you to click on various sections in the venue and compare prices. An interactive seating chart makes it easier to visualize where you’ll be sitting in relation to the stage. Some services offer point-of-view pictures from larger stadiums and venues so you can check out the viewing angle from the seats you’re reserving, and with some sites, this function gives you a 360-degree view.
What about concert calendar apps?
The use of calendars, which can be searched, is a helpful addition that the sites listed here offer. That allows you to search by date to find events, or certain dates for an event, to suit when you can make it.
Many apps offer personalized alerts for bands, venues, and concerts, which are also a helpful way to get a heads-up on events you can go to that interest you.
The best app on the sites reviewed here was StubHub, so if you plan to use alerts like this, that could be the ideal option. It even lets you sync your music to make suggestions based on the artists you listen to most.
We’ve also looked around for other concert calendar apps:
Songkick's free concert calendar app
This concert calendar app is free and available for iOS and Android devices. It searches services like Apple Music, Spotify, and Deezer to find out what music you listen to and curates a personalized concert guide based on your playlists. Songkick sends notifications about concerts and festivals near your current location, allowing you to set a reminder to buy a ticket. This app also recommends bands and comedians not on your playlists to help you discover new and emerging artists. It displays pricing information, but we suggest using one of the licensed ticket broker sites we reviewed to ensure your transaction is secure and that you can get help and support if something goes wrong.
Bandsintown's concert planning app
This app has similar search capabilities as Songkick – it can sync to your playlists on popular streaming services and send notifications about bands you follow. However, because it allows artists to post tour dates free of charge, Bandsintown is a better option for searching for and discovering smaller local acts. It also has better social media features. For example, you can invite friends to a concert with a Facebook post, view tour news and updates, and post photos of yourself dancing or attempting an epic stage dive. Bandsintown is available in the Google Play and Apple App stores free of charge.
How we choose the best concert ticket sites
To find the best ticket sites, we checked prices for local and national concerts and events on the same day and noted the lowest prices available, as well as compared overall value for money. We also ranked sites based on price, availability, website and app features, and various events. We went through every step of the buying and selling process for tickets to ensure there were no hidden fees or issues with these sites, so you can be confident in picking the right concert ticket site for you.
We’ve reviewed concert ticket websites for several years and know what to look for in the guarantees and money-back promises these companies offer. We’ve made sure to compare them all on guarantees for peace of mind and compare customer experience and customer service options to ensure that even if you experience difficulties, there’s a team you can trust to set things right.
There's much to consider when determining the best concert ticket sites. When finalizing this selection, we looked at features such as pricing, availability, usability, mobile experience, and the entire end-to-end buying process. We then scored them, ranking the best experience at the top to make it easy to explore.
There can be a lot of hidden fees and other customer support issues, so we looked deeply into these, too, trawling through the companies' FAQs and guides to analyze how each site will work with you should there be any problems that arise in the buying process.
We also focused on delivery, checking how tickets were delivered, by whom, and how long you can expect to wait before your event starts.
Security and fees were two other areas we explored. We took your bank details, the website's build, and aftersales support into account to assess the reliability of the sales platform. When selling using these options, we found that selling online is more expensive than using a listing or social media as they take 10 to 20% of the sale price. We did, however, find them to be a safer option where your audience of buyers is far greater than it would be otherwise.
