StubHub is one of the best options right now for buying and selling the best concert tickets and best sports tickets, not to mention comedy and theatre. All of which are secure, affordable and well laid out on a clear site and app.
So if you're looking for a great deal on a ticket then StubHub is one of the best places to start looking. Prices are totally transparent making everything clear, at a glance. The site is super simple to use with an intuitive layout that makes buying for a specific event, or browsing a style, as easy as each other.
Search by sport, band, production or comedian, for example. Or, if you need, you can search by some of the top city options - which is a great way to browse and is fantastic if you're visiting somewhere new.
While StubHub might not have the best customer guarantee out there, the FanProtect promise is a trustworthy feature that gives confidence in the security and safety of buying with the service.
StubHub review: Usability
Stubhub sells tickets to a wide array of sports events, concerts, plays and more. Using the free text search tool, you can search by event, artist or team, and the website has a clean design that is uncluttered and pleasant to look at. You can also pick the city and dates you’re interested in to narrow down your options. There’s a free text search feature, meaning if you know exactly what you’re looking for you can access tickets instantly.
Once you’ve chosen what you’re looking for, StubHub tells you the concert nearest to you and lists alternatives. You can filter tickets by price, value or location in the venue and there’s transparency in exactly how many tickets are left to buy and where, which we particularly liked.
When selecting your seat StubHub, more often than not, has a photo of your location and view of the event, meaning you can make an informed choice about where you’re sat and what view works best for you.
StubHub also boasts a nifty app. You can sync your music so StubHub learns your favourite artists. It’ll then alert you when they’re playing near you, which is an innovative feature we really liked. The app also lets you download digital tickets and have a 360-degree view of the venue in question from your seats before buying.
StubHub review: Customer guarantee
StubHub has a FanProtect 100% guarantee, promising to help you buy tickets with confidence and sell tickets safely and securely. This website’s return policy is similar to most of the ticket websites’. You’re guaranteed to get a valid ticket in time for the event, but you only get a refund if the event is fully cancelled. You don’t get your money back if it’s merely rescheduled.
When you buy tickets, you can rest assured they will be authentic and arrive in plenty of time for the concert, and sellers are promised a good transaction with timely payment. Unlike Ticketmaster, this service doesn’t offer refunds, exchanges or ticket insurance.
StubHub review: Buying tickets
We searched all the websites we tested for three specific events and compared the base ticket prices. This site clearly has some of the most affordable tickets out there and virtually the same seats on offer at StubHub were available for a much larger price tag at sites such as Ticketmaster.
Consistently across our tests, StubHub charged an extra 20% on top of the ticket fees as a service charge, which is impressive compared to sites like VividSeats and Coast to Coast, whose fees sometimes came out to be more than the cost of the ticket itself.
StubHub gives you the option to filter search results by price, location or best value. This is a feature we found on other sites such as Razorgator which uses an algorithm that takes the predicted value of a seat and calculates which seats are priced below that value, offering the best deal to buyers. When choosing seats there’s also the option to see the view you’re paying for - great if you’re weighing up price against visibility.
Even though we found affordable tickets on StubHub, it is a secondary market website, which means it sells tickets from other users and licensed ticket brokers. As such, depending on the event, there can be some price markup. All prices are an estimate and it does offer the disclaimer that prices are set by resellers and may be higher or lower than face value.
StubHub review: Selling tickets
StubHub also makes it easy to sell tickets. As with most services, it's free to list, and if you sell the tickets, StubHub takes a 10-percent commission. This company also has a team to help you sell tickets that are close to the concert date. The service can transfer you the money you make from sales in several ways, and you can even donate it to charity through the site.
We liked that you can set your own price on StubHub, meaning you can flog a ticket on the cheap or wait around and see if someone will match the price you paid. StubHub also deals with all kinds of ticket types, from digital to physical, and to ensure each transaction is safe and secure for both parties, StubHub incorporates the FanProtect Guarantee.
StubHub review: Fees and refunds
As mentioned you shouldn't expect to get a refund when using StubHub. This won't let you simply change your mind and cancel those tickets for your money back. However, you can buy with confidence knowing that if the event is cancelled for a reason that is out of your hands, then you will get your money back.
When it comes to fees, StubHub charges a fee for buying and selling tickets. The total price is shown, including the estimated fees but you do need to use the filter and select "show prices with estimated fees" to get this clearly displayed. The actual prices and fees will change based on the demand for the tickets but typically expect to pay around a 10 percent selling fee and a 20 percent buying fee.
Should you try StubHub?
StubHub is one of our favourite ticket websites overall because of its simple and transparent pricing and huge selection of events. Not only is it a good place to buy tickets, but it is also a good resource for selling tickets because of its huge customer base. The ticket prices are among the best we saw, and the service fee is fair when you consider the shipping charges are included.
