There are dozens ticket resale sites you can choose from, but if you’ve tried buying concert tickets on any of these sites before, you might be aware that your tickets come with huge fees attached to them - sometimes as big as 40% of the cost of your concert tickets!
If you want to know what the cheapest site to buy concert tickets is, we’ll help you find that in this guide, by covering:
- Our top picks
- How concert ticket site fees work for buyers and sellers
- Top 6 cheapest concert ticket sites
- Other concert ticket resale site options
- Are there any cheap concert ticket sites with no fees?
- 4 tips for saving more money when buying concert tickets
- How we conducted our cheap concert ticket websites research
Let’s dive into the basic explanation of how these concert ticket sites charge the fees, and how they are structured differently on different websites.
How concert ticket site fees work for buyers and sellers
On most concert ticket websites, the “buyer fees” consist of a service fee that is added on during checkout, which is the cut the website is taking for helping conduct the sale between you and the seller. This fee usually consists of a percentage of the total concert ticket price, and ranges anywhere from 5-40+%. There are also sometimes additional flat rate fees added on to cover something specific like digital transfers or shipping physical concert tickets.
On all concert ticket websites, seller fees consist of a commission on the total amount the concert tickets sell for, and on most concert ticket resale sites, this is 10-15%. As soon as the tickets sell, the website sends the seller their money for the sale, minus the website’s commission.
Did You Know
Most concert ticket sites charge fees to both buyers and sellers, so they are making money from both sides of the transaction for being the intermediary in the sale. TickPick offers buyers a great way to save money, because they only charge a fee to the sellers, which means buyers pay no fees
Top 6 cheapest concert ticket sites
We’ve covered the extensive list of best ticket resale sites for buyers and best resale ticket sites for sellers, but if you’re specifically looking for just concert tickets, and the place where you can get them the cheapest by paying the lowest fees (either as a buyer or a seller), these are the top 6 that stand out.
1. TickPick
Buyer Fees:
Buyer Fees:
Seller Fees:
Seller Fees:
Ticket Availability:
Medium
Ticket Availability:
Medium
Buyer Guarantee:
Buyer Guarantee:
Support Methods:
Phone, Email, Contact Form, FAQ
Support Methods:
Phone, Email, Contact Form, FAQ
Top Countries:
USA, Canada, UK, Mexico, India
Top Countries:
USA, Canada, UK, Mexico, India
What We Like
No fees for buyers
App is just as good as the site
What We Don't Like
Less users than bigger sites
Refunds take longer
Our Recommendation
For cheap concert tickets, TickPick is one of the best options out there because buyers pay no fees on top of the cost of their tickets, and no additional fees are ever added at checkout - which is the primary reason concert tickets end up being expensive. You should use TickPick as the first place you check for concert tickets, as you're most likely to find the lowest overall price here.
2. TicketNetwork
Buyer Fees:
None, but ticket prices are inflated
Buyer Fees:
None, but ticket prices are inflated
Seller Fees:
15%
Seller Fees:
15%
Ticket Availability:
Medium
Ticket Availability:
Medium
Buyer Guarantee:
Buyer Guarantee:
Support Methods:
Phone, Email, FAQ
Support Methods:
Phone, Email, FAQ
Top Countries:
US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Italy
Top Countries:
US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Italy
What We Like
No buyer fees added on to checkout
Many promos and discounts lower the overall price
What We Don't Like
Concert ticket costs aren't transparent
Buyers have to interact directly with sellers
Our Recommendation
When shopping for cheap concert tickets on TicketNetwork, you're likely to find an overall low price, and you'll only pay the price you already see on the screen, as nothing will be added to your checkout. However, the base price of tickets do seem to be inflated slightly to help them offset the lack of service fees, so use this as your second stop-off after you try TickPick, as you might find more availability here.
3. TicketSmarter
Buyer Fees:
21% + $4-$10 fulfillment fee
Buyer Fees:
21% + $4-$10 fulfillment fee
Ticket Availability:
Medium
Ticket Availability:
Medium
Buyer Guarantee:
Buyer Guarantee:
Support Methods:
Contact Form, FAQ
Support Methods:
Contact Form, FAQ
Top Countries:
US, Canada, UK, Mexico, Colombia
Top Countries:
US, Canada, UK, Mexico, Colombia
What We Like
Buyer fees are mid-range at only 21%
Site filters are amazing for finding concerts
What We Don't Like
Bad customer service
Refunds are given by sellers directly
Our Recommendation
This site is great for finding cheaper concert tickets because they charge fees that are a bit lower than the other ‘big’ ticket resale sites like StubHub or VividSeats that charge 30-40% fees, and is great for buying tickets in bulk, as sellers often sell in bulk for lower prices. However, TicketSmarts doesn't intervene with issues unless absolutely necessary, so you'll have to deal with sellers directly yourself.
4. Ticketmaster
Buyer Fees:
Buyer Fees:
Seller Fees:
15%
Seller Fees:
15%
Ticket Availability:
Very High
Ticket Availability:
Very High
Buyer Guarantee:
Buyer Guarantee:
Support Methods:
Support Methods:
Top Countries:
US, Canada, UK, Mexico, Australia
Top Countries:
US, Canada, UK, Mexico, Australia
What We Like
You can buy tickets without marked up costs
Most concert ticket availability of any ticketing website
What We Don't Like
Mid to high fees charged to buyers, ranging inexplicably
Notoriously poor customer service
Our Recommendation
Ticketmaster is the only place you can buy original ticket, the only way to avoid paying marked up prices for tickets being sold on ticket reselling websites, so it is best used on the day the concert tickets go on sale before they are sold out, or for concerts that are less likely to sell out.
5. TicketSwap
Buyer Fees:
Buyer Fees:
Seller Fees:
Seller Fees:
Ticket Availability:
Medium
Ticket Availability:
Medium
Buyer Guarantee:
Buyer Guarantee:
Support Methods:
Instant Chat, Phone, Contact Form, FAQ
Support Methods:
Instant Chat, Phone, Contact Form, FAQ
Top Countries:
Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany
Top Countries:
Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany
What We Like
Lowest fees for both buyers and sellers
Secure Swap means tickets are always legit
Great customer service
What We Don't Like
A mid-range amount of sellers on the platform
Refund timeline is relatively long
Our Recommendation
TicketSwap is probably the best to use overall when it comes to getting cheap concert tickets, as both buyers and sellers only have to pay a 5% fee each, which is the absolute lowest on the market, and is very likely to keep the bottom line cost of your concert tickets low. However, the majority of for-sale concert tickets are for venues in Europe, so it's best if you're looking for concerts taking place there.
6. viagogo
Buyer Fees:
Buyer Fees:
Seller Fees:
Seller Fees:
Ticket Availability:
Medium
Ticket Availability:
Medium
Buyer Guarantee:
Buyer Guarantee:
Support Methods:
Phone, Email, Contact Form, FAQ
Support Methods:
Phone, Email, Contact Form, FAQ
Top Countries:
Brazil, Argentina, US, Czech Republic, Spain
Top Countries:
Brazil, Argentina, US, Czech Republic, Spain
What We Like
Fees stay under 30% for buyers
More international concert tickets available
What We Don't Like
Refunds take longer to receive
Policies & ticket guarantee are subpar
Our Recommendation
viagogo is best used for concerts taking place outside the U.S, and in more international countries, or you're looking for concert festivals, which are very popular on viagogo. You're likely to find more of a deal here than on the bigger sites with higher fees.
Other concert ticket resale site options
If those sites with the lowest fees don’t seem like they would work for you, here are some of the other most popular concert ticket websites with a breakdown of their fees:
Ticket Website | Buyer Fees | Seller Fees | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|
StubHub | Ranges from 28-46% | 15% | |
Vivid Seats | 32% + $2-$5 download / transfer fee | 10% | |
SeatGeek | Ranges from 34-44% | 10% | |
TicketLiquidator | 31% | 15% |
Are there any cheap concert ticket sites with no fees?
Yes, some cheap concert ticket websites have no fees. TickPick is the only concert ticket resale site that has truly no buyer fees, because sellers pay the entire commission on the ticket resale (it’s like real estate!). TicketNetwork also advertises that they don’t charge fees to buyers, so you won’t see any added on throughout the checkout process.
With concert ticket sites, this only happens with buyer fees, because all sites charge a commission to sellers for the sale of their concert tickets.
One thing to be wary of as a buyer is that even though sometimes a website (like TicketNetwork) will advertise that they charge no fees, they are listing the same tickets for sale on other partnership websites, and then inflating the overall price. So even though you don’t see fees, they are baked into the total price. Make sure you compare prices across websites, and use the tactics below to make sure you are still finding the absolute cheapest concert tickets.
4 tips for saving more money when buying concert tickets
If you’ve selected one of our top cheap ticket websites for concerts, then you’re halfway to getting the cheapest concert tickets. The other hald if utilizing these strategy to lower the overall cost of your tickets when you get to the final stage of checkout. Here’s how you do it:
1. Wait until the day of the concert to buy the tickets
Concert ticket sellers will often lower the price of their tickets on the actual day of the concert because they want to make sure their tickets sell before the concert starts (at which point, the tickets become worthless). This is one great strategy to save money on your tickets costs, but should be used only in situations where you’d be alright with missing the concert. It’s a gamble to wait this long because you won’t always find lower prices or available tickets at the last minute.
2. Look at different seats and rows within the same section
Sites that sell original tickets like Ticketmaster typically have all the tickets in one section generally costing the same amount (all general admission are the same, all upper bowl seats are the same, etc.), but concert ticket resale sites aren’t like this.
The seller is the owner of those tickets, so they can set the price however they want, which means the cost of seats - even ones right next to each other - can vary quite a bit. However, this means there’s another strategy to utilize: sellers will often look at the other concert tickets listed in their section and then lower the price by a few dollars per ticket to incentivize you to choose their tickets over their neighbor’s tickets. These few dollars will help lower your bottom line when it comes to checkout.
3. Check for lower prices and fees across different concert ticket sites
Using our list above of the cheapest websites to buy concert tickets, jump from site to site looking for similar - or even the exact same - tickets. Sellers will frequently list their tickets on multiple sites because it’s free to do so - they only have to pay if the tickets sell. This means you might find the exact same seats you were looking for on another website for either a lower cost per tickets, or with a lower total cost because of the fees added on at the end.
Pro Tip
Remember, fees really can make a substantial difference to the overall cost. If you buy a ticket for $300 from TicketSwap which charges a 5% fee, the total cost of that ticket will only be $315, while on a site like StubHub charging up to 46% will make that same ticket cost $438 total.
4. Look for the score or rating system to evaluate the quality of your deal
Websites like TickPick have a rating system that shows up to the concert tickets you are looking at before you proceed to the checkout process. These scores or rating systems will indicate to you how good of a deal those tickets are compared to all other tickets being listed and sold on the website. These typically look something like this:
These systems sometimes use a letter grade, a percentage, or a red (bad) / yellow (average) / green (good) color code to indicate to you how good the price is. Make sure you take a look at these and scroll through all your options, as other close-by tickets might be the better deal.
How we conducted our cheap concert ticket websites research
We worked through over 30 hours of extremely thorough, painstaking research to dive into the best cheap concert ticket websites, and it truly took so long because they way these sites charge their fees, how irregular and fluctuating they seem to be, and how non-transparent many of them are about the fees makes it extremely difficult as a buyer of concert tickets to actually know how much you’re going to be charged.
We tried to get to the bottom of this mystery while conducting the research, so we actually tried to buy concert tickets for the same event in different cities, at different venues, and across all these websites to see the real actual fees costs when it was unclear.
Knowing this information, we feel confident that we’ve delivered the true costs here, and have done our very best to evaluate these sites as best we can. Hopefully this helps you pick out the cheapest concert ticket site from our list for the event you’re trying to attend, and save money while doing so.
That’s a wrap on our rundown of the best cheap concert ticket sites. If you still can’t make a decision based on fees alone, try our breakdown of the safest concert ticket sites, which evaluate them based on their reputation, customer service, and legitimacy (to ensure you don’t waste your money on fake tickets). If you want to take a deep dive on two of the biggest concert ticket websites out there, try our comparison of Ticketmaster vs StubHub.