Softwr

Travel · head to head

Kayak vs TicketingHub

Kayak logo

Kayak

Travel

Travel search app comparing flights, hotels and car hire across other booking sites, owned by Booking Holdings

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
TicketingHub logo

TicketingHub

Travel

Ticketing and booking for tours and attractions with no subscription, only a percentage per booking

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Kayak has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Kayak it is owned by Booking Holdings, the same parent as Booking.com and Priceline, so its comparison results are not fully independent of its own group's commercial interests.; TicketingHub the 3 per cent applies to cash and walk-up sales recorded in the system, not only to online bookings, which operators frequently miss and which makes on-site revenue more expensive than expected.
  • They diverge on capability: Kayak covers Flight, hotel and car comparison, TicketingHub covers No monthly fee.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Kayak and TicketingHub actually diverge.

Attributes where Kayak and TicketingHub differ
AttributeKayakTicketingHub
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelFree to users, revenue from referral commissions and advertisingPer booking, 3 per cent of booking value
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsiOS, Android, WebWeb, iOS, Android

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Travel).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Kayak

  • Flight, hotel and car comparison
  • Price alerts
  • Price prediction
  • Flexible date search
  • Trip planning tools
  • Explore/anywhere search

Only in TicketingHub

  • No monthly fee
  • Ticket scanning
  • Walk-up sales
  • Booking widget
  • OTA connections
  • Session and capacity management
  • Reporting
  • Multi-currency and language

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Kayak

  • Comparing flight prices across multiple airlines and booking sites before purchasingnot TicketingHub
  • Setting a price alert to buy a flight or hotel once the price dropsnot TicketingHub
  • Searching flexible dates or nearby airports to find a cheaper farenot TicketingHub
  • Comparing car hire prices across rental companies for a tripnot TicketingHub

TicketingHub

  • A seasonal walking tour company that closes for four winter months and refuses to pay a subscription through themnot Kayak
  • A small attraction wanting door scanning and online booking in one systemnot Kayak
  • A transport operator selling timed boarding tickets with capacity limitsnot Kayak
  • A new experience business unwilling to commit to fixed software cost before it has volumenot Kayak

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Kayak

  • It is owned by Booking Holdings, the same parent as Booking.com and Priceline, so its comparison results are not fully independent of its own group's commercial interests.
  • Some airlines opt out of listing on metasearch sites entirely, so Kayak's results are not a complete view of every available fare in the market.
  • Revenue comes from referral commissions, and prominence in results can be influenced by which suppliers pay Kayak more, not purely by lowest price.
  • The actual booking typically completes on a third party site, so problems with a booking, cancellation or refund are handled by that site's customer service, not Kayak's.
  • Displayed prices can change or fail to match by the time a user reaches the booking site, since Kayak is not always querying live inventory in real time for every listed fare.

TicketingHub

  • The 3 per cent applies to cash and walk-up sales recorded in the system, not only to online bookings, which operators frequently miss and which makes on-site revenue more expensive than expected.
  • At meaningful volume the model is expensive: a hundred thousand pounds of ticket revenue costs three thousand pounds a year, well above what a subscription platform with a lower booking fee would charge.
  • The 3 per cent excludes card processing, so the total take on each ticket is materially higher than the headline rate implies.
  • Enterprise discounts exist but are negotiated privately, so the published price is not the price for anyone with scale and there is no way to benchmark what a good deal looks like.
  • The product is a ticketing engine rather than an operations platform, with limited resource scheduling, customer relationship tooling and reseller management compared with the larger competitors.

Pricing, plan by plan

Kayak

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Unlimited search and price alerts
    • No subscription tier

TicketingHub

On request
  • Standard$undefined/month
    • No monthly fee and no setup fee
    • 3% taken on every successful booking
    • Applies to website, OTA, card, cash and walk-up sales

Which should you pick?

Choose Kayak if

  • You need flight, hotel and car comparison.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web.
  • You also want price alerts.
Kayak review

Choose TicketingHub if

  • You need no monthly fee.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want ticket scanning.
TicketingHub review

Questions people ask

Is Kayak or TicketingHub better?
Neither clearly leads. Kayak starts at Free and TicketingHub at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Kayak or TicketingHub?
Kayak has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Kayak and On request for TicketingHub.
Does Kayak or TicketingHub run on more platforms?
Kayak runs on iOS, Android, Web. TicketingHub runs on Web, iOS, Android.
Can I use Kayak for free?
Yes. Kayak has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. TicketingHub starts at On request.
What is Kayak best used for?
Kayak is most often used for comparing flight prices across multiple airlines and booking sites before purchasing, setting a price alert to buy a flight or hotel once the price drops, searching flexible dates or nearby airports to find a cheaper fare, comparing car hire prices across rental companies for a trip. Of those, comparing flight prices across multiple airlines and booking sites before purchasing and setting a price alert to buy a flight or hotel once the price drops are not what TicketingHub is typically brought in for.
What can Kayak do that TicketingHub cannot?
Kayak covers Flight, hotel and car comparison, Price alerts, Price prediction, Flexible date search. TicketingHub covers No monthly fee, Ticket scanning, Walk-up sales, Booking widget.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Kayak: Does Kayak charge a booking fee?

No, Kayak itself is free to use; it earns referral commissions from the airlines, hotels and sites it sends bookings to.

TicketingHub: What does TicketingHub cost?

There is no subscription. It takes 3 per cent of every successful booking, plus your card processing separately.

Kayak: Do I book directly through Kayak?

Usually the booking completes on the airline, hotel or travel site's own platform after Kayak hands off the click, though some direct booking options exist for select content.

TicketingHub: Does the 3 per cent apply to cash sales?

Yes. It applies across the board, including cash and in-person walk-up sales entered into the system, which is the detail most operators overlook.

Kayak: Is Kayak owned by an airline or hotel chain?

No, it is owned by Booking Holdings, which also owns Booking.com, Priceline and Agoda.

TicketingHub: At what volume does a subscription platform become cheaper?

Roughly once ticket revenue passes about fifty thousand pounds a year, where 3 per cent begins to exceed a typical monthly subscription plus a lower booking fee.

TicketingHub: Can I negotiate the rate?

Yes for high volume. Enterprise rates are available but are not published, so you will need to ask directly.

Share

Related pages

More on Kayak

More on TicketingHub

Keep looking

Other head to heads