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Travel · head to head

Hopper vs PriceLabs

Hopper logo

Hopper

Travel

Travel booking app known for price prediction and paid Price Freeze and cancellation add-ons

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
PriceLabs logo

PriceLabs

Travel

Dynamic pricing and market data for vacation rentals and small hotels

From
$19.99/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Hopper has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Hopper add-on products like Price Freeze and Cancel for Any Reason are priced to be a meaningfully profitable part of the business, and taking them on every booking can offset much of what the price prediction tool is meant to save.; PriceLabs the market dashboard is a separate subscription from the pricing engine, so the widely quoted 19.99 figure is not what most serious users pay per listing.
  • They diverge on capability: Hopper covers Price prediction, PriceLabs covers Dynamic nightly pricing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Hopper and PriceLabs actually diverge.

Attributes where Hopper and PriceLabs differ
AttributeHopperPriceLabs
Starting priceFree$19.99/month
Pricing modelFree to book, paid add-ons for price freezing and cancellation flexibilityPer listing per month
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsiOS, AndroidWeb

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 Hopper

  • Price prediction
  • Price Freeze
  • Cancel/Change for Any Reason
  • Price alerts
  • Hopper Homes and Car
  • Carrot Cash

Only in PriceLabs

  • Dynamic nightly pricing
  • Customisable profiles
  • Minimum stay automation
  • Orphan gap handling
  • Market dashboards
  • Neighbourhood data
  • Portfolio management
  • Direct channel and PMS sync

What people use each for

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

Hopper

  • A traveller wanting data-driven guidance on whether to book now or wait for a lower pricenot PriceLabs
  • Someone wanting to lock in a fare for a few days while confirming travel plans without fully committingnot PriceLabs
  • A traveller who wants flexible cancellation on an otherwise restrictive farenot PriceLabs
  • Someone comparing predicted price trends before choosing travel datesnot PriceLabs

PriceLabs

  • A manager encoding a single pricing policy across two hundred listings rather than tuning each onenot Hopper
  • An owner in a seasonal market wanting automatic last-minute discounting without watching the calendarnot Hopper
  • An operator filling orphan gaps that would otherwise sit empty between bookingsnot Hopper
  • A small hotel on Cloudbeds wanting rental-style demand pricing without a full revenue management systemnot Hopper

Where each one falls short

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

Hopper

  • Add-on products like Price Freeze and Cancel for Any Reason are priced to be a meaningfully profitable part of the business, and taking them on every booking can offset much of what the price prediction tool is meant to save.
  • Price predictions are probabilistic and can be wrong, so buy-or-wait guidance is not a guarantee that a price will actually move as predicted.
  • The prominent placement of paid add-ons during checkout has drawn criticism as pressuring users into purchases they may not need for every trip.
  • Customer service for booking issues has been a recurring complaint, particularly for itinerary changes on cancel or change protected bookings.
  • Hopper's own Carrot Cash rewards currency is only redeemable within the app, so it has no value outside future Hopper bookings.

PriceLabs

  • The market dashboard is a separate subscription from the pricing engine, so the widely quoted 19.99 figure is not what most serious users pay per listing.
  • The revenue share alternative at one per cent of bookings is a poor deal for high average daily rate properties, where it can cost several times the per-listing price.
  • Market data quality collapses in destinations with few tracked listings, which is precisely where an owner has the least pricing intuition of their own.
  • It will happily discount to zero margin if the base price and minimum are set carelessly, and the tool does not know your cost base, so an inattentive user can lose money faster than they would manually.
  • It prices but does not distribute or manage; you still need a PMS or channel manager underneath, and rate push failures between the two systems are a recurring support burden.

Pricing, plan by plan

Hopper

Free
  • Standard bookingFree
    • No fee beyond the fare or room price itself
  • Price Freeze$undefined/per booking
    • Fee varies by fare and freeze duration, charged in addition to the eventual ticket price
  • Cancel/Change for Any Reason$undefined/per booking
    • Add-on fee charged at checkout, priced as a percentage or flat amount depending on the fare

PriceLabs

$19.99/month
  • Dynamic Pricing$19.99/month
    • Per listing per month at low volume
    • Volume tiers fall toward about 5.99 per listing past 100 units
    • Rate, minimum stay and orphan gap automation
  • Market Dashboard$9.99/month
    • Charged separately from the pricing engine
    • Competitor rates, occupancy and forward demand
    • Per market subscribed
  • Portfolio$499/month
    • Flat monthly rate for larger portfolios, roughly 60 units and above
    • All pricing features included
    • Alternative to per-listing billing
  • Revenue share option$undefined/month
    • One per cent of booking revenue instead of a per-listing fee
    • Suits low-rate or low-occupancy listings
    • Becomes expensive on high average daily rates

Which should you pick?

Choose Hopper if

  • You need price prediction.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on iOS, Android.
  • You also want price freeze.
Hopper review

Choose PriceLabs if

  • You need dynamic nightly pricing.
  • You also want customisable profiles.
PriceLabs review

Questions people ask

Is Hopper or PriceLabs better?
Neither clearly leads. Hopper starts at Free and PriceLabs at $19.99/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Hopper or PriceLabs?
Hopper has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Hopper and $19.99/month for PriceLabs.
Does Hopper or PriceLabs run on more platforms?
Hopper runs on iOS, Android. PriceLabs runs on Web.
Can I use Hopper for free?
Yes. Hopper has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. PriceLabs starts at $19.99/month.
What is Hopper best used for?
Hopper is most often used for a traveller wanting data-driven guidance on whether to book now or wait for a lower price, someone wanting to lock in a fare for a few days while confirming travel plans without fully committing, a traveller who wants flexible cancellation on an otherwise restrictive fare, someone comparing predicted price trends before choosing travel dates. Of those, a traveller wanting data-driven guidance on whether to book now or wait for a lower price and someone wanting to lock in a fare for a few days while confirming travel plans without fully committing are not what PriceLabs is typically brought in for.
What can Hopper do that PriceLabs cannot?
Hopper covers Price prediction, Price Freeze, Cancel/Change for Any Reason, Price alerts. PriceLabs covers Dynamic nightly pricing, Customisable profiles, Minimum stay automation, Orphan gap handling.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Hopper: Is Hopper free to use for searching and booking?

Yes, the base booking has no extra fee; Price Freeze and cancellation flexibility are separate paid add-ons.

PriceLabs: What does PriceLabs cost for ten listings?

Around 19.99 US dollars per listing per month at that volume for dynamic pricing, plus about 9.99 per market for the dashboard if you want the competitor data.

Hopper: How accurate is Hopper's price prediction?

It is based on historical fare data and gives a probability-based recommendation, not a guarantee; predictions can be wrong.

PriceLabs: Should I take the one per cent revenue share instead?

Only if your average nightly rate and occupancy are low. On a listing earning 40,000 dollars a year the revenue share costs roughly 400 dollars against about 240 for the per-listing plan.

Hopper: What does Price Freeze actually do?

It locks a displayed price for a fee for a set number of days, letting you decide later without committing to the full purchase immediately.

PriceLabs: Does it work for hotels?

It connects to Cloudbeds and similar systems and is used by small properties, but it is built around rental demand signals rather than hotel segmentation and forecasting.

PriceLabs: Can I override the algorithm?

Extensively. Base price, minimum and maximum, seasonal profiles and day-of-week adjustments are all directly editable and reusable across a portfolio.

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