Skyscannervs
Booking.com
Booking.com: If you want to book accommodation directly on the platform rather than being referred elsewhere
Skyscanner
Flight, hotel and car hire metasearch engine that compares prices across booking sites and earns referral fees rather than selling the ticket itself
As of 1 September 2026, Skyscanner is free to use. A travel metasearch platform that aggregates prices from airlines, travel agents and hotel booking sites, then sends the traveller to complete the actual booking elsewhere, earning a referral fee from the destination site rather than selling tickets or rooms directly. Softwr lists it under Travel. Skyscanner is made by Skyscanner Limited (part of Trip.com Group), available on iOS, Android, Web.
Overview
What Skyscanner does
Skyscanner searches across a large number of airlines, online travel agencies and hotel booking platforms simultaneously, presenting a comparison of prices for a given route, date or hotel, then redirects the traveller to the selling partys own site or app to complete payment and receive a booking confirmation. It also offers car hire comparison and some flexible date and destination search tools aimed at travellers without a fixed itinerary. The business model distinction from Booking.com and Expedia is structural, not just a difference in scale. Those platforms are merchants of record, meaning they process the payment and hold the booking relationship with the traveller directly, earning commission from the property or margin on packages. Skyscanner does neither; it earns a referral or affiliate fee from the airline, travel agent or hotel platform when a click through its comparison results in a completed booking on that partners own site, meaning Skyscanner is not the party the traveller pays and has limited direct control over the actual booking, cancellation or customer service experience once the traveller leaves its comparison page. In recent years Skyscanner has added a direct booking option for some flights, blurring this line somewhat, but its core function and most of its traffic remain comparison and referral rather than direct sale. Buyers are travellers who want to compare prices across many sources quickly before deciding where to actually book, particularly useful for flights where price differences between agents for the identical seat can be meaningful. The trade-off is that because Skyscanner does not process the booking itself for most results, customer service, cancellation handling and fare accuracy responsibility sit with whichever partner site the traveller was referred to, not with Skyscanner.
What people use it for
- A traveller wanting to compare flight prices across many airlines and agents quickly before deciding where to book
- Someone with flexible travel dates wanting to browse the cheapest dates or destinations without a fixed itinerary
- A traveller wanting hotel or car hire price comparison across multiple sites in one search
- Someone who wants a price alert on a specific route to book when the fare drops, before committing
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Skyscanner.
- Because Skyscanner is not the merchant of record for most bookings, customer service, cancellations and fare accuracy responsibility sit with whichever partner site the traveller is referred to, not with Skyscanner itself.
- Prices shown in comparison results can occasionally be inaccurate or unavailable by the time the traveller reaches the partner site, since prices are pulled from partner feeds that update on their own schedule.
- Booking through a smaller, unfamiliar third-party travel agent surfaced in comparison results carries more risk around customer service quality and fare rules than booking directly with an airline or a well-known agency.
- The referral fee business model can create an incentive to surface partners paying higher commission prominently, and Skyscanner does not publish which listed results are influenced by commission versus pure price ranking.
- The newer direct booking option covers only some flights, so most bookings still route the traveller through a third-party partner site, meaning the core experience remains a redirect rather than a self-contained transaction.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Skyscanner
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- SkyscannervsExpedia
Expedia: If you want bundled flight and hotel packages booked directly on one platform
Pricing
What Skyscanner costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Skyscanner
Free
- Free to search and compare for travellers, no subscription or comparison fee charged
- Revenue comes from referral or affiliate fees paid by airlines, agents and hotel sites on completed bookings
- Skyscanner does not hold the payment or booking relationship for most results, the partner site does
- Direct booking option available for some flights, an exception to the standard referral model
Capabilities
Features
Flight price comparison
Aggregated search across airlines and travel agents for a given route and date
Flexible date and destination search
Tools for browsing cheapest dates or "everywhere" destination searches without a fixed plan
Hotel and car hire comparison
Metasearch comparison across hotel booking sites and car rental providers
Price alerts
Notifications when a tracked route or date price changes
Direct booking for select flights
A newer option to book certain flights directly through Skyscanner rather than being referred elsewhere
Multi-city and layover search
Search tools for complex itineraries beyond simple round trips
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Does Skyscanner sell the ticket or hotel room?
For most results, no. It compares prices and refers the traveller to the airline, agent or hotel site to complete the actual booking and payment; it has recently added direct booking for some flights only.
How does Skyscanner make money if it is free to use?
It earns referral or affiliate fees from airlines, travel agents and hotel booking sites when a comparison click leads to a completed booking on their site.
Is Skyscanner the same kind of company as Booking.com or Expedia?
No. Those are merchants of record that process payment and hold the booking directly, earning commission or package margin. Skyscanner is a metasearch comparison layer that mostly refers travellers elsewhere to book.
Keep looking
Where to go from Skyscanner
- Skyscanner alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Skyscanner pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Skyscanner badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Travel softwareThe full category
- Best Travel softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Travel software for
Compare Skyscanner with
- Expedia
- Booking.com
- Kayak
- Hopper
- TripAdvisor
- Cloudbeds
- Redeam
- Corporate Traveller
- Amadeus Selling Platform Connect
- myCWT
- Roomsy
- Little Hotelier
- Protel
- Revinate
- Shiji
- Spotnana
- ThinkReservations
- Roomsy
Other Travel software
Travel booking marketplace and package deal platform, part of Expedia Group, earning commission from hotels and margin on bundled packages
Free plan10 researched notesHotel and accommodation booking marketplace that charges commission to properties, typically 15 to 25 percent, invisible to the traveller
Free plan10 researched notesTravel search app comparing flights, hotels and car hire across other booking sites, owned by Booking Holdings
Free plan10 researched notesTravel booking app known for price prediction and paid Price Freeze and cancellation add-ons
Free plan10 researched notesTravel reviews and booking app whose revenue comes from advertising and referral commissions to hotels and OTAs
Free plan10 researched notesCloud-based hospitality management platform unifying PMS, channel management, and booking engine
Pricing on request12 researched notesChannel management and ticket redemption connecting attractions to resellers
Pricing on request12 researched notesSME travel management from Flight Centre, combining the Melon booking platform with a named consultant
Pricing on request11 researched notesBrowser based agent booking desktop on the Amadeus GDS
Pricing on request11 researched notesCorporate travel booking and traveller care platform from CWT
Pricing on request11 researched notesPer room hotel and hostel PMS with published prices and monthly minimums
Free, then $2/mo12 researched notesSiteMinder owned front desk and distribution system for properties under twenty rooms
Pricing on request12 researched notesGerman hotel property management system, now owned and sold by Planet
Pricing on request12 researched notesHotel guest data platform, email marketing and messaging built on PMS profile data
Pricing on request12 researched notesEnterprise hospitality platform covering PMS, point of sale and payments, owned by a Chinese listed group
Pricing on request12 researched notesTravel-as-a-service infrastructure that other travel management companies and fintechs build on
Pricing on request10 researched notesProperty management and booking system for North American inns, B&Bs and small hotels
Pricing on request12 researched notesPer room hotel and hostel PMS with published prices and monthly minimums
Free, then $2/mo12 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Skyscanner, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Skyscanner
Skyscanner alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Skyscanner pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Skyscanner
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Skyscanner badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Travel software alternatives
Middle East ride hailing super-app, owned by Uber since 2019 but operated as a separate brand across the region
Free app, pay per ride with dynamic pricingHotel and accommodation booking marketplace that charges commission to properties, typically 15 to 25 percent, invisible to the traveller
Free for travellers, commission charged to listed properties
Dominant ride hailing app in China from Didi Chuxing, which acquired Uber China in 2016 and now operates almost entirely within China plus a handful of other markets
Free app, pay per ride with dynamic pricing
Traveller-facing itinerary and trip management app bundled with a BCD Travel programme
quoteSME travel management from Flight Centre, combining the Melon booking platform with a named consultant
quote
Estonian ride hailing app with dense coverage across Europe and expanding operations in Africa, positioned as a lower-cost Uber alternative
Free app, pay per ride with dynamic pricing