StubHub vs Vivid Seats vs SeatGeek: Fees & Differences
StubHub, Vivid Seats and SeatGeek are the three resale marketplaces most Americans will encounter first. They sell largely overlapping inventory, from largely overlapping sellers, with broadly similar guarantees — which makes the differences that do exist (fees, price display, delivery and app experience) worth knowing before you choose one.
The short version
| StubHub | Vivid Seats | SeatGeek | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buyer fees | ~25% buyer fees (approximate; verify at checkout) | ~20% buyer fees (approximate; verify at checkout) | ~15-20% buyer fees (approximate; verify at checkout) |
| Type | Resale marketplace (also some primary) | Resale marketplace | Resale marketplace + primary ticketing for some teams and venues |
| Best known for | Largest global inventory | Rewards programme; sports | Deal Score; clean app; price-with-fees toggle |
| Buyer guarantee | FanProtect | 100% Buyer Guarantee | Buyer Guarantee |
Fee ranges are approximate and change by event and over time. The checkout page is the only authoritative source.
StubHub
StubHub is the oldest and, by inventory, usually the largest of the three. Its parent company also owns Viagogo, which gives it an unusually deep international catalogue. If an event exists anywhere in the world, StubHub is likely to have at least some listings for it.
Its weak point has historically been fee transparency. StubHub has alternated between showing fee-inclusive prices and showing base prices with fees added at checkout, and its buyer fee — ~25% buyer fees (approximate; verify at checkout) — is at the high end of the market. Always check whether the "show prices with fees" option is on when you compare. The FanProtect Guarantee covers valid tickets delivered in time, with replacement or refund if a seller fails, and is well regarded.
Vivid Seats
Vivid Seats is a Chicago-based marketplace with a particular strength in US sports and a loyalty programme — Vivid Seats Rewards — that credits you towards a free ticket after a set number of purchases. For frequent buyers that can meaningfully offset its buyer fee of ~20% buyer fees (approximate; verify at checkout).
Like StubHub, it has traditionally shown base prices and added fees at checkout, so the search page can look cheaper than it is. Its 100% Buyer Guarantee promises valid tickets in time for the event, with comparable replacements or a full refund otherwise. Vivid Seats also runs frequent promo codes, especially in its app, which is worth checking before you pay.
SeatGeek
SeatGeek started as a ticket search engine and still feels like one: its Deal Score rates each listing on price relative to seat quality, and a prices-with-fees toggle lets you browse on all-in totals from the start. Its buyer fees (~15-20% buyer fees (approximate; verify at checkout)) are usually a little below StubHub's and Vivid Seats'.
SeatGeek is also the primary ticketing partner for a number of sports teams and venues, so for those events you may be buying a face-value ticket directly, not a resale one. Its Buyer Guarantee is in line with the others. The app is widely considered the cleanest of the three, and tickets purchased on SeatGeek-ticketed venues live natively in the app rather than needing a transfer.
Delivery, apps and customer support
All three deliver most tickets by mobile transfer through the venue's primary ticketing system, which means a resale ticket for a Ticketmaster or AXS venue is pushed to your Ticketmaster or AXS account rather than living in the marketplace's own app. Transfers for rotating-barcode venues are often not released until a few days before the event; each marketplace shows an expected delivery date on the listing, and all three guarantees cover late or failed delivery. SeatGeek is the exception for venues it tickets itself, where the ticket is native to the SeatGeek app.
In terms of day-to-day experience, SeatGeek's app is generally the smoothest, Vivid Seats' is competent and promotion-heavy, and StubHub's is functional but busier. Support quality is similar across the three in our reading of public reviews: resolution is usually fine when you contact them before or during the event, and noticeably harder once the event has passed. Keep order confirmations and screenshots of the listing as it appeared when you bought.
A worked fee example
Take a seat a seller lists at a $200 base price on all three sites. Applying the approximate buyer-fee ranges above, the checkout total before tax lands somewhere around $250 on StubHub, $240 on Vivid Seats and $230–240 on SeatGeek — a spread of roughly $10–20 on a single ticket, or $40–80 on a group of four. That is real money, but it is smaller than the spread you will often see between different sellers for comparable seats on the same site. In practice the order of operations is: find the seat you want, find the sites that have it, then compare their checkout totals. Fee policy decides ties; inventory decides most of the rest.
Which one should you use?
- Hard-to-find or international events: start with StubHub for sheer breadth.
- Regular sports buyer: Vivid Seats' rewards can tip the balance over a season.
- You want honest sorting: SeatGeek with the fees toggle on, or a no-fee site such as TickPick (No buyer fees (approximate; verify at checkout)).
- Any specific seat: compare the checkout total on at least two of them. Inventory overlaps but is never identical, and the same seller may price differently on each.
None of the three is "the cheapest" as a rule. For any given event the winner depends on which sellers listed where, what fee each site is applying that week, and whether a promotion is running. That is why TixPanda shows all three side by side with the seller-provided price where there is one, and scores each listing for fee load and trust rather than sticker price alone.
Compare prices for tickets
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Frequently asked questions
- Are StubHub, Vivid Seats and SeatGeek the same tickets?
- Largely overlapping but not identical. Many professional sellers list the same inventory on all three; some list on only one or two. A specific seat may appear on all of them at different prices, or on just one.
- Which has the lowest fees?
- SeatGeek is usually a little lower than StubHub and Vivid Seats, but all three charge meaningful buyer fees. For the lowest fee load, no-buyer-fee marketplaces such as TickPick are typically cheaper for the same listing.
- Are the guarantees really equivalent?
- They are similar in scope — valid tickets, on time, or a comparable replacement or refund. The details (postponements, timing of refunds, what counts as comparable) differ and change. Read the current guarantee on each site before you buy.
- Is SeatGeek a primary seller or a resale site?
- Both. It is a resale marketplace for most events and the official primary ticketing partner for certain teams and venues, where it sells face-value tickets directly.