Best ticket sites (2026)

This page will rank ticket sites with a published method. Today it does not rank them. The largest part of the resale score is the all-in checkout price for the same seats, and we have not measured prices yet. So we publish the method and the weights now, before any data. The table above compares what we can verify today: the written policies of 6 sites, their app ratings, and their enforcement record. We read every source on Oct 20, 2026.

Why there is no score yet

A fair ticket site score needs the price you pay at checkout. Our method gives that price 35% of the resale score. We cannot measure it yet:

• The Ticketmaster feed we use does not carry prices. Its min and max price fields are empty.
• We will not copy prices from checkout pages with a bot. It can break site terms, and a held cart can take seats off sale for a short time.
• Our plan is manual captures plus price data from ticket-site partner feeds, where the program terms allow it.

Without the price criterion, a score would rest on guarantees and app ratings. On iOS, the 6 apps range from 4.66 to 4.86 stars, a spread of 0.20 stars. That spread is too small to separate the sites. A score built mostly on it would look more exact than it is.

How the score will work

The method has 2 sets, because resale and primary sites sell in different ways.

Set A: resale marketplaces. The same seats can appear on several resale sites, so we can compare the same listing. The weights are: all-in price 35%, buyer guarantee 20%, inventory coverage 15%, checkout honesty 10%, enforcement record 5%, app rating 5%, payment options 5%, delivery and transfer 5%.

Set B: primary ticketers. A primary ticketer sells its own inventory for an event. So we measure the fee rate above face value instead. The weights are: fee rate 30%, refund, transfer and resale rules 20%, reach in the PartyJunky audience 20%, checkout honesty 10%, enforcement record 10%, app rating 5%, payment and delivery 5%.

Each criterion has a stated measure, shown in the method box. Weights are fixed in version 1.0. A change needs a new dated version with a changelog.

What the verified policies show

Guarantees. All 5 resale marketplaces promise valid tickets delivered in time for the event. 4 of the 5 name a fix if the tickets fail: a replacement, a refund, or both. Gametime’s page says to contact it at once. TickPick sets a 5-day deadline to report a problem.

Cancelled events. This is the clearest difference today:

• Gametime says it refunds the original payment method automatically.
• Ticketmaster says no action is needed to get a refund for a cancelled event.
• SeatGeek and Vivid Seats say a refund or a credit, at their sole discretion.
• TickPick says a refund or a credit.
• StubHub’s July 2026 explainer says “you’ll be refunded”. We could not load the full terms page.

Payment. We verified payment lists for 3 sites. Ticketmaster and Vivid Seats list PayPal and Apple Pay. SeatGeek lists PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Affirm. Some Ticketmaster options do not work for Verified Resale tickets. Some Vivid Seats wallets work only in its app.

App ratings. On iOS all 6 apps rate between 4.66 and 4.86. On Google Play, Ticketmaster shows 2.5 stars from 205K reviews. The other 4 apps we read show 4.3 to 4.8. We did not find a TickPick app page on Google Play. Ratings change daily; these are the values on Oct 20, 2026.

Enforcement. We searched FTC and state attorney general press releases for the last 36 months. StubHub settled with the FTC for $10 million on Apr 9, 2026. The FTC and 7 states sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster on Sep 18, 2025. A federal court denied their motion to dismiss on Sep 28, 2026. Monroe County, PA, sued Vivid Seats in May 2025 and StubHub in March 2025. We found no action against SeatGeek, TickPick or Gametime. A lawsuit is an allegation until a court rules.

How to choose today

Pick by the rule that matters most to you:

1. If a cash refund for a cancelled show matters most, read the cancelled-event column. Gametime, Ticketmaster and StubHub state a refund. SeatGeek, Vivid Seats and TickPick reserve the right to give a credit.
2. If you pay with PayPal or Affirm, check the payment column. We verified the lists for Ticketmaster, SeatGeek and Vivid Seats.
3. For the lowest price, compare the final checkout total for the same seats on 2 or 3 sites. All sites must show the total with mandatory fees under the FTC rule.

Not verified yet

• Transfer rules of the 5 resale marketplaces.
• Payment lists of StubHub, TickPick and Gametime. Their help pages did not load for our reader.
• StubHub’s full FanProtect terms, including any credit option for cancelled events.
• The outcome of the DC and Pennsylvania suits.

We will fill these gaps and add AXS, Eventbrite, DICE and TicketNetwork in the next update.