Best Checkfront Alternative: TicketingHub

Still paying Checkfront $99 a month on top of the 3%?

Every month, that subscription comes out whether bookings come in or not — and Capterra reviewers report renewal prices rising 20-25% a year since the Rezdy merger. TicketingHub charges the 3% per online booking and nothing else: no setup fee, no monthly fee, so a quiet month costs you almost nothing. It is not a downgrade either — City Tours Belfast grew ticket sales 400% after switching from Checkfront, and TicketingHub is rated 5.0 on Capterra.

What is Checkfront?

Checkfront was founded in 2010 by Jason Morehouse and Grant Jurgeneit in Victoria/Comox, British Columbia, Canada. It became one of the established booking systems for tours, activities and rentals, handling inventory, multi-channel availability, payments and reporting for a broad range of businesses, from activity providers to equipment rental companies.

In December 2023, Checkfront merged with Australia's Rezdy and Germany's Regiondo to form what the companies called the largest independently owned reservation-technology group in the industry, under parent Expedition Software Holding and backed by Vertica Capital. FareHarbor's co-founder Lawrence Hester has been involved with Vertica as a limited partner, and leadership across the merged group has since reshuffled.

Checkfront publishes one pricing plan, called Growth: a $99 per month subscription plus a 3% fee on each online booking, with no setup fee and a 21-day free trial. You can absorb the 3% fee or pass it to guests.

Checkfront pricing: what the subscription costs you over a year

Checkfront stacks a fixed subscription on top of a booking fee — and the subscription doesn't shrink when your season does. On £10,000 of online bookings in a month, Checkfront costs roughly £78 (the $99 subscription, converted) plus 3% (£300) — about £378. TicketingHub's fee on the same month is a flat £300. In a £2,000 slow month, Checkfront still takes about £138; TicketingHub drops to £60. Across a year with a real off-season, that subscription line alone is roughly £900 you could have kept — a good chunk of a seasonal guide's wages, paid instead for software that was mostly idle.

Checkfront vs TicketingHub, side by side

• Pricing — Checkfront: $99/month subscription plus 3% per online booking. TicketingHub: 3% per online booking, no subscription.
• Monthly fee — Checkfront: $99 (Growth plan, the only published plan). TicketingHub: none.
• Setup — Checkfront: none published. TicketingHub: none.
• Contract — Checkfront: 21-day free trial, subscription billed monthly. TicketingHub: no lock-in, pay as you earn.
• Booking widget — Checkfront: embeddable booking widget with configuration options. TicketingHub: one line of code, brand-matched, multi-language and multi-currency.
• OTA channel manager — Checkfront: channel and OTA integrations available. TicketingHub: real-time sync with Viator, GetYourGuide and other resellers.
• Magic Link — Checkfront: not a published feature; changes typically go through admin or support. TicketingHub: customers self-serve reschedule, cancel or convert to voucher.
• Support — Checkfront: support hours run Pacific Time, per Capterra reviewers. TicketingHub: 24/7 chat and email.
• Reviews — Checkfront: 4.5/5 on Capterra (318 reviews). TicketingHub: 5.0/5 on Capterra.

Why operators switch from Checkfront to TicketingHub

Keep the subscription money in your business

With TicketingHub, the 3% per online booking is the whole price — no monthly fee, no setup fee, with integration fees for payment providers and OTA channels disclosed upfront and itemized separately. You only pay when you earn, so the software bill can never outrun the bookings. And it stays that way: Capterra reviewers report Checkfront renewal increases of 20-25% a year since the Rezdy merger; TicketingHub's rate hasn't changed.

Get your evenings back from booking admin

Checkfront reviewers consistently flag a steep learning curve and time-consuming backend setup — hours you spend configuring instead of guiding. TicketingHub's Magic Link removes a whole category of that work: customers reschedule, cancel or convert a booking to a voucher themselves, so you keep the sale as a new date or a voucher instead of a refund, and no admin screen is involved. An email validator catches typos at checkout, so confirmations arrive and no-shows drop. As Jodie B., a business manager, put it: 'It is a huge relief to be with TicketingHub. We are really thrilled after having been with a system that was difficult to use for too long.'

Help at the hours you actually work

If you run tours in Europe, Checkfront's Pacific-hours support (as reviewers describe it) means your 9am crisis is their 1am. TicketingHub answers 24/7 on chat and email. Chris G., a developer: 'from getting started and setup fast to general random questions about functionality at 9pm on a Saturday night the team reply fast.'

Fill slots you can't sell yourself — and never miss a walk-up

The channel manager keeps availability synced with Viator, GetYourGuide and other resellers in real time, so OTA demand fills your quiet departures with no double-bookings to apologise for. At the gate, the iOS and Android point of sale works offline with printers, cash registers and PDQ machines — so you sell at the ticket booth even when the WiFi dies.

What reviewers say about Checkfront

Checkfront holds a 4.5 out of 5 rating on Capterra across 318 reviews. Reviewers on Capterra consistently praise its booking flow and customer support, and appreciate the flexibility of a fully customisable system. The recurring complaints are a steep learning curve for setup, limited custom reporting, a mobile app users find less capable than the web platform, and — since the 2023 Rezdy/Regiondo merger — noticeably higher renewal prices without matching product improvements. That last one is the expensive kind of complaint: it compounds every year you stay.

Who is Checkfront right for?

• Operators who want deep backend customisation and are willing to invest time in configuration.
• Rental and equipment businesses alongside tour and activity operators.
• Teams comfortable working with support during North American Pacific hours.

Who is TicketingHub right for?

• ✅ Operators who want to stop paying a fixed monthly bill on top of a booking fee.
• ✅ Seasonal businesses that want the off-season to cost almost nothing.
• ✅ Teams that want reschedules and cancellations to handle themselves via Magic Link.
• ✅ Operators who want OTA demand filling quiet slots, synced in real time.
• ✅ Anyone who wants a human answering at 9pm on a Saturday, not just Pacific business hours.

The switch has a track record

City Tours Belfast made exactly this move — Checkfront to TicketingHub — and grew ticket sales 400%. They are not an outlier: operators across the platform grew OTA sales 401% between 2022 and 2025, and TicketingHub holds a 5.0 rating on Capterra.

FAQs about switching from Checkfront

How do I migrate my bookings from Checkfront?

Switching costs you an afternoon, not a season. Our team moves your products, availability and existing bookings across for free, the widget goes on your site with one line of code, and your first product can be live in minutes.

Is TicketingHub cheaper than Checkfront?

On the same booking volume, yes by construction: both charge 3%, but TicketingHub has no $99 subscription underneath. The quieter your slow season, the bigger the gap — Checkfront's subscription applies regardless of bookings, ours doesn't exist.

Can I try TicketingHub before fully leaving Checkfront?

Yes, and it costs nothing to find out. No contract, no monthly fee — run TicketingHub alongside Checkfront for a season, compare real numbers, and switch only if the maths wins.

Stop renting software for your off-season

Every year on Checkfront's model is roughly £900 of subscription on top of the same 3% — and reviewers say that subscription keeps climbing. TicketingHub's setup is free, migration is done with you, and support answers around the clock from day one. Put one product live alongside Checkfront this week; there is nothing to cancel if it doesn't earn its keep.