The Best Google Flights Alternatives, With Honest Trade-Offs

Google Flights is one of Google’s best products. It launched in 2011 using search technology from ITA Software, which Google had just bought, and it’s still the fastest way to compare fares across dates. No Google Flights alternative matches it on speed, and this page won’t pretend otherwise.

What you gain by leaving is separation. When you search signed in, your trips join the same Google profile as your email, maps and searches, and your tracked prices land in Gmail. The sites below are commercial too, and their apps track you, but they don’t sit on top of the rest of your life.

Partial is fine here. Searching Google Flights signed out in a private window, then booking with the airline, keeps most of the speed and keeps the searches out of your Google Account.

Quick Comparison

Why Google Flights Is Hard to Beat

It helps to know exactly what you’re giving up, so you can pick the replacement that covers the part you use.

• Speed. Change a date or an airport and the results update almost at once.
• Dates and Price graph. One click shows which travel dates have the best fares, and the graph shows fare trends by week or month.
• Price tips. Notes such as “Prices are less than usual” tell you whether a fare is a good one.
• Best and Cheapest tabs. The Cheapest tab adds itineraries and prices from online travel agents.
• Explore. An open search by budget and dates, without picking a destination first.
• Tracking. Turn on Track prices and changes arrive by email.

If you fly a few times a year, most of this boils down to two things, which are flexible dates and price alerts. Skyscanner and Kayak both cover those.

Which One Should You Pick?

• For most trips, use Skyscanner. It’s the closest all-rounder.
• If you’re deciding when to book, check Kayak’s Price Forecast.
• If the destination is open, use Skyscanner’s Everywhere search or KAYAK Explore.
• If you’re chasing the lowest fare and can handle risk, look at Kiwi.com’s self-transfer combinations.
• For short hops around Europe on low-cost airlines, try AZair.
• When you’ve found the flight, check the airline’s own site before you pay.

The Alternatives, One by One

Skyscanner

Skyscanner is based in Edinburgh and has been owned by Trip.com Group since 2016. Enter your airport in From, type Everywhere in the destination field, and the results list countries cheapest first. For dates, you can choose exact dates, a specific month, Whole month or Cheapest month.

• Pick it because it handles open-ended trips well, and alerts are simple. Save a flight with the heart, or turn on the bell, and Skyscanner emails you when the fare changes.
• A possible deal-breaker is that price alerts and the Saved list need a Skyscanner account, and its app declares identifiers and usage data that may be used to track you across other companies’ apps and websites.
• Price. Free to search. You pay the airline or agency you book with.

Kayak and Momondo

Kayak has been part of Booking Holdings since 2013, and Momondo joined the same family in 2017. Kayak’s Price Forecast uses historical fares to predict the right time to book, and it works without an account. Price Alerts need a KAYAK account and arrive by email or text. A flexible alert tracks a destination across a time window, or roughly the next 8 months if you don’t set one.

• Pick it because the forecast tells you whether to book now or wait, based on past fares. KAYAK Explore also shows where you can fly on a budget.
• A possible deal-breaker is the same as Skyscanner’s. The KAYAK app declares identifiers and usage data that may be used to track you.
• Momondo is useful as a second search from the same company. Run the same trip on both before you book.
• Price. Free to search.

Kiwi.com

Kiwi.com is an online travel agency based in Brno, in the Czech Republic. It specializes in virtual interlining, which means it combines flights from airlines that have no agreement with each other. That can produce fares the other sites never show.

• Pick it because it finds cheap routes nobody else builds, especially across Europe.
• A possible deal-breaker is the self-transfer. You may need to collect and re-check your bags and go through customs or entry checks between flights. If a delay makes you miss the next flight, that airline doesn’t have to rebook you. Kiwi.com’s optional Guarantee package, with Disruption Protection, gives you Kiwi.com Credit for a new flight. Check what it costs on the booking page.
• Price. Free to search. You book and pay through Kiwi.com.

AZair

AZair is a search engine for low-cost airlines around Europe and the Middle East, covering 62 carriers including Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air. You give it a trip length and a travel period instead of exact dates, and it can combine airlines into one route.

• Pick it because it’s built for the cheap, flexible city break that full-service search sites handle badly.
• A possible deal-breaker is that it covers only low-cost airlines in its region, and it links you to airline and booking sites to buy.
• Price. Free.

The Airline’s Own Website

Once you’ve found a flight, open the airline’s site and price the same trip there.

• Pick it because you deal with one company instead of two, and fewer companies hold your passport and payment details.
• A possible deal-breaker is that you only see that airline’s flights, so you still need a search site first.

ITA Matrix Is Still Google

Matrix is a fare search tool from ITA Software, the company Google bought in 2011 and built Google Flights on. You can’t book on it. Experienced travelers use it to study fares, which is fine, but it isn’t a step away from Google.

Privacy Tips for Flight Searches

None of these sites earns money by keeping you anonymous. These habits keep your travel plans from spreading further than they need to.

• Use the website, not the app. The Skyscanner and KAYAK apps both list tracking data in their App Store privacy labels. A browser with tracker blocking, such as the ones in our Chrome alternatives, limits what follows you around.
• Send price alerts to an email alias. SimpleLogin, addy.io, Proton Pass and DuckDuckGo’s forwarding addresses all give you a separate address you can switch off later.
• Sign up with an email and a password. Skip Continue with Google on travel sites. Our guide to replacing Sign in with Google explains why.
• Book direct when the price is the same. Fewer companies get your passport number and card.
• Watch what Gmail does with your bookings. Gmail’s smart features turn flight confirmations into Calendar events and summary cards. You can switch them off (how).
• If you keep using Google Flights, search signed out, so the searches don’t land in your Google Account.

How to Switch From Google Flights

• Difficulty Easy
• Time 10–20 minutes
• Cost Free

There’s nothing to export. The only things to move are the prices you track.

First, List Your Tracked Flights

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Then Set the Same Alerts Elsewhere

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Finally, Clean up Google

Want to see which other Google services you still use? Our free scan reads files you download from Google and builds your list, right in your browser.

What You Lose