Viator and GetYourGuide cost almost exactly the same for identical products: on three tours and tickets we priced side by side on October 29, 2026, the difference was 1 to 2%. What actually separates them is the fine print. The same activity can carry a different cancellation window on each site, Viator pays 5% back in rewards, and GetYourGuide charges pay-later bookings later than Viator does. Pick per booking, not per brand.
Viator vs GetYourGuide at a glance
| Viator | GetYourGuide | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | A Tripadvisor company | Independent platform based in Berlin and Zurich |
| Standard free cancellation | Full refund if you cancel at least 24 hours before the start | “Most” activities: full refund up to 24 hours before |
| Paid extra flexibility | “Cancel for any reason” add-on at checkout | “Cancellation upgrade” with partner Companjon at checkout |
| Pay later | Most products; payment due 2 to 9 days before | Eligible products; card charged 72 hours before |
| Price promise | Lowest Price Guarantee (same tour, same provider, same currency) | Best price matching (exact same activity, identical conditions) |
| Loyalty | Viator Rewards: 5% back on viator.com bookings | No equivalent program in its help center |
| Reviews shown | Combined Viator and Tripadvisor rating | GetYourGuide customers only, marked “Verified booking” |
| iPhone app rating (US store) | 4.9 from 296K ratings | 4.9 from 335K ratings |
Both are mainly marketplaces. Local operators run most of the activities, and the site handles the booking, the payment and the customer service in between. That is why the same boat, the same guide and the same ticket often show up on both. GetYourGuide also sells some products through its own company, GetYourGuide Tours & Tickets, such as the Colosseum entry ticket mentioned below.
Which is cheaper? We priced the same three products on both
To compare like with like, we picked three products sold by the same operator on both sites, one each in Paris, Rome and Lisbon, and recorded the lowest adult price each site showed in US dollars on October 29, 2026.
| Product (operator) | Viator | GetYourGuide | Cancellation on Viator | Cancellation on GetYourGuide |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-hour Seine cruise from the Eiffel Tower (Bateaux Parisiens) | $20.45 | $20.19 | Free up to 24 hours before | Free up to 24 hours before |
| Colosseum Arena Floor, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill tour (City Wonders) | $84.06 | $82.34 | Free up to 3 days before | Free up to 4 days before |
| Oceanário de Lisboa entrance ticket (Oceanário de Lisboa) | $28.97 | $28.60 | Free up to 24 hours before | Non-refundable |
Three things stand out.
The prices are the same product priced in euros and converted. Switched to euros, Viator showed the Bateaux Parisiens cruise at exactly €18.00. Both sites quote suppliers’ euro prices and run them through their own exchange rate, which is where the 1 to 2% gap comes from. Viator’s terms say prices are converted “at the prevailing foreign-exchange rate as determined by Viator.”
Viator was a little higher every time, by $0.26, $1.72 and $0.37. On a $20 cruise that is pocket change. On a family of four doing the Colosseum tour, it is about $7.
The cancellation terms differed more than the prices. The Oceanário ticket was refundable on Viator and non-refundable on GetYourGuide. The City Wonders tour could be cancelled for free up to 3 days ahead on Viator but only up to 4 days ahead on GetYourGuide, so Viator gave you one more day to decide. If your plans might change, that matters far more than 37 cents.
If you want to check these yourself, here are the listings we compared: the Bateaux Parisiens Seine cruise on Viator and the same cruise on GetYourGuide, the City Wonders Colosseum Arena Floor tour on Viator and on GetYourGuide, and the Oceanário de Lisboa ticket on Viator and on GetYourGuide.
Book on ViatorParis Seine River Sightseeing Cruise with Commentary by Bateaux Parisiens
Book on ViatorColosseum with Arena Floor Access, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill
Book on ViatorLisbon Oceanario: Aquarium Entrance TicketPrices change with the date, time slot and currency. “From” prices are the cheapest option on the cheapest day, so always compare the final total for your date at checkout.
How do the cancellation policies compare?
On paper, the two policies look almost identical. In practice, the policy belongs to the product, and the same product can have different terms on each site.
Viator uses three types. “Free Cancellation” gives a full refund if you cancel at least 24 hours before the start time; inside 24 hours you get nothing back and changes aren’t accepted. “Non-refundable” products can’t be cancelled or changed. “Custom” products have their own rules, written on the listing. If an experience has no fixed start time, Viator’s cutoff is generally 11:59 pm two days before the date.
GetYourGuide says “most” activities come with free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start, and labels each booking as fully refundable, partially refundable or non-refundable. Refunds go back to your original payment method and take at least 3 to 5 business days to appear.
Official entry tickets are where you most often see “non-refundable” on both sites. GetYourGuide’s Colosseum, Forum and Palatine entry ticket with audio app, for example, was non-refundable when we checked. Tours with a live guide are more likely to carry free cancellation, and Viator’s Colosseum tours and tickets page flags “Free Cancellation” on the listing cards that offer it, so you can spot those at a glance.
Paying extra for flexibility
Both sites now sell a cancellation add-on at checkout, and they work differently.
- Viator’s “Cancel for any reason” moves your cutoff to 1 hour before the start on products with standard free cancellation, and to 24 hours before on products that are otherwise non-refundable. The fee itself is never refunded.
- GetYourGuide’s “Cancellation upgrade” is run with a partner company, Companjon. It lets you cancel for any reason during a cover period and pays out an amount set in its terms, which you see before you buy.
On a cheap ticket, these add-ons rarely make sense. On an expensive private tour booked months out, they can.
Reserve now, pay later: when does each site charge you?
Both sites let you hold a spot without paying today, with different timing.
| Viator | GetYourGuide | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can use it | Most experiences, shown under “Check Availability” | Activities with free cancellation and instant confirmation |
| Up-front charge | $1 card authorization | None |
| When you’re charged | 2 to 9 days before travel, depending on the product | 72 hours before the activity starts |
| Not available when | Travel is more than 12 months out or within 3 days | You book less than 72 hours ahead |
| Ticket arrives | After full payment | After the charge |
GetYourGuide’s later charge is handy if you’re juggling a budget. On Viator, the charge can land up to 9 days before the activity, and pay-later disappears entirely once you’re within 3 days of travel.
How do the review systems differ?
This is the biggest practical difference when you’re choosing between similar tours.
Viator shows a combined score from Viator and Tripadvisor reviews. Its own help pages say only customers who booked on viator.com or through its call center can leave a review on Viator, while the Tripadvisor side comes from Tripadvisor users. The Bateaux Parisiens cruise showed 3.7 stars from 2,764 reviews, labeled “Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor.”
GetYourGuide shows only its own customers’ reviews, each marked “Verified booking.” It sends a review link once the activity starts, and reviews can’t be edited after you submit them. The same cruise had 4.4 stars from 92,181 reviews.
The two review pools are made up of different people, so the same boat scores differently. On our three products, GetYourGuide had more reviews for two (the cruise and the Oceanário) and slightly fewer for the City Wonders tour (306 against Viator’s 351).
When two listings look identical, read the most recent one-star reviews on both sites. They tell you about the meeting point, ticket exchange and group size problems that a star average hides.
Booking fees, currency and price guarantees
Neither company’s terms describe a separate booking or service fee on top of the posted price. GetYourGuide’s terms say its posted prices are “in most cases” inclusive of all taxes and fees, and that any local tax charged on the spot is disclosed on the listing. Viator’s terms say prices exclude local use fees and tips unless the supplier says otherwise.
The cost that does catch people is currency. If you pay in a currency other than your card’s, your bank may add a foreign transaction fee. Viator’s help center says so directly. Pay in your card’s home currency, or use a card with no foreign transaction fees.
Both sites also promise to match a lower price:
- Viator’s Lowest Price Guarantee covers the same tour from the same provider, priced in the same currency.
- GetYourGuide’s best price matching covers the exact same activity under identical conditions (location, number of people, availability and inclusions), and refunds the difference “at our discretion.”
Viator Rewards: is 5% back worth it?
Viator Rewards gives 5% cash back on every booking made on viator.com while you’re logged in. The credit stays pending until 24 hours after your travel date, then can be used on any future Viator booking for 180 days. It can’t be combined with promo codes, and it only builds up in one currency.
Do the math on our sample: Viator was about 1 to 2% more expensive than GetYourGuide, and Rewards gives back 5%. If you will book another Viator activity within six months, Viator ends up cheaper. If this is your only booking, the credit may expire unused, and GetYourGuide’s slightly lower price wins.
We found no equivalent cash-back program in GetYourGuide’s help center.
Apps and customer support
Both apps are free and highly rated. On the US App Store, the Viator app had 4.9 stars from 296K ratings and the GetYourGuide app had 4.9 stars from 335K ratings when we checked. Both app listings promise offline access to your tickets or booking details, which matters when you’re standing at a meeting point with no signal.
For support, Viator offers live chat, email and phone through its help center, and lets you request a refund from your bookings page; it says most refund requests are processed within 48 hours. GetYourGuide’s help center has a contact form, plus phone and chat details for bookings, and a self-service cancellation tool that needs your booking reference and PIN.
GetYourGuide accepts a long list of payment methods, including PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna and several European bank options. Viator’s app listing mentions cards, PayPal, Apple Pay and Klarna installments.
How each site decides what you see first
GetYourGuide publishes its ranking rules on its search pages: activities are ranked by “popularity, customer ratings, performance, availability, diversity, and revenue (including supplier commissions).” Suppliers can pay a higher commission as part of their marketing, though GetYourGuide says no position is guaranteed. So the top result isn’t necessarily the best value.
Search by the operator or attraction name rather than taking the first result, and sort by rating if the site allows it.
When should you skip both and book direct?
For simple entry tickets, the official site is often the same price or cheaper. GetYourGuide’s own terms warn that its price “may be higher than the prices charged by Suppliers for the same or similar Activity on other platforms.” The Oceanário de Lisboa’s ticket page, for example, lists adult tickets from €25.50 to €29.90 depending on the time slot and was advertising a 10% online discount code when we checked.
The case for Viator or GetYourGuide is strongest when you want free cancellation that the official site doesn’t offer, a guided tour bundled with timed entry, or one place to manage a whole trip’s bookings. Our skip-the-line guide for Europe’s busiest sights covers which official sites to try first, and our Colosseum tickets explainer walks through every option in Rome.
So which should you use?
Use the one that gives the better terms for that specific booking. A quick rule set:
- Book on Viator if you’ll make more than one booking in the next six months (the 5% Rewards outweighs the small price gap), if you want the option to cancel up to 1 hour before with its paid add-on, or if you trust Tripadvisor reviews.
- Book on GetYourGuide if it’s a one-off booking and the price is lower, if you want pay-later charged as late as possible (72 hours out), or if you prefer reviews from verified bookers only.
- Book on whichever is refundable. If one site lists the product as non-refundable and the other doesn’t, that settles it.
- Book direct for plain entry tickets where the official site is cheaper and you’re sure of the date.
Planning Rome, Paris or Lisbon? Pair this with our food tours in Rome roundup or the three-day Lisbon itinerary. For the rest of your days, browse creator-made city maps on Guidez.
