The cheapest flight comparison website revealed – and it's not Skyscanner

New research from Which? reveals all

Not all flight price comparison platforms are created equal, according to new research from Which?.

The product review experts tested five of the leading comparison websites by searching for 10 different flight routes – and the results were surprising.

The routes included London to Malaga one-way, Edinburgh to Athens return and London to LAX return.

Momondo was found to be the cheapest, offering the lowest fares for all 10 journeys, while popular comparison platform Skyscanner was matched or beaten by its fellow online aggregators for every flight.

It followed Cheapflights and Kayak, which tied for second place after finding the joint lowest price in eight of the searches.

Bottom of the pack was Google Flights.

Although all comparison sites are trawling the same airlines and travel companies to offer a range of options, the price discrepancy between flights was at times stark.

For example, return flights for one week in Orlando booked six weeks in advance were priced from £756 with Momondo, but cost as much as £820 through Google Flights and £813 with Skyscanner.

However, Which? also surveyed readers to find which brands they would be most likely to recommend. Sites that weren’t always the cheapest were nevertheless deemed the best by many consumers – Skyscanner, for example, was rated the top flight price comparison site thanks to its ease of use, relevance of search terms and value for money.

The worst-rated flight comparison site was fly.com, which received a customer score of just 41 per cent. Which? researchers found that it struggled with the simplest search terms, showed flight prices in the wrong currency, and urged users to call a US number for the best fares, defeating the purpose of the website.

Here are the full rankings:

Cheapest flight comparison sites

1. Momondo

2. Cheapflights

2. Kayak

3. Skyscanner

4. Google Flights

Best comparison sites

1. Skyscanner

2. Tripadvisor

3. Trivago

4. Kayak

5. Google Flights

6. Momondo

7. TravelSupermarket

8. Cheapflights

9. GoCompare

10. Hotelscomparison.com

11. Travelocity

12. Fly.com