10 Great Apps to Search for Cheap Flights

Man in airport

The right flight search app can make it a lot easier to find the best deals on cheap flights | Source: iStock

Searching for cheap flights is something we’ve all done at some point. For some people, it’s part of the routine that goes into booking a vacation. For others, it’s a great way to book a spontaneous but affordable impromptu getaway. Either way, a great flight search app should be at the top of your list of must-have travel apps whether you’re a frequent flier or travel only once or twice a year.

There are plenty of websites that want to help you find flights, and tons of flight search apps that are designed to put all of the best options for cheap flights in front of you. But which of those apps are worth trying out the next time you need to search for cheap flights? And which ones can actually save you some time, instead of making it easier to fall down the rabbit hole of your flight search app of choice, all in pursuit of cheap flights? The 10 options ahead are the ones we rely on for all of our flight search needs.

1. Airfarewatchdog

Airfarewatch dog flight search app

Source: iTunes.apple.com

The Airfarewatchdog app for iOS claims to be the only airfare listing and flight search app that lists fares on all airlines. With the free app, you can get alerts on cheap flights to your favorite cities or on your favorite routes, easily search for flight deals, and find out where to book for the lowest prices. Deals are verified by Airfarewatchdog’s “dealhounds,” and if you’re looking to take a spontaneous trip, you can set your home city and see the best fares to a wide variety of destinations.

2. Corner

Corner cheap flights app

Source: iTunes.apple.com

Corner is a flight search app that claims to offer the fastest way to book flights on your phone. The app, available on iOS, enables you to either select your date and destination, or browse destinations by price, alphabetically, or by the time. You’ll see a variety of flight options all on one screen (no more opening dozens of tabs on your laptop), and you can check out the way prices will change if you fly sooner or travel later. Additionally, you can pay for any flight without leaving the app, which is much more convenient than going somewhere else to complete the purchase and getting surprised by hefty fees.

3. Fareness

Fareness flight search app

Source: iTunes.apple.com

Fareness is a great flight search app for spontaneous travelers. If you want to get away but can be a little bit flexible about your dates and destination in order to get the lowest fares, then Fareness’s iOS app is perfect for you. In order to offer you the best cheap flights you can build a vacation around, the app asks you to think in broad terms. Planning a beach trip sometime in May, but open to destination in the Caribbean, Hawaii, Florida, or Mexico? Fareness will show you the cheapest dates and places. You can even enter a destination to start a search, and check out comparable alternatives that may be much cheaper.

4. Hitlist

Hitlist cheap flights app

Source: iTunes.apple.com

Hitlist is the perfect app for the traveler with an assortment of dream vacations and a penchant for cheap flights. To find the best deals, you just enter your dream destinations into the iOS app, and Hitlist can tell you when it’s the best time to go. You can get deals via email or push notifications, all tailored to your top destinations. You can search for destinations by continent, region, beach, island, activities, and more, and view historical airfare prices to make an informed decision. You can even plan a trip with friends, or check out the places where your friends want to go.

5. Hipmunk

Hipmunk flight search app

Source: Play.google.com

Hipmunk is a popular app that makes it easy to find cheap flights (as well as deals on hotels and car rentals, if what you’re really after is a one-stop shop). The Hipmunk app for iOS or Android compares top travel sites to find the best fares, and the flight search functionality can sort flights by “agony” to minimize layovers, duration, and price. You can even find flights with Wi-Fi, and get alerts for flights to your favorite cities. You can also discover new places to go based on your dates, your style, and your budget.

6. Hopper

Hopper flight search app

Source: Play.google.com

Hopper helps you figure out when to fly if you’re after cheap flights. On either Android or iOS, the app makes it easy to identify the cheapest dates to fly to a favorite destination. Hopper analyzes billions of flight prices daily to predict how prices will change, and then will tell you when to buy your tickets. The idea is to save you up to 40% on your fare (and to eliminate some of the uncertainty around whether you should book now or wait longer in the hope of discovering more deals or cheap flights). You can watch a trip to get price or deal notifications, and you can use the app to check out all of your upcoming trips in one place.

7. JetRadar

Jetradar cheap flights app

Source: iTunes.apple.com

JetRadar searches fares from many more airlines (including low-cost airlines) than a lot of competing apps to help you find the best cheap flights. The app, available on Android or iOS, searches and compares flights on more than 1,000 airlines. The flight search functionality offers a variety of filters to help you find your perfect flight, and you can add tickets to your “favorites” to track price changes. You can narrow searches by the number of stops, the total price, the journey time, the stopover duration, and other factors.


KAYAK cheap flights app

Source: Play.google.com

KAYAK is a popular flight search tool, and for good reason. The KAYAK app for Android or iOS helps you search for cheap flights (plus hotels and car rentals) by searching hundreds of travel sites simultaneously. The app offers price forecasts and price history charts to help you figure out when you should go ahead and book and when you might benefit by waiting a little longer. The app automatically hides excessively long or exorbitantly expensive flights, and you can use smart flight search features like a Time of Arrival or Departure filter with a price histogram, an Airline Alliance filter, a red eye filter, and a Wi-Fi filter.

9. Skiplagged

Skiplagged flight search app

Source: iTunes.apple.com

Skiplagged is a flight search app that looks not only for tickets where your destination is the final stop, but also where your destination is a stop leading to another destination. That’s because airlines sometimes charge less for tickets where your destination is a layover instead of the final stop. There are a few caveats to traveling this way, like needing to pack only a carry-on or needing to book two one-ways for round trips. The app is available on Android and iOS, and also enables you to see the cheapest destination for almost any combination of departing airports and dates, check out the prices of tickets for dates near your searched date, monitor how the price for any search fluctuates, and receive alerts when the price of a search is near your reservation price.

10. Skyscanner

Skyscanner flight search app

Source: iTunes.apple.com

Skyscanner searches 1,200 airline and travel sites to find the best cheap flights (or hotels and car rentals, too). The Skyscanner app for iOS and Android offers easy flight search functionality, with a color-coded calendar and chart view. You can get price alerts for saved routes, check out great prices to destinations around the world, or narrow your search results by duration, number of stops, airline, travel class, or departure and arrival times.