Best online airport parking sites
With the holiday season ahead, what are the best apps and websites to aid your getaway parking?
Airport parking is expensive, especially if you just roll up and grab a ticket at the barrier. But these days, you don’t have to do that, with a swathe of digital options that are aimed at making your life easier and less expensive, and taking one layer of strain away from the stress that goes with travelling.
The trick is to be savvy, and to shop around to get the best airport parking deal – but it can be confusing. As well as a handful of apps, there are a number of websites that promise cheaper parking deals, but when you look into them, not all of them offer very good savings, while others are simply landing pages that take you through to another site.
To cut through the confusion, we’ve done the hard work for you and found nine online parking providers that operate independently. We’ve then put each of them to the test as if we were going on a summer holiday ourselves.
How we tested
With each provider, we posed as a customer looking to book a week’s parking at the height of the peak season, with a Saturday-to-Saturday booking in the first week of August. We looked at two airports – London Heathrow (LHR) and Manchester (MAN) – to get different prices.
Used - available now
2024 BMW
iX3
36,425 milesAutomaticElectric
Cash £24,227
2024 BMW
iX3
21,549 milesAutomaticElectric
Cash £30,219
2025 BMW
iX
36,333 milesAutomaticElectric
Cash £30,170
2023 Audi
e-tron
38,690 milesAutomaticElectric
Cash £17,636We were looking at four key elements – the overall cost of parking, the breadth of choice, parking instructions (especially for those offering private spaces) and the overall user experience of the app or website.
Best online airport parking sites
Below we rank the best online airport parking sites...
Just Park
- App or web: Both
- Price: Free
- Rating: 5 stars
- Best rate LHR/MAN: around £37/£34
- Contact: justpark.com
As well as airport car parks, Just Park hosts private spaces and driveways that are rated by users, so you can see if they’re secure, safe and well located, plus get their proximity to the airport and walking directions.
We were able to find spaces within a 25-minute stroll of both Manchester and Heathrow Airports for a fraction of the cost of official airport parking. Yet if you want the peace of mind of on-site parking, this is offered, too, with similar rates to those offered on Ezybook (below).
YourParkingSpace
- App or web: Both
- Price: Free
- Best rate LHR/MAN: around £46.24/£46.24
- Rating: 4.5 stars
- Contact: yourparkingspace.co.uk
YourParkingSpace works in a similar way to Just Park and in some ways is more user-friendly – for electric car owners, it also tells you whether a private space has EV-charging facilities. We were able to get off-airport parking for our August dates well under the price of official car parks, but the cost was higher than Just Park and the choice is limited to private parking space owners – the only on-airport parking it offers is with hotels near the terminals, which weren’t great value at either site.
CompareTheAirportParking
- App or web: Web
- Price: Free
- Best rate LHR/MAN: around £62.22/£53
- Rating: 4.5 stars
- Contact: comparetheairportparking.com
Simple to use, and with no need to register, CompareThe AirportParking is the best option if you want on-airport, valet or transfer parking, which may be your preference if you have family or luggage and walking routes don’t work. Parking providers are rated by users.
Our Heathrow rate of £62.22 was for a reputable Park & Ride option, as was the Manchester one, but both worked out much cheaper than booking directly.
Ezybook
- App or web: Web
- Price: Free
- Best rate LHR/MAN: around £62.22/£58
- Rating: 4 stars
- Contact: ezybook.co.uk
There was very little to choose between CompareTheAirportParking and Ezybook, other than that the former found us a £5 cheaper quote for Park & Ride parking at Manchester Airport, and at a location close to the terminals. Ezybook is just as easy to use, with simple, no-nonsense drop-down menus and options to search every UK airport. You can also select between on-airport, Meet & Greet and Park & Ride options from a simple menu screen.
Parking4You
- App or web: Web
- Price: Free
- Best rate LHR/MAN: around £64/£70
- Rating: 3 stars
- Contact: parking4you.co.uk
Like CompareTheAirportParking and Ezybook, Parking4You uses a simple drop-down menu and has the ability to find parking at all UK airports, but only via official airport providers. Its rates were a tad more expensive, though, and there was less choice on offer – though the pricing was still substantially cheaper than standard long stay parking at both airports, and some of the Meet & Greet valet parking options it offered were well priced.
Parkopedia
- App or web: Both
- Price: £4.99
- Best rate LHR/MAN: around £35/£43
- Rating: 3 stars
- Contact: parkopedia.com
Parkopedia has two functions – one where you turn up and park, with payment by the hour, or another where you pre-book. The issue is, you have to pay £4.99 for the pre-book function. When you do, it gives you a choice of official parking or private, such as those offered by Just Park and YourParkingSpace, and we were able to find some decent prices within walking distance of the airports. But those other two apps are free, and Parkopedia has no real advantage.
Holiday Extras
- App or web: Both
- Price: Free
- Best rate LHR/MAN: around£109.95/£84.99
- Rating: 3 stars
- Contact: holidayextras.com
In terms of user-friendliness, the Holiday Extras app is good and the booking process easy, allowing functionality such as Apple Pay, for example. But the savings can’t compare with other providers for official on or off-airport parking, with the best prices for both airports higher than the top performers.
Purple Parking
- App or web: Web
- Price: Free
- Best rate LHR/MAN: around £109.95/£84.99
- Rating: 2.5 stars
- Contact: parking4you.co.uk
Purple Parking seems to use the same partners and search functionality as Holiday Extras, but is only available on a web platform with no app. As a result, it’s clunky and slower to load, which takes away the appeal of the former. It came up with exactly the same quotes as Holiday Extras, from the same providers.
Evology Parking
- App or web: Both
- Price: Free
- Best rate LHR/MAN: around £210/£350
- Rating: 1 star
- Contact: evologyparking.com
Evology’s star rating wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t advertise airport parking, but it does. In towns and cities, it’ll help you find a space, but it isn’t going to save money for holiday parking. The cheapest it found at Heathrow was a £30 day rate, and in Manchester it was an eye-watering £50.
Verdict
If cost is the most important factor, then the appeal of Just Park is that you can see photos and read others’ reviews, all the while saving a lot of money by using private parking. YourParkingSpace is almost as good, but not as clear or intuitive to use. It’s still worth a look before making a booking. If you’d rather use an approved airport parking provider, CompareTheAirportParking had the best deals.
Want the latest car news in your inbox? Sign up to the free Auto Express email newsletter...
