Thrifty rounds out our comparison as a familiar international franchise with staffed desks at Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, a straightforward economy fleet, and pricing that sits in the middle of the pack. It doesn't distinguish itself on any of the criteria we measure — deposit and cancellation terms are on the stricter end (AED 1,750 deposit, 48-hour cancellation, no delivery), and both the app experience and review scores trail the rest of the field. That makes it the lowest-scoring of the 8 services in this comparison overall, though it remains a reasonable fallback if your preferred dates are sold out elsewhere and you want a known-brand staffed counter rather than an app-only pick-up.
"Booked as a backup when my first choice was sold out for Eid week. Fine, unremarkable economy rental — the T1 desk had a 20-minute queue on a Saturday morning."
"Nothing wrong with the car, but the app booking flow crashed twice trying to confirm my dates — ended up calling the desk directly to finish it."