November 5, 2026
Fishing Guide Software Pricing Compared (2026)
Most fishing guide software looks cheap until you work out who pays what on each booking. One tool charges nothing per month and adds a fee to your client’s checkout, another charges a flat monthly price, and a marketplace takes a share of every trip it sends you. These are different business models rather than different price points, so the table below sets out each tool’s published pricing as it stood when we read the vendors’ own pricing pages on November 3, 2026. Prices change, so treat it as a starting point and confirm on each vendor’s site before you sign up.
What each tool costs
| Tool | Model | Monthly or annual price | Per-booking charge | Who pays it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fishing Outfitter | Subscription plus capped booking fee | Free Starter (1 guide); Basic $39/mo (3 guides), Solo $59/mo (1), Pro $79/mo (7), Business $179/mo (15); 20% off annually | 4% (max $35 per payment) on Starter, falling to 1% (max $15) on Business | Your client |
| FishingBooker | Marketplace commission | $0, free to list, no subscription | 10%–30% of the trip price, set by you in 5% steps, on completed trips | You (it’s kept from the deposit) |
| Vally | Free software, customer fee | $0 | A service fee at booking; amount not published | Your client, or you if you build it into your price |
| AnyCreek | Subscription plus percentage fees | $49/mo (Basic Guide) or $199/mo (Pro Guide), each with a one-time $199 setup fee; outfitter pricing custom; 90-day free trial | 5% service fee plus a 3% card fee on your own bookings; 15% one-time commission on new clients AnyCreek sends you | 5% your client; 3% and 15% you |
| The Flybook | Percentage fee, or negotiated | Standard plan: no monthly fee listed; negotiated plans are a fixed fee or monthly plus usage, by demo | 4% of online bookings, or 2% of all transactions, “based on eligibility” | Not stated |
| Guide Pointer | Subscription | $99/mo, or $999/yr; 30-day free trial | None listed | — |
| LodgeRunner | Subscription, prepaid | $50/mo for a single guide; fishing outfitters typically $100–$250/mo; lodges typically $100–$300/mo | None listed; $120/hour for unusual data imports or customization | — |
| GoFish.Rocks | Flat per-passenger fee | $0, no setup fee | $1.50 per passenger per trip; charters have a six-passenger minimum ($9) | You choose: bill your client or absorb it |
FareHarbor, which also comes up in fishing comparisons, didn’t show rates on the pricing page we could read, so ask it for a quote directly.
The four ways these tools charge
A flat subscription is the easiest cost to plan around, because it’s the same in a slow July as in a busy September. Guide Pointer and LodgeRunner work this way, and LodgeRunner scales its monthly price with the size of your operation and how many trips you run. The trade-off is that you pay in the off-season too, although most of these tools discount annual or prepaid billing.
A per-booking fee moves the cost onto each transaction, and the questions that matter are how big it is, whether it has a cap and who pays it. Vally charges nothing to the operator and adds its fee to your client’s booking, while The Flybook’s standard plan takes a percentage of online bookings or of all transactions. A percentage with no cap grows with the trip: 4% of a $300 half-day is $12, but 4% of a $3,000 week is $120.
A marketplace commission is a different arrangement altogether, because a marketplace is selling you customers rather than software. FishingBooker lists your trips for free, and when an angler books through it, you pay a commission of 10% to 30% that you set yourself, equal to the deposit the customer pays. That buys you exposure to anglers who would never have found you, which can be well worth it for a new guide. It costs you money, though, when a client you already had books back through the marketplace. AnyCreek sits between the models, with a subscription, percentage fees on your own bookings and a 15% one-time commission on clients its marketing sends you.
Card processing is the cost that most comparisons leave out. Whoever processes the card pays a processing fee, and on most platforms that’s you, the merchant. Stripe’s standard US rate is 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card transaction. Vally says its partners pay no credit card fees, AnyCreek passes a 3% card fee to the guide, and GoFish.Rocks says payments go directly to you rather than through it. Ask each vendor which of those two costs it covers before you compare totals.
One trip, run through each model
Here’s a single $700 full-day trip for two anglers, paid in one card payment, before card processing.
| Tool | Cost on a $700 trip | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| Fishing Outfitter Starter (free plan) | $28 booking fee (4%) | Your client |
| Fishing Outfitter Basic | $21 (3%) | Your client |
| Fishing Outfitter Solo or Pro | $14 (2%) | Your client |
| Fishing Outfitter Business | $7 (1%) | Your client |
| FishingBooker, marketplace booking | $70 at 10%, up to $210 at 30% | You |
| AnyCreek, your own booking | $35 service fee plus a $21 card fee | Your client, then you |
| The Flybook standard | $28 at 4% of an online booking | Not stated |
| GoFish.Rocks | $3 for two passengers, or $9 if booked as a charter | Your client or you |
| Vally | Not published | Your client |
On a trip like this, GoFish.Rocks is the cheapest per booking, and it isn’t close. If you run a boat with a manifest and want the lowest possible fee, that’s a real advantage. The picture changes on bigger tickets. On a $3,000 multi-day trip, a 4% fee is $120 and a 5% fee is $150, while Fishing Outfitter’s fee stops at its cap, so the most your client pays on Starter is $35 per payment. The subscription tools (Guide Pointer, LodgeRunner, and Fishing Outfitter’s paid plans) add their monthly cost on top of whichever per-booking fee applies, which is why the only honest comparison is a full season: your trips, your average ticket and your monthly price, added up.
What to ask before you sign
A few questions sort most of these tools quickly. Does the price cover the number of guides who need their own login? Is there a setup fee, and is the trial long enough to cover a real booking cycle? Who pays the booking fee, and is it capped? Who pays card processing? And if a marketplace is involved, does a repeat client cost you a commission again?
Where Fishing Outfitter fits
Fishing Outfitter is a subscription with a published, capped booking fee that your client pays at checkout, so you receive the full trip price. The free Starter plan has no monthly fee, though it does carry the 4% fee (max $35 per payment), and it includes deposits and payment schedules, a client portal and e-signed documents for a single guide. Paid plans add guide logins and lower the fee, and from Solo up you also get automated reminders, text notifications and an online booking widget. Fishing-license fees, taxes and refunds never carry the booking fee, and payments you record by wire, check or cash carry none at all, which is a paid-plan feature from Basic up. Card payments run through Stripe at its standard rate, which you pay as the merchant, as you would anywhere.
We’ve written up exactly how the booking fee works and what the free plan includes. If you’re weighing a marketplace, our FishingBooker comparison works through when the commission pays for itself, and our guide to the best fly fishing guide software compares the tools on features as well as price. Current plans are always on our pricing page.
Start free on the Starter plan — or try a paid plan free for 14 days.