An honest Fishing Outfitter review, and when Malvavisco fits instead.
Looking for a Fishing Outfitter alternative? Start with what Fishing Outfitter does well and what it costs, taken from its own pages. Fishing Outfitter is software for fishing guide services, built by a guide and sold with a free plan. Malvavisco is built around running the lodge stay: rooms, guides and boats, the kitchen, the bar and the bill, in English, Spanish or Portuguese. We wrote this page, and we say when Fishing Outfitter is the better choice.
What is the best Fishing Outfitter alternative?
It depends on what you run. A guide service that sells day trips and floats, and wants online booking, e-signatures and catch records for little money, is usually best served by Fishing Outfitter itself. A lodge where guests stay several nights, eat in the dining room and run a bar tab, with guides and boats scheduled together, fits Malvavisco better, and our team moves your upcoming bookings over for free.
What Fishing Outfitter does well
From Fishing Outfitter’s own website, checked on 23 October 2026.
Fishing Outfitter is made by OnX BizTech, a Colorado software company, and was started by a fly-and-float guide from Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. It shares its engine with Hunt Outfitter, the same company’s product for hunting outfitters (source).
- A free plan, and plans priced by guide logins. Starter is free for one guide; paid plans run from $39 to $179 a month, with a 14-day trial and no credit card. Clients and bookings are unlimited on every plan (source).
- Online booking and payments. Clients pay through Stripe into your own account. From the Solo plan, anglers can book a trip and pay the deposit by card on a hosted page. A booking fee is added at checkout and paid by the client, not by you; license fees and taxes you collect pass through without it. Checks, wires, e-transfers and cash are recorded in the same view (source).
- A client portal with e-signatures. On your own subdomain, clients sign documents, pay deposits, fill in gear lists and share travel details, with no app to download. Documents, e-signatures and license and catch card uploads are on every plan (source).
- Guides in the field. Each guide has a portal with assigned trips, and owners assign guides day by day across a booking (source). On Solo and up, guides file fishing reports and shopping-list items with no signal, and they upload once the phone is back in coverage (source).
- Catch records. Catch tracking from the water to processing, replica mounts and shipping, on Solo and up (source).
- Camp and kitchen, on the Business plan. Meal plans by trip day, a shopping list scaled to the party, the booked anglers’ dietary restrictions on the planner, and a cook portal (source).
- Lodging, in beta. On Solo and Pro and up, lodges, rooms and cabins with an occupancy grid; multi-day bookings are assigned to a unit for their nights (source).
- Currencies and accounting. One organization currency, US or Canadian dollars or others such as the rand, euro and pound, overridden per booking for cross-border trips (source). QuickBooks Online or FreshBooks sync on Business, and QuickBooks-ready CSV exports from Solo (source).
- Do-it-yourself imports. On Solo and up, a bulk import of clients, leads, guides and expenses from CSV, XLSX or DOCX files. Its help page says bookings can’t be imported (source).
How much Fishing Outfitter costs
As published on Fishing Outfitter’s pricing page on 23 October 2026, in US dollars.
| Plan | Guide logins | Monthly | Yearly | Booking fee, paid by the client |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1 | Free | Free | 4%, at most $35 a payment |
| Basic | Up to 3 | $39 | $374 | 3%, at most $25 |
| Solo | 1 | $59 | $566 | 2%, at most $20 |
| Pro | Up to 7 | $79 | $758 | 2%, at most $20 |
| Business | Up to 15 | $179 | $1,718 | 1%, at most $15 |
| Elite | Unlimited | Quoted after a demo | Quoted after a demo | Custom terms |
- Basic covers the essentials for a small team. Solo and Pro add reminders, text messages, online booking, offline fishing reports, lodging and bulk import. Business adds accounting sync, meal planning and the cook portal, insights and broadcasts (features by plan).
- Paying yearly saves 20%. Plans can be changed at any time and the change takes effect immediately.
- Elite adds unlimited guide logins, dedicated onboarding and priority support.
Source: fishingoutfitter.app/pricing. Malvavisco doesn’t publish prices; it quotes after a demo.
Malvavisco and Fishing Outfitter, row by row
Malvavisco wrote this comparison. Fishing Outfitter’s column comes from its own website, checked on 23 October 2026, with a link for each row. Its details may have changed since.
| Feature | MalvaviscoLodge software | Fishing Outfitter |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Remote lodges in the Americas where a stay includes guided days, meals and a bar: fishing, hunting, guest ranches, eco lodges | Fishing guide services and outfitters, from a solo guide to fifteen guides and moreSource |
| Rooms and multi-night stays | Rooms or cabins booked for the stay or night by night, with holds, check-in and check-out | Lodges, rooms and cabins with an occupancy grid on Solo and Pro and up; marked betaSource |
| Online booking and card payments | No: staff enter bookings from email, phone and agents, and record cash, transfer and card-terminal payments with receipts. Mercado Pago links in Argentine pesos are built but not yet live | Hosted booking and deposit page from Solo; Stripe, with a 1–4% booking fee paid by the clientSource |
| Waivers and e-signatures | No: guests cannot sign waivers in Malvavisco | Documents, form templates and e-signatures on every planSource |
| Guides, boats and horses | Named guides with skills and languages; boats, horses, vehicles or floatplanes as assets; overlap, capacity and skill checks on every assignment | Guide portal and day-by-day guide assignments; boats not mentionedSource |
| Kitchen | Included meals planned per stay, a daily dietary brief, kitchen tickets from preparing to ready to served | Meal plans, shopping lists and a cook portal on the $179 Business planSource |
| Bar and shop | Point of sale on the booking’s bill, with stock counts, supply orders and supply receipts | Add-on catalog and billing from Solo; no bar, point of sale or stock mentionedSource |
| Staff roles | Eleven roles enforced on the server, including guide, kitchen, housekeeping, finance and owner read-only; two-factor sign-in | Guide logins and admin seats by plan; a cook role and crew duty tags on BusinessSource |
| Currencies | Rates in about 30 currencies, one per booking, reported separately with no automatic conversion; your own tax rules | One organization currency (US or Canadian dollars, or others such as the euro), overridden per bookingSource |
| Staff interface language | English, Spanish or Portuguese, set per workspace | Not stated; website in EnglishSource |
| Offline | No: needs an internet connection; the kitchen screen disables its buttons when its data goes stale | Fishing reports and shopping lists filed offline on Solo and up; new bookings, emails and signatures need a connectionSource |
| Price | Not published; quoted after a demo | Free to $179 a month, plus a 1–4% fee paid by the clientSource |
When to choose each
Stay with Fishing Outfitter, or choose it, if…
- You run day trips and floats more than lodge stays
- Anglers should book and pay a deposit online, and sign documents before they arrive
- You want catch records, license uploads and fishing reports your guides can file without signal
- You want a free plan or a low published price, with the card fee paid by the client
- You want to import your client list yourself, today
Choose Malvavisco if…
- Guests stay several nights, and the rooms, meals and bar are as much of the job as the fishing
- You want each guide scheduled with the boat, horse or vehicle they need, with overlap checks
- The kitchen and the bar should work from tickets that land on the guest’s bill, with stock counts
- Your team works in Spanish, or you bill in pesos, reais or other currencies and want each one reported on its own
- Front desk, kitchen, housekeeping and finance each need their own role
What Fishing Outfitter’s pages don’t cover
We found no bar or point of sale with stock, no boat or vehicle scheduling, and no interface language other than English, and its lodging tools are marked beta. If any of that matters, ask Fishing Outfitter during its 15-minute demo. Its sister product for hunting is compared in our Hunt Outfitter review. For a wider field, see the best fishing lodge software comparison and our Hookset review, or how Malvavisco runs a fishing lodge.
Fishing Outfitter reviews and alternatives
For fishing guide services, yes. It has a free plan, online booking with deposits, e-signatures, catch records and offline fishing reports, and it publishes every price. It fits less well for a lodge whose week revolves around rooms, meals and a bar: its lodging tools are marked beta, the camp and cook tools are on the $179 Business plan, and we found no bar or point of sale.
Its pricing page lists Starter free, Basic $39, Solo $59, Pro $79 and Business $179 a month, or 20% less paid yearly, with Elite quoted for more than 15 guides. Online card payments carry a booking fee paid by the client: 4% on Starter (at most $35 a payment), 3% on Basic, 2% on Solo and Pro and 1% on Business.
For a lodge, yes: bookings for the whole party, rooms, guides and boats, the kitchen, the point of sale, payments and reports. It does not replace Fishing Outfitter’s online booking, card processing, e-signatures, catch records or offline fishing reports.
Yes, for free. Send us what Fishing Outfitter exports and our team sets up your rooms, rates, services, guides and assets, enters every upcoming booking with its deposits, loads your guest list and rebuilds your emails. Past bookings, signed documents and catch records stay in Fishing Outfitter.
Its website is in English and doesn’t mention other interface languages. Malvavisco’s staff app runs in Spanish, English or Brazilian Portuguese.
They are two products from the same company, OnX BizTech, on the same engine and with the same plans and prices: Fishing Outfitter for fishing guides, with catch records and fishing reports, and Hunt Outfitter for hunting outfitters, with tags, harvest records and stand assignments.
