How much does LodgeRunner cost?

LodgeRunner’s pricing page says hunting outfitters typically pay $100 to $300 a month, fishing outfitters $100 to $250, and a one-guide service $50 a month, paid in advance. There are no setup fees, contact-list import is free, and other data import and customization are $120 an hour. Prepaying 12 months saves 20% in the first year.

Does LodgeRunner have a guide portal?

Yes. LodgeRunner has mobile-friendly guide, kitchen and housekeeping portals, and permissions can be set for each guide.

What’s the difference between LodgeRunner and Hunt Outfitter?

Both handle bookings, guides, e-signed waivers, lodging and a camp kitchen, and both can assign rooms and cabins and give housekeeping staff their own view. LodgeRunner goes further on hotel-style operations (retail and check-in) and tracks preference points. Hunt Outfitter goes further on the hunt (harvest records, field notes, end-of-hunt reports), has a free plan with payments, deposits and e-signatures, and charges $39 to $179 a month for paid plans against LodgeRunner’s typical $100 to $300.

Is there a cheaper alternative to LodgeRunner for hunting outfitters?

Hunt Outfitter’s Starter plan is free for one guide, and paid plans for teams run $39 to $79 a month for up to seven guides. Its booking fee is published, capped per payment and paid by the hunter.

October 2, 2026

LodgeRunner vs Hunt Outfitter: Which Fits Your Operation?

LodgeRunner is the veteran in outfitter software. It was founded in 2001, has run in the cloud since 2007, and serves everything from Alaskan fishing lodges to dude ranches and canoe outfitters. If you’re comparing it with Hunt Outfitter, the useful question isn’t which has more features, because both cover bookings, deposits, guide scheduling, e-signed waivers, a mobile-friendly portal for guides and a kitchen side for camp cooks. It’s which parts of the operation each one goes deepest on, and what you’ll pay for it.

This comparison uses LodgeRunner’s own site and our own plan configuration, both checked on October 2, 2026.

The short version

	LodgeRunner	Hunt Outfitter
Lodge and camp operations	Room assignment, kitchen and housekeeping portals, retail, check-in/out	Rooms and cabins assigned to bookings with a nightly occupancy grid (Solo and up); housekeeper role with a turnover list, cook role with a kitchen portal and meal planning (Business); camp tasks, shopping lists, hotel listings
Price for a hunting outfitter	“Typically… $100/month and $300/month”; $50/month for a one-guide service	Free for one guide; $39–$79/month for up to 7 guides; $179 for up to 15
Free plan	No; paid in advance, monthly or for up to a year	Yes: payments, deposits, client portal and e-signatures
Guide access	Guide portal with per-guide permissions	Guide app with availability, calendar, harvest and notes
E-signed waivers	Yes, including minor dependents	Yes, on every plan, including guardian signing for minors
Preference points	Tracked per species and jurisdiction	Not tracked (draw tracking covers applications and results in NM and SD)
Payments	Through your own processor (Stripe, Square, Authorize.net and others)	Stripe, with a published 1–4% booking fee, capped per payment and paid by the hunter
Setup	No setup fees; contact-list import free, other data import and customization at $120/hour	Self-serve setup

Where LodgeRunner is the stronger choice

If your lodge runs like a small hotel, with a pro shop to ring up and a front desk checking guests in and out, LodgeRunner covers those pieces directly, alongside its portals for guides, kitchen and housekeeping staff. It also goes deeper on hunting paperwork than we do. It tracks preference points for each hunter across species and jurisdictions, and it can hold a license fee over from year to year when a hunter doesn’t draw. If you already take cards through Square, Authorize.net or another processor, LodgeRunner works with it rather than moving you to Stripe, and after two decades in the business its integration list (QuickBooks Online, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Google Calendar, Twilio and more) is a long one.

Where Hunt Outfitter fits better

For most hunting outfitters the difference starts with cost. LodgeRunner says hunting outfitters “typically pay between $100/month and $300/month,” paid in advance. Hunt Outfitter’s free Starter plan runs a one-guide operation, with Stripe payments, deposit schedules, a client portal and e-signed waivers, for nothing a month, and teams of up to seven guides are $79 on Pro. Our booking fee is published (1–4% by plan, capped at $15 to $35 per payment) and it’s paid by the hunter as a line at checkout. You pay Stripe’s standard processing fee as the merchant, as you would anywhere. For the full breakdown, see how our booking fee works.

Hunt Outfitter runs the lodge and camp side too. From the Solo plan up, you set up your lodges and the rooms or cabins under them, assign each booking to a unit for its nights and check a night-by-night occupancy grid, and when a hunt is rescheduled its lodging moves with it. On the Business plan, a housekeeper gets a turnover list of every unit emptying out, with the next group’s arrival and headcount, while a cook gets a kitchen portal with meal planning and camp menus. Camp tasks and shopping lists keep the rest of camp moving, and nearby hotels can be listed for hunters who stay in town.

Where it goes further is the hunt itself. On paid plans from Solo up, guides log harvest records and field notes from the guide app, end-of-hunt reports go out after the trip, and hunt and payment reminders run on their own. Setup is self-serve, so you can have your first season in without waiting on anyone.

Which one should you choose?

Choose LodgeRunner if retail and front-desk check-in are daily work for you, if you need preference-point tracking across states, or if you want to keep your current card processor.

Choose Hunt Outfitter if you’re an owner-operated outfit or a guide team that wants to start free or stay under $80 a month, would rather have your hunters cover a capped booking fee, and want one system that runs the hunt, the guides and the camp kitchen together.

Start with our free plan and set up a real booking before you decide, or see how we compare with HuntDocs, HuntPay and the rest of the field in our best hunting outfitter software roundup.

Start free on the Starter plan — or try a paid plan free for 14 days.