THE MALLARD BAY ALTERNATIVE
The escape from marketplace fees shouldn't cost $199 a month.
Mallard Bay built the Airbnb of guided hunts, then built GuideTech to sell outfitters a way off marketplaces. Fair enough — but their paid plans start at $199 a month, the growth tools come as add-on packages, and the free plan charges marketplace fees on trips they source. Timber & Tackle is $29 flat, everything included, on a domain you own.
Credit where it's due: Mallard Bay is a serious company. They raised a $4.6M Series A, have moved millions in trip bookings, and their GuideTech platform is a real all-in-one — calendar, payments through Stripe, a marketplace listing, request-based bookings. Their own FAQ even says the quiet part well: they want to keep you away from "booking agents and marketplaces that charge high commissions."
So do we. Including theirs. On Mallard Bay's free plan, trips they source through the marketplace carry marketplace fees — they don't publish the rate. The way out is a paid plan, which their FAQ says starts at $199 a month. And the things that actually grow a guide business — CRM tools, ads management, SEO, social — are sold on top as additional packages. Paid plans start at $199; the real bill is a demo call away.
There's a quieter cost too. Your marketplace listing lives on mallardbay.com, in a grid next to every other outfitter in your state. Every hunter who finds you there learned to search Mallard Bay, not your name. A premium elk outfit that books out every fall doesn't need a grid — it needs its own site, its own ranking, and its own list of hunters to call when a date opens.
Timber & Tackle is one flat fee — $29 a month, or $290 a year — and everything is included: we build your whole site for you, free, before you pay anything. Your own domain. Your own SEO equity. Deposits straight to your Stripe account. And every client's contact details in a list you can export and walk away with, any day, no questions.
Mallard Bay sells the escape from marketplace fees for $199 a month, plus packages. Ours is $29 flat — and the site, the ranking, and the client list are yours.
Mallard Bay vs. Timber & Tackle
Pricing and fee facts are from Mallard Bay's own for-guides FAQ and pricing pages, checked July 2026.
Monthly price
- Mallard Bay / GuideTech
- Paid plans start at $199/mo
- Timber & Tackle
- $29/mo flat, or $290/yr
Fees on bookings
- Mallard Bay / GuideTech
- Free plan: marketplace fees on trips they source (rate unpublished)
- Timber & Tackle
- $0 — never a cut, on any booking
CRM, SEO, marketing tools
- Mallard Bay / GuideTech
- Sold as add-on packages
- Timber & Tackle
- Included in the flat fee
Who builds your site
- Mallard Bay / GuideTech
- Custom website on paid plans
- Timber & Tackle
- We build it free, before you pay
Where your listing lives
- Mallard Bay / GuideTech
- mallardbay.com marketplace grid
- Timber & Tackle
- Your own domain — the ranking is yours
Pricing on the website
- Mallard Bay / GuideTech
- "Book a demo" for the full picture
- Timber & Tackle
- One number, public: $29/mo
Walk away with your data
- Mallard Bay / GuideTech
- Not published
- Timber & Tackle
- One-click export, anytime
| Mallard Bay / GuideTech | Timber & Tackle | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | Paid plans start at $199/mo | $29/mo flat, or $290/yr |
| Fees on bookings | Free plan: marketplace fees on trips they source (rate unpublished) | $0 — never a cut, on any booking |
| CRM, SEO, marketing tools | Sold as add-on packages | Included in the flat fee |
| Who builds your site | Custom website on paid plans | We build it free, before you pay |
| Where your listing lives | mallardbay.com marketplace grid | Your own domain — the ranking is yours |
| Pricing on the website | "Book a demo" for the full picture | One number, public: $29/mo |
| Walk away with your data | Not published | One-click export, anytime |
One fee, everything in it
No $199 floor, no add-on packages for CRM or SEO. The site build, your domain, reviews, rebooking emails, and client export are all inside the $29.
Your brand, not a grid
A marketplace listing puts a premium outfit next to discount operators and teaches customers to search the platform's name. Your own site teaches them to search yours.
The list is yours
Every hunter and angler who books lands in your dashboard with contact details you can export. When a cancellation opens a week, you fill it from your own list — free.
Do the math on your own trips.
This models a percentage marketplace — Mallard Bay's free plan takes marketplace fees on trips they source (they don't publish the rate), and their paid plans start at $199/mo instead. Set the trips, average price, and the cut you're paying anywhere today; the orange line is what a flat fee leaves in your pocket.
What are you on now?
50 trips= $28,650 a year
FishingBooker at 15%
$4,298
Timber & Tackle flat
$290
You keep $4,008 more a year.
Only guide part of the year? Pause the rest.
Run your seasons, then pause your bill in the off-months — $0 while you're off the water, and your site stays live, still booking next season. You only pay the months you're actually fishing.
FishingBooker commission is captain-set between 10–30% per their help center, charged on every trip. We assume your same trips book elsewhere.
Straight answers.
Doesn't Mallard Bay also skip commissions?
On paid plans, yes — their FAQ says they don't take commissions once you're paying, and that's genuinely better than the perpetual-commission marketplaces. On the free plan, trips they source carry marketplace fees, and they don't publish the rate. Timber & Tackle has one plan and it never takes a cut of anything.
How does the price actually compare?
Their FAQ puts paid plans at $199 a month and up, with CRM tools, ads management, QuickBooks integration, and SEO/social services sold as additional packages. Timber & Tackle is $29 a month or $290 a year, and there's nothing sold on top — the site build, domain, SEO, reviews, and client tools are all included.
Are marketplace fees really that expensive on hunts?
Hunts are where percentage fees bite hardest, because the tickets are big. A $6,000 elk hunt on any 15% marketplace hands over $900 — most of a year of Timber & Tackle, gone on one booking. Mallard Bay doesn't publish its free-plan marketplace-fee rate, but the principle holds for any percentage: a cut of a serious hunt is serious money, every time.
Should I drop my Mallard Bay listing?
Not necessarily. If the marketplace sends you hunters you wouldn't have found, that's discovery — use it. But point your repeat clients, your Google traffic, and your word-of-mouth at your own site, where nobody's fee schedule sits between you and the booking.
What does switching involve?
Send us the link to your current site — that's it. We build your whole site free from your real trips, photos, story, and reviews, and send you a link to approve. Old URLs get 301-redirected, so the search equity you've built carries over instead of 404-ing. The whole switch runs about a week, with roughly 15 minutes of your time in it.
Related: What an elk outfitter needs from a website · What a duck guide needs from a website · What switching actually involves
Your hunts. Your hunters. Your money — booked direct.
We build your whole site free and send you a link. Look it over. If the math doesn't move you, you've lost nothing.
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