THE FISHINGBOOKER ALTERNATIVE
Keep the listing. Own everything else.
FishingBooker is genuinely good at one thing we don't do at all: putting you in front of strangers. Keep it for that. The regular who'd have called you anyway, the buddy your client referred, the guy who Googled your name — those you already earned, and they deserve a place of your own to land: your domain, your client list, your account. That's what this is, for $19 a month.
FishingBooker works as a marketplace. You set a commission between 10% and 30% when you list, and in their own words it's "the fee that you pay to FishingBooker for every successful trip that comes through our site." For a first-time customer who found you there, that's fair: a finder's fee for a stranger.
Give them their due on the rest, too. FishingBooker Direct and Invite to Book let you re-book a past customer commission-free, and turn a phone call into a booking, for a 2.65% + $0.30 processing fee you can pass to the customer. So no — your regulars don't pay the commission again, and we'd rather say that plainly than argue with a FishingBooker that no longer exists. What's worth reading carefully is what Direct is: a booking page that mirrors your listing, on their platform, under their account, for US captains with Online Payments switched on. Their bypass policy says it outright — Direct is "fully connected to and dependent on the status of your FishingBooker account." Lose visibility on the listing and you lose the page your regulars book through.
Here's the honest split. Keep the listing for the strangers it finds you, at whatever commission you've set. The trips that come through it carry that cut — including the regular who searched your name and landed on your profile instead of on a site you own. Timber & Tackle is $19 a month, flat, and takes nothing from any booking. Three trips a year booked on your own site instead of through the listing covers the whole subscription.
Timber & Tackle isn't a marketplace and takes no commission — ever. You get your own booking site on your own domain, one flat monthly fee, and every client's details in a list you can export and walk out with. Run both. The listing does the introducing; the site you own does everything after.
Keep the listing for the strangers it finds you. Own the place your regulars come back to.
FishingBooker vs. Timber & Tackle
Commission, Direct and bypass-policy facts are quoted from FishingBooker's own help centre, read in full on August 29, 2026.
Commission on a trip through the listing
- FishingBooker
- Captain-set 10–30% — it doubles as the deposit
- Timber & Tackle
- $0 — flat fee only
Re-booking your own past customer
- FishingBooker
- Commission-free via Direct, 2.65% + $0.30 processing — on their platform
- Timber & Tackle
- Free — on your site, your client
A phone call becomes a booking
- FishingBooker
- Invite to Book — same fee, same platform
- Timber & Tackle
- Record it in one tap; nothing to us
Where the booking page lives
- FishingBooker
- Their domain, mirroring your listing
- Timber & Tackle
- Your domain
If the listing is restricted or removed
- FishingBooker
- Direct goes with it — their policy says so
- Timber & Tackle
- Nothing changes; it's your site
Who holds the client list
- FishingBooker
- Their account
- Timber & Tackle
- Yours — one-click full export, anytime
Sending a platform inquiry to your own site
- FishingBooker
- Against their bypass policy
- Timber & Tackle
- Anyone who finds you off-platform is yours from trip one
| FishingBooker | Timber & Tackle | |
|---|---|---|
| Commission on a trip through the listing | Captain-set 10–30% — it doubles as the deposit | $0 — flat fee only |
| Re-booking your own past customer | Commission-free via Direct, 2.65% + $0.30 processing — on their platform | Free — on your site, your client |
| A phone call becomes a booking | Invite to Book — same fee, same platform | Record it in one tap; nothing to us |
| Where the booking page lives | Their domain, mirroring your listing | Your domain |
| If the listing is restricted or removed | Direct goes with it — their policy says so | Nothing changes; it's your site |
| Who holds the client list | Their account | Yours — one-click full export, anytime |
| Sending a platform inquiry to your own site | Against their bypass policy | Anyone who finds you off-platform is yours from trip one |
Zero commission
One flat monthly fee, no per-trip cut, no processing fee of ours. Your Stripe account's card fee is the only per-transaction cost, and it goes to Stripe.
The client is yours
Their contact details land in your dashboard, on your account. Email them, call them, re-book them — no policy says you can't, because it's your site.
Run both, own the second half
Keep the marketplace listing for new discovery. Send your regulars, referrals and name searches to a site you own. Watch where the money actually comes from.
ALREADY ON DIRECT?
What the subscription buys that Direct doesn't.
Direct settles the money on your own customers, and credit where it's due. It doesn't give you a site, a domain, or a list you hold. Every item below is live today — $19/mo after your first accepted booking, nothing before.
A domain you own
yourguideservice.com, not a booking page on theirs. Bring one or start on a free subdomain; it's yours if you leave.
One-click full export
Clients, bookings, trips, payments and photos as a ZIP — day one or the day you go. No support ticket.
Trip intake
Per-trip questions plus a what-to-bring, where-to-meet sheet, so nobody shows up unready.
Trip recaps
Their photos on a branded page with a one-tap book-again button.
Gift cards
Branded certificates sold from your site, redeemed against a booking, money to your account.
Review requests
A private link after every completed trip, and your real Google reviews on your own site.
Booked by phone
Record a cash or phone booking in one tap: it blocks the date, files the client on a list you own, and sends the confirmation.
Calendar sync
Two-way iCal with FishingBooker and Google Calendar — book anywhere, blocked everywhere.
Do the math on your own trips.
Not what you'd save by quitting — what the cut costs on the trips that come through the listing that you'd have booked anyway: the regular who found your profile instead of a site of your own, the referral, the name search. Put in those trips, your average price, and the commission you're set to.
What are you on now?
Keep it for the strangers it finds you. This is about the trips you book yourself.
50 trips= $28,650 a year
FishingBooker at 15%
$4,298
Timber & Tackle flat
$190
$4,108 of that stays with you a year.
Same trips, same clients — booked on your own site instead of through a cut. Keep your listing for the strangers it brings.
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 that comes through the listing. FishingBooker Direct re-books your own past customers and phone callers commission-free for 2.65% + $0.30 processing, on their platform — so count only the trips that still run through the listing. We assume those same trips book on your own site instead.
Straight answers.
Does Timber & Tackle take a commission like FishingBooker?
No — never. Trip money goes from the client straight to your own Stripe account. Our only revenue is the flat monthly subscription. There is no per-booking cut.
Should I quit FishingBooker to use Timber & Tackle?
No, and we'd tell you not to. Keep the listing as long as it sends you strangers — that's the one thing we don't do. Use Timber & Tackle for everything you already own: regulars, referrals, name searches, phone calls. Run both; they don't fight.
Don't my regulars pay the commission again?
Not if you use FishingBooker Direct. Direct and Invite to Book re-book a past customer, or turn a phone call into a booking, commission-free for a 2.65% + $0.30 processing fee you can pass to the customer. The commission is for trips that come through the listing. Our argument was never the fee on your regulars; it's whose platform they're standing on when they book.
So what's the problem with FishingBooker Direct?
Nothing, as a tool — it's fair to your regulars. It's also, in FishingBooker's words, "a specialized booking page that mirrors your listings on FishingBooker": their domain, their account, US residents only, and it needs Online Payments on at least one public listing. Their bypass policy says any restriction on your account directly affects your access to Direct. Timber & Tackle is a site and a list you hold outright, that nobody can switch off.
Isn't FishingBooker's commission set by the captain?
Yes — you choose a rate between 10% and 30%, and it doubles as the deposit. Their ranking docs say a higher commission can give your listing a boost, so a lower rate can cost you placement. Either way it's a recurring cut on every trip that comes through the listing.
How hard is it to switch?
You don't build anything. Send us your trips or your existing website and we build your whole booking site for free, then send you a link to approve. Setup is a phone call and a tap.
Related: Do you need your own website? · How to get more direct bookings · FishingBooker's commission, explained
Your clients. 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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