Whitewatr vs Checkfront: 2% instead of 3%, and no monthly fee
Checkfront is a general booking platform at $99 a month plus 3% of online bookings. Whitewatr is built for river outfitters, with no monthly fee and 2% of online bookings plus Stripe's standard processing.
Pricing checked September 2026.
Booking tools are opening to outfitters by invitation while we set each one up personally. Claiming your listing is free.
What a $100 booking costs on each
Someone pays the platform's fee on every booking. You absorb it or build it into your price, and that's your call on any platform. What differs is the size of the fee. Here it is on a $100 online booking, before card processing, which every platform charges.
No fee on offline bookings.
Nothing on cash or check, and no monthly fee.
Tools made for river days
User-day and fee reports for your land-agency permits. Group waiver links with minimum-age checks and reminders for guests who haven't signed. A daily manifest with headcounts, waiver status and balances. A guide roster with certifications, and a check that enough boats and vans are free for each new departure.
Pricing side by side
| Whitewatr | Checkfront | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | $0 | $99 |
| Platform fee | 2% of online bookings | 3% of online bookings |
| Who pays it | Taken from each online payment | You, or passed to guests at your choice |
| Card processing | Stripe's standard rate | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Offline bookings | No fee on cash or check you record | No fee |
| Setup fee | $0 | $0 |
| Platform fees on $500K online | $10,000 | $16,188 |
Switching before next season
The offseason is the time to switch. Import your trips from a screenshot, a spreadsheet or a pasted list, and we'll import your booking history for you. We set up each outfitter personally, so you're not migrating alone.
Worth knowing
One plan, $99 a month
Checkfront publishes one plan: $99 a month plus 3% of online bookings, with no setup fee and no fee on offline bookings. The monthly fee alone is $1,188 a year.
Built for many kinds of business
Checkfront serves rentals, tours, lodging and more. Whitewatr is built for river outfitters: group waivers, permit reporting and a directory of rafting outfitters.
What Whitewatr includes
Everything below is live today. The roadmap is listed separately so you know exactly what you're getting.
Online booking
Guests pick a trip and departure and pay online. Capacity updates as bookings come in. Take full payment or a deposit, with the balance paid later.
Digital waivers
Individual and group signing links, minimum-age checks, email verification and an audit trail. Guests who haven't signed get a reminder.
Manifest and check-in
A run sheet for each day with headcounts, waiver status and balances. Check guests in and export to CSV.
Walk-ins and phone bookings
Record bookings taken in person or by phone, including cash and check. No Whitewatr fee on payments you collect yourself.
Guest emails
Booking confirmation, pre-trip details 48 hours out, waiver and balance-due reminders, and a review request after the trip.
Departure cancellations
Cancel a departure and every guest on it gets an email with a link to rebook on another date or request a refund.
Groups, contracts and invoices
Group quotes with agreements and deposits, contracts with e-signature, and invoices your customers pay online.
Guides
A guide roster with certifications, a personal schedule link for each guide, and payroll tracking by departure or by guest.
Boats and vehicles
Track your boats, vans and gear. A new departure checks that enough of each is free at that time.
Permit reporting
Assign trips to a land-agency permit, generate user-day and fee reports for the period, and export them to CSV.
Gift cards and promo codes
Sell gift cards that redeem against bookings, and run promo codes for your own campaigns.
Your listing and your website
Your Whitewatr listing gets a Book Now button, and a booking widget embeds on your own site.
On the roadmap
- Automatic guide assignment by certification and hours
- Guide-to-guest ratio enforcement
- Rafts, duckies and kayaks in a single booking
- One-click weather cancellation for a whole day, with automatic refunds
- Text-message and weather-aware reminders
- Stored PDF copies of signed waivers
- Full booking and customer export, and an API
- OTA distribution, point of sale and dynamic pricing
Competitor pricing comes from each company's published pricing or terms, a checkout we observed, or a third-party report labeled as reported, checked September 2026. Where a company doesn't publish a rate, we say so. Sources: Checkfront pricing, Stripe pricing.
Drop the monthly fee
On $500K of online bookings, Checkfront's $99 a month plus 3% comes to $16,188. Whitewatr's 2% comes to $10,000, plus Stripe's standard processing, with no monthly fee. You also get permit reporting, group waivers and your listing in Whitewatr's directory of rafting outfitters.
Booking tools are opening to outfitters by invitation while we set each one up personally. Claiming your listing is free.