Compare bananadesk and bookingfish on pricing, features, platforms, and ratings — both Scheduling tools, Tiered subscription plans priced by hostel guest…
At a Glance
bananadesk
bookingfish
Primary category
Scheduling
Scheduling
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Tiered subscription plans priced by hostel guest capacity, from $35/mo (up to 10 guests) to $155/mo (80+ guests), with a discount for annual billing; 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Pay-as-you-go with an unlimited free trial: no fees until a confirmed booking. Standard plan is a flat $25 CAD per confirmed booking (auto-refunded on cancellation) plus Stripe fees (2.9% + $0.30). Unlimited annual packages per boat run from $149 (1 year) to $499 (5 years), paying only Stripe fees.
Starting price
$35/mo
Not documented
Free plan
Not documented
Not documented
Free trial
Yes
Yes
Platforms
Web
Not documented
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Not documented
Not documented
Public API
Not documented
Yes
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
bananadesk
No individual plan breakdown documented yet.
bookingfish
No individual plan breakdown documented yet.
Pros & Cons
bananadesk
Pros
Direct channel connections to Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia and Hostelworld with automatic availability/rate sync to reduce overbookings
Includes a built-in direct booking engine that can be run commission-free if the hostel handles its own payment collection
Drag-and-drop booking calendar plus per-guest account balances and 'extras' tracking (drinks, tours, rentals) in one screen
14-day free trial with no credit card required, plus a free assisted-transition option for switching from another system
Human, non-bot support with an emphasis on direct answers rather than tutorials or certification requirements
Cons
Pricing scales by guest capacity, so larger hostels (80+ guests) pay noticeably more per month than small properties
The commission-free booking engine requires the hostel to manually collect and confirm payments itself; using BananaDesk's Stripe-based checkout costs a 4% fee
Built specifically for hostels — the feature set (dorm/room-type booking, guest 'extras') is not positioned for hotels, vacation rentals, or other property types
No public information on API access, integrations beyond the four listed OTAs, or mobile app availability
bookingfish
Pros
Purpose-built for fishing guides and boat rentals, with vessel-specific calendars and half-day / full-day time slots that generic booking tools do not model out of the box.
Pay-as-you-go pricing with an unlimited free trial: no fees until you have a confirmed booking, and the $25 per-booking fee is auto-refunded if you refund a cancelled client.
Stripe Express payments go directly to the operator's bank account, so BookingFish never holds the funds.
Free, open-source (GPL v2) WordPress plugin embeds the booking calendar and gift certificates with a shortcode.
Fully bilingual (French/English) with data hosted in Canada, and a Sync-Cell ICS feed for mobile/offline calendars shared with guides.
Cons
Highly niche: designed around fishing guides and boat rentals, so it is not a fit for general appointment-based businesses.
Deepest integration story is with WordPress; operators on other website platforms rely mainly on shared booking links and embed codes.
On the standard plan a flat $25 fee applies per confirmed booking on top of Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30, which adds up for high-volume operators unless they buy an annual package.
Primarily oriented toward the Canadian market (built in Canada, CAD pricing), which may not suit operators elsewhere.