Bunkhouse.
COMPARE

Bunkhouse vs. Sawyer

Polished for classes. A booking fee at your own checkout, and no resident-camp layer.

Registration software for children's activity businesses — classes, studios, and day programs — paired with a parent marketplace, now part of DaySmart.

Bunkhouse

$99/mo

No parent-side fees, ever. Waitlists, waivers, and deposits included at Starter.

Sawyer

$149/mo

Launch, plus 3% + $0.30 processing and a $1.99–$3.99 non-refundable booking fee charged to parents; 30% marketplace cut required.

Sawyer pricing and fees per hisawyer.com/for-business/pricing (Wayback captures May–Jul 2026) and help.hisawyer.com “Understanding Sawyer fees”, read 2026-08-23.

FEATURE BY FEATURE

Side by side

BunkhouseSawyer
Parent-side booking feeNone$1.99–$3.99 per order, non-refundable, charged to families at checkout
Health forms & med logHealth center in ProGeneric checkout form fields; no health module in their docs
Bunk assignmentIncludedNot part of the product
Marketplace requirementNo marketplace — your families are yoursEntry tier requires marketplace listing at a 30% revenue share
Waitlists, waivers, depositsIncluded at StarterNot in the Launch tier — Grow and above

Competitor claims are drawn from their own published pricing pages, fee schedules, help centers, and service terms, verified 2026-08-23. Tell us if something has changed.

THE HONEST ANSWER

Is Bunkhouse a good Sawyer alternative?

For a class business or drop-in studio that wants marketplace exposure, Sawyer's consumer booking is polished and the marketplace can bring in new families.

For a camp, two structural problems: families pay a booking fee at your own checkout that you cannot waive, and there is no resident-camp layer — no health forms, no bunks, no staff roles. Bunkhouse adds no parent-side fees, has no marketplace by design, and ships the operations layer.

SWITCHING

Switching from Sawyer

Our importer reads UltraCamp and CampMinder exports today. From Sawyer, export your families as CSV and talk to us — we'll be honest about what maps.

  • CSV households and campers, honestly scoped
  • Dry run before any write
  • Rollback on every import
WHERE SAWYER WINS

Where they're genuinely stronger

  • Polished consumer booking for classes and day programs, with a marketplace that can bring in new families
  • Published pricing and a self-serve trial
WHERE BUNKHOUSE WINS

The structural differences

  • No parent-side fees, ever — Sawyer charges families a $1.99–$3.99 non-refundable booking fee even on the provider's own website
  • No marketplace conflict: guardian accounts belong to your camp alone, while Sawyer family accounts span all Sawyer providers and the entry tier requires marketplace listing at a 30% cut
  • A resident-camp operations layer — health center, bunks, roles — that Sawyer's docs simply don't have
  • Waitlists, waivers, and deposits included at our entry tier; Sawyer gates them above Launch

Your families are yours

Register a family in the demo and notice what isn't on the receipt.