TourTools alternative for tour operators who sell tailor-made trips
TourTools is package and group tour reservation software for US and Canadian group operators, built on FileMaker with rooming lists and accounting exports. MeisterCRM is a cloud travel CRM for tour operators, DMCs and safari companies with a pricing engine at its core. The biggest difference: TourTools costs scheduled group tours in a back office with a setup project, while MeisterCRM prices tailor-made itineraries from supplier contracts in the browser with a free start. Here is how they compare.
The short answer
TourTools or MeisterCRM: which should you choose?
Choose TourTools if you sell scheduled group departures in the US or Canada, want travellers to book and pay online with multi-passenger checkout, card and ACH payments with QuickBooks connected, and deep customisation of screens and business rules. Choose MeisterCRM if you sell tailor-made trips: supplier contracts, park fees, room allocation and markup price the itinerary with the margin visible, every enquiry runs through a pipeline with WhatsApp and Gmail on the lead, proposals carry maps in 40+ languages, and you start free with no setup fees.
Price tailor-made trips as you build
TourTools costs group tours in a back office. MeisterCRM prices each itinerary from supplier contracts with park fees, rooms, age bands and markup per item.
A pipeline with WhatsApp
TourTools keeps contacts and prospects for marketing. MeisterCRM gives every enquiry a stage, owner, next task, and WhatsApp and Gmail on the lead.
Free start, nothing to install
TourTools quotes deployment and setup costs and bills the first year up front. MeisterCRM runs in the browser with a 3-day trial and free onboarding.
Choose TourTools if
- You sell scheduled group departures, such as school or faith-based tours, in the US or Canada.
- You want travellers to book and pay online, with multi-passenger checkout and payment plans.
- You want card and ACH payments through the same vendor, with QuickBooks connected.
- You want deep customisation of screens, database structure and business rules.
Choose MeisterCRM if
- You want every tailor-made trip priced from your own supplier contracts, park fees, room allocation and markup, with the margin visible before the quote goes out.
- You want a lead pipeline with stages, owners and tasks, web form capture with instant replies, and WhatsApp and Gmail on the lead.
- You want branded web and PDF proposals with interactive maps and content in more than 40 languages, where TourTools is English and US-only.
- You want to start for free: a 3-day free trial, free data onboarding, free training through your first month and no setup fees, with nothing to install.
Feature comparison
TourTools vs MeisterCRM, feature by feature
Fifteen features that decide whether a tour operator can sell, price and book a trip in one system, marked from TourTools's public website, help pages and pricing as of October 27, 2026, and from MeisterCRM's own product.
TourTools
3 / 15of the compared features included
6 partial · 6 not offered or not documented
MeisterCRM
15 / 15of the compared features included
What the marks mean
- Yes
- Documented on TourTools's website or help pages.
- Partial
- Limited, an add-on, a higher plan only, or through a third party.
- No
- Not offered, by TourTools's own description.
- Not documented
- Nothing found on TourTools's public website as of October 27, 2026.
When the price lives in a spreadsheet that one or two experienced agents understand, every quote depends on them. MeisterCRM keeps buying rates, validity dates, age bands, room rules, park fees, currencies and markup in the same record as the lead and the proposal, so any agent can quote from approved rates and a manager can review the margin before it goes out.
| Feature | TourTools |  MeisterCRM |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing engine | ||
| Supplier rate pricing engine | PartialSupplier and vendor records with costs; seasonal rate engine not described | YesSupplier contracts and 300+ accommodation products price each day as you build it |
| Markup and margin control | PartialTour costing and profit reports; markup per quote item not described | YesMarkup and VAT per item, with the margin of every quote before it goes out |
| Group, room and child pricing | YesBuilt for groups: rooming lists, room types and per-person pricing | YesAutomatic room allocation, age-band prices and park fees per person or per group |
| Multi-currency quoting | Not documentedMulti-currency quoting not described | Yes160+ currencies with daily rates: cost in one, quote in another |
| CRM and follow-up | ||
| Sales pipeline | PartialContact and prospect records with marketing lists; no visual pipeline | YesStage, owner, source, budget and next task on every enquiry |
| WhatsApp and email on the lead | Not documentedEmail merges; WhatsApp or shared inbox not described | YesReply on WhatsApp and Gmail from the lead itself |
| Web form capture and automations | PartialOnline booking and registration pages on the Online Enhancement add-on | YesWeb form leads with an instant reply and scheduled follow-up tasks |
| Proposals | ||
| Branded web and PDF proposals | PartialTour documents and itineraries; branded web proposals not described | YesWhite-label web and PDF proposals, even on your own subdomain |
| Interactive maps in proposals | Not documentedNot described on its website | YesRoute maps across 66 countries with parks and safari locations built in |
| Multi-language proposals | NoEnglish and US-only by its own description | YesMore than 40 languages, with AI translation |
| Bookings and money | ||
| Bookings, invoices and vouchers | YesReservations, invoices, confirmations and vendor documents | YesBooking with customer invoices, supplier requests and vouchers |
| Payments and profit per trip | YesPayments, deposits and tour profit and loss reporting | YesInstalments, overdue payments and planned against actual cost per booking |
| Getting started | ||
| Free trial | NoNo trial; demo on request | Yes3-day free trial |
| Free data onboarding and training | PartialTraining included in setup; deployment and setup costs vary | YesFree data onboarding and training sessions through your first month |
| No setup fees | NoDeployment and setup costs vary; first year paid up front | YesNone: only the monthly subscription |
| Who each one suits | ||
| Best for | US group tour operators that run coach, student and affinity group tours and want a FileMaker-based back office with rooming lists and accounting exports. | Tour operators, DMCs and safari companies that want sales, pricing and bookings in one system. |
Turn every enquiry into a next step
Website form leads get an instant reply and a scheduled follow-up task, and WhatsApp and Gmail conversations stay on the same lead.
- End-to-end AutomationFrom first enquiry to next action handled automatically.
- Instant ResponsesReply on WhatsApp and Gmail from one place.
- Stay AheadScheduled delays and task creation keep your pipeline moving.
- TriggerWebsite form submittedPlan your safari
- Create leadJoe Davis · New lead
- Send WhatsAppWelcome + suggested itineraryHi Joe! Here is a suggested itinerary for your 9 days in Tanzania.09:03
- Move stageProposal sent
- Smart delayWait 2 daysThen continue
- Create taskCall the client
Why teams switch
Why travel teams choose MeisterCRM over TourTools
A pricing engine for tailor-made trips
TourTools costs scheduled group tours with vendor records and profit reports. MeisterCRM prices each tailor-made itinerary from your contracts and 300+ accommodation products as you build it, with park fees per person or per group, automatic room allocation, age-band child prices and markup and VAT per item, and the margin visible before sending.
A CRM with WhatsApp on the lead
TourTools keeps contact and prospect records with marketing lists and email merges. MeisterCRM gives every enquiry a stage, owner, budget and next task, replies to web form leads instantly, and keeps the WhatsApp and Gmail conversation on the lead.
Proposals with maps, in 40+ languages
MeisterCRM sends branded web and PDF proposals with interactive route maps across 66 countries and content in more than 40 languages with AI translation. TourTools produces tour documents and itineraries, in English for the US market by its own description.
Free start instead of a setup project
TourTools bills the first year up front, says deployment and setup costs vary, and offers no trial. MeisterCRM runs in the browser with nothing to install, has a 3-day free trial, free data onboarding, free training through your first month and no setup fees.
Pricing
TourTools pricing compared with MeisterCRM
TourTools
TourTools publishes its prices: Back Office at US$375 a month for one user with the first year paid up front and US$45 per additional user, Cloud Server from US$450 a month and Online Enhancement at US$345 a month, as of October 2026. Deployment and setup costs vary, training is part of deployment, and no free trial is offered.
TourTools's published pricingtourtools.com
MeisterCRM
MeisterCRM has a 3-day free trial and no setup fees, only a monthly subscription. Data onboarding and training sessions through your first month are free, and a demo covers the current plans for your team size. Every plan includes the travel CRM, WhatsApp integration, the proposal builder and workflow automation.
Book a DemoSwitching
How to move from TourTools to MeisterCRM
Gather what you have
Collect your client list, open enquiries and current supplier rate sheets from TourTools and any spreadsheets beside it. Data onboarding is free, so the MeisterCRM team helps you bring it across.
Load your rates and best trips
Add your supplier contracts to the MeisterCRM catalog, where 300+ accommodation products are already available, and save your best-selling itineraries as templates.
Run new enquiries in MeisterCRM
Point your website form at MeisterCRM, connect WhatsApp and Gmail, and send the next proposal from the new pipeline while older trips finish where they are. Free training sessions through your first month get the team started fast.
How we compared
Sources for this comparison
We re-read TourTools's own homepage, feature and pricing pages and help centre where available, plus review-site listings, on 27 October 2026.
- TourTools homepage (links Instagram @tourtoolsonline) tourtools.com
- TourTools pricing tourtools.com
- Capterra listing and reviews capterra.co.uk
- G2 reviews g2.com
- TourTools: pricing tourtools.com
Checked on
FAQ
TourTools vs MeisterCRM: questions buyers ask
What are the best TourTools alternatives for tailor-made tour operators?
For tailor-made tour operators, MeisterCRM is a strong TourTools alternative that runs in the browser. It prices every itinerary from supplier contracts with park fees, room allocation and margin per item, runs enquiries through a pipeline with WhatsApp and Gmail on the lead, sends map-rich proposals in more than 40 languages, and starts free with no setup fees or installation.
TourTools vs MeisterCRM: what is the main difference?
TourTools is a US group-tour back office: reservations, rooming lists, invoices, payments and accounting exports for scheduled departures, deployed on FileMaker with setup costs that vary. MeisterCRM is a browser-based travel CRM with a pricing engine for tailor-made trips, markup and margin per item, WhatsApp and Gmail on the lead, map-rich proposals in 40+ languages, and a free start with no setup fees.
Does TourTools have a pricing engine?
Partly. TourTools keeps supplier and vendor records with costs and produces tour costing and profit reports for group departures, as of October 2026; a seasonal rate engine, markup per quote item, multi-currency quoting and a margin check per quote are not described on its website. In MeisterCRM the pricing engine is a core feature: your supplier contracts and 300+ accommodation products price each day of the itinerary, markup and VAT sit on every item, park fees, rooms and child prices calculate automatically, and you see cost, price and margin before the proposal leaves.
Does TourTools have a CRM?
Partly. TourTools keeps contact and prospect records with marketing lists and email merges; a visual sales pipeline with stages and tasks, web form capture with automations, and a WhatsApp or Gmail inbox are not described, as of October 2026. MeisterCRM gives every lead a stage, owner, source, budget and next action, captures web form enquiries with an instant reply and scheduled follow-ups, and keeps the WhatsApp and Gmail conversation on the lead record, so the whole team sees what happens next.
How much does TourTools cost?
As of October 2026, TourTools costs US$375 a month for Back Office with one user, with the first year paid up front and US$45 per additional user, plus Cloud Server from US$450 a month and Online Enhancement at US$345 a month. Deployment and setup costs vary, training is part of deployment, and no free trial is offered. MeisterCRM has a 3-day free trial, no setup fees and free data onboarding and training through your first month; a demo covers the current plans for your team size.
Does TourTools charge setup or onboarding fees?
Yes, on quote. TourTools states that deployment and setup costs vary and bills the first year of Back Office up front, with training included in deployment, as of October 2026. MeisterCRM has no setup fees, only the monthly subscription: data onboarding is free, training sessions through your first month are free, and you can start with a 3-day free trial.
Is MeisterCRM an online booking engine like TourTools Online?
No. MeisterCRM has no consumer checkout or card payment processing. Clients receive a branded proposal, and once they confirm it becomes a booking with customer invoices, instalments, supplier requests and vouchers, so you track every payment and the profit of each trip.
How do I switch from TourTools to MeisterCRM?
Most teams switch in a few weeks. Book a demo or start the 3-day free trial, then share your contacts, supplier contracts and rates, which are loaded and checked with you as part of the free data onboarding. Free training sessions through your first month get every agent quoting from the same rates, and no setup fee is charged, only the monthly subscription.
Last reviewed: MeisterCRM
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