What Safari Portal does well — and why people look elsewhere
Safari Portal is a polished itinerary builder with proposals, a branded traveller app, CRM with e-sign forms, invoicing and insurance workflows. People go looking for alternatives for three reasons we hear: the per-user price ($299–$399+/month), the need for actual booking collection on their own website rather than proposals alone, and the need for African payment rails. Verified 2026-09-06.
The alternatives, honestly
Public pricing verified 2026-09-06 — see sources on each claim
| Platform | Best for | From | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safari Portal | DMC/agent itinerary selling + traveller apps | $299/mo (1 user) | Per-user scaling; platform fee on payments (rate unpublished) |
| Wetu | Multi-supplier itineraries from a trusted content network | $75/mo (1 user) | No payment collection advertised; per-user add-ons |
| TripMapper | Safari-forward itinerary + invoicing with Stripe | $99.99/mo (20 itineraries cap) | Stripe only; itinerary caps per plan |
| TourWriter | Luxury/bespoke DMCs with accounting integrations | from $99/user/mo + setup | Annual commitment; setup from $1,199; no safari/Africa claim |
| TravelBookingWidgets | Full booking system: planner widget, published packages, proposal variants, M-Pesa payments, documents, CRM | Free; paid from $25/mo flat | No branded traveller app; no OTA channel distribution; English only |
How to choose
- If your work is designing itineraries from many suppliers for travel-agent clients, Wetu’s content network or Safari Portal’s polish will serve you.
- If you need travellers to sign and pay inside the proposal flow and live on Stripe, TripMapper is the safari-named option priced between the extremes.
- If the gap you feel is that proposals don’t become paid bookings on your own website — especially with M-Pesa — that is exactly the job TravelBookingWidgets does.
- If you are a luxury DMC needing Xero/MYOB tie-ins, TourWriter’s accounting integrations are the differentiator.
Full disclosure: we build TravelBookingWidgets, and this page leans on our experience — but every competitor price and capability above was verified against their public pages on 2026-09-06, including their strengths. Where a competitor fits you better, we say so.