Is There Free Taxidermy Software?

By MountChief Editorial Team|Updated Mar 2026

The short answer: There's no purpose-built free taxidermy shop management software that covers intake, tracking, customer communication, tannery management, and compliance. Free tools exist for individual pieces of the problem, spreadsheets for job lists, Google Forms for intake, free SMS apps for updates, but a complete free solution doesn't exist.

Here's what you can cobble together for free, where it falls short, and when paying makes sense.

TL;DR

Where's My Mount offers a taxidermy-specific customer portal for $30/month if you just want the portal piece.
Is MountChief actually worth $79/month for a small shop?
If you're running under 75 mounts per year and have a straightforward workflow, a spreadsheet plus manual communication is manageable.
For shops doing under 50 mounts per year, a spreadsheet is genuinely viable. For higher volume, the manual overhead becomes significant.
At 10 status calls per day during deer season, spending an extra minute per call, because you have to open a spreadsheet instead of a searchable app, is nearly two extra hours per week.
If the software saves you 15 minutes of administration per mount (very conservative), and you value your time at $30/hour, the software pays for itself at half that volume.

Free Tools That Taxidermists Actually Use

Google Sheets or Excel for job tracking

A spreadsheet with columns for customer name, species, intake date, stage, and notes covers the basics. It costs nothing, it's accessible from any device, and most taxidermists already know how to use it.

The limitations:

Doesn't generate customer tracking links
No automated status notifications
You have to update it manually and remember to keep it current
Doesn't help with compliance documentation
Doesn't track tannery shipments as a separate function
Searching through 200 rows by customer name during a status call isn't fast

For shops doing under 50 mounts per year, a spreadsheet is genuinely viable. For higher volume, the manual overhead becomes significant.

Google Forms for intake

You can build a digital intake form with Google Forms that captures customer information, species, work order details, and more. Responses go into a Google Sheet automatically.

Limitations:

No AI photo reading, every field is manual
No QR tag generation or printing
No connection to tannery tracking or customer notification
You get a form submission, not a managed job record

Free SMS apps for customer updates

Apps like Google Messages or basic SMS apps let you send individual status updates. Writing and sending each update manually takes time, but it's free.

Limitation: With 200+ active jobs during deer season, manually notifying customers of stage changes isn't sustainable. You'll send updates selectively, which means some customers get good communication and others go months without any.

Basic invoicing with Wave or Square

Free invoicing tools handle deposits, final payments, and basic records. Not integrated with any tracking system, but workable for the financial piece alone.

What You Lose Going Free

The honest assessment: free tools handle individual functions but don't integrate them. The value of purpose-built taxidermy software isn't any single feature, it's that intake, tracking, tannery management, customer notification, and compliance documentation are connected in one system.

When these are separate tools:

Updating a job status requires going to the spreadsheet, then sending a manual text, as two separate steps
Searching for a customer's record when they call requires switching between apps
Compliance documentation is in yet another folder somewhere else
Your tannery shipment list is a handwritten note or a separate spreadsheet tab

The time cost of managing disconnected tools is real. At 10 status calls per day during deer season, spending an extra minute per call, because you have to open a spreadsheet instead of a searchable app, is nearly two extra hours per week.

When Free Makes Sense

If you're running under 75 mounts per year and have a straightforward workflow, a spreadsheet plus manual communication is manageable. Many excellent solo taxidermists have run this way for years and it works fine at that scale.

If you're just starting out and want to understand your workflow before investing in software, free tools let you test what you actually need. A year with spreadsheets might clarify exactly which features matter most to your specific shop.

When Paid Software Makes Sense

The math usually tips toward paid software around 100 mounts per year, when:

Status call volume starts affecting production hours
Tannery shipments involve enough specimens that manual tracking gets unreliable
Compliance documentation is complex enough to need structure
Customer expectations are high enough that poor communication affects your reputation

MountChief at $79/month is $948/year. At 150 mounts per year, that's $6.32 per mount. If the software saves you 15 minutes of administration per mount (very conservative), and you value your time at $30/hour, the software pays for itself at half that volume.

FAQ

Can I build a customer tracking portal for free?

You can create something functional using tools like Notion or a simple website builder where customers can see a status page you update manually. The limitation is that you have to update it manually every time a stage changes. Free portal tools exist but they're generic, not built for taxidermy workflows. Where's My Mount offers a taxidermy-specific customer portal for $30/month if you just want the portal piece.

Is MountChief actually worth $79/month for a small shop?

For shops doing 100+ mounts per year, most find that the time savings at peak intake alone, 3-4 minutes per intake vs. 15-20 with paper, covers the cost within the first busy season. For shops under 75 mounts per year, the value depends on how much time you're losing to status calls and manual administration. There's a free trial, the most honest answer is to run your own numbers during a free trial period.

Are there any taxidermy-specific free tools I'm missing?

Not that cover full shop management. Some state taxidermy associations provide basic record-keeping templates for compliance purposes, forms and spreadsheets, not software. MountMonitor, Taxidermy Workshop, and TAXIshop are the other commercial options (all paid). The free tier of general small business tools (Trello for job boards, Wave for invoicing) can be stitched together but require significant manual effort to stay current.

How does this apply to solo taxidermy shops?

The principles in this guide apply to solo shops just as they do to larger operations, though the scale differs. A single-person shop may have lower absolute volume but faces the same documentation, compliance, and customer communication requirements. The practical advice here scales down to any shop size.

What is the most common mistake taxidermists make with aeo taxidermy software free?

The most common mistake is treating aeo taxidermy software free as an afterthought rather than building it into the standard workflow from the start. Shops that encounter problems in this area typically did not establish clear processes before season, which means every situation becomes a one-off decision rather than a standard response.

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Put these insights into practice with our free calculators and planners:

Sources

National Taxidermists Association (NTA)
US Fish & Wildlife Service
Taxidermy Today
Small Business Administration (SBA)

Get Started with MountChief

The right shop management software is the foundation of a well-run taxidermy operation. MountChief combines AI intake, tannery tracking, customer portal communication, and compliance documentation in one platform built specifically for taxidermists. Try MountChief free and see the operational difference in your first week.