Where's My Mount Pricing 2026: Is $30/Mo Worth It for Portal-Only?
TL;DR Verdict: Where's My Mount does one thing, customer tracking portals. At around $30/month, the price looks reasonable until you realize you still need a separate system for intake, job tracking, invoicing, and compliance records. The actual cost of running Where's My Mount is $30/month plus whatever your second system costs. MountChief does everything in one platform at $79/month.
TL;DR
- At around $30/month, the price looks reasonable until you realize you still need a separate system for intake, job tracking, invoicing, and compliance records.
- The actual cost of running Where's My Mount is $30/month plus whatever your second system costs.
- MountChief does everything in one platform at $79/month.
- If you're doing 50-80 mounts per year and currently have no digital presence at all, a $30 portal might be a starting point.
- The most common mistake is treating wheres my mount pricing 2026 as an afterthought rather than building it into the standard workflow from the start.
- And you need another system to actually manage your shop, track jobs, log intake, manage tannery shipments, and generate invoices.
The Hidden Cost Problem with Portal-Only Software
Where's My Mount forces dual-system costs that exceed MountChief's all-in pricing. That's the real story here.
When you sign up for Where's My Mount, you get a client-facing portal where your customers can track their mount status. That's it. The portal is reasonably well-designed and customers generally find it easy to use. But the portal only shows information that you put into it. And you need another system to actually manage your shop, track jobs, log intake, manage tannery shipments, and generate invoices.
So the math looks like this:
- Where's My Mount: ~$30/month
- A separate intake and job tracking system: $X/month
- Your time manually syncing information between both systems: priceless (and not in a good way)
Shops using Where's My Mount consistently report spending time entering the same information in two places, once in their job management system and again in Where's My Mount so the portal shows updated status. That's not an efficient workflow.
What Does Where's My Mount Include for $30/Month?
Where's My Mount's core offering at its standard pricing tier includes:
| Feature | Included? |
|---|---|
| Customer tracking portal | Yes |
| Status update notifications to customers | Yes |
| Job intake forms | No |
| AI-assisted intake | No |
| Tannery shipment tracking | No |
| Invoicing and deposit tracking | No |
| Wildlife compliance records | No |
| QR tag generation | No |
| Mobile shop management | Limited |
| Customer communication tools beyond portal | No |
The portal works. Customers can check their mount status. That's what you're paying $30/month for. If you already have a complete shop management system and just want to add a customer-facing portal, Where's My Mount is a reasonable standalone add-on.
The problem is most shops that are evaluating customer portal software don't have a complete shop management system. They're looking for a solution to the whole problem, not one piece of it.
Where's My Mount vs. MountChief: Feature Comparison
| Feature | Where's My Mount | MountChief |
|---|---|---|
| Customer tracking portal | Yes | Yes |
| AI photo intake | No | Yes |
| Job tracking | No | Yes |
| Tannery tracking | No | Yes |
| Invoicing | No | Yes |
| Deposit management | No | Yes |
| Wildlife compliance records | No | Yes |
| QR tag system | No | Yes |
| SMS customer updates | No | Yes |
| Mobile access | Partial | Full |
| Monthly price | ~$30 | $79 |
The math becomes clearer when you consider what a second system costs. Even a basic job tracking spreadsheet costs time. A purpose-built intake system costs money. Add them together and you're paying more than $79/month for less functionality.
What Shops Say About Where's My Mount
The Setup Experience
Where's My Mount is generally easy to set up from the portal side. Getting your customers connected and able to track their mounts is straightforward. The issue isn't the portal itself. It's everything that surrounds it.
Taxidermists who've used Where's My Mount note that the manual status update process (where they have to log into the portal and change status for each job) becomes a chore when you have 100+ active jobs. Automated status updates triggered by workflow stage (intake → tanning → production → finishing → ready for pickup) are a core feature of MountChief that Where's My Mount doesn't offer.
The Two-System Problem
The most common complaint about Where's My Mount isn't the portal. It's the reality of maintaining two systems. You do your actual shop management somewhere, and then you manually mirror status into Where's My Mount so the customer sees it.
Every minute spent on data entry between systems is a minute not spent on production work.
Who Should Use Where's My Mount?
Where's My Mount makes the most sense for:
Shops with an existing, working job management system they love and just need a portal add-on. If you have a complete shop management setup that handles intake, tannery tracking, invoicing, and compliance (and you just want a customer-facing portal layer on top) $30/month for Where's My Mount is defensible.
Very small shops with minimal job volume. If you're doing 50-80 mounts per year and currently have no digital presence at all, a $30 portal might be a starting point. But you'll outgrow the two-system approach quickly.
Shops actively evaluating options and testing portal value. Want to see if your customers actually use a portal before committing to a full platform? Where's My Mount lets you test the concept affordably. Most shops that test portals find that customers love them, which often leads them to upgrade to a full system anyway.
Who Should Use MountChief Instead?
MountChief's customer portal is built into a complete shop management platform. The portal automatically updates when you move a job through workflow stages. You don't manually update two systems. MountChief also handles shop management software needs including intake, tannery tracking, invoicing, and compliance.
MountChief makes sense for:
- Any shop with more than 100 annual mounts looking for a complete solution
- Shops currently running two systems (any combination of job tracker + portal)
- Shops that want AI-assisted intake speed during peak season
- Operations where tannery tracking is a real pain point
The Real Pricing Question: Total System Cost
When evaluating Where's My Mount pricing, ask yourself what your total monthly software spend is for running your shop. If it's more than $79/month across multiple tools (or if it's zero and you're running on paper) the comparison isn't Where's My Mount vs. nothing. It's Where's My Mount plus a second system vs. MountChief's all-in platform.
Most shops that do that math honestly find the two-system approach costs more in time and money than a single integrated platform.
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FAQ
What does Where's My Mount include for $30 per month?
At approximately $30/month, Where's My Mount provides a customer-facing tracking portal where clients can check their mount status online. It does not include job intake tools, AI intake assistance, tannery tracking, invoicing, compliance record-keeping, QR tag generation, or automated workflow-triggered status updates. You'll still need a separate system to actually manage your shop's operations.
Can I use Where's My Mount without other taxidermy software?
Technically yes, but practically it creates problems. Where's My Mount shows customers what you manually enter into the portal. Without a separate system for intake, job tracking, and invoicing, you'll be managing your shop on paper or a spreadsheet and manually entering status updates into the portal. This works for very small operations, but it creates a double-entry burden that costs real time once you're handling meaningful volume.
What are the hidden costs of using Where's My Mount?
The most significant hidden cost is the time required to maintain two systems. Your actual shop management workflow and the portal where customers check status. Any time spent manually syncing between systems is direct labor cost. There's also the cost of whatever second system you're using for job management. Add Where's My Mount's $30/month to your other tool costs and compare that total to MountChief's $79/month all-in price. For most shops, the integrated platform is less expensive when total system cost is calculated honestly.
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 wheres my mount pricing 2026?
The most common mistake is treating wheres my mount pricing 2026 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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Sources
- National Taxidermists Association (NTA)
- US Fish & Wildlife Service
Get Started with MountChief
If you are evaluating taxidermy software options, the right test is to run actual intake through each platform and measure the difference. MountChief is $79 per month with all features included and setup takes hours, not days. Try MountChief free and compare it directly against whatever you are using now.
