Best Campsite Alert

Campsite alert services compared, with sources and dates

Which campsite alert service fits your trip?

Last edited

Disclosure: this site is published by OpenCampsite, one of the six services compared below. The tables list services in alphabetical order, use the same criteria for each, and cite each service's own pages as checked on November 9, 2026. How we handle the conflict.

A campsite alert service watches a sold-out campground for you and sends a message when a site that matches your dates shows up. That is the whole product. What separates the six services here is what they charge, how they reach you, how often they say they look, which parks they watch, and whether you or someone else makes the booking.

There is no overall winner on this page and no score. Start with the tables, then use the section after them to match a service to your trip.

Price

Facts checked

Service What is free What costs money
Arvie Searching and booking sites that are already open Cancellation scans need Arvie Pro ($74.50 a year after a 5-day trial) or a one-time 5-Scan Bundle ($29)
Campflare Everything Nothing; its site says the service is free and always will be, and that you cannot pay for earlier alerts
Campnab No free tier is listed on its pricing page Memberships at $10, $20 or $30 a month (3, 5 or 7 active scans), or single scans at $10, $15 or $20
OpenCampsite 3 trips at a time, up to 6 campgrounds each, during its beta Nothing is for sale yet; plans from $10 a month are announced for after the beta
Schnerp 10 email notifications and 1 active request Basic at $15 a month (3 requests) or Priority at $29 a month (7 requests)
Wandering Labs 3 requests, email only, paused every week Premium, a single $30 payment for a year

Alerts and booking

Service How it reaches you Check interval it states Who books
Arvie Text and email in its Alert Me mode 30 to 60 seconds in its FAQ; every 2 minutes on its homepage You, or Arvie's agents using your saved park login
Campflare Text, email, and notifications from its iPhone app About every 45 seconds, varying by campground You
Campnab Text, with email as an option 10 to 15 minutes on Good, 5 to 9 on Better, 1 to 4 on Awesome You
OpenCampsite Text, email or both on each alert, plus optional browser notifications About every 10 minutes on the free plan You
Schnerp Email on Free; text on Basic; WhatsApp and push on Priority Most parks every 1 to 5 minutes; Priority checks twice as often You
Wandering Labs Email on the free tier; text and browser notifications with Premium Every few minutes; Premium checks twice as often You

A stated interval is how often a service says it looks. None of these pages publishes measured delivery times, and we have not timed any of them.

Coverage

Service Countries it names What its own pages say
Arvie United States and Canada 4,700+ campgrounds. Names Recreation.gov, ReserveCalifornia, ReserveFlorida and ReserveAmerica plus "32 other" systems. No Canadian system is named.
Campflare United States All 50 state park systems and federal campgrounds on Recreation.gov. Its permit page listed 45 backcountry permits. Canada is not mentioned.
Campnab United States and Canada Recreation.gov, ReserveAmerica and many state parks. In Canada, national parks and parks in seven provinces are named in its FAQ.
OpenCampsite United States and Canada Recreation.gov campgrounds and permits, ReserveCalifornia, ReserveAmerica and several state systems. Parks Canada, Ontario Parks, BC Parks and other provincial systems.
Schnerp Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand Its request page counts 77 booking systems. Australia has the most with 34, then Canada with 20, the United States with 17 and New Zealand with 6.
Wandering Labs United States "Most (but not all)" public campgrounds in the United States. The full agency list is inside its request form.

Coverage lists change often. Before paying anyone, search for your exact campground on that service.

Match a service to your trip

You want free alerts in the United States. Campflare is free with no paid tier, states the shortest check interval of the free options, and has an iPhone app. It names no Canadian coverage.

You are camping in Canada. Campnab, OpenCampsite and Schnerp each name Parks Canada or Canadian national parks and several provincial systems. Arvie says it covers Canada without naming a system, so check your park there first.

You are camping in Australia or New Zealand. Of the six, only Schnerp lists booking systems in those countries.

You want someone else to make the booking. Only Arvie offers that. It requires saving your park account login with Arvie, which is a decision to make deliberately. See the Arvie review.

You want to pay once, not subscribe. Campnab sells single scans for $10 to $20. Wandering Labs Premium is one $30 payment. Arvie's 5-Scan Bundle is $29.

You want text alerts without paying. Campflare sends texts for free to US numbers. OpenCampsite includes text during its free beta. The free tiers at Schnerp and Wandering Labs are email only.

You want WhatsApp. Schnerp's Priority plan is the only one here that lists it.

You are watching many trips at once. Wandering Labs Premium advertises unlimited requests. Arvie Pro allows 20 active scans. Campnab's FAQ mentions memberships with up to 30 scans.

You need the fastest stated checks and will pay for them. Campnab's Awesome tier (1 to 4 minutes), Schnerp Priority and Arvie all state short intervals. OpenCampsite's free plan states the longest interval on this page, about 10 minutes.

What no alert service can promise

An alert tells you a site was open when the service looked. It does not hold the site. Another camper can book it before you finish reading the message, and several of these services say so in their own FAQs. Campnab states it gives no refund when a scan produces no alerts. Whichever service you pick, keep your reservation account logged in and your payment details ready.

How this page is kept honest

Every fact in the tables comes from the service's own website on the date shown at the top. Where a service's pages disagree with each other, we print both figures. Where a page does not state something, we say it is not stated. If you run one of these services and a fact here is wrong or out of date, email hey@opencampsite.com and we will correct it.

The six reviews

Questions buyers ask

Is there one best campsite alert service?
No. The six services differ on price, country, notification channel and whether anyone books for you. The right one is the one that watches your park, reaches you on a channel you check, and costs what the trip is worth to you.
Which campsite alert services are free?
Campflare is free with no paid tier. OpenCampsite is free during its beta. Schnerp and Wandering Labs have free tiers limited to email. Campnab lists no free tier, and Arvie's cancellation scans need its paid Pro plan or a paid scan bundle.
Do any of these services book the campsite for me?
Of the six, only Arvie says its agents will book in your own park account, using park login details you save with it. The other five send an alert and leave the booking to you.
Who publishes this comparison?
OpenCampsite, which is one of the six services listed. Services are shown in alphabetical order, every fact links to the service's own page, and the methodology page explains how the conflict is handled.

Sources for this page

  1. Arvie FAQs arvie.com
  2. Arvie homepage arvie.com
  3. Campflare homepage campflare.com
  4. How Campflare works campflare.com
  5. Campflare permit alerts campflare.com
  6. Campflare on the App Store apps.apple.com
  7. Campnab pricing campnab.com
  8. Campnab FAQs campnab.com
  9. Campnab park directory campnab.com
  10. OpenCampsite plans opencampsite.com
  11. OpenCampsite coverage opencampsite.com
  12. Schnerp pricing schnerp.com
  13. Schnerp FAQs schnerp.com
  14. Schnerp booking systems schnerp.com
  15. Wandering Labs FAQ wanderinglabs.com
  16. Wandering Labs Premium wanderinglabs.com