Hipcamp, Pitchup and Nearly Wild Camping: what landowners pay
Each figure is the platform's own published rate, linked, as it stood on 2 October 2026.
| Platform | How it works | What you pay | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hipcamp | Booking site. Free to list. | 12.5% plus VAT on what you earn. Guests pay their own booking fee on top. Card processing (Stripe) adds about 1.4% plus 20p. | support.hipcamp.com |
| Pitchup.com | Booking site acting as agent. The contract is between you and the guest. | 15% commission on bookings Pitchup brings you, 2.5% of it reclaimable if you are VAT registered. No listing, joining or support fees. | pitchup.com |
| Nearly Wild Camping | A co-operative you join. Guests book and pay you direct. | No commission. A membership fee of about £20 to £24 a year, and members hold a share in the co-operative. | nearlywildcamping.org |
| Club Certificated Sites and Locations | The Camping and Caravanning Club and the Caravan and Motorhome Club schemes. | No commission. You set the price and keep it, and renew the certificate each year. | campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk |
How big each one is in the UK
- Hipcamp came to the UK in May 2022 when it bought Cool Camping, which had about 25,000 listings. It was still running UK awards and partnerships in November 2025. Source: Businesswire, 11 May 2022.
- Pitchup.com lists about 2,000 UK campsites. About 700 are working farms, and about 400 of those are pop-ups. Source: Farmers Guide.
- Nearly Wild Camping lists more than 300 places in the UK and Ireland in 2026, up from about 49 a few years ago. Source: nearlywildcamping.org.
What sites have earned, according to Pitchup
Pitchup says its basic pop-up sites take about £13,000 a season on average. It names a 2.5-hectare field at Stitchpool in Devon that opened for 28 days with 30 pitches, took £12,000 and kept £9,500 after the 15% commission and other costs.
Its top examples are much bigger: a Welsh working farm at £215,000 in a season, a Cumbrian farm at £124,000 in a year, and a Pembrokeshire site at over £340,000 in 2021. Those are Pitchup's best cases, not what a typical site makes.
Sources: The Scottish Farmer, reporting Pitchup.com data, and Farmers Weekly on Stitchpool. Checked 2 October 2026.
Choosing
Hipcamp and Pitchup take 12.5% to 15% and send you guests you wouldn't otherwise get. Nearly Wild Camping and the club schemes cost a small yearly fee or nothing, but you rely on their members or your own marketing for bookings. A listing here sits alongside any of them.