Small business owners looking for a scavenger hunt app face a choice between two leading platforms — PlayTours and Goosechase. Here's how they compare on the factors that actually matter for teams under 50 people.
Key differences: PlayTours is browser-based with drag-and-drop game building; Goosechase organisers author Experiences in Goosechase Studio in the browser (participants still join through the native Goosechase app).
How PlayTours does it: Log in from any browser at admin.playtours.app, pick a template from the demo games pre-loaded on your account, and customise chapters, tasks, and settings in minutes. The drag-and-drop interface lets you add task types — text, photo, QR scan, GPS check-in, multiple choice — without any coding. The unlimited free trial means you can build and test your entire game before committing a cent. PlayTours' game builder supports 30+ task types, reusable templates with cloning, and chapter-based progression that you configure visually. For a small business owner who may not have dedicated IT support, the ability to build a professional scavenger hunt during a lunch break on a laptop is a significant advantage.
How Goosechase does it: Goosechase organisers create and edit Experiences in Goosechase Studio, a browser-based console. After signing in from a desktop browser, you can lean on the AI mission generator and a library of 250+ pre-built templates. The free tier limits you to 3 teams and one live experience at a time, which works for testing but feels restrictive when you are evaluating the platform for real use. The workflow should feel familiar if you already use other web dashboards for email, CRM, or accounting.
Practical note: Both products give organisers a browser-based authoring environment on a laptop. The sharper divide for small teams is usually participant access: PlayTours players follow a link without an install, while Goosechase players use the mobile app. Fewer install steps for players typically improves show-up rates.
Key differences: PlayTours participants join via a link in their browser; Goosechase requires participants to download a native app, create accounts, and join via a code.
How PlayTours does it: Participants receive a link via email, Slack, WhatsApp, or QR code. They tap it, enter their name, and start playing — no app store visit, no account creation, no storage permissions. This works on any device with a browser: iPhone, Android, laptop, tablet. For small businesses where employees use a mix of company-issued and personal devices, this eliminates the "I cannot install apps on my work phone" objection entirely. The organiser simply shares the game link, and everyone joins in seconds regardless of their device type or willingness to install software.
How Goosechase does it: Participants must visit the App Store or Google Play, download the Goosechase app (20.75 MB on Android, requires iOS 15.0+ or Android 7.0+), create an account or join as a guest, and enter a unique join code. Each step introduces friction. For a team of 15 people, that is 15 app downloads, 15 sets of permissions to grant, and 15 potential points of failure — outdated OS versions, insufficient storage, or employees who simply do not want another app on their phone. Goosechase's own documentation confirms that "Experiences can only be played using the Goosechase App on an iOS or Android device," meaning there is no browser-based fallback.
Why this matters for small business: Participation rate is the single biggest determinant of a team building event's success. When every employee counts in a small team, losing even 2-3 people to app download friction can deflate the entire activity. Browser-based play removes this risk entirely and ensures that the person who forgot to install the app beforehand can still join in 10 seconds.
Key differences: PlayTours has a free tier and flat-rate device-based pricing; Goosechase uses per-experience pricing that scales with team size.
How PlayTours does it: PlayTours offers a free tier with 2 active devices for unlimited testing and building. Paid plans start at $35/month for 5 active devices (20 total devices per month), $79/month for 60 active devices (100 total per month), and $159/month for 120 active devices with unlimited total devices. All plans include every feature — there is no feature gating. A device counts as one screen regardless of how many people share it, so a team of 5 sharing one tablet counts as one device. For a small business with 15 employees, the $35/month plan covers everyone if they play in teams sharing devices, or the $79/month plan if everyone plays individually. You can also pause your subscription between events, so you only pay for months you actually run activities.
How Goosechase does it: Goosechase uses per-experience pricing. The Starter plan costs $399 per experience for up to 8 teams or individual participants. The Professional plan is $649 per experience for up to 20 teams. The Growth plan is $1,199 per experience for up to 35 teams. For a small business running quarterly team building events, that is $399-$649 per event — or $1,596-$2,596 per year for four events. Goosechase also offers subscriptions starting at $850/month ($9,999/year) for unlimited experiences, but that is priced for organisations running frequent, large-scale programs rather than small businesses. Capterra reviews note that Goosechase's "main pricing plans are per Experience, which may limit frequent use."
Cost comparison for a 15-person team running 4 events per year: PlayTours at $35/month = $420/year. Goosechase at $399/experience x 4 = $1,596/year. PlayTours saves the small business roughly 74% annually while offering more devices and unlimited testing between events.
Key differences: PlayTours offers reusable templates with cloning and 30+ task types; Goosechase has 250+ pre-built mission templates but more rigid customisation.
How PlayTours does it: Every game you build becomes a template you can clone for future events. The game builder supports 30+ task types including text, photo, video, audio, QR/barcode scan, GPS direction, GPS location (hidden), multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, word search, matching pairs, sort texts, scrambled phrase, image jigsaw, combination lock, crossword, and AI-judged photo tasks. You can mix GPS, QR, photo, and quiz tasks in any chapter, set chapter-based progression with point thresholds, add branching story mode, and customise branding, colours, and fonts via UI Mods. Games are reusable — clone last quarter's hunt, swap out a few tasks, update the chapter text, and you are ready to go in minutes. This is especially valuable for small businesses that want to build a library of reusable team building activities rather than starting from scratch each time.
How Goosechase does it: Goosechase offers 250+ pre-built Experience templates in their library, which is a strong starting point for organisers who want inspiration. Their mission types include photo/video proof, text response, GPS check-in, and multiple choice. The AI mission generator helps brainstorm tasks quickly based on your event goals. Customisation stays within Goosechase's mission-type model, which some teams experience as more structured than an open-ended task list. You can duplicate Missions and entire Experiences in Studio and edit those copies for the next run, so you are not limited to rerunning an unchanged game or rebuilding from scratch every time. The template library is excellent when you want a polished starting point; how far you want to iterate from that base depends on your internal game-design capacity.
Key differences: PlayTours supports GPS, QR, photo, video, and quiz tasks in a single game with chapter-based progression; Goosechase combines photo, video, text, GPS, and multiple-choice missions in one Experience, with GPS as one mission type among several.
How PlayTours does it: A single PlayTours game can mix in-person location tasks (GPS check-in, QR scan at stations) with remote-friendly tasks (photo challenges, trivia quizzes, video submissions) across different chapters. For hybrid teams, you can design a chapter for in-office players using QR codes placed around the building, and a separate chapter for remote players using photo and text tasks they can complete from home. The chapter-based progression system lets you set different point thresholds for different groups, and the browser-based access means remote participants join with zero friction. You can even use the shuffle chapters feature to ensure teams start at different points, preventing bottlenecks at popular stations.
How Goosechase does it: Goosechase positions itself as an interactive experience platform centred on mission-based engagement: photo, video, text, GPS check-ins, and quizzes can coexist in the same Experience. It especially shines when teams move between outdoor checkpoints and submit proof-of-completion missions along the way. For remote or hybrid scenarios, photo- and video-based missions keep people involved even when they are not on site. The native app requirement means participants face download friction whether they are in the room or dialling in remotely. Goosechase remains particularly strong for large in-person programs where live GPS tracking and real-time leaderboards drive energy. For small businesses that mostly run outdoor, checkpoint-driven hunts, Goosechase is a solid choice. For businesses that want every player on a single browser link across office, outdoor, and remote formats, PlayTours often keeps logistics simpler.
PlayTours wins on no-download ease, small-team pricing, and flexible game customisation — making it the best scavenger hunt app for small business owners who want maximum participation with minimum technical overhead. Goosechase wins on brand recognition, a larger template library (250+ pre-built experiences), and proven reliability at scale with 99.9% uptime and a 4.8 average rating from over 5,000 organisations.
Before choosing, ask yourself these three questions:
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