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Travel · head to head

Apaleo vs Hostfully

Apaleo logo

Apaleo

Travel

API-first hotel property management platform sold per room with a monthly floor

From
€8/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Hostfully logo

Hostfully

Travel

Vacation rental property management platform with per-property pricing and digital guidebooks

From
$15/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Apaleo the €400 monthly floor means a property under fifty rooms pays well above the headline €8 per room, so a twenty five room hotel pays €16 per room and the advertised rate is misleading at the small end.; Hostfully the advertised per property price excludes a platform fee that is not published anywhere on the pricing page, so no listed figure is a real monthly cost until sales quotes it.
  • They diverge on capability: Apaleo covers Open REST API, Hostfully covers Channel management.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Apaleo and Hostfully actually diverge.

Attributes where Apaleo and Hostfully differ
AttributeApaleoHostfully
Starting price€8/month$15/month
Pricing modelPer room per monthPer property per month
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, iOS, Android

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Travel).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Apaleo

  • Open REST API
  • Apaleo Store
  • Multi-property inventory
  • Apaleo Pay
  • Unit group model
  • Night audit and accounting export

Only in Hostfully

  • Channel management
  • Digital Guidebooks
  • Owner portal
  • Direct booking engine
  • Unified inbox
  • Pipeline and lead management

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Apaleo

  • A serviced apartment group building its own branded check-in and access flow that needs full PMS control through an API rather than a vendor-built kiosknot Hostfully
  • A European hotel group standardising twenty properties on one system with central rate management and DATEV-ready accounting exportsnot Hostfully
  • A new-build lifestyle hotel operating with no permanent front desk, where door locks, kiosks and messaging come from specialists and the PMS is the record of truthnot Hostfully
  • A revenue team that wants to plug Duetto or IDeaS into live inventory without paying a per-connection interface feenot Hostfully

Hostfully

  • A manager with thirty units who wants channel sync, an owner portal and a direct booking site under one subscriptionnot Apaleo
  • A host who only wants professional check-in and local recommendation guidebooks and will buy Digital Guidebooks without the PMSnot Apaleo
  • An operator pushing guests towards direct bookings who needs the Pro tier because the Growth tier taxes exactly that revenuenot Apaleo
  • A property manager onboarding third-party owners who need visible reporting on their own unitsnot Apaleo

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Apaleo

  • The €400 monthly floor means a property under fifty rooms pays well above the headline €8 per room, so a twenty five room hotel pays €16 per room and the advertised rate is misleading at the small end.
  • Apaleo ships no point of sale, no spa or golf module and no conference and banqueting system, so full service hotels must buy and integrate three or four more products before the stack is complete.
  • Because the model assumes you assemble the guest-facing layer from the Store, the real monthly cost is the platform fee plus several third-party subscriptions, and that total is nowhere on the pricing page.
  • Support and documentation lean towards developers, so an operator without technical capacity or an implementation partner will find configuration and troubleshooting harder than with a conventional PMS.
  • The product and integration ecosystem is strongest in German-speaking Europe, and North American buyers will find fewer local integrations for payments, tax rules and accounting than a US-focused PMS offers.

Hostfully

  • The advertised per property price excludes a platform fee that is not published anywhere on the pricing page, so no listed figure is a real monthly cost until sales quotes it.
  • The Growth tier charges 1% on payments and 0.85% on direct bookings, so the operators most focused on direct revenue are penalised on the cheaper plan and effectively forced to Pro.
  • Pricing is per property, so a portfolio of small low-revenue units pays the same per listing as high-revenue ones and studio-heavy portfolios carry a disproportionate cost.
  • Accounting is lighter than manager-grade competitors, with no full trust accounting, so client fund segregation has to be handled outside the platform.
  • Digital Guidebooks are sold and priced separately from the PMS, so the product Hostfully is best known for is an additional line on the invoice rather than part of the subscription.

Pricing, plan by plan

Apaleo

€8/month
  • Apaleo Platform$8/month
    • €8 per room per month
    • Minimum €400 per month regardless of room count
    • All APIs included at no extra cost

Hostfully

$15/month
  • Growth$15/month
    • 1 to 50 listings
    • $15 per property per month plus a platform fee
    • 1% payment gateway fee
  • Pro$25/month
    • 1 to 199 listings
    • $25 per property per month plus a platform fee
    • No payment gateway fee
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • 200 or more listings
    • Custom volume pricing plus a platform fee
    • Priority support

Which should you pick?

Choose Apaleo if

  • You need open rest api.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want apaleo store.
Apaleo review

Choose Hostfully if

  • You need channel management.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want digital guidebooks.
Hostfully review

Questions people ask

Is Apaleo or Hostfully better?
Neither clearly leads. Apaleo starts at €8/month and Hostfully at $15/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Apaleo or Hostfully?
Apaleo starts at €8/month and Hostfully at $15/month.
Does Apaleo or Hostfully run on more platforms?
Apaleo runs on Web, API. Hostfully runs on Web, iOS, Android.
What is Apaleo best used for?
Apaleo is most often used for a serviced apartment group building its own branded check-in and access flow that needs full pms control through an api rather than a vendor-built kiosk, a european hotel group standardising twenty properties on one system with central rate management and datev-ready accounting exports, a new-build lifestyle hotel operating with no permanent front desk, where door locks, kiosks and messaging come from specialists and the pms is the record of truth, a revenue team that wants to plug duetto or ideas into live inventory without paying a per-connection interface fee. Of those, a serviced apartment group building its own branded check-in and access flow that needs full pms control through an api rather than a vendor-built kiosk and a european hotel group standardising twenty properties on one system with central rate management and datev-ready accounting exports are not what Hostfully is typically brought in for.
What can Apaleo do that Hostfully cannot?
Apaleo covers Open REST API, Apaleo Store, Multi-property inventory, Apaleo Pay. Hostfully covers Channel management, Digital Guidebooks, Owner portal, Direct booking engine.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Apaleo: What does Apaleo actually cost for a sixty room hotel?

€480 per month for the platform at €8 per room, plus payment processing from 0.6% and whatever Store integrations you add. Below fifty rooms you pay the €400 floor.

Hostfully: What is the platform fee?

Hostfully does not publish it. Ask for the total monthly figure for your listing count in writing before comparing plans.

Apaleo: Is API access charged separately?

No. All APIs are included in the per room fee, which is unusual in the PMS market where interface fees per connection are common.

Hostfully: Which tier is cheaper in practice?

Pro, for anyone with real direct booking volume. Growth is $10 less per property but adds 1% on payments and 0.85% on direct bookings.

Apaleo: Does it include a channel manager?

No. You connect one from the Store, such as SiteMinder, and pay that vendor separately.

Hostfully: Can I buy guidebooks alone?

Yes. Digital Guidebooks are priced separately and are commonly bought without the PMS.

Apaleo: Can it run a full service hotel?

Only with additional systems. There is no native POS, spa or events module.

Hostfully: Is there a minimum property count?

No stated minimum, but per property pricing plus a platform fee makes it uneconomic for one or two units.

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