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Travel · head to head

Hostfully vs Smoobu

Hostfully logo

Hostfully

Travel

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

From
$15/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Smoobu logo

Smoobu

Travel

All-in-one channel manager and PMS for hosts with a handful of holiday rentals

From
€29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Smoobu the Flex plan carries a 0.9% fee on every booking, which on an apartment turning over €40,000 a year costs more than the entire annual subscription saving, and the pricing page presents Flex as the cheaper option.
  • They diverge on capability: Hostfully covers Channel management, Smoobu covers Channel manager.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Hostfully and Smoobu actually diverge.

Attributes where Hostfully and Smoobu differ
AttributeHostfullySmoobu
Starting price$15/month€29/month
Pricing modelPer property per monthPer unit per month

Identical on both: free tier (No), platforms (Web, iOS, Android), 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 Hostfully

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

Only in Smoobu

  • Channel manager
  • Website builder
  • Guest messaging
  • Unified calendar
  • Invoicing and e-invoicing
  • Mobile apps

What people use each for

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

Hostfully

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

Smoobu

  • A host with three apartments in Berlin who needs Airbnb and Booking.com calendars kept in sync and wants a direct booking site to cut OTA commissionnot Hostfully
  • An owner wanting automated check-in instructions and pre-arrival messages sent per channel without logging into each extranetnot Hostfully
  • A small manager who needs guest invoices that meet German documentation requirements without adding a separate accounting toolnot Hostfully
  • A host testing dynamic pricing through the bundled trial before deciding whether to subscribe to PriceLabs separatelynot Hostfully

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Smoobu

  • The Flex plan carries a 0.9% fee on every booking, which on an apartment turning over €40,000 a year costs more than the entire annual subscription saving, and the pricing page presents Flex as the cheaper option.
  • Pricing is per unit, so a ten unit portfolio pays roughly €31.50 plus nine additional units at about €9.60, and the headline monthly figure covers a single apartment only.
  • Write access is charged per account beyond the included seats, so a cleaner, a co-host and an owner all needing to edit bookings turn into a recurring per seat cost.
  • There is no trust accounting or owner statement generation, so anyone managing units on behalf of third-party owners has to build payout reporting outside the system.
  • Housekeeping and maintenance dispatch is minimal compared with manager-grade platforms, so cleaning coordination happens in WhatsApp or a separate tool once you are past a few units.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Smoobu

€29/month
  • Professional Flex$29/month
    • One unit included
    • 0.9% fee on every booking
    • Channel manager, website builder, messaging
  • Professional Prepaid$31.5/month
    • One unit included
    • No booking fee
    • Website builder, invoicing, chatbot, API access
  • Teams Pro+$49.5/month
    • Everything in Prepaid
    • E-invoicing
    • Two write-access accounts, extra accounts from about €12 each

Which should you pick?

Choose Hostfully if

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

Choose Smoobu if

  • You need channel manager.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want website builder.
Smoobu review

Questions people ask

Is Hostfully or Smoobu better?
Neither clearly leads. Hostfully starts at $15/month and Smoobu at €29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Hostfully or Smoobu?
Hostfully starts at $15/month and Smoobu at €29/month.
Does Hostfully or Smoobu run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Hostfully best used for?
Hostfully is most often used for a manager with thirty units who wants channel sync, an owner portal and a direct booking site under one subscription, a host who only wants professional check-in and local recommendation guidebooks and will buy digital guidebooks without the pms, an operator pushing guests towards direct bookings who needs the pro tier because the growth tier taxes exactly that revenue, a property manager onboarding third-party owners who need visible reporting on their own units. Of those, a manager with thirty units who wants channel sync, an owner portal and a direct booking site under one subscription and a host who only wants professional check-in and local recommendation guidebooks and will buy digital guidebooks without the pms are not what Smoobu is typically brought in for.
What can Hostfully do that Smoobu cannot?
Hostfully covers Channel management, Digital Guidebooks, Owner portal, Direct booking engine. Smoobu covers Channel manager, Website builder, Guest messaging, Unified calendar.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Smoobu: Which plan is actually cheaper, Flex or Prepaid?

Prepaid, for almost anyone with real occupancy. The 0.9% booking fee on Flex exceeds the subscription difference once annual revenue passes a few thousand euros.

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.

Smoobu: How many properties does the entry price cover?

One. Every additional unit adds roughly €9.60 per month.

Hostfully: Can I buy guidebooks alone?

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

Smoobu: Does it include dynamic pricing?

Only two months free on the Teams tier. Ongoing dynamic pricing means subscribing to PriceLabs or similar.

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.

Smoobu: Is there a contract?

Billing is monthly, yearly or two-yearly, with 30 days notice required to cancel; longer terms buy 10% or 20% off.

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