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Travel · head to head

Lodgify vs Smoobu

Lodgify logo

Lodgify

Travel

Direct booking website builder and channel manager for vacation rental owners and small managers

From
$16/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: Lodgify the 1.9 per cent booking fee on Starter and Professional applies to direct reservations, the exact bookings you built the site to win, so an owner turning over 200,000 dollars direct pays around 3,800 dollars a year on top of the subscription unless they move to Ultimate.; 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: Lodgify covers Booking engine, Smoobu covers Guest messaging.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Lodgify and Smoobu actually diverge.

Attributes where Lodgify and Smoobu differ
AttributeLodgifySmoobu
Starting price$16/month€29/month
Pricing modelPer month by property count and planPer 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 Lodgify

  • Booking engine
  • Unified inbox
  • Automated messaging
  • Rental agreements
  • Multi-calendar
  • Damage deposits

Only in Smoobu

  • Guest messaging
  • Unified calendar
  • Invoicing and e-invoicing
  • Mobile apps

Both cover

  • Website builder
  • Channel manager

What people use each for

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

Lodgify

  • An owner with three holiday cottages who wants a branded site to cut Airbnb commissionnot Smoobu
  • A manager consolidating Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com calendars to stop double bookingsnot Smoobu
  • A rural property with weak OTA visibility that relies on repeat direct guestsnot Smoobu
  • A host adding rental agreements and deposit collection to bookings taken off-platformnot 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 Lodgify
  • An owner wanting automated check-in instructions and pre-arrival messages sent per channel without logging into each extranetnot Lodgify
  • A small manager who needs guest invoices that meet German documentation requirements without adding a separate accounting toolnot Lodgify
  • A host testing dynamic pricing through the bundled trial before deciding whether to subscribe to PriceLabs separatelynot Lodgify

Where each one falls short

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

Lodgify

  • The 1.9 per cent booking fee on Starter and Professional applies to direct reservations, the exact bookings you built the site to win, so an owner turning over 200,000 dollars direct pays around 3,800 dollars a year on top of the subscription unless they move to Ultimate.
  • Operations tooling is thin: there is no real housekeeping scheduling, task assignment or owner statement generation, so managers past roughly twenty units outgrow it.
  • Prices shown are annual-commitment rates; paying monthly costs substantially more, which makes the headline figure misleading for anyone unwilling to commit for a year.
  • The website templates are constrained, and heavy design customisation means editing within a narrow theme system rather than having real control over layout or markup.
  • Payment processing is effectively tied to a small set of gateways, so operators in markets without local acquiring support may struggle to take payments in their own currency without extra cost.

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

Lodgify

$16/month
  • Starter$16/month
    • Billed annually, higher month to month
    • Website builder and booking engine
    • Channel manager
  • Professional$42/month
    • Billed annually
    • Payment automation
    • More integrations and higher limits
  • Ultimate$103/month
    • Billed annually
    • No booking fee on direct reservations
    • 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 Lodgify if

  • You need booking engine.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want unified inbox.
Lodgify review

Choose Smoobu if

  • You need guest messaging.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want unified calendar.
Smoobu review

Questions people ask

Is Lodgify or Smoobu better?
Neither clearly leads. Lodgify starts at $16/month and Smoobu at €29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lodgify or Smoobu?
Lodgify starts at $16/month and Smoobu at €29/month.
Does Lodgify or Smoobu run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Lodgify best used for?
Lodgify is most often used for an owner with three holiday cottages who wants a branded site to cut airbnb commission, a manager consolidating airbnb, vrbo and booking.com calendars to stop double bookings, a rural property with weak ota visibility that relies on repeat direct guests, a host adding rental agreements and deposit collection to bookings taken off-platform. Of those, an owner with three holiday cottages who wants a branded site to cut airbnb commission and a manager consolidating airbnb, vrbo and booking.com calendars to stop double bookings are not what Smoobu is typically brought in for.
What can Lodgify do that Smoobu cannot?
Lodgify covers Booking engine, Unified inbox, Automated messaging, Rental agreements. Smoobu covers Guest messaging, Unified calendar, Invoicing and e-invoicing, Mobile apps. Both handle Website builder, Channel manager.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Lodgify: Does Lodgify charge commission on direct bookings?

Yes on the two lower tiers. Starter and Professional take 1.9 per cent of each direct booking; the Ultimate plan removes it.

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.

Lodgify: At what point is Ultimate cheaper than Professional?

Roughly once your direct booking revenue passes about 38,000 dollars a year, at which point the 1.9 per cent fee exceeds the price difference between the plans.

Smoobu: How many properties does the entry price cover?

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

Lodgify: Is Lodgify a full property management system?

No. It is a website, booking engine and channel manager. Housekeeping, task management and owner accounting are largely absent.

Smoobu: Does it include dynamic pricing?

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

Lodgify: Can it run a hotel?

It is designed for whole-unit vacation rentals. Room-level hotel inventory, folios and night audit are not part of the product.

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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