Grocy
Grocy opened a plugin seam for barcode lookups, then went quiet for a year.
Comparison · PM
Hostaway vs Flowable
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Hostaway and Flowable — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Hostaway vs Flowable: at a glance
| Feature | Hostaway | Flowable |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | PM | PM |
| Velocity score | 6.3 | 0.0 |
| Sparks · 30d | 1 | 0 |
| Top themes | property-management, direct-booking, payments, e-invoicing | bpmn-cmmn, spring-boot-upgrades, breaking-changes, engine-only-scope |
| Last editorial update | 2d ago | 2h ago |
| Website | — | Visit → |
What is Hostaway?
Hostaway is pushing past bookings into the paperwork hosts actually dread.
July's output clusters around three areas. The AI CoHost assistant got a month of accuracy work — it now reads per-booking fees, commissions and taxes, and infers guest origin from the reservation or phone number while flagging the guess. The direct-booking website gained a two-step checkout with alternative payment methods, 3D Secure on Pay Now charges and an instant calendar block. And a new per-reservation billing-details page collects guests' legal name, address and Tax ID to drive invoicing, including e-invoices in Spain and Italy.
What is Flowable?
Flowable ships once a year and spends it on the Java platform, not on the process engine.
Flowable's release history is a slow major-version cadence — 7.0.0 in 2023, 7.1.0 in 2024, 7.2.0 in 2025, 8.0.0 in February 2026 — and each major is anchored to a Java-ecosystem jump rather than to process modelling itself. Flowable 8 moves to Spring Framework 7 and Spring Boot 4, makes Jackson 3 the default, and removes JUnit 3 and JUnit 4 support outright. The engine-level additions that do arrive, like lambda expressions in expressions, are incremental extensions to BPMN and CMMN semantics.
Hostaway vs Flowable: editorial side-by-side
Hostaway
6.3PM
Hostaway is pushing past bookings into the paperwork hosts actually dread.
◆ Current state
July's output clusters around three areas. The AI CoHost assistant got a month of accuracy work — it now reads per-booking fees, commissions and taxes, and infers guest origin from the reservation or phone number while flagging the guess. The direct-booking website gained a two-step checkout with alternative payment methods, 3D Secure on Pay Now charges and an instant calendar block. And a new per-reservation billing-details page collects guests' legal name, address and Tax ID to drive invoicing, including e-invoices in Spain and Italy.
◆ Where it's heading
The through-line is Hostaway taking on the parts of property management that sit either side of the stay: money in, documents out. Checkout is being rebuilt to convert like an OTA while collecting like a merchant, and invoicing is being rebuilt to satisfy tax authorities rather than just produce a PDF. Around that core, the work is capacity and reach — multi-unit listings raised from 150 to 254, notifications localized across six languages, Airbnb-specific discounts with bulk editing, and richer cancellation and no-show data on the Public API. The AI assistant is being deepened against existing reservation data, not extended into new autonomy.
◆ Prediction
France is already named as the next e-invoicing market, so expect the billing-details page to expand country by country with field sets adapting per jurisdiction, and CoHost to keep absorbing financial questions now that it can read fees and commissions.
Flowable
0.0PM
Flowable ships once a year and spends it on the Java platform, not on the process engine.
◆ Current state
Flowable's release history is a slow major-version cadence — 7.0.0 in 2023, 7.1.0 in 2024, 7.2.0 in 2025, 8.0.0 in February 2026 — and each major is anchored to a Java-ecosystem jump rather than to process modelling itself. Flowable 8 moves to Spring Framework 7 and Spring Boot 4, makes Jackson 3 the default, and removes JUnit 3 and JUnit 4 support outright. The engine-level additions that do arrive, like lambda expressions in expressions, are incremental extensions to BPMN and CMMN semantics.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a project whose roadmap is largely set by the platform underneath it. Each major forces a coordinated upgrade on adopters — Java 17 and Jakarta 9 at 7.0.0, Spring Boot 4 and Jackson 3 at 8.0.0 — and in exchange delivers query, variable and migration refinements aimed at large existing deployments. The 7.0.0 decision to drop the UI applications and the content, form and Mule modules set the pattern: narrow to the engines and the REST APIs, and let everything else go.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next major to track the following Spring and Java LTS jump on roughly the same annual rhythm. Nothing in these entries points to an AI or agent-facing direction, so any such move would be a genuine departure rather than a continuation.
Alternatives to Hostaway and Flowable
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Hostaway or Flowable.
Everhour
A comparison-content engine where the changelog should be — Everhour ranks itself against rivals.
RescueTime
RescueTime publishes essays, not releases — the feed shows no product movement at all.
Workamajig
Workamajig's changelog is a content-marketing blog — buyer-guide listicles, zero product news.
NocoBase
A no-code platform rebuilding itself around AI employees and Portals at once
Process Street
Process Street's blog buries the actual news: it has an MCP server
See all Hostaway alternatives → · See all Flowable alternatives →
Recent activity from Hostaway and Flowable
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3d agoHostawayAI CoHost: More Reliable, Deeper Intelligence, Better Answers
- 14d agoHostawayBooking Website: Faster Checkout with More Payment Methods & Stronger Fraud Protection
- 16d agoHostawayLower Deductible for Hostaway Insurance powered by Safely
- 17d agoHostawayAdd up to 254 Units to your Multi-Unit Listings
- 17d agoHostawayLocalized & Translated Notifications
- 19d agoHostawayGuest Billing Details: Collect Compliant Invoice Info Directly from Guests ⚡
- 5mo agoFlowableSpring Boot 4 and Jackson 3 required; JUnit 4 support removed ⚡
- 11mo agoFlowableAsync variables, skip expressions and broader query filters
- 1y agoFlowableLiquibase dropped from App, CMMN, DMN and event registry engines
- 2y agoFlowableBug-fix release adding async leave and LocalDate timers
- 2y agoFlowableSpring Boot 3.1.6 support and dynamic event subscriptions
- 2y agoFlowableJava 17 rebase; UI apps, content and form engines removed ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Hostaway and Flowable?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Hostaway is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Hostaway better than Flowable?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Hostaway is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other PM products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Hostaway?
Top Hostaway alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Hostaway alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/hostaway for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Flowable?
Top Flowable alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Flowable alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/flowable for the full list with editorial commentary on each.