Flowable
Flowable ships once a year and spends it on the Java platform, not on the process engine.
Comparison · PM
Hostaway vs Grocy
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Hostaway and Grocy — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Hostaway vs Grocy: at a glance
| Feature | Hostaway | Grocy |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | PM | PM |
| Velocity score | 6.3 | 0.0 |
| Sparks · 30d | 1 | 0 |
| Top themes | property-management, direct-booking, payments, e-invoicing | self-hosted, household-erp, barcode-lookup, plugin-interface |
| 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 Grocy?
Grocy opened a plugin seam for barcode lookups, then went quiet for a year.
Grocy releases on a slow, maintainer-paced rhythm — a handful of releases across 2024 and 2025, then a single 4.6.0 in March 2026 that makes PHP 8.5 with SQLite 3.40+ the only supported runtime. The functional work concentrates on stock handling: quantity-unit defaults that stay editable until a product has been in stock, automatic 1:1 unit conversions when no default applies, and a long tail of filter and validation fixes across the stock, shopping list and master data pages.
Hostaway vs Grocy: 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.
Grocy
0.0PM
Grocy opened a plugin seam for barcode lookups, then went quiet for a year.
◆ Current state
Grocy releases on a slow, maintainer-paced rhythm — a handful of releases across 2024 and 2025, then a single 4.6.0 in March 2026 that makes PHP 8.5 with SQLite 3.40+ the only supported runtime. The functional work concentrates on stock handling: quantity-unit defaults that stay editable until a product has been in stock, automatic 1:1 unit conversions when no default applies, and a long tail of filter and validation fixes across the stock, shopping list and master data pages.
◆ Where it's heading
The notable structural move was 4.4.0, which introduced external barcode lookup as a product-picker workflow with a pluggable backend and shipped an Open Food Facts plugin on by default. That converted Grocy from a purely self-contained ledger into something that pulls product data from the outside world, and the releases since have mostly been refining that plugin — localized names, empty-name handling, image URLs with query parameters. Beyond it, the direction is consolidation: fewer rough edges, a tighter supported runtime, no expansion of scope.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued single-release years focused on stock and quantity-unit correctness. The barcode plugin interface is the one place where new capability could arrive without new maintainer surface, so additional lookup providers are the most plausible next addition.
Alternatives to Hostaway and Grocy
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 Grocy.
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 Grocy alternatives →
Recent activity from Hostaway and Grocy
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 ⚡
- 4mo agoGrocyPHP 8.5 becomes the only supported runtime
- 1y agoGrocyOpen Food Facts lookup fixes and a default-store column
- 1y agoGrocyLocalized product names and shopping list rounding fixes
- 1y agoGrocyBarcode plugin pointed at the production Open Food Facts API
- 1y agoGrocyExternal barcode lookup arrives as a pluggable workflow ⚡
- 1y agoGrocyStock form validation and Scan Mode fixes
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Hostaway and Grocy?
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 Grocy?
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 Grocy?
Top Grocy alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Grocy alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/grocy for the full list with editorial commentary on each.