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Comparison · PM
Hostaway vs Hostfully
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Hostaway and Hostfully — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Hostaway vs Hostfully: at a glance
| Feature | Hostaway | Hostfully |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | PM | PM |
| Velocity score | 6.3 | 5.0 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Top themes | e-invoicing, ota-channels, access-control, ai-cohost | vacation-rental, guest-screening, direct-bookings, channel-management |
| Last editorial update | 1h ago | 1mo ago |
| Website | — | — |
What is Hostaway?
Hostaway is becoming a compliance and finance system that happens to manage channels
Two threads dominate: financial and regulatory plumbing — invoices for every OTA channel including Airbnb, granular financial-data permissions, a two-step checkout with new payment methods and 3D Secure — and guest-facing operations, with a redesigned Inbox, access codes hidden after checkout, and accuracy work on AI CoHost. The analytics board now exports to PDF for owner reporting.
What is Hostfully?
Hostfully pushes past core PMS into guest screening, damage protection, and direct-booking revenue.
Hostfully is a vacation-rental property management platform that has spent recent releases widening beyond day-to-day operations. The standout is Screen & Protect, a guest-screening and damage-coverage product that works across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and direct bookings. Around it sits steady interface work: a redesigned Channels page, Inbox property-tag filters, an Integrations page refresh, and a new mobile Notifications page.
Hostaway vs Hostfully: editorial side-by-side
Hostaway
6.3PM
Hostaway is becoming a compliance and finance system that happens to manage channels
◆ Current state
Two threads dominate: financial and regulatory plumbing — invoices for every OTA channel including Airbnb, granular financial-data permissions, a two-step checkout with new payment methods and 3D Secure — and guest-facing operations, with a redesigned Inbox, access codes hidden after checkout, and accuracy work on AI CoHost. The analytics board now exports to PDF for owner reporting.
◆ Where it's heading
Invoicing is the through-line: after adding guest billing details in July, Hostaway now covers every channel, which matters most in markets where electronic invoicing is mandatory. Access control is being cut finer across the board, from which financial fields a user sees to when a door code disappears. AI CoHost is being deepened rather than widened — it reads more reservation fields and flags when it is inferring rather than reading.
◆ Prediction
The Guest Portal redesign flagged in the access-code release is the next visible change, and CoHost's reliability work points toward it acting on reservations rather than only answering questions about them.
Hostfully pushes past core PMS into guest screening, damage protection, and direct-booking revenue.
◆ Current state
Hostfully is a vacation-rental property management platform that has spent recent releases widening beyond day-to-day operations. The standout is Screen & Protect, a guest-screening and damage-coverage product that works across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and direct bookings. Around it sits steady interface work: a redesigned Channels page, Inbox property-tag filters, an Integrations page refresh, and a new mobile Notifications page.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run through the recent work. First, Hostfully is treating trust and safety as a product line with Screen & Protect rather than leaving risk to the host. Second, it is investing in direct bookings: the upgraded Direct Booking Site adds branding control, map-based discovery, and merchandised discounts, which reduces dependence on OTA channel fees. The parallel run of UX refreshes points to an effort to make multi-property operations less cluttered.
◆ Prediction
Expect Screen & Protect coverage and the Hosting Quality Dashboard, both Airbnb-first today, to expand to the other channels Hostfully already syncs, and the phased Direct Booking Site rollout to finish across the customer base over the summer.
Alternatives to Hostaway and Hostfully
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 Hostfully.
Bonsai
Bonsai is assembling a real CRM underneath the freelancer billing tools
Sugar Calendar
The changelog turned into a how-to blog — capability news now arrives disguised as tutorials.
Hive
Governance and cross-workspace plumbing, not new AI surface
Notesnook
Two release lines, weekly tags, and not one line of release notes in the feed.
Aha!
Elle stops being Aha's assistant and becomes where teams encode their own standards.
See all Hostaway alternatives → · See all Hostfully alternatives →
Recent activity from Hostaway and Hostfully
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 13h agoHostawayDownload Data From Your Analytics Board
- 15h agoHostawayInvoices for All Your OTA Channels - Including Airbnb
- 4d agoHostawayNew Hostaway Inbox to help you respond to guests faster
- 7d agoHostawayGuest Portal: Door Codes & WiFi Now Hidden After Checkout
- 12d agoHostawayCustomize Financial Data Permissions
- 12d agoHostawayAI CoHost: More Reliable, Deeper Intelligence, Better Answers
- 1mo agoHostfullyNew Notifications Page in the Hostfully Mobile App 📱
- 2mo agoHostfullyThe new "Property Tags" filter is now available in the Hostfully Inbox 🚀
- 3mo agoHostfullyThe new Channels page is now live 🎉
- 3mo agoHostfullyNew Product: Hostfully Screen & Protect 🚀 ⚡
- 3mo agoHostfullyNew Product: Hostfully Screen & Protect 🚀
- 3mo agoHostfullyComing Soon: Direct Booking Site Upgrade 🚀
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Hostaway and Hostfully?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Hostaway is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 0 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 Hostfully?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Hostaway is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 0 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 Hostfully?
Top Hostfully alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Hostfully alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/hostfully for the full list with editorial commentary on each.