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Comparison · PM
Hostaway vs Planify
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Hostaway and Planify — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Hostaway vs Planify: at a glance
| Feature | Hostaway | Planify |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | PM | PM |
| Velocity score | 6.3 | 2.5 |
| Sparks · 30d | 1 | 0 |
| Top themes | property-management, direct-booking, payments, e-invoicing | caldav, gnome, task-management, interoperability |
| Last editorial update | 19h ago | 1d 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 Planify?
A GNOME task app that has turned CalDAV interoperability into the product.
Planify is a GTK task manager for GNOME on a fast release train — six releases in the window shown, most of them sync work. The 4.19 line spent nearly all its effort making CalDAV survive real servers: Mailbox.org, Open-Xchange, Posteo, Nextcloud Deck, and DAVx5 on Android each got a named fix. Feature work still lands, but alongside the sync repairs rather than instead of them.
Hostaway vs Planify: 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.
Planify
2.5PM
A GNOME task app that has turned CalDAV interoperability into the product.
◆ Current state
Planify is a GTK task manager for GNOME on a fast release train — six releases in the window shown, most of them sync work. The 4.19 line spent nearly all its effort making CalDAV survive real servers: Mailbox.org, Open-Xchange, Posteo, Nextcloud Deck, and DAVx5 on Android each got a named fix. Feature work still lands, but alongside the sync repairs rather than instead of them.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction shows in what gets fixed. Planify is positioning as the GNOME client that works against whatever CalDAV server you already run, not a client for one service — sync-token fallbacks, ETag retries, and CDATA parsing are all compatibility debt paid down per-server. The second thread is pushing into the desktop itself: a Shell search provider, system accent color, a CLI. Both are the same bet, that the app's value is behaving well inside an existing setup.
◆ Prediction
Expect another CalDAV compatibility pass naming a specific server next, since four of the last six releases took that shape. Feature work will most likely extend the backup and section support added in 4.19.2 rather than open a new area.
Alternatives to Hostaway and Planify
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 Planify.
NocoBase
NocoBase is making AI employees a composable block, and opening a v3.0 branch to do it.
Hive
AI Proofing gets its manual controls back while Hive builds out creative review and resourcing.
Notesnook
Notesnook ships fortnightly on two platforms and tells the changelog nothing.
Aha!
Aha! is teaching its AI builder to test its own output before anyone ships it.
Kanri
An offline-first kanban app whose solo maintainer has been quiet for ten months.
See all Hostaway alternatives → · See all Planify alternatives →
Recent activity from Hostaway and Planify
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoHostawayAI CoHost: More Reliable, Deeper Intelligence, Better Answers
- 12d agoHostawayBooking Website: Faster Checkout with More Payment Methods & Stronger Fraud Protection
- 14d agoHostawayLower Deductible for Hostaway Insurance powered by Safely
- 14d agoPlanifyStartup backup recovery and recurring-task notification fix
- 14d agoHostawayAdd up to 254 Units to your Multi-Unit Listings
- 15d agoHostawayLocalized & Translated Notifications
- 16d agoHostawayGuest Billing Details: Collect Compliant Invoice Info Directly from Guests ⚡
- 2mo agoPlanifyPlanify 4.19.4
- 2mo agoPlanifyPlanify 4.19.3
- 2mo agoPlanifyPlanify 4.19.2
- 3mo agoPlanifyPlanify 4.19.1
- 3mo agoPlanifyPlanify 4.19.0
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Hostaway and Planify?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Hostaway is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 2.5), 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 Planify?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Hostaway is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 2.5), 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 Planify?
Top Planify alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Planify alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/planify for the full list with editorial commentary on each.