Hostfully vs. Guesty: How Do They Compare?

Last updated: September 2026

Hostfully and Guesty are both established platforms for vacation rental hosts, but they're built for different scales of operation. Here's how they compare, and where Lodgify fits as an alternative.

Who is it for?

Hostfully

Hostfully is built for larger property management companies, with a per-property pricing model and feature set that reflects that scale rather than a lightweight, self-serve product.

Guesty

Guesty spans a broad range of portfolio sizes across 3 tiers: Lite for 1 to 3 listings, Pro for 4 to 199, and Enterprise for 200 or more. The trade-off is that Lite's feature set is meaningfully lighter than Pro or Enterprise — for example, calendar syncing on Lite covers only 3 booking channels.

Alternative: Lodgify

Lodgify is built for independent hosts and small-scale property managers who want to run their rental business without the complexity of enterprise software. Every plan and its price are public, so there's no sales call required to find out what it costs.

How much does it cost?

Hostfully

Hostfully prices per property rather than per plan. Growth starts at roughly $15 per property per month, with a 1% payment gateway fee and a 0.85% direct booking fee. Pro starts at roughly $25 per property per month, plus a separate platform fee. Enterprise pricing is quote-only.

Guesty

Guesty Lite is Guesty's only tier with published pricing: roughly $9 to $29 per listing per month depending on the billing option, for up to 3 listings. Pro (4 to 199 listings) and Enterprise (200 or more) are both quote-only.

Alternative: Lodgify

Lodgify offers 4 transparent plans, each with clear pricing and no surprises about what's included. Basic is the lower-priced entry plan, starting at $14/month (billed annually), with a unified calendar and AI-powered unified inbox for hosts with 1 property. Starter, Professional and Ultimate scale up from there, starting at $26, $42 and $62/month respectively.

Starter, Professional and Ultimate include commission-free direct bookings through your Lodgify website: you pay your Lodgify subscription instead of an additional booking commission, though payment processing fees may still apply. (Bookings made through Airbnb, Vrbo or Booking.com still carry those platforms' own host fees, which Lodgify doesn't control.)

Dynamic Pricing is included on Professional and Ultimate, with a trial available on Starter and Basic. It adjusts your nightly rates automatically based on demand, seasonality and market signals, so your calendar stays competitively priced without manually checking rates every day.

What are the main differences?

Onboarding

Hostfully

Hostfully may charge a separate implementation fee depending on your setup, with onboarding support available weekdays during U.S. business hours.

Guesty

Onboarding isn't included on Guesty Lite. Pro and Enterprise include guided onboarding, with more tailored onboarding reserved for Enterprise.

Alternative: Lodgify

Starter, Professional and Ultimate include free, personalized 1:1 onboarding with a product expert, who helps set up your account, import your listings and connect your channels. Basic uses guided self-onboarding.

Guest messaging and AI

Hostfully

Hostfully's unified inbox covers Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and direct booking sites, but doesn't support WhatsApp. Its AI-powered messaging tool, InboxAI, drafts guest responses using your listing and guidebook data.

Guesty

Guesty's unified inbox includes Guesty ReplyAI™ on a freemium basis across all plans: a basic version is included, and deeper functionality requires an upgrade.

Alternative: Lodgify

Lodgify's unified inbox brings every guest conversation, across all your booking channels and your own website, into one place, with saved replies, automated messages, a built-in AI writing assistant and WhatsApp messaging from the same dashboard.

Beyond the inbox, Lodgify AI Co-Host is in early access. It surfaces relevant insights and recommendations across your bookings, guests, tasks and revenue, so you stay in control and can act on what needs attention rather than digging for it.

Website builder

Hostfully

Hostfully offers a direct booking website and widget, but with more limited customization than more specialized website builders, and the site must run on the Hostfully platform. Domain setup and DNS configuration are handled outside Hostfully, which may require technical help for non-technical users.

Guesty

A basic direct booking site is available on Guesty Lite. A fully branded, customizable website (Guesty Advanced Websites) is a paid add-on on Lite and Pro, with pricing available on request rather than published upfront.

Alternative: Lodgify

Lodgify's website builder is included on Starter, Professional and Ultimate, and lets hosts launch a bookable website under their own domain. It's fully customizable, with templates, widgets and unlimited pages, and every site takes direct bookings from day 1.

Hosts who already have a WordPress, Squarespace or Wix site can embed the Lodgify booking widget instead, turning an existing site into one that takes direct bookings.

Channel manager

Hostfully

Hostfully provides a centralized calendar, though API connections for some channels may carry additional costs depending on your plan.

Guesty

Guesty Lite covers 3 major channels: Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo. Its broader distribution network, the Guesty Distribution Hub with 60+ channels, requires upgrading to Pro or Enterprise.

Alternative: Lodgify

Lodgify's channel manager includes direct API connections to Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com across every plan, with real-time syncing of calendars, rates and content. Lodgify holds preferred partner status with all of them.

Additional or local channels can be connected through iCal.

Mobile app

Hostfully

Hostfully's mobile app is rated 2.5 stars on Google Play. It doesn't have enough reviews on the App Store yet to show a review score.

Guesty

Guesty's mobile app is rated 3.1 stars on Google Play and 4.2 stars on the App Store.

Alternative: Lodgify

Lodgify's mobile app is rated 4.6 stars on Google Play and 4.2 stars on the App Store. Ultimate-plan users can also download the Lodgify PM app to connect with cleaners, check-in agents and rental managers, and guests can use the Lodgify Guest app for guidebooks, Wi-Fi passwords and check-in details.

Customer support

Hostfully

Hostfully doesn't list a direct phone number; support runs through email and chat.

Guesty

Guesty offers 24/7 email support along with dashboard, mobile app and form-based support. Lite users can access Guesty's chatbot through the dashboard; Pro and Enterprise users get access to phone support.

Alternative: Lodgify

Support scales with your plan: self-service on Basic, human email support on Starter, phone support on Professional, and priority support via live chat, email and phone on Ultimate. All trial users and subscribers can also reach the Contact team by phone across the U.S. and Canada, the U.K., Spain and Italy.

Can I try them before I buy?

Hostfully

Hostfully doesn't offer a free trial, but does offer a free 30-minute demo.

Guesty

A 14-day free trial is available for Guesty Lite only. Pro and Enterprise require a demo instead.

Alternative: Lodgify

Lodgify offers a free 7-day trial, extendable on request, with no credit card required, plus a personalized demo with a product expert and an online interactive demo.

Ratings

Here's how each platform is rated on Trustpilot:

• Hostfully: 4.8 stars | 387 reviews
• Guesty: 4.6 stars | 1,990 reviews
• Lodgify: 4.7 stars | 4,358 reviews

Which should I choose?

Hostfully and Guesty both offer capable tools, but for different scales of operation. Hostfully's per-property pricing model suits larger portfolios that have outgrown simpler tools. Guesty spans a wider range with its 3 tiers, though its entry-level Lite plan is noticeably lighter on features than Pro or Enterprise.

Lodgify is built for hosts and small-scale property managers who want a complete platform, channel manager, direct booking website, guest messaging and payments, with transparent, public pricing and no added complexity. If that's what you're looking for, try Lodgify for free.