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Apaleo vs Cloudbeds

Factual side-by-side, not editorial. Both tools have been tested at a working European hotel. For opinions, read the individual reviews linked below.

The short version

On our hands-on ratings, Apaleo takes it overall, 8/10 against 7/10. Apaleo scores higher on daily use, integrations, support and data & privacy. Cloudbeds scores higher on setup & onboarding.

Apaleo is built for tech-forward hotel groups wanting a headless PMS with best-of-breed integrations. Cloudbeds is built for independents wanting an all-in-one platform with global distribution reach.

Apaleo Cloudbeds
Our rating 8/10 7/10
Pricing Quote-based, no setup or licensing fees, open API included From ~$100/month, four plan tiers, no commission on direct bookings
Best for Tech-forward hotel groups wanting a headless PMS with best-of-breed integrations Independents wanting an all-in-one platform with global distribution reach
HQ Germany (Munich) USA (San Diego)
Founded 2017 2012
Reviewed by thomas sophie

What each one costs

Apaleo pricing

Core platform Quote only
Apaleo markets no setup fees, no licensing fees, no maintenance fees and no integration fees. All technically true, and none of it tells you what they do charge. The rate comes out of a sales call, which means the hotel down the street may well be paying something different for the same product.
The rest of the stack Not included in that quote
This is the part that matters with a headless PMS. You will also be paying for a front desk app, a channel manager connector, a housekeeping tool, payment processing, and in most cases an integrator to wire it together. Each has its own subscription and its own contract.

The pricing opacity bothers me more here than it would elsewhere, because this is a company that positions itself as open. The API is open, the documentation is open, the marketplace is open. The pricing is not. And the quoted figure is only half the picture: a colleague running three hotels in Austria told me his annual Apaleo spend, once he added the front desk app, the channel manager connector, a reporting tool and the integrator who set it all up, came in considerably higher than the number on his initial call. Budget for the ecosystem, not the platform. If your product is good, publish the price.

Cloudbeds pricing

Flex From roughly $180–220/month
The entry configuration, and the only part of the range that carries a starting figure on the website. Fine for a small property that mostly needs the PMS core and a booking engine.
One ~$350/month at 80 rooms
Where most mid-sized independents land, and the tier I was quoted for my Amsterdam property. That works out at about $4.38 per room per month and bundles the PMS, channel manager, booking engine and the basic revenue management module. Roughly $4,200 a year.
Experience ~$500/month at 80 rooms
Adds the full revenue management suite, the guest engagement tools and custom reporting. About $6.25 per room per month, or $6,000 a year at my size. The jump buys you the ability to slice your own data properly, which I resent paying extra for.
Enterprise Quote only
For larger groups and portfolios. No published figure at all.

There's no setup fee (mine was waived, and I'm told that's common) and no commission on direct bookings, which is a real saving: at 72% occupancy and a €135 ADR, a 1–3% direct booking commission would cost me more than the subscription does. My complaint is the partial opacity. Cloudbeds now publishes a starting figure on the entry plans, which is progress, but the tier a property my size actually needs still sits behind a twenty-minute phone call. Amenitiz manages to publish a full grid. Work out your year-one total before that call, not during it.

Prices as last verified during each review. Hotel software pricing moves, and per-room rates behave very differently at 20 rooms and at 200, so run the arithmetic at your own room count. Full detail on Apaleo pricing and Cloudbeds pricing.

Score breakdown

Apaleo Cloudbeds
Setup & onboarding 6/10 7/10
Daily use 7/10 6/10
Integrations 9/10 8/10
Pricing & value 5/10 5/10
Support 8/10 5/10
Data & privacy 8/10 7/10

Scores come from our individual hands-on reviews. We only line up dimensions both tools were scored on.

Common questions

Which is better, Apaleo or Cloudbeds?

On our ratings Apaleo scores 8/10 against Cloudbeds at 7/10. But the better tool is the one that fits your property, so read both reviews before you decide.

How much do Apaleo and Cloudbeds cost?

Apaleo: Quote-based, no setup or licensing fees, open API included

Cloudbeds: From ~$100/month, four plan tiers, no commission on direct bookings

Read the full reviews