Canary Technologies vs LIKE MAGIC
The facts side by side, what each one costs tier by tier, and which of the two we'd pick. Both have been paid for and run at a working European hotel.
The short version
On our hands-on ratings, LIKE MAGIC takes it overall, 7/10 against 5/10.
Canary Technologies is built for large US hotel chains wanting a full guest management suite. LIKE MAGIC is built for design-conscious hotels wanting a modern guest journey.
Which we'd pick
likemagic for a European property, Canary for a US chain.
Both do the arrival journey well and they are aimed at different continents. likemagic is Swiss, design-led, and the easiest thing in this category to hand to new staff: Elena's nineteen-year-old first-job hire had the basics in forty-five minutes, and the guest journey timeline made sense to her team without anyone explaining it. The digital check-in is short and skips what the guest already gave you at booking.
Canary is the bigger, more heavily funded product with a polished contactless check-in of its own and 20,000 properties, but no EU hosting and passport scans under the CLOUD Act. For a European buyer that is usually where it stops. likemagic's problems are commercial rather than legal: only four PMS integrations exist so your platform is either on the list or the tool does not exist for you, upselling has no targeting or segmentation behind it, and there are almost no references outside the DACH region.
Drawn from our individual hands-on reviews rather than a fresh head-to-head test. Where a finding belongs to one of us, we've said whose it is.
| Canary Technologies | LIKE MAGIC | |
|---|---|---|
| Our rating | 5/10 | 7/10 |
| Pricing | Quote only. Core, Advanced and Pro tiers, all of them get-quote buttons; the former ~$99/month entry reference is no longer published | Now published: Core from €350/month, Platform from €400/month, 10% off annual; add-on prices still withheld |
| Best for | Large US hotel chains wanting a full guest management suite | Design-conscious hotels wanting a modern guest journey |
| HQ | United States (San Francisco, CA) | Switzerland (Zurich) |
| Founded | 2016 | 2021 |
| Reviewed by | marc | elena |
What each one costs
Canary Technologies pricing
- Core Quote only
- Mobile check-in, guest messaging and the digital compendium. Get quote.
- Advanced Quote only
- Adds AI messaging responses, tablet registration, dynamic upsells at 0% commission, digital tipping and smart checkout.
- Pro Quote only
- Adds AI webchat. Unlimited users, data and support are stated as included on every subscription, which is the one commercial detail Canary does publish.
Canary has never published a price and still does not. What has changed since our review is that the roughly $99 a month entry reference we recorded is no longer anywhere on the pricing page, so even the rough starting figure has gone. The three tiers are clearly described and every one of them ends in a get quote button. For a company of Canary's size, with over 20,000 properties and $175M raised, declining to state a single number is a choice rather than a constraint.
LIKE MAGIC pricing
- Core From €350/month
- Stated as both the starting price and the monthly minimum. Covers the guest journey: digital, branded, and in likemagic's own framing frictionless.
- Platform From €400/month
- Starting price and monthly minimum again. Adds the operations side, task management and housekeeping monitoring.
- Annual billing 10% discount
- Applied to the per-room pricing and to the monthly minimums alike, which is stated rather than implied.
- Add-ons Price not stated
- Booking engine, digital keys, wallet keys and kiosk are all available on either tier, and none of them carries a published figure. This is the gap left in an otherwise open price list.
likemagic published its pricing during 2026, having hidden it behind a demo call when we reviewed it. That is the single clearest improvement we have recorded in this category, and it answers the loudest complaint in Elena's review directly. Two tiers, both with stated monthly minimums, and an annual discount that is spelled out rather than dangled. The add-on prices are still missing, so a property that needs digital keys or a kiosk is back to asking. But you can now budget for likemagic before you speak to anybody, and a year ago you could not.
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 Canary Technologies pricing and LIKE MAGIC pricing.
Common questions
Which is better, Canary Technologies or LIKE MAGIC?
On our ratings LIKE MAGIC scores 7/10 against Canary Technologies at 5/10. But the better tool is the one that fits your property, so read both reviews before you decide.
How much do Canary Technologies and LIKE MAGIC cost?
Canary Technologies: Quote only. Core, Advanced and Pro tiers, all of them get-quote buttons; the former ~$99/month entry reference is no longer published
LIKE MAGIC: Now published: Core from €350/month, Platform from €400/month, 10% off annual; add-on prices still withheld
Read the full reviews
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Canary Technologies
Canary Technologies has raised $175 million, built a strong guest management platform, and is now eyeing Europe. The product is good. The question is whether European hotels should care.
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LIKE MAGIC
After Duve made me say 'oh no' out loud, I went looking for something my seasonal staff could learn before the first guest arrived. LIKE MAGIC came close. Not all the way, but close.