Duve 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
Both land on 7/10 overall, so the choice comes down to fit rather than our scores.
Duve is built for larger hotels with dedicated tech staff wanting a full guest platform. LIKE MAGIC is built for design-conscious hotels wanting a modern guest journey.
Which we'd pick
likemagic to use daily, Duve if you need the features it has and likemagic lacks.
Elena reviewed both, rated both a 7, and the comparison is unusually direct because she went from one to the other. Her verdict on likemagic's interface was that after Duve it felt like fresh air: clean, nothing buried six menus deep, and a guest journey timeline her staff understood without being taught. Her nineteen-year-old first-job hire had the basics in forty-five minutes, which is the test she cares about.
Duve wins on breadth and proof. The guidebook, the translation and the pre-arrival upselling all earned their place across a season, and it connects to far more than the four PMS platforms likemagic supports. But it is built for hotels ten times her size and the admin dashboard shows it. likemagic's costs are its own: upselling with no targeting or segmentation, guest pages that barely carry your brand, and 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.
| Duve | LIKE MAGIC | |
|---|---|---|
| Our rating | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Pricing | Published package minimums: Basic from $120/month, Pro $150, Premium $200, Enterprise custom | Now published: Core from €350/month, Platform from €400/month, 10% off annual; add-on prices still withheld |
| Best for | Larger hotels with dedicated tech staff wanting a full guest platform | Design-conscious hotels wanting a modern guest journey |
| HQ | Israel (Tel Aviv) | Switzerland (Zurich) |
| Founded | 2016 | 2021 |
| Reviewed by | elena | elena |
What each one costs
Duve pricing
- Basic From $120/month
- Stated as a minimum package rather than a per-room rate. Online check-in, branded guest app, check-out coordination, analytics and support.
- Pro From $150/month
- Adds the communication suite: unified inbox, SMS, WhatsApp messaging, automations and workflows. Carries the 0% commission claim on in-house upsells.
- Premium From $200/month
- Adds upsells and ecommerce: room upgrades, custom upsells and payment processing integration.
- Enterprise Custom
- Everything above plus advanced customisation and a dedicated account manager. Contact required.
Duve now presents four package minimums where our review recorded a single per-room figure of about $6 per room per month. For most properties the new shape is more useful, because $120 a month is something you can put in a budget where about $6 per room left you guessing at the floor. Read it against the warning in Elena's review though: several hoteliers reported charges they had not expected, and a published minimum is not a published total. Every one of these tiers is stated as a starting point.
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 Duve pricing and LIKE MAGIC pricing.
Common questions
Which is better, Duve or LIKE MAGIC?
Both score 7/10 on our ratings, so the right pick depends on what you are optimising for. Read both reviews.
How much do Duve and LIKE MAGIC cost?
Duve: Published package minimums: Basic from $120/month, Pro $150, Premium $200, Enterprise custom
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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Duve
A second season with Duve and the rating goes up. WhatsApp changed everything for how we talk to guests, and Katerina can now train new hires on it herself. Still not simple, but no longer unmanageable.
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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.