Free tier
Helpy Travel and Hostfully both offer a free guide; Touch Stay does not (14-day trial only). Hostfully places sponsored recommendations on free guidebooks.
Comparison
Helpy Travel vs Touch Stay vs Hostfully
Three popular ways to give guests a digital guidebook, compared honestly. Touch Stay is a paid, trial-only platform with deep PMS integrations. Hostfully Guidebooks has a free tier but monetizes it with sponsored recommendations and gates branding, translations and upsells behind several paid tiers. Helpy Travel is free forever for one guide, with translations and an AI concierge included.
Sourced from public pricing pages
Free tiers compared honestly
Updated June 2026
Helpy Travel: free forever, €14.99/mo to scale
Touch Stay: trial-only · Hostfully: free tier with sponsored recs
How they differ
The real differences between the three
What you pay for
Helpy gates a single thing — publishing more than one guide. Hostfully gates many: custom branding, removing sponsored recs, an upsell marketplace, email capture and extra translations across multiple tiers.
Translations
Helpy Travel includes automatic translations on the free plan. Hostfully offers 16+ translations on higher tiers; Touch Stay includes them on paid plans.
AI concierge
Helpy Travel and Touch Stay both ship AI guest assistance. On Helpy the AI concierge is part of every guide.
PMS integrations
Touch Stay's strength is 30+ PMS integrations (Guesty, Hostaway, OwnerRez, Lodgify). Helpy Travel focuses on a simple public web guide rather than PMS depth.
Best-fit host
Helpy suits independent hosts with 1–3 properties who want free and simple. Touch Stay and Hostfully suit larger operations that need PMS depth or a marketplace.
How to choose
Pick based on what you actually need
Feature lists look similar; the decision usually comes down to three questions.
1
Do you need a free, public guide?
If yes, Helpy Travel (free forever) or Hostfully's free tier fit. Touch Stay requires a paid plan after its trial.
2
How many properties?
For 1–3 properties, free-and-simple usually wins. For large portfolios needing PMS sync, Touch Stay's integrations matter more.
3
Do you want to monetize the guide?
Helpy Travel adds services, experiences and recommendations you control. Be aware Hostfully may place its own sponsored recommendations on free guidebooks.
Side by side
Free tier, pricing and gates compared
Compiled from each vendor's public pricing pages, verified 19 June 2026 (links below). Prices and features change — confirm current details before deciding.
Feature
Helpy Travel
Touch Stay
Hostfully Guidebooks
Free plan
Free forever — one published guide.
No free plan — 14-day trial only.
Free tier — one guidebook.
Paid price
€14.99/month for multiple guides.
~$15/month per property (calculator/quote).
Tiers from $9.99 to $75+/month.
Paid gate
Single axis: publish more than one guide.
Per-property volume.
Branding, remove sponsored recs, upsell marketplace, email capture, translations.
Monetizes free users
No.
No free tier.
Yes — sponsored recommendations on free guidebooks.
Translations
Automatic, included free.
On paid plans.
16+ on higher tiers.
PMS integrations
Not the focus.
30+ (Guesty, Hostaway, OwnerRez, Lodgify).
Hostfully PMS and others.
Best fit
Independent hosts wanting free, public, multilingual guides.
Hosts needing deep PMS integrations.
Hosts wanting a guidebook marketplace and branding control.
FAQ
Touch Stay vs Hostfully — common questions
Helpy Travel is free forever for one published guide, and Hostfully Guidebooks has a free tier for one guidebook (with sponsored recommendations). Touch Stay has no free plan — only a 14-day trial.
It depends on scale. Touch Stay is roughly $15/month per property; Hostfully has tiers from about $9.99 to $75+/month depending on features like branding and translations. Helpy Travel is €14.99/month flat once you publish more than one guide.
Hostfully monetizes free guidebooks by placing sponsored recommendations on them, and gates custom branding, removing those recommendations, upsells, email capture and extra translations behind paid tiers. Helpy Travel's free guide carries no sponsored content.
Touch Stay is strong if you need deep PMS integrations — it connects to 30+ property-management systems such as Guesty, Hostaway and OwnerRez. For a single independent host who wants a free, simple public guide, that depth is usually unnecessary.
From each vendor's public pricing pages, verified 19 June 2026 and linked under the comparison table. Pricing and features change often, so confirm current details on the vendors' sites before deciding.
Try the free, no-trial option
Helpy Travel is free forever for your first guide — a public, multilingual web guide with an AI concierge. Compare it yourself without a trial or a card.