FrontDesk vs Cloudbeds
Cloudbeds is an international platform with a channel manager and booking engine, but you only get a price by quote. FrontDesk costs €39/month, and you can read that right now.
How we compare: we receive no commission from Cloudbeds and have no commercial relationship with them. Information about Cloudbeds comes from its official public pages, checked on September 19, 2026 (link below). Prices change: always check the official source before you decide. FrontDesk's gaps are written on this page just as plainly as its strengths.
How you pay, on each side
Cloudbeds
No public price: four tiers (Flex, One, Experience, Enterprise), all by request for a quote from sales.
- • The pricing page shows no figures: for every tier, the call to action is "Request a quote".
- • Flex: PMS, payments and a marketplace to build your own stack. One: unified platform with channel manager and booking engine. Experience: adds guest experience and reputation management. Enterprise: custom packages.
- • No commission on direct bookings through the booking engine or on OTA bookings through the channel manager; commissions apply only to metasearch components, after guest check-out.
FrontDesk
One plan, public pricing, no quotes
- • 14-day free trial of every feature, no credit card.
- • €39/month per property — not per room — with a managed cloud database and multi-device sync.
- • No minimum term, no setup fee, cancel anytime yourself from Settings.
- • Planner, folio, housekeeping, reports and local compliance modules (e.g. Italy's tourist tax and Alloggiati Web export) included.
Feature by feature
FrontDesk comes with a 14-day trial of every feature, no credit card asked: you only pay if you keep it.
FrontDesk Pro costs €39/month per property, not per room: your bill doesn't grow as you do.
This gap is real and worth saying plainly: FrontDesk only syncs via public iCal feeds (Booking.com, Airbnb, VRBO), with no certified two-way connection. If you sell on many OTAs and need automatic rate push, a commercial channel manager does a job FrontDesk doesn't do today.
FrontDesk gives every property a public direct-booking page (real availability, prices, and requests that land in your quotes) that you can link from your website or social profiles. It isn't yet a widget you embed on your own site, and guests can't pay online yet: those come later.
Cloudbeds' pricing page doesn't mention Italian compliance: we don't assume it's missing, but before choosing, check with them how they handle the tourist tax and Alloggiati Web guest registration. In FrontDesk it's included in the single plan, no add-on.
FrontDesk's price is public and simple (€39/month per property, 14-day free trial). With Cloudbeds, you get a number after requesting a quote.
Cloudbeds' Experience tier adds these tools; FrontDesk doesn't have them.
When Cloudbeds makes sense
- • You sell on many OTAs and want a channel manager and booking engine integrated in the same platform, with no extra commission on bookings.
- • You also need online reputation and guest experience tools.
- • You don't mind going through a quote before you know what you'll spend.
When FrontDesk makes sense
- • You want to decide today, by reading a price, without a round of quotes.
- • Your day-to-day is a hotel or B&B front desk, and you want local compliance and receipts built in (e.g. Italy's tourist tax and Alloggiati Web).
- • You want a flat fee that doesn't depend on room count, or to start at zero cost with your data on your own hardware.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Cloudbeds cost?
The official pricing page, checked on September 19, 2026, shows no figures: every tier requires a quote request. We don't report third-party estimates: they'd be numbers nobody can verify.
Is FrontDesk a full alternative to Cloudbeds?
No. Cloudbeds includes a channel manager and booking engine; FrontDesk covers the PMS (planner, bookings, folio, housekeeping, rates, reports, local compliance) and syncs OTAs via iCal only. If you need everything in one product, Cloudbeds does more.
What does it cost me to try FrontDesk?
Nothing, and you don't have to talk to anyone: the online demo with sample data is at /demo, and the 14-day free trial needs no credit card.
See it before you decide
The demo is online with a sample hotel's data: no forms, no sales calls, no credit card.