The three kinds of free
| Kind | What’s free | What you pay for | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan (hosted) | The software, within limits | More rooms, channels, support, or a share of revenue | The very smallest properties, or hotels testing the water |
| Open source (self‑hosted) | The code and every update | A server, setup, add‑ons, security and someone to run it | Hotels with a technical person or partner |
| Free trial | The full paid system for 14–30 days | The paid plan afterwards | Any hotel deciding between paid systems |
Free plans
Sirvoy Free
€0 a month for one room, with a website, a commission‑free booking engine and automated guest emails; Sirvoy says the free plan will always stay free for one‑room properties. The channel manager and team logins are on its paid Pro plan (Sirvoy Free). Suits: a single unit, not a hotel.
Nobeds Free
€0 a month with up to 3 booking‑site channels synced every 10 minutes, a booking engine with no commission and housekeeping logins; its page gives the room limit as both “1–3 units” and “up to 10 rooms”. Support is a help database, and Premium is €15 a month for faster sync and more channels (prices). Suits: small properties that mainly need booking‑site sync. Watch: a 10‑minute sync gap can let the same room sell twice.
Munshi10 Free Forever
No fixed monthly fee: Munshi10 takes a share of your monthly revenue instead, and lists the front office, folios, housekeeping, night audit and back‑office accounting. The percentage isn’t published, and the restaurant POS and channel manager are add‑ons (pricing). Suits: hotels in Pakistan that want no upfront cost. Watch: the bill grows with your revenue, so ask for the percentage in writing.
Open‑source hotel software
QloApps
The best‑known open‑source hotel system, with about 14,500 stars on GitHub; its latest release, 1.7.0, came out in July 2025. The free self‑managed edition gives you a hotel website, booking engine and front‑desk calendar. The channel manager costs $30 per property a month, a setup pack is $749.99 one time, and hosted plans start at $15.80 a month (pricing, GitHub). You need: a server with PHP 8.2 or later and MySQL, and someone who can run it.
HotelDruid
A long‑running open‑source system under the AGPL licence, last released in December 2025 (3.0.8). The free app covers rooms and rates, invoices and receipts, users with permissions, a bar and restaurant POS with stock, and statistics. The booking engine and channel manager are only for subscribers to its paid hosting (HotelDruid). You need: a web server with PHP and a database, and technical help.
Free trials of paid systems
| System | Trial | After the trial |
|---|---|---|
| Little Hotelier | 30 days, no lock‑in | A monthly fee by rooms, plus 1% of bookings |
| Munshi10 | 15 days, no card | Free plan (revenue share) or from PKR 45,000 a month |
| EloPMS | 15 days, no card | Price not public |
| Hotelogix | 15 days | Price not public |
| Sirvoy | 14 days, no card | From €12 a month, rising with rooms |
| BedKeys | A demo set up with your own rooms | PKR 1,000 per room a month, no long contract |
The hidden costs of free
A share of revenue instead of a fee
A revenue share or a booking fee grows with the hotel: a busy season costs more. Munshi10’s free plan takes a share of revenue, and Little Hotelier adds 1% of bookings to its fee.
The parts a hotel needs are add‑ons
Channel managers, housekeeping and restaurant tills are often paid extras: QloApps’ channel manager is $30 a month per property, and HotelDruid’s comes only with its paid hosting.
Servers, setup and security
Open source needs a server, a domain, email, backups and updates. Someone has to apply security fixes, and if that someone is you, it costs your time.
Little or no support
Free plans often mean self‑help: Nobeds Free offers a help database, and QloApps’ self‑managed edition has no dedicated support. On a busy night, that matters.
Caps that force an upgrade
One room, three channels or a 10‑minute sync are fine to start and push you to a paid plan as soon as the hotel is busy.
When free makes sense, and when it doesn’t
- Free makes sense for a single unit, a very small property testing direct bookings, or a hotel with a developer who wants to build on open source.
- Free rarely makes sense for a hotel with a restaurant, staff on shifts and real cash every night: you need money controls, support when something breaks, and a price you can plan around.
