Why I Used Hostkit — And Then Built EazyAL Instead
By Daniel de Oliveira, founder of EazyAL · March 2026 · 8 min read
Summary: Hostkit or EazyAL (Honest Take)
Hostkit is built for scale and complexity
EazyAL is built for compliance and independence
If you manage dozens of properties and need deep integrations → Hostkit makes sense. If you own a few properties and want compliance handled simply → EazyAL was built for you.
The real decision isn't which tool is better. It's which one fits how you operate.
Introduction
I want to be upfront with you from the start: this post is about a competitor.
I'm the founder of EazyAL, a compliance automation platform built specifically for Portuguese Airbnb and Alojamento Local hosts. Hostkit is a product I know well. I've used it, I've studied it, and I genuinely respect what they've built.
But I built something different — on purpose. And I think you deserve to know why.
If you're currently using Hostkit, thinking about switching, or just trying to figure out which tool is right for your Alojamento Local, stay with me. I'm going to give you the most honest picture I can — even if that means some of you decide to stick with Hostkit. I'd rather you end up with the right tool than the one I happen to sell.
First — what Hostkit gets right
Hostkit was one of the first platforms to take Portuguese short-term rental compliance seriously, and that deserves credit. They automate invoicing through the AT (Finanças) portal, handle SIBA guest registration, submit INE surveys, calculate tourist tax, manage Modelo 30, and have built over 80 integrations with channel managers and government services. They're certified by the Portuguese Tax Authority. And their customer support gets praised constantly in reviews — deservedly.
For professional property managers running 50, 100, 200+ units? Hostkit is probably the right tool. It's built for that world, and it's good at it.
That's exactly the problem.
The moment I realised I needed to build something else
I own properties in Portugal. Like most hosts, I started out doing everything manually — logging into the Portal das Finanças to issue every invoice, jumping into SIBA to register each guest within the three-day window, opening a spreadsheet to track my INE numbers month after month, then checking each municipality's tourist tax rate because they all do it differently. It was eating hours every single week, and worse, it sat in the back of my mind constantly. Did I file that boletim? Is the INE due? Did I get the rate right?
So I signed up for Hostkit.
The product itself was fine. But getting to it was a journey. First I had to book a demo call. Then wait for the call. Then sit through an onboarding that felt designed for someone managing a portfolio — not someone like me, with a few apartments and a day job. The pricing wasn't public, so I couldn't even tell upfront what I'd be paying. And the interface was full of options I didn't need and would never use.
I remember thinking: this is built for a property manager, not a host.
Then I looked around for an alternative — and realised there was nothing built for people like me. Individual hosts. Expats managing a Portuguese property from abroad. People who just needed the compliance sorted, clearly, on their phone, without a sales call and without becoming an expert in Portuguese bureaucracy.
So I built it.
My mission: solve the struggle I lived through
EazyAL didn't start as a business plan. It started as frustration.
Every painful step I went through as a host became something I was determined to remove for the next person. The dread of a foreign-language government portal. The fear of a fine for a deadline I didn't even know existed. The hours lost to copying passport numbers by hand. The feeling that compliance was a tax on my time, paid every week, forever.
I'm a software engineer as well as a host, so I could see that almost none of this needed to be manual. The data already exists the moment a guest books — it just needs to flow to the right place at the right time. That gap between "this is stressful and confusing" and "this could be automatic and clear" is the whole reason EazyAL exists.
My mission is simple: no host in Portugal should have to become a bureaucracy expert to keep their property legal. Whether you're a Portuguese host with one apartment or an expat running a place in Madeira from another country, you should be able to understand exactly what's required, trust that it's been handled, and get back to actually hosting. I built the tool I wish I'd had on day one — and I'm still building it around the real struggles hosts tell me about.
What EazyAL does differently
EazyAL covers the same core compliance obligations that Hostkit does — Finanças invoicing, SIBA, INE surveys, tourist tax. That's the baseline. Every serious platform needs to handle those.
But the philosophy is completely different.
We're built for solo hosts, not agencies. If you have 1 to 20 properties / rooms and manage them yourself, EazyAL is designed for exactly your situation — not as an afterthought, but as the primary use case. Every decision, from the onboarding to the wording in the app, assumes you're a real host with limited time, not a back-office team.
You can sign up right now, without talking to anyone. No demo call. No waiting for someone to get back to you. No sitting through a presentation. You sign up, connect your property, share your check-in link, and start automating. That's it.
Our pricing is public. You don't need to contact anyone to find out what EazyAL costs — it's right there on the website. No surprises, no negotiation, no "let's talk about your specific needs."
We explain what we're doing and why. This is the part I care about most. EazyAL doesn't just automate your compliance — it tells you what obligation is coming up, why it matters, what happens if you miss it, and exactly what we've submitted on your behalf. A lot of hosts, especially expats, don't only want automation; they want to understand what's happening with their property in a foreign country. Clarity is a feature, not an extra.
One guest, one link, everything downstream. A guest fills in your check-in link before arrival — passport details, signatures, arrival info — and that single action feeds SIBA reporting, INE statistics, tourist tax and invoicing all at once. You don't type a passport number, and every submission is archived as proof.
Who should use Hostkit
Genuinely — if you're a property manager with a large portfolio, or you need deep integrations with a specific channel manager that Hostkit supports, use Hostkit. They've been building in this space for years and their breadth of integrations is hard to beat. Scale and complexity are what they're made for.
Who EazyAL is built for
You own 1 to 20 properties in Madeira, Lisbon, Porto, the Algarve, or anywhere else in Portugal. You manage them yourself, or mostly yourself. Compliance is a background stress that quietly eats time you don't have. You want it sorted — automatically, reliably, on your phone — without becoming a software expert or hiring an agency.
Or you're an expat. You bought a property in Portugal, you list it on Airbnb, and every time you have to deal with a Portuguese government portal you feel a quiet dread. EazyAL was designed with you specifically in mind — clear, in English, and honest about what each rule means.
You don't want to hand your whole operation to a management company and pay a commission for the privilege. You just want the paperwork handled so you stay in control.
The honest bottom line
Hostkit is a great product. EazyAL is a different product, built for a different person.
If you're that person — a solo host, a remote owner, someone who just wants compliance handled without the enterprise overhead — I'd love for you to try EazyAL. It takes about 5 minutes to set up, and the first 14 days are free. In fact, I'm personally available to help you get set up — because I've been where you are, and I'd rather spend ten minutes making sure your account is right than leave you guessing.
No demo call required.
→ Start your free trial at eazyal.com
EazyAL automates Alojamento Local compliance for Portuguese short-term rental hosts — including Finanças invoicing, SIBA guest registration, INE surveys, and tourist tax. Built in Portugal, by a host, for hosts who have better things to do.
FAQ: Hostkit vs EazyAL
Is Hostkit or EazyAL better for Airbnb hosts in Portugal? It depends on your setup. Hostkit is better for large property managers with complex needs; EazyAL is better for individual hosts and small portfolios who want compliance handled simply.
Why did you build EazyAL if Hostkit already exists? Because most tools, including Hostkit, are designed for agencies. EazyAL was built for solo hosts, remote owners, and expats managing property in Portugal — people who want compliance handled without complexity, and who I share a struggle with because I'm one of them.
Does EazyAL replace Hostkit? Not exactly — they serve different users. Hostkit is a full ecosystem with integrations built for scale; EazyAL is focused, simple compliance automation. It's not a replacement, it's an alternative.
Which platform is easier to start with? EazyAL is designed for instant onboarding: no demo call, no onboarding wait, no sales process. You can start immediately.
Do I need to switch everything over to use EazyAL? No. EazyAL works alongside Airbnb, Booking.com and direct bookings — you keep your listings where they are and simply add your EazyAL check-in link. Setup takes minutes.
