Name: AppFolio Property Manager
Rating: 4.53 (1918 reviews)

AppFolio Property Manager vs Buildium Comparison

QuickBooks Enterprise

Propertyware

Yardi Breeze

Yardi Voyager

Rentec Direct

SimplifyEm

Great Software

We used to use Buildium and Appfolio is a 10+ compared to them. There customer service is awesome, quick to respond and very helpful. 

M&M Review

AppFolio might not be best for very small companies. The flat fee is for up to 250 units, so for a property manager with just a handful of units, the cost might be high compared to other platforms that have tiered pricing.

Never looking back!

The biggest issue my company had was advertising vacancies. We were relying on walk-in tenants, which has not been a good source for 5-10 years. AppFolio is one-click to post to multiple free websites and syncs with Apartments.com if your company goes that route. Ease of use and great training/help files will keep us with them for years to come.

Amazing Property Manager for Small-to-Medium Companies

Dear Drew, thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review. We're happy that your transition to AppFolio was a good one and that you are already reaping the benefit! 

Great Software System

Dear Nina, we appreciate your kind response and feedback. If you would like to post charges prior to the move-in date, charge a holding deposit from the rental application and the tenant will be able to pay this online at the time of lease signing. Feel free to follow-up with us if you'd like further assistance with this process!  

We've overall been happy with Appfolio, but with their decision to charge our tenants $2.49 (from free) for EFT payments and how they rolled this out is frustrating. Appfolio spent a lot of time offering training on how to get tenants signed up for their portal, and how to "sell" the (then) free EFT payment option. Now, tenants either have to pay $2.49 for every EFT payment they make, or as the property owner, we can pay $1/door (regardless if the tenant has the portal active; regardless if they actually use EFT payment option) and it'll remain free to the tenant. Appfolio has a large community forum for its users, and there are MANY property managers who have left Appfolio over this. This is simply a money grab for a now publically traded company. The forum has talk of a class action. It's been a nightmare. We have 1200 doors and they didn't blink an eye when we told them we were looking for other options. Same for a few commenters on the forum who have over 10k doors. They don't care how long you've been with them, or the number of doors you have.Separately, Appfolio's customer support is lacking. Chat or opening a ticket are the only options, and the chat feature is rarely an option. We are looking to move to either Buildium or Rentvine. The AF community forum has many AF customers moving to those software options.

Wouldn't Recommend

Buildium is costing me far too much time and our property manager will not use it for our reporting, or we will need to shop for a company that can provide straight forward monthly reporting.  

Avoid if you have larger portfolio!

In the accounting side, it is lacking. You can still manage to do all the work to get the books in order in Buildium, but sometimes it is even more tedious to do a task in Buildium than to account for it on Excel. Although the customer service was amazing. They always answered my question as best as they could and would spend even hour(s) on the phone with me. There was still lots of improvement for the accounting side that other accounting software already have. 

Good for the tenants

Easy to use and get set up.  I did feel like my initial one on one trainings with our designated agent were great, but I didn't know the right questions to ask at the time.  Now that I have been using the program and am a little more established, I have more questions.  Good news, you can always call and get someone with very little wait time.  Customer service is wonderful!

Ease into Property Management.....

Long time Buildium user

Criterion of Tenants Screening

Ease of use.
Landlord, tenant and property manager friendly.
All around great customer service.


Excellent website!

Hi Khadijah,

Thank you for your feedback. In regards to our texting feature, you can turn off  individual text messaging notifications on the text messaging page on the Communication menu. If you want all notifications turned off, you can adjust that under 'My settings'.

Thank you!
Buildium Team

Buildium for Canadians

Overall Buildium has been a great addition to my business. Customer support has been too notch as well. Anytime I have an issue, they resolve it for me.

Great product 

Buildium is a huge time saver and if you have a question they have FAQ's that have step by step directions on how to do things and they make it really easy to figure things out. 

Great accounting software for Property Managers

Review

Buildium Software User

It's been extremely easy to learn (only took 2-3 days to learn how to use the software). You know exactly what to do without a ton of direction or training. Payments are easy to make, uploading leases, maintenance requests, setting up online portals for tenants, etc. 

Great for Property Managers

As a property manager, I can do everything from accountancy, scheduling and client management on this one platform. Highly recommend!

All In One Solution

Buildium was a great tool to do almost everything in one spot. 

Great product

Buildium has helped grow my business

Fantastic, Fantastic, Fantastic!  

Read this interview: https://www.buildium.com/blog/how-to-travel-as-a-property-manager/
 Buildium literally changed my life!  I used to sit in an office, now I travel the world with my family.  
If you are a property manager and sit in the office and hate it, like i used to, get Buildium and free yourself!


Buildium Lets My Family and I Travel the WORLD!!

In general, my experience has been good and I believe with additional hands on learning and training this software appears to have a lot of potential and features/benefits.

Solid Owner Portal

Buildium

9 of 10 would recommend to any investor or property manager. Great value and great customer service....something you don't get many places anymore.

Good software, constant updates, GREAT support

I worked for a property management company that used Rent Manager, which I thought was a better product. We came very close to switching to Appfolio because they offer a water utility chargeback and invoicing as part of their package. I've also had a hard time understanding the relationship between Real Page and Buildium. The sales people at Real Page don't understand their connection with Buildium. Buildium also doesn't offer a payroll package.

Partnership

Very good. I can't imagine getting started without it. We started with a 32 unit complex.

Buildium for new property managers & owners 

Great software that handles a lot of task that otherwise you would have to do manually.  I would highly recommend it because I also manage another property where I'm not the property manager and we use this software where I get monthly reports.

Builduim to scale your business

I am the property manager and the accountant to this has helped me keep my head on straight instead of juggling between spreadsheets and software programs.  

Simplifying my job

Practical

Compare AppFolio Property Manager and Buildium based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more. Find out which software is best for your business today.

Yardi Voyager is a cloud-based real estate management system that allows businesses to manage and track properties and assets. The platform is suitable for various portfolio types including commercial, affordable housing, senior living, student housing, military, self storage, government, and more.

Propertyware is a web-based property management solution that offers online property marketing, lead management and accounting capabilities to property managers

Yardi Breeze is refreshingly simple property management software that puts you in charge of marketing and managing your entire portfolio from anywhere. For advanced features such as automated invoice processing, job costing, premium property websites and more, check out Yardi Breeze Premier.

AppFolio supports modern residential, commercial, student housing, and HOA property managers with online portals and automated processes to streamline business.

Access Controls/Permissions

Accounting

Activity Dashboard

Activity Tracking

Add & Edit Photos

Alerts/Notifications

Application Management

Audit Management

Audit Trail

Background Screening

Bank Reconciliation

Billing & Invoicing

Calendar Management

Cash Flow Management

Client Portal

Comment Library

Commercial Inspections

Commercial Leases

Commercial Property Management

Committee Management

Communication Management

Contact Database

Contact Management

Credit Card Processing

Credit Check

Customer Database

Customizable Branding

Customizable Reports

Customizable Templates

Data Import/Export

Deal Management

Document Management

Document Storage

Dues Management

Electronic Payments

Electronic Signature

Email Marketing

Email Templates

Event Calendar

Event Management

Event Scheduling

Expense Tracking

Fee Collection

File Management

Financial Management

Financial Reporting

For Commercial Real Estate

For Investors & Traders

For Property Managers

General Ledger

Guest Tracking

HOA Violation Enforcement

Housekeeping Management

Income & Balance Sheet

Inspection Management

Insurance Management

Invoice Management

Late Fee Calculation

Lead Management

Lease Management

Lease Origination

Lease Tracking

Maintenance Management

Maintenance Scheduling

Member Database

Member Directory

Member Portal

Membership Management

Mobile Access

Online Payments

Owner Portal

Parking Management

Payment Processing

Portfolio Management

Property Database

Property Management

Real-Time Data

Real-Time Notifications

Real-Time Reporting

Recurring/Subscription Billing

Reminders

Rent Tracking

Repair Estimates

Report Summary

Reporting & Statistics

Reporting/Analytics

Residential Inspections

Residential Leases

Residential Properties

Retail Leases

Role-Based Permissions

Self Service Portal

SMS Messaging

Task Management

Task Scheduling

Tax Management

Template Management

Templates

AppFolio Property Manager

Android

Web-based

iPad

iPhone

Owner

We love the constant features that are being added regularly. The ability for owners and tenants having their own portal is great.

President

With everything being automated the lack of a quick response from a human can be frustrating. The vacancy advertising link is also very frustrating.

Business Development Manager

Appfolio is a great software where we can keep track of all of the properties we manage. It has great functionality and features to keep track of all of the important information we need.

Accountant

This software is just amazing. I work in the property management industry, and this software makes it so simple to manage all of our client's portfolios effectively and easily.

Big cheese

The system for scheduling and paying vendors is very easy and wonderful to have integrated into the recordkeeping for the units.

Accounting Admin./Receptionist

Batch invoicing is nice in that it pulls the data in for my review/edit quickly. I like the ability to copy (Repeat Bill) an invoice.

Onsite Property Manager

It has so many great functions and I love how everything is all connected.

Chief Administrative Officer

The transition was the worst experience we have had transitioning software and it's creating a lot of operating difficulties.

The "What's New" features are something that is looked forward to whenever they roll out. The ease of use is great and makes it very easy to onboard new employees and cross-train existing staff.

Bookkeeper

Easy to find everything in one place. Customer service has been outstanding.

marketing ops

I love appfolio and it really is built for property managers and their tenants to have a overall better renting experience.

Administration

Our owner loves the ease with which we can give him reports and answer his questions on costs etc all the way down to the individual door level.

Would prefer if the tenants had pop up warnings and info when they are report in maintenance.

Brokerage Assistant

I really liked having a team I wish that team would continue. I've been a promoter of Appfolio for the most part I do think it's user friendly.

Property Manager 

If I have trouble figuring something out, then I submit a request and they either respond by email with how to do it or they will call and walk you through it.

Leasing agent

Customer support has been super helpful in coaching and explaining what I am doing wrong when I have an issue.

Has been a great investment for our company and with our expansion into other real estate it has allowed us to grow without any hiccups.

It is integrated with my website so it is easy for prospects to apply. I can use appfolio from anywhere in the world on my cell phone or tablet.

AppFolio Property Manager vs Buildium Comparison

AppFolio Property Manager

Buildium

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives