AppFolio Property Manager Pricing, Features, Reviews & Comparison of Alternatives

Pros
The software is intuitive, user friendly and a stable platform. They a continually developing additional functionality and release updates regularly. The customer forum is great - you can collaborate with other users, seek our solutions and make recommendations that development will consider for future releases.

Cons
It does not have an open API and they are unwilling to consider this for clients. While they are routinely pushing out enhancements and are developing additional functionality, and they say the functionality is based on client feedback - it seems like development resources are not focused on this things that clients really 'need'.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Switching from Promas to Appfolio would be like switching from mailing a letter to emailing a letter. The service is faster, more reliable, easier to do, takes less time, is more efficient. My list could go on and on. The main features that caught our eye were the ability to accept rent payments online for seamless accounts receivable from tenants, and online maintenance requests. For so long, we would take maintenance requests by phone or email. It was unreliable at best. Having this online feature gives us a smooth workflow from work order submission to mailing a check for work completed. Truly, Appfolio has saved our office countless hours! Oh and the customer service is awesome! I love how quickly we get responses with actual answers to our questions that solve our problems!

Cons
The onboarding was very tedious. Our Promas software was housed on an internal server at our office. That is the primary reason our transition was not that smooth to start off. Overall, we don't have many complaints. Of course, we all want cheaper software, but you get what you pay for. There are a few tweaks we have requested that Appfolio has implemented, and they continuously have updates and new features. It's really exciting! I do wish our owners could see live feed of their account balances in their portal and run their own reports as they wish.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
It was very easy to set up the implementation team was very helpful. The user friendliness of using it every day is the best with it super search feature.

Cons
There are a few work arounds that we have to do for our maintenance team but we know with the new features they keep adding all the time it will only be time before they will make an improvement that will help with this work around like all the other ones that we used to have to do.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
We were on a somewhat antiquated system, so improvement was easy to recognize. AppFolio does a lot of things well. It improved connection with residents AND our ability to have better records both for tenants and for staff (liability support/reduction), and much easier for staff to know what is happening across the board with any one resident or prospect. We are still learning! The transition was fast and friendly. Loved their tenant liability option.

Cons
1) OnBoarding was very tech-oriented and a challenge to adapt easily because staff is working on a calendar. I have some a-ha moments that i just couldn't get the OnBoarding team to understand (even though they were very capable folks) because in this tech world, it's either a or b, there is no c option. Well, later I'm finding the c option IS available. 2) They make frequent updates, and communicate them well. The challenge is working them into your schedule to understand so you can stay on top of them because your team will do the same---someone needs to know them. 3) Other updates seem to be in holding status for way too long, when they'd help users so much. 4) Our biggest complaint is AppFolio's unwillingness to work with other software integrations. They really cripple my ability by being so protective of.....whatever it is. Most other softwares integrate fine. They do so much so well, I feel like it's time to stop being so proprietary. That would change any element of dissatisfaction that I encounter. It appears so flexible, but it's not. The larger companies don't all want their screening or leases....so I still am running other programs which is a pain. Their system doesn't work for me (having a one stop shop for 'everyone' isn't realistic) in all areas as it seemed to in the beginning. So modify your expectations. I would have still purchased, but been happier with where i landed.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
The accounting is thorough and generally easy to use. Originally, 5 years ago, some of the ways they did things was different but over the years, things have been much easier & user friendly. I used another accounting property management software & it was a nightmare integrating with QuickBooks. Half the time it wouldn't migrate right. This has made my accounting & booking much simpler, easier & faster. The end of the month accounting to owners takes me less than half the time it used to. Very happy overall

Cons
The fact you can edit the website ourselves. I've used other property management software (LiveRez) and you can update pictures, website page wording and descriptions directly. AppFolio requires you to submit to their team and it take a few days to get done. In this day & age, that should be something we can do ourselves as we need to. Plus updating pages allows for search engines to rank us better.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10