AppFolio vs Buildium: Which Is Better for Small Landlords?

Where Buildium wins

Buildium sells to landlords of any size. Essential costs $62 a month, or $55.80 billed annually, and its calculator shows the same price at 1, 20 and 40 units. You get double-entry accounting, leasing, maintenance, communications, standard and bulk reporting, and owner and resident portals, with support for trust accounts if you manage for others.

Beyond access, Buildium wins on transparency. Every plan and fee is on its pricing page: Growth at $192 a month adds reporting automation, enhanced screening, cheaper EFT and live phone support, and Premium at $400 adds free inspections, free eSignatures, a year of free incoming EFT and an open API.

Screening is also clearer. You can pay $17 per report yourself or have the applicant pay $35. Enhanced screening is $20 on Growth and Premium.

Where AppFolio wins

AppFolio is built for professional property managers with large portfolios. Its higher plans go further than Buildium in some areas: Plus covers affordable and student housing, advanced budgeting and custom fields, and Max adds a leasing CRM, a read and write API and a dedicated customer success manager.

Per unit, AppFolio’s starting rates look low: Core from $1.49 a unit per month, Plus from $3.20 and Max from $5.00. At a few hundred doors, a per-unit price can beat Buildium’s tiered plans, especially if you need the specialized housing features.

For a landlord with 1 to 20 units, none of this applies. You can’t get in.

Cost at 1, 5 and 20 units

Buildium Essential:

• 1 unit: $62 a month, $744 a year. Billed annually, $669.60.
• 5 units: still $62 a month, or $12.40 a door.
• 20 units: still $62 a month, or $3.10 a door.

Add $99 for each business bank account you connect on Essential. If you pay the EFT fee for tenants, add $2.35 per payment. At 20 units that’s 20 x $2.35 = $47 a month, which brings Essential to $109 a month all in.

AppFolio Core:

• 1, 5 or 20 units: not available. Core has a 50-unit minimum.
• 50 units: 50 x $1.49 = $74.50 a month, but the minimum spend applies instead. The last published minimum was $298 a month (2024, unverified), or $3,576 a year.
• 200 units: 200 x $1.49 = $298 a month. That’s the size at which the per-unit price catches up with the old minimum.

Third parties also report a one-time onboarding fee that AppFolio doesn’t publish. Ask for it in writing.

Tenant fees compared

What your residents pay matters, because it shapes how many pay online and how many complain.

• ACH or eCheck: Buildium’s incoming EFT is $2.35 on Essential, $1.35 on Growth, and on Premium free for the first 12 months then $0.60. You choose whether you or the resident pays. AppFolio’s eCheck fee is reported at $2.49 per payment since July 2023 (third-party figure).
• Cards: Buildium charges 2.99%. AppFolio is reported at about 2.99% for credit cards and around $9.99 flat for debit cards.

On a $1,650 rent, a 2.99% card fee is about $49.34 on either platform. A debit card payment on AppFolio would cost the resident about $9.99 if the third-party figure holds.

Resident complaints about mandatory convenience fees come up often in AppFolio reviews. Buildium’s reviewers complain more about fees on the landlord side: EFT, bank account setup and eSign.

The deciding questions

1. How many units do you have? Under 50, the decision is made for you. Buildium.
2. Do you manage other people’s properties? Both handle trust accounting and owner portals. Buildium lets you start small and grow into Growth or Premium.
3. Do you need affordable or student housing tools? That’s an AppFolio Plus feature, and worth a quote if it’s your business.
4. Do you want to see the price before a sales call? Buildium publishes every plan. AppFolio’s pricing is quote-based with an unpublished minimum.
5. How much do support complaints worry you? Reviews are mixed on AppFolio’s support. On Buildium, live phone support starts on Growth at $192 a month.

Who should pick each

Pick Buildium if you own or manage 1 to 50 units, want to sign up tonight and see every fee first, or are starting a management business and want room to grow into Growth and Premium. Billed annually, Essential at 20 units works out to $669.60 a year, or about $2.79 a door per month.

Pick AppFolio if you manage a few hundred doors for clients, need affordable or student housing tools, or want a dedicated customer success manager on Max, and you’re comfortable with quote-based pricing and a sales process.

Pick neither if you own a handful of rentals and only need to list, screen and collect rent. A landlord app such as TurboTenant or RentRedi costs $0 to $144 a year, against $744 for Buildium Essential billed monthly. Property management software earns its price when you have owners to report to.

Problems reviewers raise about each

Buildium: repeated price increases since the RealPage acquisition, transaction fees that add materially to the subscription, live phone support only from Growth up, and some users finding help resources and report customization limited.

AppFolio: not viable for small landlords because of the unit minimum and minimum spend, frequent resident complaints about eCheck and card fees, and mixed reports on support quality.

Moving between them

Most small landlords who end up on AppFolio get there from Buildium as their management business grows. If that’s you:

• Pick a cutover date at the start of a month, ideally January 1, so each tax year sits in one system.
• Export Buildium’s rent roll, tenant ledgers, owner balances, security deposit balances and a trial balance as of the cutover date.
• Reconcile every bank account in Buildium before you leave.
• Ask AppFolio’s onboarding team what it imports and what you’ll enter by hand.
• Tell residents in writing that the payment portal is changing, and give them the date. Autopay won’t carry over.

If you’re moving the other way because AppFolio’s minimum no longer fits, the same checklist applies in reverse. Buildium Essential is self-serve, so you can set it up and test it before you give notice.