Buildium and AppFolio are the two names on almost every property management company's shortlist, and the first thing a manager wants to know is what each will cost at their door count. Only one of them will tell you. Buildium publishes its whole price ladder, rung by rung, inside the data file its pricing calculator loads. AppFolio took its prices off its website in 2024 and now answers every pricing question with "Get a Quote".
So this comparison uses Buildium's current ladder against the last per-unit rates AppFolio published, with that caveat stated wherever it matters. If you are choosing a back office because units are sitting empty, the software will not fix that part this month. You can put the vacant unit live on RentPlace for $39 a month while the demos run, or paste the listing into the free Listing Grader first so the copy is not what is losing you applicants.
The short answer
Buildium is cheaper for most portfolios under about 150 units. Buildium Growth costs $192 a month up to 50 units and $252 up to 100, billed monthly, and Essential is $97 at 50 units and $196 at 100. AppFolio's last published Core price was $1.49 per unit per month with a $298 monthly minimum and a 50-unit minimum, so any portfolio from 50 to 200 units paid at least $298.
From about 150 units the two converge. At 200 units Buildium Growth is $301 against $298; at 300 units Buildium Growth is $482 a month against AppFolio Core's last published $447; at 500 units it is $722 against $745; at 1,000 units $1,390 against $1,490. On the upper tiers Buildium stays cheaper: Premium at 500 units is $1,311 a month, where AppFolio Plus was listed at $3.20 a unit, or $1,600. Neither vendor offers a free plan, and both require a paid onboarding service they do not price publicly.
Why one price list is public and the other is not
Buildium, now part of RealPage, sells to managers from a single building upward and wants small firms to buy without a sales call. Its pricing page has a unit slider, a 14-day trial with no credit card, and a feature table that prints most add-on fees. The calculator reads from a public price file with a separate range for every plan, which is where the ladder on our Buildium pricing page comes from.
AppFolio sells mostly to larger operators through demos. Its pricing page names three plans, Core, Plus and Max, lists what each includes, and adds one line under each: "Minimum spend and 50 unit minimum apply. Contact us for details." Archived copies of the page show it last printed prices in August 2024: Core at $1.49 a unit with a $298 minimum spend, Plus at $3.20 a unit, Max at $5.00 a unit. By mid-September 2024 the figures were gone. In early 2023 the same page had Core at $1.40 with a $280 minimum and Plus at $3.00 with a $1,500 minimum and a 500-unit floor, so the direction of travel was up.
That matters when you read any roundup quoting AppFolio at $1.40 or $1.49. Those are historical list prices. Your quote may be higher, or discounted to win the deal, and there is no public number to hold the salesperson to.
Buildium vs AppFolio pricing at 50, 100, 200 and 500 units
Monthly subscription, billed monthly, before onboarding and payment fees. Buildium figures are its current prices. AppFolio figures are its last published list rates applied to the unit count, shown only because nothing newer is public.
| Units | Buildium Essential | Buildium Growth | Buildium Premium | AppFolio Core (last published) | AppFolio Plus (last published) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | $62 | $192 | $400 | Not sold under 50 units | Not sold |
| 50 | $97 | $192 | $400 | $298 (minimum) | Minimum spend applies |
| 100 | $196 | $252 | $400 | $298 (minimum) | Minimum spend applies |
| 200 | Not sold above 150 | $301 | $531 | $298 | $640 plus minimum |
| 300 | Not sold | $482 | $793 | $447 | $960 plus minimum |
| 500 | Not sold | $722 | $1,311 | $745 | $1,600 |
| 1,000 | Not sold | $1,390 | $2,610 | $1,490 | $3,200 |
Two things jump out. Under 150 units Buildium's price barely moves (Premium is a flat $400 from 1 to 150 units, Growth a flat $192 up to 50), so a 60-door firm pays the same as a 100-door one on Premium. And AppFolio's minimum spend makes it the expensive option for the 50 to 150 unit firm that is, on paper, its entry market. Prepaying a year takes about 10% off every Buildium figure above. AppFolio does not publish an annual discount.
The fees on top of the subscription
The subscription is often not the biggest line. Buildium prints its fees; AppFolio does not, so this half of the comparison is Buildium's figures and a list of questions for your AppFolio call.
| Fee | Buildium (Essential / Growth / Premium) | AppFolio |
|---|---|---|
| Rent by bank transfer | $2.35 / $1.35 / $0.60 per payment, Premium free for the first 12 months | Not published; shown to the resident at payment, reported at $2.49, or $1.00 if you absorb it |
| Rent by card | 2.99% on every plan | Not published; shown to the resident at payment |
| Bank accounts for ePay | $99 each / 10 free / 100 free | Not published |
| Tenant screening | $17, or $35 paid by the applicant; enhanced $20 on Growth and Premium | Not published |
| eSignature | $5 / $1 / included per document | Not published |
| Inspections | $99 setup plus $40 to $95 a month / included / included | Included in Core |
| 1099 e-filing | $50 a batch plus $4.50 a form | Not published |
| Phone support | Growth and Premium only; Essential is ticket support | Standard on Core, enhanced on Plus, dedicated success manager on Max |
The EFT line is the one to multiply out. At 100 units on Buildium Essential, $2.35 on every rent payment is $2,820 a year, more than the $2,115 prepaid subscription, unless you pass it to residents as a convenience fee. Growth charges $1 less a payment, which is why Growth becomes the cheaper Buildium plan from about 81 units. What we could source about AppFolio's resident fees is on our AppFolio pricing page. Ask AppFolio for the same four numbers in writing: ACH per payment, card percentage, screening, and who each is billed to. What managers and residents report once they are live is in our AppFolio review.
Both systems also pay vendors out of the trust account, and most management agreements say no vendor gets paid without current insurance on file. Neither pricing page covers that job, so firms with a long vendor list usually end up tracking every vendor's certificate of insurance in a separate tool rather than in a spreadsheet nobody updates.
Onboarding, which both charge and neither prices
Buildium states that every new Growth or Premium customer must buy its onboarding service, which imports your data and builds a training plan. The price is not on the website. Essential customers can skip it. AppFolio's archived pricing page said "Onboarding fee based on portfolio size" and described a four to six week process with a dedicated team. It is also a one-time quote.
For the first-year comparison this is the one number you cannot fill in from the web, and it can swing the answer. Ask both vendors for it on the first call, in writing, for your exact unit count, and put it in the year-one column before you compare anything else.
Below 50 units, AppFolio is not an option
AppFolio Core carries a 50-unit minimum. A manager with 30 doors cannot buy it at any price, so for small firms the real comparison is Buildium against the platforms built for that size. Buildium Essential at 20 units is $62 a month or $671 a year prepaid. DoorLoop Starter is $69 a month on annual billing up to 10 units, and its Pro plan is $149 a month on annual billing up to 20; the whole schedule is on our DoorLoop pricing ladder. Owners managing their own handful of units rather than other people's property usually do better still on a landlord app at $144 to $199 a year.
Where AppFolio is the better buy
- You run several hundred units or more and plan to keep growing. Per door the last published Core rate is in the same range as Buildium Growth from 300 units up, and AppFolio is built around large portfolios.
- You manage affordable housing. Affordable housing capabilities are named in AppFolio Plus. Buildium's plan table has no equivalent row.
- You want a leasing CRM and a read/write API from the vendor. Both are on AppFolio Max. Buildium's Open API is on Premium.
- You want a dedicated success manager. That comes with AppFolio Max. Buildium's top support is Priority Support, included on Premium.
Where Buildium is the better buy
- You manage fewer than 150 units. Buildium is cheaper at every rung up to 150 and is the only one of the two you can buy under 50.
- You want to know the price before the demo. Every rung and most add-on fees are public, and the trial needs no card.
- You want to start without an onboarding project. Essential does not require it.
- You manage community associations as well as rentals. Buildium quotes HOA pricing separately and sells to associations directly.
The cost neither pricing page shows
An $1,800 unit loses about $60 for every day it sits empty. One extra vacant week is $420, and a 100-door firm with ordinary turnover has dozens of vacancies a year. Shave a week off each and the saving is larger than either vendor's annual subscription at that size.
Both systems syndicate the listing and hand you a prospect record. Neither changes what the renter writes first, which is usually "is this still available?", followed by four emails to learn the move-in date, income, occupants and pets. That first exchange is what RentPlace for property managers is built around: the listing asks your screening questions before the message will send, every applicant answers the same set so you can compare them side by side, and a vacancy board shows each unit's days empty. It sits in front of whichever back office you choose. It does not collect rent or keep the books, and it is not trying to. The plans are on the pricing page, starting at $39 a month.
How to decide this week
Count your doors first. Under 50, AppFolio is off the table and the question is which Buildium plan, or whether a lighter tool fits. From 50 to 150, Buildium is cheaper on published numbers and the burden is on AppFolio's quote to beat $192 to $291 a month on Growth. Above 150, get both quotes, add onboarding and a year of EFT fees at your real payment volume, and let the total decide.
Then book the two demos in the same week and ask identical questions: the onboarding figure, ACH and card fees and who pays them, screening cost, and the price at your unit count in 12 months if you grow by 20%. The full Buildium schedule, with every rung and every add-on, is on our Buildium pricing page so you can check its side of the answers.
While that runs, fix whatever is on the market now. Paste the listing into the Listing Grader, which scores it out of 100 and names the missing facts, and use the sample rental ads if you would rather start from copy that already works.