AppFolio vs Buildium (2026): Per-Unit vs Tiered Pricing, the 50-Unit Minimum, and Which Fits Your Door Count

AppFolio vs Buildium: which is better for a property management company?

As of 2026: Buildium for a management company under roughly 500 doors that wants a lower entry price and a tiered plan; AppFolio for a company at or past the 50-unit minimum that wants per-unit pricing and a single platform it will grow into at 1,000 doors and beyond. The two price in opposite directions, which is the whole comparison. AppFolio publishes a per-unit rate and hides the minimum spend; Buildium publishes a monthly floor and scales the bill with door count. Below is what each one actually costs on its own numbers, where DoorLoop fits, and the front-door problem neither platform solves.

AppFolio pricing in 2026

AppFolio publishes per-unit pricing, read directly from appfolio.com/pricing on September 8, 2026.

• Core: $1.40 per unit per month for residential and student housing, $1.50 for commercial, $0.80 for community associations. AppFolio states that a minimum spend and a 50-unit minimum apply, and does not publish the minimum spend.
• Plus: $3.00 per unit per month for residential and student housing, $1.50 for commercial, $0.85 for community associations. AppFolio describes Plus as built for larger, growing organizations typically managing 1,000-plus units across regions; a minimum spend and unit minimum apply.
• Max: a third tier above Plus, priced by quote.

The arithmetic to run: 200 residential units on Core is $280 a month at the published per-unit rate, but the unpublished minimum spend is what a 50- or 75-unit company actually pays, so ask for it before you compare. AppFolio's pitch is transparent per-unit pricing with no hidden fees; the minimum is the part of the price that is not on the page.

Buildium pricing in 2026

Buildium's pricing page blocks automated fetches, so these are third-party reported figures from August and September 2026 buyer guides, and the copy says so; confirm the current number on buildium.com before you budget.

• Essential: reported from $62 a month.
• Growth: reported from $192 a month, adding reporting automation, enhanced screening, analytics, and phone support.
• Premium: reported from $400 a month.
• Every published price is a "starting at" floor that scales with unit count, and per-transaction fees on rent payments, screening, and eSignatures are reported to add materially to the base; portfolios over 5,000 units and community associations are routed to a quote.

Buildium's structure favors the small company: a 40-door operator can be live on Essential for a reported $62 a month with no unit minimum, which AppFolio's 50-unit floor does not allow. The structure punishes growth a little: the tiers step up, and the transaction fees ride along.

How much does AppFolio cost vs how much does Buildium cost?

For 100 residential doors: AppFolio Core at the published $1.40 per unit is $140 a month, subject to the unpublished minimum spend; Buildium is reported from $62 (Essential) to $192 (Growth) a month before transaction fees. For 500 doors: AppFolio Core is $700 a month at the published rate; Buildium's reported tiers scale up with door count and land in a similar range on Growth or Premium plus fees. For 1,500 doors: AppFolio steers you to Plus at $3.00 per unit ($4,500 a month) for the multi-region feature set; Buildium's reported Premium tier plus per-door scaling is the comparison, and at that size both vendors expect a sales conversation. The crossover most operators report sits somewhere between 200 and 500 doors: below it Buildium's floor is cheaper, above it AppFolio's per-unit rate is easier to forecast.

What AppFolio does better

• One platform that scales. The same system serves 50 units and 5,000, and the Plus tier is built for multi-region portfolios.
• Per-unit pricing you can model. Once you know the minimum spend, the bill moves in a straight line with your door count.
• Mixed portfolios. Residential, commercial, student, and association pricing on one rate card.

What Buildium does better

• The entry price. A reported $62 a month floor with no unit minimum is the cheapest way into a real PM platform.
• Small-company fit. The tiers map to how a 50- to 300-door company grows rather than to an enterprise roadmap.
• Association work at small scale. HOA and community-association managers under the quote threshold get a published tier.

DoorLoop vs Buildium

DoorLoop is the third name in most of these searches, positioned between the two: per-unit-scaled tiers aimed at smaller landlords and management companies, with a lower published starting point than AppFolio and a feature set that overlaps Buildium's Essential and Growth. DoorLoop publishes its own tier prices and they change by promotion, so read its page the day you compare. The honest rule is the same for all three: the platform you pick matters less than whether your unit count sits above or below each vendor's minimum, and whether the per-transaction fees on rent, screening, and signatures are in your spreadsheet.

What neither platform does: answer the 9 p.m. call

AppFolio and Buildium both run the ledger, the leases, the maintenance queue, and the owner reports. Neither picks up the phone when a tenant calls about no heat at 9 p.m., neither answers the listing inquiry that lands at 11 on a Sunday, and neither chases the applicant who stopped replying. Every management platform has the same front door, and the front door is where vacancies and churn actually happen. An AI agent that answers every tenant call and leasing inquiry, triages the emergency, books the showing, and writes the result into AppFolio or Buildium is the separate layer that closes it: point tools run $99 to $500 a month, and a custom agent you own wired to your platform runs $5,000 to $10,000 one-time plus $100 to $300 a month in usage. The owner-operator version of that playbook is in AI for property management.

The bottom line

Buildium if you are under roughly 500 doors and want the lowest floor; AppFolio if you are at or past 50 units and want a per-unit price you can model to 1,000 doors and beyond. Get AppFolio's minimum spend in writing and Buildium's transaction fees in your spreadsheet before you compare a single feature. Then fix the leak that neither platform touches: the call that rang out. Book a free strategy session and we will show you what your after-hours inquiries are costing before you switch platforms.