Best HOA Software for Self-Managed Associations: An Independent, Rubric-Scored Comparison
Last verified: October 1, 2026 · See updates
How this comparison was made: Based on vendor documentation and public sources as of July 3, 2026 (KindHOA: as of September 10, 2026, the day it was added), not hands-on testing. Every price below traces to the vendor’s own published pricing page, with the verification date shown in each product’s section. Scoring criteria and weights were fixed before any product was scored, see the rubric below and the full methodology.
Disclosure: CommonKeel has no paid, affiliate, referral, or sponsorship relationship with any ranked vendor on this page as of October 1, 2026. One exception exists on this page: we have an affiliate relationship with QuickBooks (Intuit), which appears only in the unranked “also in the market” section below; this is the disclosure for it. Rankings are never affected by compensation, commercial arrangements are tracked separately from editorial scoring, and no vendor can pay to change a score. Full disclosure policy.
Search “best HOA software” and nearly every result is a vendor concluding that the best HOA software is, remarkably, itself. This page is our answer: ten platforms that plausibly fit a volunteer-run association of 5–250 units, scored against a weighted rubric that was published before scoring began. If you want the raw prices normalized per unit instead, see the pricing comparison. Not yet sure your board should self-manage at all? Start with the free readiness assessment.
Ten profiles is a lot to read on a Tuesday night. If you would rather answer questions than compare tables, the free HOA Software Match tool asks six of them (unit count, your single biggest pain, condo or HOA, budget, whether you need fund accounting inside the software, and whether a newer vendor is acceptable) and returns one starting point plus up to two alternates, each linked back to the research behind it.
It draws on the same rubric as this comparison and publishes every scoring rule in plain English. Its option list differs slightly from the ten ranked here (it does not yet include KindHOA, added September 10, 2026): it can also land on QuickBooks Online, Buildium, ElectionBuddy, or on staying with spreadsheets, when your answers point there. It runs entirely in your browser (nothing you answer is sent to us and no email address is asked for), and the same disclosure that governs this page governs the tool. It narrows the list; this page is still where you check the reasoning before you commit.
The rubric (defined before scoring)
Each product is scored 1–5 on six criteria. The weighted total (max 5.00) determines rank. Ties break toward the higher self-managed-fit score.
| Criterion | Weight | What we look for (from public documentation) |
|---|---|---|
| Self-managed fit | 25% | Is the volunteer board the design center, dedicated self-managed positioning, features a board (not a manager) operates, no manager-scale minimums? |
| Core accounting | 20% | General ledger, invoicing/AR, bank reconciliation or sync, budgeting, tax-form support, native, not bolted on. |
| Price transparency & value | 15% | Full pricing published (not “get a quote”), fair cost at 5–250 units, usage fees disclosed. |
| Resident portal & payments | 15% | Owner portal, online dues payment (ACH/cards), communication tools residents actually use. |
| Ease for volunteers | 15% | Self-serve trial, no long contract lock-in, setup a rotating volunteer treasurer can survive. |
| Support & continuity signals | 10% | Support offerings, onboarding help, company scale/stability signals in public documentation. |
| Rank | Product | Total /5 | Self-mgd fit (25%) | Accounting (20%) | Price transp. (15%) | Portal & pay (15%) | Volunteer ease (15%) | Support (10%) | Published entry price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PayHOA | 4.75 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | $49/mo (0–25 units, billed yearly) |
| 2 | KindHOA | 4.35 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 2 | $0/mo (Good Neighbor) or $300/yr prepaid ($29/mo monthly) flat, unlimited residents; platform fee of 0.8–1.2% on online payments |
| 3 | RunHOA | 4.20 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | $399/yr flat, unlimited units |
| 4 | HOA Start | 3.95 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | Not published; quote by number of homes (billed annually) |
| 5 | Condo Control | 3.85 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | $67.50–$540/mo by unit band (self-managed view, five bands published); 500+ by quote; add-ons unpriced |
| 6 | Neigbrs by Vinteum | 3.55 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | $0.79/unit/mo (Basic); Standard $0.99 and Premium $1.99 also published |
| 7 | HOALife | 3.50 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | from $199/mo |
| 8 | TownSq | 3.25 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | Pro $90/mo (up to 300 units) |
| 9 | Buildium | 3.25 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | from $62/mo (association pricing by phone) |
| 10 | Smartwebs | 2.90 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | Quote only; MAX adds accounting |
Weighted total = Σ(score × weight). Example: PayHOA = 5(.25)+5(.20)+5(.15)+5(.15)+4(.15)+4(.10) = 4.75. KindHOA = 5(.25)+4(.20)+5(.15)+4(.15)+5(.15)+2(.10) = 4.35. TownSq and Buildium tie at 3.25; TownSq ranks higher on the self-managed-fit tiebreaker. All prices are the vendor’s published figures verified July 3, 2026 (KindHOA September 10, 2026); pricing changes often, confirm on the vendor’s site.
1. PayHOA, best overall for self-managed boards 4.75
Why it ranks first: PayHOA is one of the few platforms whose design center is the self-managed association, its pricing page defaults to a Self-Managed tab, and it pairs that focus with genuinely deep money tools: general-ledger accounting, invoicing and online payments, bank sync (Plaid + Western Alliance), plus violations, architectural request forms, mass email/text/calls, a USPS mailroom, website builder, voting and surveys, document storage, and an optional bookkeeping service if no volunteer will take the books.
Published pricing (verified July 28, 2026): a single all-inclusive plan by unit count, billed yearly (monthly billing in parentheses): 0–25 units $49/mo ($54); 26–50 $59 ($65); 51–100 $99 ($109); 101–150 $129 ($142); 151–200 $169 ($186); 201–300 $199 ($219), scaling to $0.55/unit/mo above 500 units. Usage fees: ACH $2.45; cards 3.5% + $0.50; USPS letter $1.25; optional bookkeeping from $199/mo; 1120-H preparation from $399. Source: payhoa.com/pricing.
Watch for: per-transaction fees are where small-association costs hide, model them against your unit count. 30-day free trial, no credit card, per its published terms. For a fuller picture, including the bank-sync and reserve-tracking friction boards report, see our detailed PayHOA assessment.
2. KindHOA, newest entrant: $0 or $300 a year, and the thinnest track record on the page 4.35
Why it ranks here: KindHOA is built only for self-managed boards, with no unit bands or minimums, and its permanent free tier (Good Neighbor) already includes invoicing and online dues through Stripe, a finance hub (transactions, budgets, CSV/OFX bank match, on-screen treasurer reports), maintenance and architectural requests, violation tracking, a document library, a resident portal with native iOS and Android apps, a public website on a free subdomain, board polls and formal elections. It scores 5 on self-managed fit, 5 on price transparency (the subscription, the platform fee, Stripe’s fees, postage, add-ons and storage are all on one pricing page) and 5 on ease for volunteers (self-serve signup with no card, no contract, monthly or free, CSV import, published migration guides for PayHOA, Buildium and HOA Start, and a free 30-minute onboarding call). It scores 4 on accounting and portal, in line with RunHOA and HOA Start, and 2 on support and continuity, for the reasons under Watch for. Because it is a documentation-based score, a reader who weights continuity more heavily than the rubric’s 10% should read RunHOA and PayHOA first.
Published pricing (verified September 10, 2026): two software tiers, neither priced per unit. Good Neighbor is $0 with no card required. Board Automation is $300 a year prepaid or $29 a month ($348 a year if paid monthly); every new association gets it free for 60 days, no card. Board Automation adds recurring dues schedules, automated late fees, email broadcasts to all residents, community-wide voting, vendor bid management, unlimited violations, PDF/HTML treasurer reports and 1120-H preparation worksheets (the vendor does not file taxes), 25 GB of storage and priority email support. Paid separately: an optional Bank Sync live feed at $9 a month or $89 a year (CSV/OFX import stays free); physical mail at $3.99 First-Class, $12.99 Certified and $17.99 Certified with return receipt per letter on Good Neighbor (8% off on Board Automation); a managed community web address at about $29.99 a year, Board Presence (domain plus board@ email) at about $49.99 a year; extra storage at $5 a month per 25 GB. Source: kindhoa.com/pricing.
What “$0 forever” costs in practice. Every online payment carries Stripe’s processing (cards 2.9% + 30¢; ACH 0.8% capped at $5) and a KindHOA platform fee: on Good Neighbor 1.2% on cards and 1.0% on ACH (capped at $8), on Board Automation 1.0% and 0.8% (capped at $5). Checks entered manually carry no platform fee. Worked example, our arithmetic on the vendor’s published rates: a 100-unit association billing $150 a month, all owners paying by ACH, is $180,000 a year through 1,200 payments. Stripe takes $1.20 per payment ($1,440 a year) and the Good Neighbor platform fee $1.50 per payment ($1,800 a year), so an association that absorbs all fees pays about $3,240 a year on the “free” tier, and about $3,180 on Board Automation ($1,440 Stripe, $1,440 platform fee, $300 subscription). The same association on RunHOA, which publishes no platform fee of its own, pays about $1,839 (Stripe $1,440 plus $399). Card payments cost more on every platform: a $150 card payment on Good Neighbor carries $6.45 in fees. The board can instead pass Stripe’s fee, or all fees, to the paying owner, in which case the association’s cost really is $0 or $300 a year and each owner paying $150 by ACH is charged about $152.70. Decide the fee policy before comparing headline prices.
Free-tier limits, from the pricing page: 10 active violations, 5 announcements and 10 calendar events a month, one photo per maintenance request, two-month feed history and one-month message history, polls for the board only, treasurer reports on screen only (no PDF), 5 GB of storage. A board that needs recurring dues, automated late fees, email broadcasts or printable reports is a Board Automation customer at $300 a year, which is the figure to compare with RunHOA’s $399.
Watch for: continuity is the open question and the reason for the 2. The operator, Kind Tech LLC of Colorado Springs, was founded in 2025 and its About page describes the product as the side project of one founder-developer, a data engineer. Google Play showed “10+” installs of the Android app on September 10, 2026, Capterra listed no user reviews, and the vendor publishes no customer count (asked directly, it said it prefers not to while it is still early). Support is email only, on weekdays, with no phone or chat; a free 30-minute onboarding call is offered. On accounting, the vendor states on its own treasurer page that it tracks operating and reserve accounts but does not enforce the separation at the database level, and that PDF reports and 1120-H worksheets require the paid tier; that is why accounting is a 4, not a 5. Export your data on a schedule with any vendor this young.
How this entry came about: KindHOA wrote to us on September 8, 2026 asking to be scored and sent a documentation pack the next day. Every fact above was checked against the vendor’s public pages on September 10, 2026, and the score is what the published rubric produces from those pages, not from the pack. CommonKeel has no paid, affiliate or referral relationship with KindHOA, and the vendor did not ask for one. Based on vendor documentation and public sources; not hands-on testing.
3. RunHOA, flat fee with no platform fee of its own 4.20
Why it ranks here: $399 per year flat, all features, unlimited units and users. Until KindHOA was added in September 2026 this was the lowest published subscription on the page; it is still the cheaper of the two for a board that absorbs payment fees, because RunHOA’s published pricing adds no platform fee of its own on top of Stripe’s processing (the arithmetic is in the KindHOA profile above). It covers directories, a member portal, HOA accounting and budgeting, dues collection via Stripe, 1120-H tax form generation, e-voting, email/text, calendar, website builder, document storage, and amenity reservations. Built exclusively for self-managed HOAs.
Published pricing (verified July 3, 2026): $399/year flat. 30-day free trial, no credit card. Source: runhoa.com/pricing.
Watch for: public documentation implies a very small team and support footprint, the price is outstanding, but a board that needs hand-holding through setup should weigh that. This is why its support score is a 2 despite the top-tier value. See our detailed RunHOA assessment for what the flat price means as you grow and the vendor-maturity trade-off.
4. HOA Start, strong all-rounder with website DNA 3.95
Why it ranks here: markets directly to volunteer boards, and combines a polished website builder with member accounts, email/text blasts, accounting and budgeting, Stripe payments, online voting, violation tracking, architectural requests and work orders, amenity reservations, and a board room. It also runs webinars aimed at self-managed boards. Full detail in our documentation-based HOA Start assessment, including what its one plan and paid support levels cover.
Published pricing (read October 1, 2026): none. The vendor’s pricing page sells one plan, HOA Start Complete, with every feature included, priced by the number of homes plus an optional paid support level (Guided Onboarding or Concierge). No dollar figure appears on the page, rendered or in its HTML. Plans are billed annually with no long-term contract. (Corrected October 1, 2026: HOA Start removed its published tier prices, and its price-transparency score fell from 3 to 2; see Updates.) Source: hoastart.com/pricing.
Watch for: no price is public at all, so you cannot budget without a quote. That is why price transparency is a 2 here: the vendor explains how the price is set (home count and support level) but publishes no figure. The upside of the October 2026 change is that violation tracking, ARC requests and work orders are now in the one plan, not in a higher tier.
5. Condo Control, feature depth for condos and larger communities 3.85
Why it ranks here: a mature platform with a dedicated self-managed market page, strongest in condos and high-rises: announcements with an AI assistant, accounting and online payments, violations, architectural review, amenity booking, e-voting and proxy voting, virtual meetings, security/concierge modules, resident portal and app, and public websites. The portal/payments score of 5 reflects the broadest resident-facing feature set in this group.
Published pricing (verified August 14, 2026): Condo Control publishes a five-band monthly rate card for self-managed communities, not a single starting figure. Read band by band on the vendor’s own pricing page with the Self-Managed view selected: $67.50 (selector band 0–99, labelled “under 50 units”), $135 (100–199), $270 (200–299), $405 (300–399), $540 (400–499), and Contact Sales at 500+. The bands are visible only after moving the unit selector. Corrected Aug 14, 2026; see updates.
What is still not published, which is why this is a 3 and not a 5: there is no 50–99 band at all, so a 70-unit board has no figure that is actually labelled for it; no add-on is priced, and electronic voting, virtual meetings, violation tracking, the public website and the accounting integration are all billed on top; the three tiers (Standard, Modern, Premium Living) remain a feature matrix with no per-tier rate; and switching to the Management Company view removes every dollar figure from the page. There is still no self-serve trial; sales are demo-based.
Why price transparency is a 3: the rubric awards this criterion for full pricing published with usage fees disclosed; a per-band subscription table with every add-on unpriced is materially more than one starting-at figure but is not full pricing, a level above HOA Start, which since October 2026 publishes no figure at all and scores 2. Condo Control sits 5th at 3.85, below HOA Start at 3.95 and above Neigbrs at 3.55. Condo Control has no paid or referral relationship with us. Source: condocontrol.com/pricing. Full band table and limits: our Condo Control review.
Watch for: unpriced add-ons and a demo-and-quote sales model make budgeting harder for a small board. See our detailed Condo Control assessment for its strengths, the friction boards report, and who it fits.
6. Neigbrs by Vinteum, transparent per-unit pricing 3.55
Why it ranks here: separate solution pages for self-managed associations, with a resident portal and public website, notices/SMS/smart calls, digital voting and board elections, amenity booking, maintenance requests, incident reporting, package tracking, visitor/access control, and QuickBooks integration for invoicing, meaning the accounting itself lives in QuickBooks rather than natively.
Published pricing (verified August 11, 2026): all three tiers are published. The vendor prints Basic $0.79/unit/mo, Standard $0.99/unit/mo (adds mobile app, voting, unlimited storage, SMS) and Premium $1.99/unit/mo on its own pricing page, each on its own plan card. A one-time white-glove onboarding fee that varies by community size is published. At the Standard rate, a 100-unit community computes to $1,188/year before onboarding. Source: vinteum.io/pricing.
Watch for: 30-day cancellation notice, and you’ll be maintaining a QuickBooks file alongside it for full accounting. Trial terms: the vendor contradicts itself, so confirm before you plan around either answer. As of August 1, 2026 the pricing-page FAQ read “We do not offer a self-service free trial at this time” and offered a personalized demo instead, while the vendor’s own live page at vinteum.io/free-trial advertised a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. We cannot tell from the published pages which is current, and we are not going to guess on your behalf. Ask the vendor directly.
7. HOALife, enforcement-first, bring your own accounting 3.50
Why it ranks here: built around what it calls the enforcement workflow, GPS-guided inspections, violations, architectural review, plus online voting, owner portal and public website, email and postal communications, work orders, payments, and a QuickBooks Online integration. It publishes a dedicated self-managed page and handbook. Month-to-month agreements are a genuine plus for volunteer boards.
Published pricing (verified July 3, 2026): starting at $199/month; final pricing scoped during a 30-minute demo based on community size. Source: hoalife.com/pricing.
Watch for: the $199/mo floor prices out many very small associations, and the bring-your-own-accounting model (QBO) means two systems. Best fit: 100+ unit communities where violations and ARC volume are the pain.
8. TownSq, community engagement first, accounting elsewhere 3.25
Why it ranks here: a polished community app, announcements, website builder with custom domain, requests and tasks, forum and messaging, amenity reservations, documents, polls, with ARC review on the Advanced tier and violations, digital voting, and other functions as paid add-ons. Its accounting-grade product (Enterprise, powered by C3) is aimed at management companies, which limits the fit for a volunteer treasurer.
Published pricing (verified August 1, 2026): by community size, up to 300 units: Pro $90/mo, Advanced $145/mo; 301–900 units: $180/$290; 900+: $270/$435; 10% off annual. Add-ons: digital voting $250/event + $25 setup; ARC $20/mo; website $10/mo; violations $20/mo; news and events emergency broadcast $20/mo; concierge $99/mo; business workspace $20/mo; AI $20/mo. Source: townsq.io/pricing.
Watch for: the trial terms on the vendor’s pricing page (August 1, 2026), where the 301–900 and 900+ panels read “30-day trial for 1 year term that auto-renews annually,” and add-ons accumulate. Its longstanding distribution partnership with a major management company (Associa) also signals where its roadmap points.
9. Buildium, the accounting heavyweight built for managers 3.25
Why it ranks here: purpose-built property accounting that outclasses most of this list, payments (ePay), resident portal, violations and association management, maintenance, 1099 e-filing, bank reconciliation, and an open API on Premium. But property management companies and landlords are the customers it’s designed for; a self-managed board can run it, and some do, but you’re adapting a professional’s tool.
Published pricing (verified July 3, 2026): Essential from $62/mo, Growth from $192/mo, Premium from $400/mo, scaling with units. Fees: incoming EFT $2.35/$1.35/$0.60 by tier; cards 2.99%; bank account setup $99; 1099 e-file $50/batch + $4.50/form. Community-association-specific pricing is not published (phone quote). 14-day free trial, no credit card. Source: buildium.com/pricing.
Watch for: the learning curve is the tax you pay for the accounting depth, a board with an accountant or bookkeeper on it will get the most from Buildium.
10. Smartwebs, mid-size enforcement-plus-accounting contender 2.90
Why it ranks here: a legitimate self-managed contender (it trademarked “The Self-Managed HOA Advantage”) with AI-assisted violations, architectural reviews, work orders, zero-touch USPS mailing, resident and board portals, mobile apps, and full accounting (AP/AR, collections, bank integrations, auto-reconciliation, lockbox) on its Max plan. The friction is buying it: pricing is quote-only with minimums, implementation fees, and no free trial, the lowest price-transparency score in this comparison.
Pricing (verified August 8, 2026): quote only. The Smartwebs pricing page lists two tiers, CORE (management tools, portals, payments) and MAX (adds AP/AR, collections, bank integrations, auto-reconciliation), and both show a “Get a Quote” button with no dollar figure anywhere on the page. Both tiers carry the note “Minimums and Implementation Fees Apply.” A CORE starting price of $99/month that the vendor published as of July 8, 2026 is no longer on the page, so we do not state it as current; that is a change in what Smartwebs publishes, not a claim that the price itself changed, and a board should assume nothing about the number until it has a written quote. Source: smartwebs.com/pricing.
Watch for: best evaluated by mid-size communities (roughly 100+ units) that want accounting plus enforcement in one package and are willing to sit through a demo.
Also in the market (not ranked)
- HOA Express, a website/communication builder with a free plan and paid tiers from $15/mo at the smallest size (published pricing, verified July 3, 2026). Excellent for boards whose money side is already handled, but it isn’t an accounting platform, so it isn’t scored against this rubric. See it in the pricing table. Not sure you need a full platform at all? Start with the website & resident portal checklist.
- AppFolio, CINC Systems, Vantaca, Enumerate, built or priced for professional managers (AppFolio’s entry tier carries a 50-unit minimum; Enumerate’s published pricing FAQ states a $500/month minimum). Reference points, not recommendations, for a 5–250-unit volunteer board.
- QuickBooks Online, the generic-accounting path many treasurers already know. Workable with fund-accounting workarounds; no owner portal or assessment billing. Intuit’s pricing changes with frequent promotions, so check their site directly. See our full QuickBooks Online for a self-managed HOA guide for what it does and does not do.
- Every tool we have verified, scored or not, is indexed in the HOA software directory: 32 vendors in nine categories, including payments services, voting platforms, reserve planning software, bookkeeping services and insurance programs, each with what it publishes as a price, the date we read it, and whether a volunteer board can buy it directly. Eleven of the 32 publish no price at all, and seven cannot be sold to a volunteer board.
HOA accounting, ledger, and bookkeeping software: which picks are strongest
Many boards don’t want an all-in-one platform, they want the money side handled: a general ledger, a per-unit dues ledger, bank reconciliation, and clean books for the 1120-H. That is the “Core accounting” criterion in the rubric above (20% of the score), and it separates the field more than any other factor.
- Strongest native accounting: Buildium scores a 5, it is purpose-built double-entry property accounting (AR/AP, bank reconciliation, 1099 e-filing), though it is designed for professional managers and carries a learning curve. PayHOA also scores a 5 and is the better fit for a volunteer board because the ledger, invoicing, online dues, and bank sync are built around the self-managed association rather than a management company.
- Real fund accounting for reserves: Condo Control keeps operating and reserve funds as separate ledgers, useful for condos that must track a reserve fund distinctly.
- Bookkeeping you already know: if a treasurer is comfortable in generic bookkeeping software, QuickBooks Online is a workable HOA ledger with fund-accounting workarounds, but it has no owner portal or assessment billing. Our QuickBooks Online for a self-managed HOA guide covers exactly what it does and does not do.
- Lowest-cost native ledger: KindHOA scores a 4; its finance hub (per-unit invoicing, categorized transactions, budgets, CSV/OFX bank match, separate operating and reserve accounts) ships on the $0 tier, while PDF treasurer reports and 1120-H worksheets need the $300-a-year tier. The vendor itself says it does not enforce operating/reserve separation at the database level, and its percentage platform fee on online payments is part of the real cost of the ledger.
- Bring-your-own-ledger platforms: Neigbrs by Vinteum and HOALife integrate with QuickBooks rather than keeping the books natively, so you maintain a separate accounting file alongside them.
Before paying for any of these, confirm a spreadsheet isn’t enough: the free HOA dues tracker and budget workbook are the honest first step for very small associations. To compare the ledger tools on price per unit, see the HOA software pricing comparison.
Head to head: the three pairs boards actually shortlist
Most boards do not choose from ten products. They narrow to two and then stall, because a ranked list does not tell you which one to pick when both look fine. These three matchups cover the shortlists we see most often. Every score and price below is restated from this page’s own rubric and scorecard above; the criterion weights are the ones published at the top.
PayHOA vs RunHOA: the value question
| Criterion (weight) | PayHOA | RunHOA | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-managed fit (25%) | 5 | 5 | tie |
| Accounting (20%) | 5 | 4 | PayHOA |
| Price transparency (15%) | 5 | 5 | tie |
| Portal & payments (15%) | 5 | 4 | PayHOA |
| Volunteer ease (15%) | 4 | 4 | tie |
| Support (10%) | 4 | 2 | PayHOA |
| Weighted total | 4.75 | 4.20 | PayHOA |
What the published prices actually mean at your size. RunHOA is $399 a year flat for unlimited units. PayHOA’s smallest tier is $49 a month billed yearly, which is $588 a year for an association of 25 units or fewer, and $99 a month, or $1,188 a year, in the 51 to 100 unit band. RunHOA is therefore the cheaper subscription at every size, and the gap widens as you grow: roughly $189 a year apart at 25 units and roughly $789 a year apart at 100. Both publish their prices outright, which is why both score 5 on transparency, and both advertise a 30-day free trial with no credit card. Note that subscription price is not total cost, since PayHOA charges per-transaction fees on ACH and cards that RunHOA’s Stripe-based collection also incurs in its own form. Model your own dues volume before treating either figure as final.
Choose RunHOA if the board is price-sensitive, at least one volunteer is comfortable setting up software without much hand-holding, and the flat fee matters more than depth. Choose PayHOA if the association needs stronger native accounting, a broader resident-facing portal, or a real support channel to fall back on. The support scores, 4 against 2, are the honest reason the cheaper product is not ranked first: RunHOA’s public documentation implies a very small team, and a board that will need help through migration should weigh that against the annual saving.
Where KindHOA fits in this pair: added September 10, 2026, it undercuts both on subscription ($0 or $300 a year) and matches RunHOA on every criterion except ease for volunteers (5 against 4, for no contract and a permanent free tier), which is why it sits between them at 4.35. It is not automatically the cheaper choice: its platform fee on online payments means a 100-unit board that absorbs fees pays more in total than on RunHOA, and it is the youngest company on the page. The arithmetic is in the KindHOA profile.
PayHOA vs HOA Start: a published price against a quote
| Criterion (weight) | PayHOA | HOA Start | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-managed fit (25%) | 5 | 5 | tie |
| Accounting (20%) | 5 | 4 | PayHOA |
| Price transparency (15%) | 5 | 2 | PayHOA |
| Portal & payments (15%) | 5 | 4 | PayHOA |
| Volunteer ease (15%) | 4 | 4 | tie |
| Support (10%) | 4 | 4 | tie |
| Weighted total | 4.75 | 3.95 | PayHOA |
The difference is whether you can see a price. PayHOA publishes a complete unit-band table you can read off today, from $49 a month at 0 to 25 units billed yearly. HOA Start publishes no figure: since October 2026 its pricing page sells one plan with every feature and quotes by number of homes. On features the gap has narrowed, because violation tracking and ARC requests are now in HOA Start’s one plan, as they are in PayHOA’s. On budgeting it has widened, because a board can put PayHOA in a draft budget without talking to anyone and cannot do that with HOA Start.
Choose HOA Start if the association’s main problem is its website and resident communication, since that is the product’s origin and it shows, and the board is willing to request a written quote before comparing. Choose PayHOA if dues, the ledger and collections are the pain, or if the board wants to know its price before it talks to anyone. Trials differ: PayHOA advertises 30 days; HOA Start’s FAQ described 14 days in July 2026, and its current pricing page offers a demo and a pricing form instead.
PayHOA vs Condo Control: published price against condo depth
| Criterion (weight) | PayHOA | Condo Control | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-managed fit (25%) | 5 | 4 | PayHOA |
| Accounting (20%) | 5 | 4 | PayHOA |
| Price transparency (15%) | 5 | 3 | PayHOA |
| Portal & payments (15%) | 5 | 5 | tie |
| Volunteer ease (15%) | 4 | 3 | PayHOA |
| Support (10%) | 4 | 4 | tie |
| Weighted total | 4.75 | 3.85 | PayHOA |
This is the one pair where the lower-ranked product can still be the right answer. Condo Control ties PayHOA on the resident-facing portal and payments criterion, the only product on this page that does, and it carries condo-specific machinery that PayHOA does not: separate operating and reserve ledgers, e-voting and proxy voting, virtual meetings, amenity booking, and security or concierge modules. On price, the gap is narrower than a quote-only label suggests, but it does not close. Condo Control does publish a unit-band table ($67.50 up to $540 a month across five bands), which is why its transparency score is a 3 rather than a 2. What it still will not tell you is your total: every add-on is unpriced, and the add-ons include electronic voting and virtual meetings, which for many condo boards are the reason to buy at all. There is also no published band between 50 and 99 units. The comparison a board should actually make: PayHOA publishes a complete unit-band table and discloses its transaction fees, so you can model your number before you talk to anyone; Condo Control gives you a subscription line and still a sales call for everything else.
Choose Condo Control if you are a condominium or a high-rise, you must keep the reserve fund on its own ledger, you run proxy or electronic votes and amenity bookings, and the board can absorb a sales conversation to find out what it costs. Choose PayHOA if the association is a smaller homeowners association, the board turns over every year and needs the simplest possible handoff, or a published price is a requirement rather than a preference.
These matchups compare products against the rubric published at the top of this page. They are not hands-on tests, and CommonKeel has no paid, affiliate, or referral relationship with PayHOA, RunHOA, HOA Start, or Condo Control. PayHOA’s published prices and usage fees were verified against payhoa.com/pricing on July 28, 2026. See our comparison methodology and disclosure page.
How to use this comparison
- Start with the deadlines the software has to meet. Several of these products are sold on the portal and the document library, and in a number of states those are the features that carry a statutory clock: how many days you have to produce records to an owner who asks, how much notice a meeting needs, and what an election has to look like. Our state law comparison table puts those rules for 49 states side by side with the statute behind each cell, so you can walk into a demo knowing which requirement to test rather than discovering it in year two.
- Shortlist two or three from the table based on your pain, then read the head-to-head matchups for the pair you land on (money chaos → PayHOA/RunHOA/Buildium; communication and engagement → HOA Start/TownSq/Condo Control; enforcement → HOALife/Smartwebs). Prefer answering questions to reading tables? The free HOA Software Match tool applies these same rules to your answers and hands you a shortlist.
- Check the normalized pricing table and model your real total cost, including per-transaction fees, at your unit count.
- Trial with one month of real data where a free trial exists; demo with a written question list where it doesn’t. The free Board Starter Pack includes a Software Selection Scorecard for exactly this, and the vendor comparison scorecard guide shows how to weight the criteria before you score anything, so the ranking reflects your association rather than the last demo you sat through.
- Before you buy anything, make sure a spreadsheet isn’t enough: the free dues tracker is the honest first step for very small associations.
Frequently asked questions
Did you test these products hands-on?
No. This comparison is based on vendor documentation and public sources as of July 3, 2026, not hands-on testing. We say this plainly because most competing articles are written by vendors reviewing themselves. Hands-on trial reviews are planned; when a product has been genuinely tested, we’ll label it as tested.
Can a vendor pay to improve its ranking?
No. The rubric and weights were defined before scoring, and rankings are never affected by compensation. As of October 1, 2026 we have no paid relationship with any ranked vendor. We do have a QuickBooks (Intuit) affiliate relationship, disclosed at the top of this page; QuickBooks appears only in the unranked “also in the market” section, and the relationship doesn’t move any score.
What’s the cheapest credible option?
On subscription alone, KindHOA: its Good Neighbor tier is $0 and Board Automation is $300 a year prepaid (verified September 10, 2026). But KindHOA adds its own platform fee of 0.8% to 1.2% to every online payment on top of Stripe, so a 100-unit board that absorbs fees pays more in total than on RunHOA at $399 a year flat, which publishes no platform fee of its own; the worked example is in the KindHOA profile. Both are very small companies, and KindHOA was founded in 2025. PayHOA’s $49/mo entry tier (0–25 units, billed yearly) is the strongest value with more organizational depth behind it.
Does a small HOA need software at all?
Not always. Under roughly 30 units with reliable payers, a disciplined spreadsheet system works, that’s why we built a free one. Software earns its fee when collections, processing, or turnover starts eating volunteer evenings. The guide’s tooling section has the decision rule.
Why aren’t AppFolio, CINC, or Vantaca ranked?
They’re built and sold for professional management companies. Ranking them against volunteer-board criteria would be unfair in both directions.
How often is this page updated?
Prices and program facts are rechecked at least quarterly; the full rubric is rescored at least annually or when a vendor materially changes product or pricing. The date at the top reflects the last verification. Details in the methodology.
Are these HOA software reviews independent?
Yes. The rubric and weights were fixed before scoring, no vendor can pay to change a rank, and as of October 1, 2026 we have no paid relationship with any ranked vendor (see the disclosure at the top of this page). These are documentation-based assessments, not hands-on trial reviews, and we label a product tested only when it has been.
What’s the best HOA accounting or bookkeeping software?
On the accounting criterion, Buildium and PayHOA score highest; PayHOA fits a volunteer board better. See the accounting, ledger, and bookkeeping breakdown above.
Note: all vendor capabilities and prices above come from vendor documentation and public sources verified July 3, 2026. Pricing changes often; confirm current terms on the vendor’s site before purchasing. This page is educational, not a purchase recommendation for your specific association.