HOA Start for a Self-Managed HOA

Last verified: October 1, 2026 · By the CommonKeel editorial team · See updates

Based on vendor documentation and public sources; not hands-on testing.

HOA Start is the platform in this category that leads with the association website. It is an all-in-one system for self-managed HOAs, POAs, and condominium associations, built around a site builder rather than bolted onto a payments portal, and it ranks fourth in our best software comparison. It is also the hardest of our tracked vendors to price: since at least October 1, 2026 its pricing page shows no dollar figure, and the number arrives only by quote. This page is a documentation-based assessment: what HOA Start includes, what the entry plan quietly leaves out, what a board can and cannot learn before requesting a quote, and who it fits. We have not run a hands-on trial. Everything below is drawn from HOA Start’s own pricing page (read October 1, 2026), its FAQ and its public support library (reviewed July 25, 2026).

What HOA Start is

HOA Start (branded on its own site as “hoastart by Membershine”) is a web-based, all-in-one community platform sold to self-managed associations. Unlike the payments-first platforms in the category, its center of gravity is the community website: templates and designs, unlimited pages, a custom domain, live preview editing, and a resident-facing newsfeed, with the administrative modules built around it. The vendor also offers a Multi-Site Manager, which matters for master associations and boards that oversee more than one community.

The functional modules, per the vendor’s published feature matrix and support documentation:

• Financials. Online payments, one-time charges, accounting, budgeting, vendor management (payables), and print/stuff/mail invoices. The public support library indexes documents for an accounts-receivable dashboard, budgets, chart of accounts, reconciliations, reports, transactions, and vendors, which is a fuller general-ledger footprint than the marketing pages suggest.
• Payments. Processed through Stripe, with a documented Stripe Connect setup guide. A QuickBooks integration is also documented in the support library.
• Communication. Email blasts, text alerts, newsfeed, private chat, digest notifications, and a message center.
• Governance and operations. Online voting, surveys and polls, a document repository, member directory, households, committee planner, boardroom, sub-admin roles, violation tracking, and ARC/work-order requests.
• Community life. Event registration (free and paid), amenity reservations with per-amenity calendars, photo gallery, and sponsorships.
• Platform. Password protection, SSL, nightly backups on Azure, unlimited storage, a web app, and a mobile app the pricing page lists as included.

One plan, priced by home count and support level

HOA Start’s pricing page, read October 1, 2026, sells one software plan, HOA Start Complete, and says every customer gets the whole platform. What changes the price, per the vendor, is two things: the number of homes or units in your association, and the level of hands-on support you buy. (Corrected October 1, 2026: HOA Start removed its published tier prices and tier split; see Updates.)

For a board, this makes feature choice simpler and price comparison harder. Violation tracking, ARC requests, work orders and amenity reservations are now in the one plan, so an enforcement-driven board no longer has to buy a higher tier to get them. But no figure is published for the software or for either paid support level, so the only way to compare HOA Start with a vendor that publishes a price list is to get a written quote first.

Where HOA Start does well

• Website quality is the point, not an afterthought. Most all-in-one platforms treat the public site as a thin wrapper on a portal. HOA Start sells the site first: designs, templates, unlimited pages, live preview, custom domain, and SSL. For associations in states that now expect records and notices to be posted online, and for communities that want a presence prospective buyers can see, that is a real differentiator. Our HOA website and resident portal checklist is the right way to test whether it meets your requirements.
• A complete financial stack in the one plan. Secure payments, accounting and financials, invoice management and budgeting are all listed in HOA Start Complete. The support library’s index of chart-of-accounts, reconciliation, transaction, and vendor documents suggests real general-ledger structure rather than a payment log.
• A clear, written data-ownership answer. The vendor’s FAQ states that the association retains full ownership and control of every item of content, from photos and writeups to payment data and documentation, and that HOA Start will help you export your data and files whenever you need them. Very few vendors in this category commit to that in writing on a public page. It does not substitute for testing an export, but it is the right starting posture and a fair thing to hold them to.
• No third-party add-ons required for the basics. Polls, amenity reservations, private messaging, and discussion forums are built in, so a board is not stitching together a separate survey tool and a social-media group.
• Standard onboarding is included. The software-only level lists standard onboarding and support. Guided Onboarding and Concierge add website creation, member imports and training, at prices the vendor does not publish. Volunteer boards with no technical member are the ones who most need setup help, so ask what the included level covers before paying for more.

Where boards should look closely

None of these is disqualifying, but each is worth resolving in writing before you sign:

• You cannot price it from the website. The pricing page shows no dollar figure for the software or for either paid support level, and says the price depends on the number of homes. A board therefore cannot compare HOA Start against a vendor with a published price list without first collecting a quote. Ask for the quote in writing, at your exact home count and support level, and ask what the renewal price will be.
• Some vendor documentation is visibly out of date. As of July 25, 2026 the FAQ still answers the mobile-app question with “We plan to offer iOS and Android apps by the 4th quarter of 2024,” even though the pricing matrix sells a mobile app and the support library documents mobile app and portal setup. A site-wide banner also still promotes a Florida House Bill 1203 white paper as “slated for January of 2025.” Neither is a product defect, and stale marketing copy is common. The practical lesson is narrow and worth applying to any vendor: confirm feature claims against the current product or a written answer, not against undated web copy.
• Support depth is not published. The vendor describes an in-house support team plus a detailed knowledge base, and the July 2026 feature matrix listed a support desk and help center. What is not published anywhere is support hours, channels, or response times. Ask, and open one real support ticket during the trial to see what happens.
• The trial is not on the pricing page. The vendor’s FAQ, read July 25, 2026, described a 14-day trial with no payment information, half the window RunHOA publishes. The October 1, 2026 pricing page offers a pricing form and a demo instead. Ask whether a trial is still offered.
• Stripe processing fees are separate. Dues run through Stripe, so card and bank-transfer fees are on top of the subscription and your board decides whether it or the paying owner absorbs them. Model this: for many small associations, annual processing fees rival or exceed the software subscription.
• Not a reserve tool. Like the rest of the all-in-one category, HOA Start does operating accounting, not reserve studies. Keep that plan separate with our reserve study guide and the free reserve fund calculator.

What HOA Start costs

HOA Start publishes no price. We read its pricing page on October 1, 2026 both as rendered and as raw HTML, and neither contains a dollar figure. (Corrected October 1, 2026: HOA Start removed its published tier prices and tier split; see Updates.) What the page does state:

• Software: one plan, HOA Start Complete, priced by the number of homes or units in your association, via “Get my pricing.”
• Support: software-only with standard onboarding is included; Guided Onboarding and Concierge are available at unpublished prices.
• Billing: plans billed annually, no long-term contracts, cancel anytime.
• Mobile app: listed as included.
• Payment processing: Stripe, billed separately at Stripe’s standard rates.
• Text overages and print-and-mail rates: not on the current pricing page. Ask for both in the written quote.

To see the platforms that do publish prices, normalized at 25, 75, and 200 units, use our HOA software pricing table.

Who it fits, and who should look elsewhere

HOA Start fits well when: the association website and resident-facing presence is a real priority, not a checkbox; you want dues, accounting, budgeting, and payables in the same system as the site; you run a master association or more than one community and can use the Multi-Site Manager; you want event registration and amenity reservations for an amenity-heavy community; or your board wants setup help rather than a self-serve tool.

Look harder, or look elsewhere, when: your board needs a published price it can put in a budget before talking to a salesperson; you want the lowest absolute cost, in which case RunHOA’s flat $399 per year is the category floor; or you are a condominium with heavy board-portal and package-and-amenity needs, where Condo Control has more depth. For a board that wants a self-managed-first all-in-one with fully published tiers, PayHOA remains the easier product to evaluate on paper.

Still building a shortlist rather than evaluating one product? Answer six questions in the free HOA Software Match tool, then read the independent best-software comparison.

HOA Start FAQ

How much does HOA Start cost?

HOA Start publishes no price. Its pricing page, read October 1, 2026, carries no dollar figure in the rendered page or in its HTML. It sells one software plan, HOA Start Complete, priced by the number of homes in your community, plus optional paid support levels (Guided Onboarding and Concierge). Plans are billed annually with no long-term contract. To get a number, a board has to use the "Get my pricing" form or book a demo, so you cannot budget for HOA Start from the website or compare it on paper with a vendor that publishes a price list.

What does HOA Start Complete include?

Per the vendor's pricing page, read October 1, 2026, every customer gets the complete platform: email and text blasts, branded emails, newsfeeds and private chat; custom forms, document storage, online voting and polls and a committee manager; violation tracking, ARC requests, work orders and amenity reservations; secure payments, accounting and financials, invoice management and budgeting; and a mobile app, marketing website and admin dashboard. The page says there are no packages and no paying more to get the tools you need. Until at least September 2026 the same page split these features across three tiers, with violation tracking and ARC requests above the entry tier; that split is gone.

Does HOA Start offer a free trial?

The vendor's FAQ, read July 25, 2026, states the trial is 14 days with full access to all features and no requirement to enter payment information. The pricing page read on October 1, 2026 does not mention a trial; it offers "Get my pricing" and "Schedule a demo". Ask whether the trial is still offered when you request pricing. If it is, plan it before you start: import a real owner list, set up your chart of accounts, and run one dues cycle end to end.

Does HOA Start work with QuickBooks?

HOA Start's public support library lists a document titled "Overview of QuickBooks Integration" alongside a Stripe Connect setup guide, so a QuickBooks integration is documented by the vendor (support library reviewed July 25, 2026). We have not tested it and the library does not, from its index alone, establish which QuickBooks products or sync directions are supported. If your treasurer already keeps the books in QuickBooks Online, ask HOA Start in writing exactly what the integration syncs and in which direction before you commit, and see our separate look at QuickBooks Online for HOAs for the trade-offs of generic accounting software.

Is this a hands-on HOA Start review?

No. This page is a documentation-based assessment: it draws on HOA Start's own pricing page, feature-comparison matrix, FAQ, and public support library, not on a hands-on trial by our team. We label that difference deliberately, because our editorial standards reserve the word review for products we have actually used. CommonKeel has no paid, affiliate, or referral relationship with HOA Start, so nothing here is influenced by compensation. Treat it as a structured starting point and verify the details in a written quote and, if offered, a trial.

HOA Start vs RunHOA vs PayHOA: which fits a self-managed board?

They solve for different things. HOA Start leads with website and community-presence quality and sells every feature in one plan, but it publishes no price at all. RunHOA is the budget anchor at a flat $399 per year for unlimited units, from a smaller vendor with a thinner track record. PayHOA publishes full unit-count tiers from $49 to $249 per month at annual billing, so a board can budget from the website, and it is the more established all-in-one. If a public, board-approvable number matters most, RunHOA or PayHOA are easier to evaluate; if the association website and resident-facing presence is the point, HOA Start is the strongest of the three on that axis.

Do this next

1. Decide your support level before you call. The software is one plan; what you choose is how much setup help to buy. Write down which features and help you require, using our website and portal checklist, so the quote is for the right product.
2. Request pricing in writing for your exact number of homes, and ask for the renewal price, the contract term, text and print/mail overage rates, and the data-export process in the same document.
3. Ask whether a trial is offered, and plan it before you start. Import a real owner list, build your chart of accounts, and run one dues cycle end to end. Open one support ticket deliberately and time the response.
4. Compare on paper. Put the quote next to the published numbers in our pricing table and the rankings in the best-software comparison before the board votes.

Compare the other in-depth assessments: PayHOA (best overall for small self-managed boards), RunHOA (the flat-price budget anchor), Condo Control (feature depth for condos and larger communities), and QuickBooks Online for HOAs (generic accounting).