PropsManager vs Buildium: An Honest Comparison for 2026

By PropsManager Team · Software Comparison · Dec 15, 2025

Choosing property management software is one of those decisions that feels small but affects every single day of your landlord life. Pick the wrong one and you're stuck migrating data, retraining your workflow, and explaining to tenants why the portal changed — again.

Buildium is one of the most well-known names in the space. It's been around since 2004, serves tens of thousands of property managers, and was acquired by RealPage in 2019. It has brand recognition, a large user base, and features that cover the basics of property management.

PropsManager is the newer challenger. We're not going to pretend otherwise. But newer doesn't mean lesser — it means we built our platform after studying exactly what landlords and property managers hate about legacy tools. Including Buildium.

This comparison is as honest as we can make it. We'll tell you where Buildium wins, where PropsManager wins, and — most importantly — which platform fits your specific situation. No fluff, no misleading feature matrices where every box gets a checkmark.

Quick Verdict: TL;DR

Choose Buildium if you manage 200+ units, need deep integration with RealPage's ecosystem, or your company already has established workflows built around it.

Choose PropsManager if you want modern AI-powered tools, transparent pricing without per-unit cost escalation, a 6-month free trial to genuinely evaluate the platform, and dedicated engineering support for customization.

For most landlords and property managers with small-to-mid-size portfolios (or even scaling companies tired of bloated legacy software), PropsManager delivers more value per dollar. That's our honest take — and the rest of this article explains exactly why.

Pricing: The Biggest Difference

Let's start with money, because that's where the conversation usually begins and ends for a lot of landlords.

Buildium's Pricing

Buildium uses a tiered, per-unit pricing model:

• Essential Plan: Starts at ~$55/month for up to 20 units
• Growth Plan: Starts at ~$174/month for up to 20 units
• Premium Plan: Starts at ~$375/month for up to 20 units

Those prices climb as your portfolio grows. Managing 50 units on the Growth plan? You're looking at north of $200/month. At 150 units, costs can exceed $400–$500/month depending on add-ons.

And about those add-ons — Buildium charges extra for several features that many landlords consider essential. Tenant screening reports, electronic lease signing (eLease), and premium support all carry additional fees. Buildium users on forums frequently describe this as "nickel-and-diming." A $55/month starting price quickly becomes $120+ when you add the tools you actually need.

PropsManager's Pricing

PropsManager takes a different approach. Our pricing is designed to be transparent — you see what you pay, and features aren't locked behind add-on paywalls. No per-unit cost escalation that punishes you for growing your portfolio.

The biggest differentiator? A full 6-month free trial, no credit card required. That's not a typo. Six months. Buildium offers a 14-day trial — barely enough time to upload your property data, let alone evaluate whether the platform works for your business.

Six months means you can run through multiple rent cycles, test maintenance workflows during busy season, onboard tenants to the portal, and see real results before spending a dime.

For a deeper look at what's included, visit our pricing page.

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Rent Collection

Both platforms handle online rent collection. Buildium supports ACH and credit card payments through its tenant portal, and it works. Tenants can set up autopay, you get notifications when payments arrive, and late fees can be automated.

PropsManager does all of that too — but adds AI-powered payment prediction that flags tenants likely to pay late before the due date arrives. That's not a gimmick. When you know a payment might be late three days before it happens, you can send a friendly reminder instead of chasing money after the fact.

Buildium charges tenants a convenience fee for credit card payments (typically $37.50+ per transaction), which tenants dislike. PropsManager's fee structure is more competitive and transparent.

If you're still dealing with paper checks, our guide on automating rent collection explains why going digital is worth the switch regardless of which platform you choose.

Tenant Screening

Buildium partners with TransUnion for tenant screening. It works, but each screening report is an additional cost — typically $15–$25 per applicant on top of your subscription. If you screen 10 applicants per month across your portfolio, that's an extra $150–$250.

PropsManager includes tenant screening as part of the platform. Comprehensive credit checks, background checks, eviction history, and income verification — without the per-report surcharges that inflate your monthly costs.

Maintenance Tracking

Buildium's maintenance module lets tenants submit requests, you can assign vendors, and track status. It's functional but has been criticized for a dated interface and limited communication tools. Several Buildium users on review sites mention that maintenance coordination still requires a lot of back-and-forth outside the platform.

PropsManager's maintenance tracking includes AI-assisted prioritization — the system categorizes incoming requests by urgency, suggests appropriate vendors from your saved list, and keeps all communication (tenant, vendor, owner) within a single thread. No more toggling between email, text, and the portal to piece together what happened with a work order.

We covered the broader benefits of smarter maintenance workflows in our post on the future of property management automation.

Lease Management

Buildium supports lease creation, tracking, and renewals. Their eLease feature (electronic signing) is available — but it's an add-on. You pay extra for the ability to send leases digitally, which feels like paying extra for electricity in 2026.

PropsManager includes electronic lease signing, lease templates, automated renewal reminders, and document storage in every plan. Create a lease, send it for e-signature, store it in the tenant's file, and set up automatic renewal notifications — all without hitting a paywall.

Accounting

This is an area where Buildium genuinely excels. Their accounting module is robust — general ledger, bank reconciliation, 1099 reporting, financial statements. If you're managing a large portfolio with complex accounting needs, Buildium's accounting tools are mature and well-tested.

PropsManager's accounting covers income and expense tracking, automated financial reports, tax-ready statements, and integrations with popular accounting software. It handles the needs of most landlords and property managers well. For large-scale property management companies with complex trust accounting requirements, Buildium's accounting module has a slight edge in depth — we'll give them that.

Portals (Tenant and Owner)

Buildium offers both tenant and owner portals. They work, but the interface hasn't been significantly modernized in years. Users frequently comment that it looks and feels like software from 2015. Mobile experience is particularly clunky — the responsive design is an afterthought rather than a core design principle.

PropsManager's tenant and owner portals are built with a modern, mobile-first approach. Tenants can pay rent, submit maintenance requests, upload documents, and communicate with management from any device. Owners get real-time dashboards showing income, expenses, occupancy, and maintenance activity. The UX difference is noticeable from the first login.

AI-Powered Tools

This one isn't really a comparison. Buildium doesn't offer AI-powered features in any meaningful way. Their platform is functional, but it's fundamentally a traditional CRUD application — you put data in, you get data out.

PropsManager incorporates AI across the platform: predictive analytics for rent collection, smart maintenance categorization, automated lease clause suggestions, and intelligent reporting that surfaces insights rather than just numbers. We built PropsManager in the era of AI. Buildium was built before smartphones existed.

Rental Applications

Buildium supports online rental applications through their marketing website feature, but the application flow is somewhat limited and the integration with screening can feel disconnected.

PropsManager offers a streamlined application-to-screening pipeline. Applicants fill out a single form, screening runs automatically (with your approval), and qualified tenants can move directly into lease signing. One workflow instead of three separate processes.

Document Management

Both platforms offer document storage. Buildium allows you to upload and organize files by property or tenant. PropsManager does the same, with the addition of AI-powered document tagging and search — upload a document and the system automatically categorizes it, extracts key dates (lease end, insurance expiration), and sets up relevant reminders.

Full Comparison Table

Customer Support: Where Buildium Struggles

Support quality matters more than people think. When a tenant's payment fails at 9 PM on rent day, or a screening report comes back with confusing results, or your accounting reports won't reconcile — you need help fast.

Buildium's customer support has been a consistent pain point in user reviews. Here's what actual users say on G2, Capterra, and Reddit:

• "Wait times of 30+ minutes on the phone are normal."
• "Email support takes 2–3 business days for a response."
• "Premium support costs extra — so you're paying more just to get timely help."

The fact that Buildium charges extra for priority support on their Premium plan ($375+/month) sends a clear message about where basic-tier users fall in the priority queue.

PropsManager provides responsive support across all plans. We don't gatekeep support quality behind pricing tiers. And because we offer dedicated engineers for customization requests, you're not limited to submitting feature requests into a black hole. If your business needs a specific workflow adjustment, our team can build it.

Ease of Use and Interface

Software you avoid using is software that isn't working for you. One of the most common complaints about Buildium — even from people who otherwise like the platform — is the interface.

Buildium's UI was designed in a different era of web development. Navigation can be unintuitive, pages load slowly, and the dashboard doesn't surface the information you need most. Multiple users describe a steep learning curve, particularly for the accounting features.

PropsManager was designed from the ground up with a clean, modern interface. The dashboard shows you exactly what needs attention today — overdue rent, pending maintenance, upcoming lease expirations — without forcing you to click through five menus. It's the difference between a tool that was designed for 2024 and one that's been patched and updated since 2004.

Who Should Choose Buildium?

We're going to be fair here. Buildium is the right choice for some property managers:

• Large portfolios (200+ units) that need deep accounting features like trust accounting and full general ledger functionality
• Companies already embedded in the RealPage ecosystem — if you're using other RealPage products, Buildium's integrations within that family make sense
• Property managers who value brand recognition and need to show owners/clients they're using an "established" platform
• Teams that have already built workflows around Buildium and would face significant switching costs

If you're in one of these categories, Buildium is a reasonable choice. It's been around for 20+ years for a reason — it works for a certain segment of the market.

Who Should Choose PropsManager?

PropsManager is the better fit for:

• Landlords with 1–100+ units who want powerful features without enterprise pricing
• Growing portfolios that don't want pricing that punishes growth — adding units shouldn't double your software cost
• Tech-forward property managers who want AI-powered tools, not just digitized versions of paper processes
• Anyone tired of add-on fees — tenant screening, e-signatures, and premium features should be included, not upsold
• Property managers who value support and want dedicated engineering resources for customization
• New landlords who need time to evaluate — 6 months beats 14 days by roughly 12x
• Small-to-mid teams that need intuitive software with minimal training requirements

If you've been using Buildium and finding yourself frustrated with the cost creep, the dated interface, or the slow support responses, PropsManager was essentially built for you.

Explore our full feature set to see everything that's included.

Switching from Buildium to PropsManager

Migrating property management software sounds painful. We know — it's the main reason landlords stay on platforms they've outgrown. But it doesn't have to be a nightmare.

How the Migration Works

1. Sign up for PropsManager's free trial — you have 6 months, so there's zero pressure
2. Export your data from Buildium — Buildium allows CSV exports of properties, tenants, leases, and transactions
3. Import into PropsManager — our import tools handle standard CSV formats, and our support team assists with data mapping
4. Run both platforms in parallel — use the free trial period to run PropsManager alongside Buildium until you're confident in the transition
5. Notify tenants — PropsManager provides branded email templates for notifying tenants about the new portal
6. Go live — once everything checks out, cancel Buildium and save the monthly cost

What About Historical Data?

PropsManager supports importing historical transaction data, lease records, and tenant information. You won't lose your history. For complex portfolios, our team provides hands-on migration assistance — we've helped property managers move from Buildium, AppFolio, Rent Manager, and spreadsheets.

How Long Does It Take?

Most migrations complete within 1–2 weeks for portfolios under 100 units. Larger portfolios may take 3–4 weeks with our dedicated support. The 6-month trial gives you ample runway to complete the transition without rushing.

Explore More PropsManager Resources

Looking for the right property management software? Check out our in-depth guides:

• Compare Property Management Software — See how PropsManager stacks up against Buildium, AppFolio, Rent Manager, and Propertyware.
• Software for Small Landlords — Built for landlords managing 1–50 units without the enterprise price tag.
• AI-Powered Property Management — Discover how automation can save you 5–10 hours per week.
• Solutions for Property Managers — Scale from 50 to 500+ units without scaling your costs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Buildium better than PropsManager for large portfolios?

It depends on what "better" means. Buildium's accounting module is more mature for complex trust accounting scenarios, which matters for large property management companies. But Buildium's per-unit pricing also means large portfolios pay significantly more — a 200-unit portfolio on the Growth plan can cost $400–$500+/month. PropsManager's flat-rate pricing and AI features often deliver better overall value, even at scale. If your primary concern is deep accounting, Buildium has an edge. If it's total cost of ownership and modern features, PropsManager wins.

Can I try PropsManager before committing?

Yes — and not with a rushed 14-day trial. PropsManager offers a full 6-month free trial with no credit card required. That's enough time to run through multiple rent cycles, test every feature, and make an informed decision based on real usage rather than a quick demo.

Does PropsManager handle tenant screening like Buildium?

Yes. PropsManager includes comprehensive tenant screening — credit checks, background checks, eviction history, and income verification. The key difference is that screening is included in your PropsManager plan, while Buildium charges $15–$25 per report as an add-on. For landlords screening multiple applicants per vacancy, that cost difference adds up fast.

What if I need custom features that neither platform offers out of the box?

This is where PropsManager has a genuine advantage. We offer dedicated engineering support for customization. If your property management business has a unique workflow requirement — a specific report format, a custom integration, or a specialized automation — our engineering team can build it for you. Buildium, as a large-scale SaaS product owned by RealPage, doesn't offer that level of individual customization. You submit a feature request and hope it aligns with their roadmap.

How does PropsManager's AI actually help day-to-day?

AI in PropsManager isn't a marketing buzzword tacked onto an existing product. It's built into core workflows. Payment prediction alerts you before tenants miss rent, so you can intervene proactively. Maintenance AI categorizes incoming requests by urgency and suggests vendors. Document AI auto-tags uploads and extracts key dates for reminders. Reporting AI surfaces anomalies — like a property where expenses are trending 30% above average — instead of making you dig through spreadsheets. These features save hours per week and catch issues humans miss.

The Bottom Line

Buildium is a legacy platform with a solid track record. It's reliable, well-known, and its accounting features are genuinely strong. For large property management companies deeply embedded in the RealPage ecosystem, it can be the right tool.

But for most landlords and property managers — especially those managing small-to-mid portfolios, growing their business, or simply tired of overpaying for dated software — PropsManager is the better choice in 2026.

Here's what it comes down to:

• Pricing: PropsManager doesn't punish you for growing. Buildium does.
• Features: PropsManager includes what Buildium charges extra for.
• Technology: PropsManager is built on modern AI-driven architecture. Buildium is built on two decades of accumulated code.
• Support: PropsManager provides dedicated support and engineering resources. Buildium charges extra for faster responses.
• Trial: PropsManager gives you 6 months free. Buildium gives you 14 days.

Software is a tool. The best tool is the one that makes your business run smoother, costs less, and doesn't fight you every time you need to do something simple.

If you've read this far, you're seriously evaluating your options. Good. Take the next step and see PropsManager in action.

For a broader perspective on why modern property management software matters, check out our article on the benefits of property management software — it covers the fundamentals that apply regardless of which platform you choose.

Ready to see how PropsManager compares in your specific situation? Get in touch with our team for a personalized demo. We'll walk through your portfolio, your workflow, and show you exactly how PropsManager handles it — no sales pitch, just a real demonstration with your real scenarios. And remember: you get 6 months free to prove it works before paying anything.