Is Buildium good property management software? Yes, for residential managers with a small or mid-size portfolio who want posted prices and built-in trust accounting. It also fits associations fine with a call for pricing. This Buildium review shows its cost with per-use fees added, and what managers say about support and payments. Its Essential plan stops at 40 units.
Sound familiar?
- Your rent money lands in the wrong account. One Trustpilot reviewer wrote in October 2026 that Buildium “sent collected rents to the wrong bank account three months in a row”.
- Your late fees come out wrong. A Trustpilot reviewer wrote in September 2026 that the prepayment allocation caused “issues with late fees being added incorrectly”.
- Your bank setup never finishes. A complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau in July 2026 says “my bank account integration remains incomplete”.
- Your support ticket sits. A Trustpilot reviewer wrote in September 2026 that “Tickets take a while to respond to”.
Buildium suits residential and association managers. Residential managers get posted plan prices, and both get trust accounting reports. Associations must call for pricing. It suits you less if you need phone help on the cheapest plan. It also suits you less if you have more than 40 units and want Essential. Check one cost first: the fee per online payment, because it grows with every resident who pays online.
What Is Buildium?
Buildium is cloud software for rental managers and associations. It handles leasing, accounting, maintenance and portals for residents and owners. Its homepage names single-family, multifamily and commercial properties, plus student housing, affordable housing and associations. It also says it serves “growing portfolios all the way to fifteen thousand plus”.
The company is not new. The about-us page says Michael Monteiro and Dimitris Georgakopoulos founded Buildium in 2004. It bought All Property Management in 2015 and passed 14,000 customers in 2017. RealPage closed its acquisition of Buildium on December 18, 2019. The RealPage press release said Buildium had “approximately 2 million units under management in the SMB market segment”. The site footer now reads “Buildium, A RealPage Company”.
Buildium's accounting page promises a “full suite of reports to ensure you're following trust accounting rules”. It also lists bank reconciliation that runs on its own. The homepage adds “1099 e-filing in minutes”. Buildium sells these tools in three plans, and the next sections show what each plan holds.
Weighing it against another platform? Our guide to AppFolio vs Buildium compares the two side by side.
How Much Does Buildium Cost?
As of October 2026, Buildium pricing page lists three plans. Essential starts at $65 a month. Growth starts at $202 a month. Premium starts at $420 a month. The price rises with your unit count. Buildium's pricing page has a calculator for that. Growth is tagged “Most Popular”.
$65 a month is where Buildium's Essential plan starts, as of October 2026.
40 units is the most Essential covers. Buildium lists it as “Up to 40 Units”.
$1,460 a month is the calculator estimate for Growth at 1,000 units.
The table shows the monthly estimates from the calculator on October 30, 2026. Buildium says they leave out taxes, fees, onboarding and optional add-ons.
| Units | Essential | Growth | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 units | $65 a month | $202 a month | $420 a month |
| 40 units | $84 a month | $202 a month | $420 a month |
| 100 units | Not offered | $265 a month | $420 a month |
| 250 units | Not offered | $412 a month | $694 a month |
| 500 units | Not offered | $758 a month | $1,377 a month |
| 1,000 units | Not offered | $1,460 a month | $2,740 a month |
Per unit, the price drops as you grow. Using the pricing calculator, Essential at 20 units works out to about $3.25 per unit per month. At 40 units it is about $2.10 per unit. Growth works out to about $2.65 at 100 units, about $1.65 at 250 units and about $1.46 at 1,000 units. Premium works out to about $2.78 at 250 units and about $2.74 at 1,000 units. This is our math from Buildium's estimates, not a Buildium price list.
The calculator also has an “Annual Save 10%” toggle for a pre-paid annual subscription. As of October 2026 it shows Growth at 100 units as $2,862 a year. At 1,000 units it shows $15,770 a year. Both come from the pricing page. That is a price fact only.
Two groups get a phone number instead of a calculator. Buildium says “If you have more than 5,000 units or are looking for pricing for community associations please call 877-396-7876”. There is no free plan. Buildium offers a free 14-day trial with sample data and “No credit card required”. You can move from the trial to any plan.
What Fees Does Buildium Charge on Top of the Plan?
Buildium charges per use for payments, eSignatures, screening and more, on top of the plan. As of October 2026, the pricing page lists incoming EFT at $2.35 per payment on Essential and $1.35 on Growth. Premium has no incoming EFT fee for the first 12 months, then $0.60 per payment. EFT here means an electronic bank transfer. Online payments are an add-on on every plan.
| Fee (as of October 2026) | Essential | Growth | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incoming EFT (online payments add-on) | $2.35 per transaction | $1.35 per transaction | No incoming EFT fee for the first 12 months, then $0.60 per transaction |
| Outgoing EFT | $0.99 per transaction | $0.99 per transaction | $0.99 per transaction |
| Credit cards | 2.99% per transaction | 2.99% per transaction | 2.99% per transaction |
| Bank account setup | $99 per business bank account | 10 included, then $99 each | 100 included, then $99 each |
| eSignature (Dropbox Sign) | $5 per document | $1 per document | Unlimited, fees included |
| Tenant screening (TransUnion) | $17 per screening, or $35 if the applicant pays | $17 per screening, or $35 if the applicant pays. Enhanced screening is $20 per screening | $17 per screening, or $35 if the applicant pays. Enhanced screening is $20 per screening |
| Property inspections (HappyCo) | $99 setup plus $40 to $95 a month | Included. After 3 years, $0.40 per unit | Included |
| Showings coordinator (Tenant Turner) | $25 setup, from $41 a month | No setup fee on Growth, from $41 a month | No setup fee on Premium, from $41 a month |
| 1099 e-filing (Nelco) | $50 per batch plus $4.50 per form | $50 per batch plus $4.50 per form | $50 per batch plus $4.50 per form |
| Remote check printing | $30 setup plus $1.50 per check | $30 setup plus $1.50 per check | $30 setup plus $1.50 per check |
| Renters insurance (MSI) | From $12 a month through Resident Center | From $12 a month through Resident Center | From $12 a month through Resident Center |
Ask Buildium who pays the EFT and card fees in your setup before you set up online rent. Premium also gives you Priority Support and unlimited eSignatures.
Here are two worked examples from the pricing page, as of October 2026. First, a 10-unit landlord on Essential with 10 residents paying by incoming EFT. The math is $65 plus 10 times $2.35 per payment, which is $88.50 a month, or about $1,062 a year. That holds if the company pays the EFT fee.
Second, a 100-unit company with 90 residents paying by incoming EFT. On Growth, the math is $265 plus 90 times $1.35 per payment, which is $386.50 a month. On Premium, the plan is $420 a month with no incoming EFT fee for the first 12 months. That is $33.50 a month more than Growth that year. After that, it is $420 plus 90 times $0.60 per payment, which is $474 a month. Premium adds eSignatures and Priority Support. Add up the extras you would really use before you choose.
Monthly Buildium cost with EFT fees
- Plan price a month
- Incoming EFT payments a month
- Fee per EFT payment
The formula is the plan price plus the number of payments times the fee per payment. It leaves out card fees, screening and other add-ons.
What Do Property Managers Like About Buildium?
One praise theme is having the daily work in one place. As of October 2026, Buildium holds 4.3 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 821 reviews, with 63% five-star and 13% one-star. Reviewers there are managers and unlabeled users, so treat it as a general signal.
One reviewer wrote that “having everything in one place is key to keeping our work organized and easily trackable”. That matches the plan list. Per the pricing page, all three plans include a resident portal and an owners portal. They also include bank reconciliation, rent reporting and listing syndication.
Ease of use comes up in these reviews. Another reviewer called it “great for managing rental properties at a large or small scale”. The reviewer said it keeps things clean and organized. A third liked that “you can use it to collect rent from tenants and pay out owners”. That is the core job, and the accounting page backs it with trust accounting reports.
Starting small also gets praise. A reviewer who says they manage 100 or more doors wrote that the software “allowed us to start without a property limit”. Another liked that “owners and tenants can see whats going in in “real time””. Some reviewers also praise support. One wrote that “Support was very helpful and walked me thru the whole process”.
On mobile, Buildium says its Resident Center app is “highly-rated” and available on iOS and Android. Its maintenance page says the mobile app also works for maintenance on both Android and Apple devices. Judge both apps yourself in the trial.
What Are the Downsides of Buildium?
Reviews point to three downsides: money movement, support speed and a learning curve in accounting. Plan limits and per-use fees matter too. As of October 2026, the Better Business Bureau profile rates Buildium A+. It shows Buildium accredited since May 1, 2015. It also lists 37 complaints closed in the last 3 years and 15 in the last 12 months. The BBB says customer reviews do not count toward its rating.
Money movement is the sharpest complaint, as the box above shows. A second Trustpilot reviewer, in September 2026, wrote that “Payment funding still has some delays”. These are single reviews, not a measured rate. Still, other recent Trustpilot reviews and a BBB complaint touch banks and funding.
Support is the second theme. A BBB complaint from February 2026 said “Every response is a templated response and most do not correlate to the problem”. Buildium says on the pricing page that 85% of customer support calls are resolved on the first call. It also says Priority Support has an average phone wait under 1 minute. It says the average ticket wait is under 30 minutes. Those are Buildium's own claims, so time your own tickets and calls in the trial.
Essential support is by email ticket. Growth and Premium add live phone support, Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 8 PM EST. Priority Support is an add-on on Growth and included on Premium.
Accounting has a learning curve. The prepayment and late fee setup in the box above is one example. Plan limits also bite. Essential covers up to 40 units. Open API access is Premium only. Growth and Premium require onboarding, and Buildium lists no onboarding price.
Fees add up per payment, as the last section showed. Before you pick a plan, run the numbers two ways. Try it with your company paying the fee, then with the resident paying it.
Is Buildium Good for Small Property Managers?
Buildium suits small managers up to 40 units on Essential, if email ticket support is enough. A firm that wants phone help starts at $202 a month on Growth. That is as of October 2026, per the pricing page.
Size changes the answer, so here are four profiles. Each lists the plan, one price fact and one thing to check.
Landlord or small manager, up to 40 units
Essential fits a landlord who is fine with email tickets.
- Plan: Essential, $65 a month at 20 units and $84 a month at 40 units, per the pricing calculator.
- Check: incoming EFT is $2.35 per payment on this plan.
Growing company, 40 to 500 units
Growth adds phone support and more automation.
- Plan: Growth, $265 a month at 100 units and $758 a month at 500 units, per the pricing calculator.
- Check: ask what onboarding costs and how long it takes.
Larger company, 500 to 5,000 units
Premium adds Open API, Priority Support, unlimited eSignatures and the prospect tools.
- Plan: Growth is $1,460 a month at 1,000 units and Premium is $2,740 a month, per the pricing calculator.
- Check: add your monthly EFT count before you compare the two.
Community association manager
Buildium asks associations to call for pricing.
- Plan: call 877-396-7876 for association pricing, per the pricing page.
- Check: ask what the payment setup fees are for your bank accounts.
If you are launching a firm and still choosing tools, read how to start a property management company first. Software is only one line in that budget. If you own only a handful of doors, run your real rent roll through the trial.
Is Buildium Good for HOAs and Community Associations?
Buildium is a reasonable fit for association managers. It puts board tools and homeowner portals in one system with accounting. Its association page lists violations, board tools, committee voting and architectural requests. The page also names ARC/ACC voting for board and committee members.
As of October 2026, residents get online portals. The same page names ePay online payments and Resident Center. For resale papers, it offers HomeWiseDocs. Buildium says it handles resale documents in less than 1 minute. Accounting is the same trust accounting suite as on the accounting page.
Pricing needs a call. The pricing page says community associations should call 877-396-7876, as of October 2026. The pricing page lists online payments as an add-on on every plan. Ask for the processing and bank account setup costs in writing. Ask Buildium how large an association portfolio it supports.
Association managers should also test two things in the trial. Check how a violation moves from a notice to a fee. Check how an architectural request goes through committee voting.
How Does Buildium Compare With AppFolio?
Buildium posts monthly plan prices, while AppFolio posts per-unit starting rates and sets the final price by quote. As of October 2026, AppFolio lists Core at “Starting at $1.49” per unit per month. Core carries the note “Minimum spend and 50 unit minimum apply”.
At 250 units, Buildium's Growth plan works out to about $1.65 per unit per month, using the pricing calculator. That is close to the Core starting rate of $1.49 per unit. AppFolio's rate comes before its minimum spend. The two lists are not the same thing, so a quote is the only way to compare.
For the full side-by-side, read our guide to AppFolio vs Buildium. Our AppFolio pricing guide covers its rates. Our AppFolio alternatives guide lists other options.
Can Buildium Market Your Rentals and Win New Owners?
Buildium can post your rental listings and host a basic website. It is not built to win new owners by itself. Its syndication page lists “Apartments.com, Apartment List, the entire Zillow Rental Network, Zumper, and even Craigslist”. As of October 2026, the pricing page shows rental listing syndication and a marketing website on all three plans.
The website page describes “A free website for property managers, hosted by Buildium”. You use a template and upload your logo. It can host your rental application, and you can add Resident Center and Owner Portal login links. Prospect tools such as a prospect pipeline, tour scheduling and Prospect Voice & Chat are Premium only.
For owner leads, Buildium's All Property Management arm sells leads from owners and boards looking for a manager. Premium customers get up to $500 of lead credit. It applies only after the first lead purchase, per the pricing page. Our guide to property management owner leads covers the wider channel.
Here is our advice, not a Buildium fact. A vendor template site is not built to rank your company for searches like “property management near me”. It will not earn owner leads on its own. You can run your own site and link the portals from it. Buildium's website page describes Resident Center and Owner Portal login links. Open API on Premium lets a developer reach your Buildium data in code. It can connect outside tools, per the Open API page. If you build your own, see our guide to property management website design.
Why take this from us
Kiran Dasgupta leads every engagement personally. He is Founder and Lead Strategist. Kihan Marketing builds websites and runs SEO for property management companies. Helping clients shortlist property management software is part of that work. The property management clients we work with run AppFolio. We built the AppFolio Listings Pro plugin and a chat leasing tool on the AppFolio API. That work is why this review looks at what Buildium's listing and website tools do for your marketing. For a Tacoma property management and real estate company, site traffic doubled over the four months we ran its SEO, and lead volume roughly doubled.
What Should You Test During the Buildium Free Trial?
Test listings, payments, reconciliation, the Resident Center app and support during the 14-day trial. Per the pricing page, the trial uses sample data, needs no credit card, and can turn into any plan. Work through this list and write down what you see.
- Post a listing and see where it syndicates. The syndication page says the cost depends on the listing site.
- Run a test application and a screening, and note who pays. The screening page says the check includes credit, criminal and eviction data.
- Record a rent payment and an owner draw. Follow the money from resident to owner statement.
- Run a bank reconciliation and print an owner statement. Check that the totals match.
- Open the Resident Center app as a resident would. Pay rent and send a maintenance request.
- Send a support ticket and time the reply. Compare it with what Buildium says about ticket waits.
- Check which features in the trial sit on which plan. The plan list on the pricing page shows where each feature lands.
- Ask what onboarding includes and how long it takes. Ask for the price in writing.
A trial with sample data cannot show everything. It will show how the screens feel and how fast support answers. Save the questions that remain for the sales call.
What to Do First
Do these three steps this week. They take a few hours and cost nothing.
- Count your units and payments. Write down your unit count and how many residents pay by EFT. Those two numbers set your plan and your fee total.
- Price two plans. Use the pricing calculator and the monthly cost calculator above. Compare the plan you need with the next one up.
- Start the trial and run the checklist. Test listings, a payment, a reconciliation and a support ticket with sample data. Then decide.
Then compare your total with the next plan up. Write one monthly number: plan plus payment fees plus add-ons. A single total makes the next option easy to compare. If Buildium passes the trial, you have a clear price. You also have a short list of questions for the sales call.
FAQ: Buildium Reviews and Common Questions
Is Buildium worth it?
Buildium is worth it for residential and association managers who will use the built-in accounting and portals. It is a weaker fit if you need phone help on a small budget. It is also weaker if you want to avoid per-payment fees. Price your plan and your payment count first, as the cost sections show.
Is Buildium easy to use?
Some Trustpilot reviewers call Buildium easy for daily work, and one called it “very user friendly”. Others report a learning curve in accounting, such as deposits and withdrawals combined in one column. Test your own workflow in the 14-day trial.
Who owns Buildium?
RealPage owns Buildium. RealPage's press release says the acquisition closed on December 18, 2019. The Buildium site footer reads “Buildium, A RealPage Company”. Read the press release for the deal details.
Is there a free version of Buildium?
Buildium has no free plan, but it offers a free 14-day trial. The pricing page says the trial uses sample data, needs no credit card and can turn into Essential, Growth or Premium. You can change plans from the Account and Billing page, as of October 2026.
What is the Buildium Resident Center, and does it have a mobile app?
The Buildium Resident Center is the portal and mobile app where residents pay rent, send maintenance requests and see documents. As of October 2026, the pricing page lists a resident portal on all three plans. Buildium says its Resident Center app runs on iOS and Android.
Does Buildium have an owner portal?
Yes, Buildium has an owner portal. The pricing page calls it Owners Portal and lists it on Essential, Growth and Premium as of October 2026. Buildium's website page also says you can add Resident Center and Owner Portal login links to your site.
Does Buildium have an API?
Buildium has an Open API on Premium only. The Open API page says it gives “programmatic access to your company's data within Buildium”. Teams can create their own API keys, and the page points to the Buildium Developer Portal.
Does Buildium integrate with other software?
Yes, Buildium has a Marketplace of apps that connect to it. Buildium says the Marketplace has no monthly subscription. You only pay for the integrations you use. As of October 2026, the pricing page lists Marketplace Integrations on all three plans. Check that the app you need is listed before you buy.
How does Buildium tenant screening work?
Buildium's screening runs through TransUnion and returns credit, criminal and eviction data. As of October 2026, the screening page and the pricing page list $17 per screening, or $35 per screening if the applicant pays. Enhanced screening on Growth and Premium is $20 per screening.
How do I reach Buildium customer service?
All Buildium customers get ticket support by email and Buildium Academy training. Growth and Premium add live phone support. Hours are Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 8 PM EST, per the pricing page. Priority Support is an add-on on Growth and included on Premium.
Is Buildium legit?
Buildium is a legitimate company owned by RealPage. It has been around since 2004. The BBB rates it A+ and lists it as accredited since May 1, 2015. Trustpilot shows 4.3 out of 5 from 821 reviews, as of October 2026. Reviews also show real complaints about payments and support, so test it before you move your whole portfolio.
