Updated August 25, 2026
We make HOA-OS, one of the seven options below. Every section names what that product does better than ours, every price carries the date we checked it, and one section makes the case for buying no software at all.
At a glance
| Option | Best for | Price, verified August 25, 2026 | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| HOA-OS | Boards that want volunteer hours back, at a flat price per community | $24 Starter, $49 Community, $89 Premium per month; annual saves 15% | New in 2026; no third-party reviews published yet |
| PayHOA | Small boards that want a proven system and no surprises | $49/mo at 0 to 25 units billed yearly; nine bands by unit count | The bill moves up eight times as the community grows |
| HOA Start | Boards that want a person to do the setup and design work | Packages start at $39/mo Professional, $49 Premium, $149 White-Glove, billed annually | "From" prices only; the real number comes from a quote, and violations and ARC are not in the $39 tier |
| EasyHOA | Treasurer-led boards that want accounting bundled into one bill | $49/mo at 1 to 25 units; $69 at 26 to 50; $89 at 51 to 100; $99 at 101 to 150; custom above 150 | Also banded upward, and demo only, with no self-serve trial |
| RunHOA | Boards where cost decides the question | $399/year flat, unlimited units and users | Its published feature list is shorter than the fuller platforms here |
| TownSq | Communities trying to get homeowners to participate | $90/mo Pro and $145/mo Advanced up to 300 units; $180 and $290 to 900; $270 and $435 above | Voting, violations and AI are priced separately on top |
| Buildium | Boards that also manage rental property | From $62/mo Essential, $192 Growth, $400 Premium; association pricing by phone | Built and priced for professional managers |
Prices are each vendor's published rate on its own pricing page, checked August 25, 2026. Several are banded by unit count, so the figure shown is the entry band unless stated.
Start with what is going wrong
Every product here publishes a feature list and the lists look alike. What separates them is which of these five problems your board has. Software built for management companies assumes a trained professional is driving it. Software for very small associations assumes you only need a way to take payments. A volunteer board sits between those.
You are chasing people for money.
Checks arrive whenever they arrive, somebody has to remember who has paid, and the late notices go out when a volunteer finds an evening to write them. The fix is online dues with autopay, automatic late notices, and a per-home ledger anyone on the board can read.
The treasurer is doing a second job.
Reconciling the bank by hand, rebuilding the budget in a spreadsheet, and assembling something presentable before every meeting. Most of that work goes away with a general ledger, budget against actual, bank reconciliation, and reports that print for the annual meeting. Payment tools and accounting are different products, and several platforms here are strong at the first and thin at the second.
Somebody is typing all of it at eleven at night.
The newsletter, the meeting minutes, the board packet, the website update, and the fourth answer this month to the same question about fence stain. None of it needs a board's judgment and all of it lands on a volunteer's evening. The fix is AI that produces the document and hands it over for approval.
A homeowner is challenging a decision and nobody can prove the process.
The notice went out by email, the vote happened in somebody's memory, and the file that would settle it is on a laptop that left with the last secretary. What settles it next time is violation tracking with a documented workflow, architectural review, elections with a real ballot, and an audit trail.
The person who knows how everything works is moving away.
Sooner or later a self-managed board loses the volunteer who held it together. Keep the record in software under the association's own account, with an export the board can take with it.
What the same community costs on each platform
Most vendors here price by unit count, so the entry price tells you very little. At 25 units and below, HOA-OS Community, PayHOA and EasyHOA all sit at $49 a month. The prices separate as the community grows.
| Community size | HOA-OS | PayHOA | EasyHOA | RunHOA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 units | $49 or $89 | $49 | $49 | $33 |
| 100 units | $49 or $89 | $99 | $89 | $33 |
| 150 units | $49 or $89 | $129 | $99 | $33 |
| 300 units | $49 or $89 | $199 | quote | $33 |
HOA-OS is Community at $49 or Premium at $89, flat at every size. RunHOA is $399 a year, shown here as its monthly equivalent. PayHOA and EasyHOA are their published yearly-billing rates. All figures checked August 25, 2026.
HOA-OS
Verdict: HOA-OS is the best HOA software for a self-managed board that is short of volunteer hours, because its AI drafts the newsletter, the board packet and the community website, and the board approves everything before it goes out.
A volunteer board's scarcest resource is the evening a board member gives up, and most of that evening goes to production. HOA-OS does that part. The board's job is to read it and approve it, because approving what goes out to homeowners is the board's authority and stays that way. What is left is deciding, which is what needed a board in the first place.
HOA-OS covers all five problems above, the full financial stack at Premium. Dues collection with autopay, late-fee rules and a per-home ledger. A general ledger with Plaid bank sync, AI-assisted bank reconciliation, budget against actual, reserve-fund tracking, five standard financial reports and a one-ZIP CPA package for any date range up to three years. Violation tracking, architectural review, board and homeowner voting with configurable quorum and anonymous ballots, and an audit trail. And a full data export any time: every data domain as CSV and JSON, so the association leaves with its records whenever it wants.
Two things none of the other six products here list on the pages we checked. An autonomous agent reviews overdue dues, stalled violations and pending requests each morning and queues recommended actions for the board to approve. And a 24/7 AI assistant answers homeowner questions directly from the community's own governing documents, so the ten-at-night question does not wait for a volunteer.
Starter, $24 a month: AI newsletter drafting, document management, member directory. Starter does not collect dues, so it is not comparable to most of the products below. Community, $49: everything in Starter plus the AI website builder and hosting on an hoa-os.com subdomain, dues collection with autopay, board and homeowner voting, violation tracking, architectural review, late fees and payment reminders, SMS and emergency broadcast, board packet generation, and estoppel and resale certificates. Premium, $89: everything in Community plus the 24/7 AI homeowner assistant, the autonomous agent, the full financial stack, accounts payable with board-set dual control and mailed vendor checks, and a custom domain. Annual billing saves 15%, so Premium comes to $908 a year and Community to $500.
Resale certificates at the $49 tier can pay the subscription back. HOA-OS runs the resale disclosure package end to end: a title-company portal, requester-paid, with a rush tier.
Transaction fees: HOA-OS charges a 1% platform fee on card payments or $1 flat for ACH transfers. Standard Stripe processing applies on top, at 2.9% plus 30 cents for cards and 0.8% capped at $5 for ACH. By default these are added at checkout as a single platform fee paid by the resident, so the association receives 100% of what it bills. Boards can choose to absorb the fees instead. Thirty-day free trial, full package, no credit card.
Where the alternatives beat us. RunHOA is cheaper than HOA-OS Community at every size, $399 a year against $500, and cheaper still against Premium. PayHOA and EasyHOA match HOA-OS Community exactly at $49 for 25 units and below, and at that size their $49 includes full accounting where ours lives at Premium. PayHOA has years of operating history that we do not, and will do your bookkeeping for a fee; we will not. TownSq ships native apps in the app stores. HOA-OS is a mobile-optimized site that installs to the home screen on iOS and Android and runs full screen, which is close and is not the same thing. Buildium has a deeper accounting pedigree and handles rental property, which we do not touch. And we are new: our track record is short and we have no published third-party reviews yet.
Source: hoa-os.com/pricing, verified August 25, 2026.
PayHOA
Verdict: PayHOA is the best HOA software for a small self-managed board that wants a proven system, because it pairs a full feature set for self-managed communities with years of operating history.
PayHOA covers all five problems above, and its published list is long: custom request forms, approval workflows, violations, document storage and sharing, text, email and phone communications, message boards and surveys, a website builder and hosting included on every plan, recurring and one-time invoicing, more than fifty report types, a custom chart of accounts, bank reconciliation and bank connection, vendor management, managed payables and OCR invoice scanning. Bookkeeping is available as a service from $199 a month, an 1120-H filing from $399, and a full 1120 from $995.
Pricing runs across nine bands by unit count: $49 a month billed yearly for up to 25 units, $99 at 51 to 100, $129 at 101 to 150, $199 at 201 to 300, and $0.55 per unit with a $275 minimum above 500. Yearly billing saves 10%. Published transaction fees are $2.45 per incoming ACH payment and 3.5% plus 50 cents per card payment. Mailed letters run $1.05 to $1.25 each and mailed checks $2. Thirty-day trial, no credit card.
On fees, which product is cheaper depends on the payment rail. On ACH, HOA-OS at $1 plus 0.8% is cheaper below about $180 a payment; above that PayHOA's flat $2.45 is cheaper and stays cheaper, though the HOA-OS fee tops out at $6. On cards, PayHOA's 3.5% plus 50 cents beats the HOA-OS all-in 3.9% plus 30 cents on any payment above $50, which covers most monthly dues. Run your own average payment against both.
Where it beats us: operating history, a bookkeeping service you can hand the work to, and lower card fees on most payments. Where it does not: the bill moves up each time your community crosses a band, from $49 to $199 between 25 units and 300, and there are no AI features on its product or pricing pages, checked August 25, 2026.
The full side-by-side is on our HOA-OS vs PayHOA comparison page.
Source: payhoa.com/pricing, all nine bands and fees verified August 25, 2026.
HOA Start
Verdict: HOA Start is the best HOA software for a board that would rather hand the setup and the design work to a person, because White-Glove is a staffed service rather than a feature list.
Three packages, all billed annually and all quoted after an inquiry: Professional from $39 a month, Premium from $49, White-Glove from $149. Professional includes email and text blasts, custom forms, document storage, secure payments, accounting, online voting and polls, and a newsfeed. Premium adds event registration, amenity reservations, violation tracking, a committee planner, sub-admin roles, architectural requests and work orders. The mobile app is included at Premium and White-Glove and is a $500 lifetime charge at Professional. White-Glove adds a concierge designer, live session support, hands-off setup and a managed rollout, plus a quarterly newsletter produced for you and five branded email accounts, where the lower two tiers quote newsletters and bill branded email per account. Free trial, no contract or credit card.
Where it beats us: White-Glove is a staffed, priced service, with a designer and newsletter production done for you on an ongoing basis. HOA-OS onboarding help comes from the founders today and is not sold as a tier. Where it does not: every price on the page is a "from" figure and the real number arrives after a sales conversation, so the $39 is not a price you can buy at. Ours is. And the $39 tier does not include violations or architectural review, which sit in Premium at "from $49"; HOA-OS Community includes both at $49, self-serve.
Source: hoastart.com/pricing, verified August 25, 2026.
EasyHOA
Verdict: EasyHOA is the best HOA software for a treasurer-led board that wants accounting in the base price, with no add-ons.
Everything is bundled into one bill per unit band: a website, an integrated phone system, an accounting module, text and email, violation tracking and voting, at $49 a month for 1 to 25 units, $69 at 26 to 50, $89 at 51 to 100, $99 at 101 to 150, and custom pricing above 150. Their pricing page itemizes what each bundled module would otherwise cost, and the pitch is that no upgrade or support charges land on top.
Where it beats us: at 25 units and below it bundles full accounting into the same $49 that buys HOA-OS Community, where our full financial stack is Premium at $89. Where it does not: its price bands climb with unit count while ours does not, so the advantage inverts above about 50 units, and its pricing page shows a demo and no self-serve trial, so as far as its pricing page shows, you cannot load your own roster before you talk to a salesperson.
Source: easyhoa.com/pricing, verified August 25, 2026.
RunHOA
Verdict: RunHOA is the best HOA software for a board where cost decides the question, because at $399 a year for unlimited units it is the cheapest full-featured option in this guide.
One price, one plan, and it covers all five problems: directories for units, members, officers and vendors, a member portal, HOA accounting and budgeting, dues and payments through Stripe, 1120-H generation, online requests and approvals, expense forms, email and texting, a calendar, e-voting, QR member cards, a website builder, document storage, amenity reservations and role-based security. Thirty-day free trial, no credit card.
Where it beats us: price. $399 a year against $500 for HOA-OS Community, and it holds at any size. Like HOA-OS, its bill does not move as the community grows. Where it does not: its published feature list is shorter than the fuller platforms here on accounting depth, governance workflow and reporting, and it lists no AI features on its pricing page, checked August 25, 2026.
Source: runhoa.com/pricing, verified August 25, 2026.
TownSq
Verdict: TownSq is the best HOA software for a community trying to get homeowners to participate.
Pricing is banded by size: Pro is $90 a month and Advanced $145 for communities up to 300 units, $180 and $290 from 301 to 900, and $270 and $435 above 900, with Enterprise quoted. Annual billing saves 10%. The trial is 30 days on a one-year term that auto-renews annually. The core is a web and mobile app built around announcements, requests, a forum, messages, an address book and group customization. Advanced adds audit logs, guest authorizations and architectural reviews. If dues collection already works but twelve people come to the annual meeting, this attacks the problem you have.
Where it beats us: a widely used resident app, 4.7 on the US App Store across 11,000 ratings, checked August 25, 2026, which is what it was built for. The board side of its mobile story is a separate app, TownSq Business, aimed at community managers and inspectors running multiple communities. Where it does not: several pieces a self-managed board leans on are priced on top of the plan. Digital voting is $250 per voting event plus a $25 one-time setup fee. Violations and inspection tracking is $20 a month per community, emergency broadcast $20, TownSq's AI request interception and suggested replies $20, and concierge services $99. Architectural review is bundled into Advanced and is a $20 monthly add-on at the Pro tier.
Source: townsq.io/pricing, verified August 25, 2026. App rating: apps.apple.com, TownSq Community, checked August 25, 2026.
Buildium
Verdict: Buildium is the best HOA software for a self-managed board that also manages rental property, because nothing HOA-first here matches its landlord tooling.
Essential starts at $62 a month, Growth at $192 and Premium at $400, and community-association pricing comes from a phone call. It is a mature property management platform, owned by RealPage, that treats community associations as one market among several. Fourteen-day free trial.
Where it beats us: accounting maturity and rental management. Where it does not: a self-managed HOA with no rentals is buying a professional tool, and Buildium's own positioning speaks to portfolio managers.
Source: buildium.com/pricing, verified August 25, 2026.
AI in HOA software: included or sold on top
Most platforms in this market now say AI somewhere on their site. Whether it is in the plan or billed on top is the part that shows up on your invoice.
Sold as an add-on. TownSq's request interception and suggested replies is $20 a month per community, on top of a $90 or $145 plan.
Not on the pricing pages at all. PayHOA and RunHOA list no AI features on their product or pricing pages, checked August 25, 2026.
Built for management companies. Vantaca with HOAi and CINC with Cephai+ position themselves as the AI-forward platforms in community association management, and both are priced and staffed for professional managers running portfolios rather than for a volunteer board.
Included at every tier. HOA-OS puts newsletter drafting at Starter, the AI website builder at Community, and a 24/7 AI homeowner assistant plus an autonomous agent at Premium. Everything the AI produces goes to the board for approval before it reaches a homeowner, except the resident assistant, which answers homeowner questions directly from the community's own governing documents.
When a board should not buy software at all
If your association bills dues once a year, has no pool or clubhouse, files a simple 1120-H, and is small enough that the treasurer knows every owner by name, a well-kept spreadsheet and a dedicated bank account in the association's name will do the job.
Three things end that arrangement:
- Switching to monthly billing. Thirty payments a month tracked by hand is a different job from one annual assessment.
- Treasurer turnover. The spreadsheet's logic leaves with the person who built it.
- The first serious dispute, audit or records request. Reconstructing three years of history out of a former board member's personal email can take weeks.
Moving before one of those arrives costs less than moving after.
What to skip
Self-managed boards get demos from products built for someone else. AppFolio, CINC Systems, Vantaca and Enumerate are strong platforms for professional management companies running portfolios, with the staffing and budgets that assumes. HOA Start and Buildium both finish association pricing in a sales conversation, but each publishes a starting figure, which is why they are on this list at all. Publishing a price gets a product considered here. It does not make it a fit.
Choosing by community profile
| Your situation | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Annual dues, no amenities, everyone knows everyone | A spreadsheet and a dedicated bank account | Software is a convenience at this scale |
| 25 units or fewer, wants full accounting in the base price | PayHOA or EasyHOA | At that size HOA-OS Community, PayHOA and EasyHOA are all $49, and the PayHOA and EasyHOA $49 includes accounting that HOA-OS carries at Premium |
| Cost decides it, at any size | RunHOA | $399 a year flat, unlimited units |
| 50 to 300 homes | HOA-OS Community or Premium | Flat at $49 or $89 while PayHOA runs $99 to $199 and EasyHOA $89 to $99, and the AI does the newsletter, the board packet and the community website for the board to approve |
| The website and the newsletter are the whole job | HOA-OS Community | The AI builds and hosts the community site and drafts the newsletter for the board to approve, at $49 |
| You want a person to build it for you | HOA Start White-Glove | A staffed design and newsletter service, from $149 a month by quote |
| Nobody participates, but the books are fine | TownSq | Engagement is what it was designed for |
| The association also owns rental units | Buildium | The only option here with real landlord tooling |
| Resale and estoppel volume is high | HOA-OS Community | The resale disclosure package is a Community-tier feature, requester-paid |
Frequently asked questions
What software should a self-managed HOA use?
For most small boards the shortlist is PayHOA, EasyHOA, RunHOA, HOA Start and HOA-OS. RunHOA is the cheapest full-featured option in this guide at $399 a year for unlimited units. PayHOA has years of operating history behind it. HOA-OS is flat at $49 or $89 a month whatever the community's size, and its AI takes on the production work: the newsletter, the board packet, the community website, all approved by the board before they go out. Which one fits depends on your size and on which problem is actually hurting.
PayHOA alternatives for a self-managed HOA board?
RunHOA on price, EasyHOA on bundled accounting at small sizes, HOA Start if the website and communications matter most, TownSq if participation is the problem, and HOA-OS if the board's problem is volunteer hours, since its AI drafts the newsletter, the board packet and the community website for the board's approval at a flat price per community. PayHOA prices across nine bands by unit count, from $49 at 25 units to $199 at 300, so the bill moves as the community grows.
Is there AI software for HOA management?
Yes. Ask whether the AI is included or sold on top. TownSq sells request interception and suggested replies as a $20 monthly add-on per community. Among platforms built for professional management companies, Vantaca and CINC lead on AI, and both are priced and staffed for managers rather than volunteer boards. HOA-OS includes AI at every tier: newsletter drafting at Starter, the AI website builder at Community, and at Premium a 24/7 AI homeowner assistant plus an autonomous agent that reviews overdue dues, stalled violations and pending requests each morning and queues recommended actions for the board to approve.
How do we run our HOA without a management company?
Divide the work across the board and do not let one volunteer hold all of it. Keep the association's money in accounts in the association's name, with two people in every approval. Reconcile monthly. Adopt a written collection policy and apply it the same way every time. Keep a CPA and an attorney on call for taxes and legal questions. Software covers the administrative work. The fiduciary duty stays with the board.
How much does HOA software cost for a self-managed community?
Starting prices for purpose-built options run $24 to $90 a month, and the $24 tier, HOA-OS Starter, does not collect dues. The cheapest way to cover unlimited units is RunHOA at $399 a year flat. The ceiling in this guide is $435 a month, TownSq Advanced for a community above 900 units. Most vendors band by size, so check what the entry price becomes at your unit count: at 150 units PayHOA is $129 a month and EasyHOA $99, while HOA-OS stays at $49 or $89.
Can a self-managed board handle its own accounting?
Yes, if the software has a real general ledger, bank reconciliation, and budget-against-actual reporting, which is more than the payment tracking most free and entry-level tools offer. A board with reserve obligations or an audit requirement should confirm the reporting with its CPA before committing.
About the author
Edward Sparks is the co-founder and CEO of HOA-OS. While he has never served on his own HOA's board, he has lived in several HOA communities over the years and paid close attention to how they were run. The idea for the company came from a week he spent trying to work out whether he needed permission to cut down a tree in his own backyard. He went through the association's files and its website without finding an answer, and eventually asked the board president over the back fence. She said she hated the tree and to consider it approved. It was a friendly answer to a question that should have been sitting in the documents, and HOA-OS grew out of wanting the next homeowner to find it there.
How we evaluated
Every price in this guide was checked on the vendor's own published pricing page on August 25, 2026, and each is stated with its billing terms. We did not run paid trials of competitor products, so capability descriptions come from each vendor's published pricing pages and documentation, and where we say a product lacks something we mean it is not on the pages we checked, on the date we checked them. Software changes often. Confirm anything that will decide your purchase directly with the vendor.
Photo by Aakash Makwana on Pexels