Property Management Software Comparison

May 03, 2023

Compare Property Management Software

Hunting for stellar 5 star performance from an affordable property management solution?

Property managers and landlords are pressured to upgrade from their legacy tools. And they’re actively in pursuit of quality brand of user friendly software to leverage the latest digital technology and simplify the complexity of their rental business.

You may have done some comparison shopping for property management software and noticed how most of the software reviews focus on specifics and bells and whistles. Yet, do these criteria really resolve your specific core business needs?

Reviews Today Just Don’t Help

Most review site owners and software reviewers experience difficult being objective about property management software. Viable comparisons can only be made after actually using the software for a period of time, achieving specific tasks, finding bugs and performance issues, and forecasting business technology trends.

Most reviewers don’t have time for a thorough platform test. In fact, almost no online reviews go that far.

See the comparisons of ManageCasa to other leading property management software below.

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Announcement: ManageCasa will be exhibiting at NAA’s Apartmentalize Conference in Atlanta, beginning on June 7th. We’d be delighted to meet you and hear all about your challenges for 2023/2024.

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Software Reviews Are Often Weak

Reviews are weak on software pricing and few solutions really distinguish themselves on prices as the customer scale up usage. No one wants to compete on price, especially when software is already a bargain. And when tech is your business, it should mean price is a lesser consideration.

Instead, most property management software comparison/rating websites focus on what they believe may be the general program features and then invite some user-generated content — which is software user reviews. By reviewing for a general audience, each niche is unsatisfied.

Unfortunately, user generated reviews are skewed by bands of brand ambassadors, some of whom haven’t even used the solution.

Very often too, review sites allow a user to trash and slander a solution with long fake rants about how the solution didn’t meet their needs and expectations. Some publish considerable vitriol which isn’t verified by the publisher. It leaves the review sites open to abuse and competitive-based slander — not the kind of reviews/ratings software buyers expect.

Comparison Sites Often Require Big Payments

Review sites often require sizable payments and ad budgets up front, which for smaller to mid sized tech startups can be impossible to fund. Big companies can manipulate software rankings this way, while mid-sized developers can’t get their great products mentioned/reviewed. It’s all about the money.

For software shoppers, it’s important to understand fake reviews and how they taint what might be useful. This makes it essential to learn how to compare property management software on your own.

Assessing where Technology is Headed

The future arrives fast, and it’s already here in property management with SaaS and cloud infrastructure. They allow interoperability of apps, and extensibility for important features such as online payment, communications, and extended revenue building services.

One key issue for web reviews by end users, is that the underlying sustainability of the solution and technology isn’t measured/assessed. What is popular and was popular in property management technology now won’t matter in 5 years.

Constant software bugs and glitches make the solution less valuable to them, and thus the solution won’t keep up to modern trends.

Your quest to find the best property management software, one that will give you a sustainable quality of service over time, requires some objective thought and good judgement.

5 Key Attributes to Look For

intuitive dashboard (simplicity for staff usage)
automation of work (i.e., dedicated property accounting processes to take load off of staff to make experienced decisions)
knowledgeable customer service (strong product knowledge, helpfulness, empathy and ability to communicate)
affordable price
cloud-based, all in one services platform

What about Automation in Property Management?

Most claims about AI-powered property management software are marketing gimmicks. Most often, they utilize regular machine learning and responses. It’s little more than automated programming which is helpful, but is not independent decision making.

AI in earnest, means independent decision making which might be disastrous for your company if offered.

Another issue for AI based rental property software is how results may mislead and create errors and over-confidence. There’s no replacing your experience and wisdom. Artificial intelligence may offer enhancements in future, but we’re a long way from it being relied upon in property management.

Property management automation on the other hand does more to streamline workloads by programming in automatic events — for instance, when data is entered into an accounting system (rent payment made online), it prepopulates other documents/journals/ledgers/databases and then less human data entry or editing is required. A lease-based accounting feature for example saves time and reduces errors, something property managers value.

Does Your Software Really Give you a Business Advantage?

Is your property management software really giving you the business advantage you need? Have you reduced costs, improved cash flow, lowered tenant churn, improved maintenance processes, and developed better communications with tenants?

If you’ve stuck with a popular brand of software (to keep the status quo), you might be seeing the revenue/cost equation turn sour as you scale up. The trend now is to user-friendly software. Managers believe the software must be fun to use, uncomplicated, and add value.

A more versatile, modern next generation platform solution such as ManageCasa™ can help you serve more owners and showcase your work better to new prospects. There are hundreds of property management solutions, and the best are flexible, SaaS solutions operating inexpensively on the cloud.

ManageCasa™ may be the solution your staff enjoy most. That’s an important thing when staffing is a business issue

ManageCasa vs Appfolio, Buildium and Propertyware

ManageCasa Exhibits at the major property management Conventions and Expos

A comparison of ManageCasa vs Appfolio, Buildium and Propertyware and other the “Pop” competitors helps you understand the real value you’re receiving. It’s going to help you recognize how easy, uncomplicated and fun managing properties can be. They give you your time back.

In fact, the automation features that ManageCasa offers makes take the tedium and errors out of long work days.

It’s not easy to fuse professional level functionality with user friendly features, but ManageCasa’s developers have created a masterpiece software for progressive landlords and property managers.

ManageCasa is more than an alternative to the pop solutions. It is the right solution for many small to midsize landlords.

Meeting Increasing Demands of the Property Management Industry

There’s a huge, growing list of property management software offered up today. It’s a good thing actually because some of the most popular solutions are aging and are creating technology bottlenecks. Buildium, PropertyWare, Appfolio, Rentec, TenantCloud, and hundreds of others have their own business strategy, even if you’re growing to big proportions, you may never fit their target user base. The value proposition just never clicks in.

Your Software Should Adapt to Your Business

More searches from property management managers are for easy to learn and operate platforms. Yet property pros have other tools they use. The big commercial solutions demand those tools and relationships be abandoned so their all-inclusive system works.

The solution landlord will prefer is a solution that works in concert with their current tools and people. Staff, contractors, owners and others may not want to engulfed by the “monopolies.”

Why is ManageCasa a Potentially Better Choice?

Here’s just a few ways ManageCasa beats the competition and sets the new standard of performance:

powerful and unique double entry accounting system is the very best available and it cuts accounting rework
online payment system uses Stripe, the leader on online payments making tenant rent payment and owner distribution simple and convenient
multilanguage and multicurrency support is convenient for today’s multinational tenant base
mixed property support for the modern, investment-savvy landlord who wants the best portfolio possible
Multi-media rich maintenance tickets and customizable charts and more to support communication and collaboration
some property management software is produced to grab property managers workflow and business, not to provide maximum service and fit in with how you currently do business. You’re expected to adapt to their platform.

There is a huge selection of property management software solutions, and many of them are operating from from some sort of cloud service. You’ve likely heard of the pop property software programs such as Buildium, Propertyware, and Appfolio. People make assumptions that companies with big ad budgets offer the best services.

With a big base of legacy customers however, they might not need to upgrade their solutions. This is when customers get concerned about compatibility with the new era of cloud enabled, and web 2.0 connected infrastructure. Many are flocking away from the most popular solutions.

And when they actually see and understand the advantages of simplified cloud-based management platforms such as ManageCasa, they know migrating will be easy. Compare ManageCasa’s benefits to the top pop software solutions available.

Let’s take a direct look at ManageCasa vs Appfolio, Buildium and Propertyware and how property managers benefit.

ManageCasa vs other Property Management Software Solutions

ManageCasa vs other Property Management Accounting Solutions

ManageCasa not only compares favorably to competitive commercial products available such as PropertyWare, Buildium, Appfolio, Rentec, TenantCloud and hundreds of others, it offers tangible benefits for managing today’s real tenants. Easier to learn, better for your staff, and powerful accounting benefits will make it easy to choose.

Learn more about ManageCasa and why our affordably priced platform is right for your business.