Buildium starts at $58/mo for 20 units, then jumps to $166/mo the second you sign tenant #21, plus per-unit fees on every door after. You get punished for doing your job. Tenantory is $99/mo flat for up to 50 doors, your brand on every tenant surface, migrated in 3 days.
Buildium was the best tool in 2012. Tenants still pay rent in 2026. Here's what operators hit a wall on — in their own words.
Buildium Essential is $58/mo up to 20 units, but the moment you buy unit #21 you jump to Growth at $166/mo — a 186% increase overnight for adding one door. After 50 units you pay per-unit fees on every new lease. Tenantory is flat $99 whether you have 3 doors or 50.
Buildium's navigation, forms, and reports look like they were built for IE9 — dense tables, modal soup, and pagination from the Obama administration. Tenantory was designed this year, for mobile-first operators who pay bills between showings.
Applicants log into a generic Buildium.com-subdomain resident portal with Buildium's logo, Buildium's colors, and Buildium's marketing. You spent years building a name — Buildium owns the tenant relationship. Tenantory puts yourco.tenantory.com and your logo on every surface.
Residents complain about the Buildium Resident app constantly — slow loads, failed payments, login loops. If your tenant can't pay rent on their phone in under 45 seconds, you get a "check in the mail" call. Tenantory's tenant portal is a PWA, passkey login, Apple/Google Pay by default.
Since the RealPage acquisition, Buildium support is phone-tree → chatbot → ticket. Response times are measured in business days. Tenantory support is a founder email that answers in under 24 hours, seven days a week. You talk to someone who can change the code.
Buildium's "tenant communication" is a plain-text email tool with a Buildium "from" address that spam filters love. Tenantory sends branded SMS + email, auto-categorizes replies, threads conversations per unit, and ties everything to the maintenance ticket or ledger entry it's about.
Buildium's double-entry accounting is powerful, but onboarding requires you to configure a full GL, link bank accounts, map recurring rules, and sit through training. Small operators never finish — they just use Buildium like a shoebox. Tenantory gives you a rental-specific chart of accounts out of the box with a one-click Schedule-E export.
Using Buildium's published pricing (Essential, Growth, Premium) plus typical add-ons most PMs end up on. Compared to Tenantory Pro flat at $99/mo, Scale flat at $299/mo above 50 doors.
| Portfolio size | BuildiumPublished tier + typical add-ons | TenantoryFlat, for life | You savePer year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 unitsSmall LLC / side-portfolio | $58/moEssential tier minimum | $99/moTenantory Pro | -$492Buildium cheaper at this size |
| 20 unitsRight at Buildium's Essential ceiling | $58/moEssential ceiling | $99/moTenantory Pro | -$492Close · Buildium still edges |
| 21 unitsThe "one more door" tier jump | $166/moForced onto Growth | $99/moSame $99 as before | $804Tenantory passes Buildium |
| 50 unitsTypical independent PM | $196/moGrowth + per-unit fees | $99/moStill Tenantory Pro | $1,164First real payback |
| 100 unitsBigger independent op | $479/moPremium + per-unit fees | $299/moTenantory Scale | $2,160Custom domain included |
Where Buildium wins, we say so — compliance depth, property-management-company scale, established accountant network. Everywhere else, the gap is real.
| Feature | BuildiumEssential / Growth | TenantoryPro · $99/mo for life |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing & commitment | ||
| Starting price | $58/mo (up to 20 units) | $99/mo flat, for life |
| Minimum unit count | 1 unit | 1 unit |
| Per-unit fees above tier | $1.50–$2.50 / unit / mo | None (flat) |
| Price at unit #21 | $166/mo (186% jump) | $99/mo (unchanged) |
| Contract length | Annual / 2-year discounts | Month-to-month |
| Free trial without a card | ||
| 10-hour money-back guarantee | ||
| Your brand | ||
| Branded subdomain (yourco.xxx.com) | ||
| Full custom domain + SSL | Premium tier add-on | Scale plan ($299) |
| Tenant-facing logo & colors | Logo only | Logo + accent + email |
| "Powered by" removal | Scale plan | |
| Applications & leasing | ||
| Online rental application | ||
| AI application scoring | ||
| Lease e-sign | $5 per signed lease | Unlimited, included |
| State-specific lease templates | Marketplace add-on | 20-section AL/TN/GA/FL |
| Branded tenant portal | ||
| Mobile app — tenant-facing | Buildium Resident app (2.8-star) | PWA + Apple/Google Pay |
| Rent & accounting | ||
| ACH rent collection | ||
| Accounting setup time | 2–5 hours (chart of accounts) | Pre-wired, 0 min |
| Schedule-E tax export | ||
| Built-in 1099-NEC e-file | $0.99 per form + 3rd-party | Included, in-app |
| Owner / investor statements | Auto PDF | Auto PDF |
| Migration & support | ||
| Time to first value | 2–4 weeks (setup + training) | 15 minutes |
| Free data migration | Self-service CSV only | Free, 3 days, done-for-you |
| Direct support (no ticket queue) | Phone queue, business hours | Founder email, 24h |
| Where Buildium still wins | ||
| Community association (HOA) management | Rental-only | |
| Large PM-company features (10+ staff) | Enterprise tier only | |
| Established accountant certification network | Smaller firms only | |
Buildium's CSV export is actually one of the cleaner ones in the industry — properties, units, tenants, leases, ledgers, maintenance history, and vendor 1099 data all come out. You send us the export, we rebuild your workspace inside Tenantory, you review, and we flip the switch. You keep using Buildium until cutover. No downtime, no double entry, no tenants re-registering.
Real operators in the 10–60 unit range who moved off Buildium in the last six months.
"I closed on unit 21 and Buildium auto-bumped us to $166/mo the next billing cycle. Tripled my software cost for adding one door. I moved to Tenantory that weekend. Flat $99, doesn't care if I have 21 or 48 units, and my tenants stopped asking who Buildium was."
"We'd been on Buildium for 6 years. The UI literally hadn't changed. Migration took 34 hours end-to-end — we sent them the Buildium export ZIP on Tuesday night and went live Friday morning with every tenant ledger reconciled to the penny. My wife, who does the books, cried happy tears."
"Buildium's resident app has a 2.8-star rating and I could feel it — every rent cycle I got two or three 'the app won't let me pay' calls. Tenantory is a PWA with Apple Pay. Zero payment-support calls last month. That alone gave me back four hours a week."
"What sold me was the Schedule-E export. Our CPA used to spend a full day re-categorizing Buildium's generic P&L at tax time. First year on Tenantory, she did it in 40 minutes and my bill dropped $600. The software pays for itself on accounting alone."
We do the migration for free, we credit up to $500 of any contract buyout, and if Tenantory doesn't save you 10 hours in your first 30 paid days, we refund every dollar and wire you $100 for the inconvenience.