Buildium and AppFolio are good software built for professional management companies. QuickBooks does real accounting. None of them were designed for the landlord who self-manages a handful of buildings and still has to hand a CPA a clean Schedule E. That gap is the whole reason Doorpost exists — so here's the honest side-by-side, competitors' own numbers included.
| Doorpost | Buildium | AppFolio | QuickBooks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $29/mo — covers your first 29 doors, then $1/door | From $62/mo (Essential) | Quote only — no public rate | $38–$275/mo by plan |
| Unit minimum | None — start at one door | None published | 50 units on Core, plus a minimum monthly spend | n/a |
| Pricing published openly | Yes — the whole table is on the pricing page | Yes | No — Core, Plus, and Max are all “contact us” | Yes |
| Property management | Rent roll, leases, tenants, maintenance, e-sign | Yes — a mature, full-featured suite | Yes — a mature, full-featured suite | No — it's an accounting package |
| Accounting built in | Real double-entry — P&L, balance sheet, a trial balance that foots, reconciliation | Built in (a core Buildium strength) | Built in | Built in — it's the whole product |
| Landlord tax output | Schedule E mapping, 1099s, and depreciation built in | Reporting is there; Schedule E is your mapping to build | Reporting is there; Schedule E is your mapping to build | Chart of accounts you configure yourself |
| Section 8 / USDA-RD vouchers | One-click HAP/RD batch, split by each lease's tenant and voucher portion, reconciled to the deposit | Post the lump check tenant-by-tenant | Affordable-housing tooling on higher tiers | Not rent- or voucher-aware |
| Systems you end up paying for | One | Usually two — the PM app plus QuickBooks | Usually two — the PM app plus QuickBooks | Usually two — QuickBooks plus a PM app or a spreadsheet |
| Contract | Monthly, cancel anytime, 30-day free trial | Tiered plans by unit count | Annual agreement, sales-led | Monthly or annual |
Figures reflect each vendor's published pricing as of July 2026 — verify at buildium.com/pricing, appfolio.com/pricing, and quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing, since these change. AppFolio does not publish per-unit rates; its tiers are quote-based, so we don't quote a number we can't source to them. Buildium, AppFolio, and QuickBooks are trademarks of their respective owners; Doorpost is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of them.
Look down the table and you'll notice QuickBooks isn't really a competitor — it's the second system. The common setup isn't “Buildium or QuickBooks,” it's Buildium and QuickBooks, with a spreadsheet taped across the seam and a monthly ritual of re-keying the same numbers into both.
Doorpost collapses that. The books aren't a report bolted onto the PM app — they're the same ledger the rent roll writes to. A voucher check lands, gets split by lease, hits the journal, and shows up on the Schedule E without you exporting anything.
For a rental portfolio, no. This is the part people assume is missing from a property-management app, so here is exactly what's in the box:
And the honest edges: Doorpost keeps cash-basis books — the way rental owners actually file — and it doesn't do payroll, sales tax, inventory, or invoicing customers who aren't tenants. If you need those for another business, keep QuickBooks for that piece. We'd rather tell you now than at tax time.
Buildium is aimed at professional management companies. If you self-manage your own doors, you're buying packaging you don't use.
AppFolio's Core tier starts at a 50-unit minimum and a minimum monthly spend. Below that, the math simply doesn't work.
QuickBooks does real books — it just doesn't know what a lease is. You end up rebuilding a rent roll out of invoices.
Thirty days free. No card to start. Import your data in an afternoon.