AN HONEST MAP OF THE CATEGORY
HOA management software
is three different things.
One phrase covers products that collect your dues, products that run a managed community's daily operations, and products that run the governance year a board is legally responsible for. Most boards need two of the three.
We build the third kind. This page tells you which kind you actually need, including when that is not us.
GROUP ONE
Accounting first
The money. Invoices for dues and assessments, online payment from the owner, a bank connection, the ledger and the reports the treasurer takes to the meeting. Owner communications and a document library usually ride along.
PICK THIS GROUP IF
- Chasing dues is the job that eats your board's year.
- Your treasurer is reconciling a spreadsheet against a bank statement by hand.
- You want owners to be able to pay online, by card or by ACH, without anyone collecting checks.
- You are self-managed and want one product to be the association's books.
PayHOA
PayHOA is dues and accounting software for self-managed associations. Its job is the money: invoices, online payments, the bank connection and the ledger.
PayHOA and governance.center, compared
HOA Start
HOA Start is a neighborhood website with dues collection and communications attached, sold to self-managed boards and priced by the number of homes.
HOA Start and governance.center, compared
GROUP TWO
Portal first, and usually sold with a management company
The daily operations of a managed community. Resident communications and requests, violations, architectural review, work orders, payments and the manager's back office. These are bought by the management company far more often than by the board.
PICK THIS GROUP IF
- You have a management company, and it already runs one of these.
- Violations, architectural review and work orders are real work in your community.
- You need residents, managers and the board looking at the same operational queue.
- You are a management company yourself, running a portfolio rather than one association.
TownSq
TownSq is a resident portal for communities, addressed on its own site to "boards, managers, and homeowners" and most often arriving with a management company.
TownSq and governance.center, compared
FRONTSTEPS
FRONTSTEPS is a suite for community management companies: accounting, resident engagement, payments, back-office management and visitor access, sold together and bought by the manager.
FRONTSTEPS and governance.center, compared
GROUP THREE
Governance first
The annual cycle a board is legally responsible for: the notice with the lead time your state names, the meeting, the quorum, the minutes, the numbered resolution, the record and the election. This is the group we are in, and it is the one most boards do not know exists as a category.
PICK THIS GROUP IF
- The annual meeting is the thing that goes wrong, not the bookkeeping.
- You need a notice sent with the lead time your state names, and the citation beside it.
- Nobody can find last year's minutes, and the resolution the board passed in 2023 exists only in somebody's inbox.
- Your owners are older, several have no email, and anything that needs a password will not be used.
- A board election is coming and it has to hold up if an owner's attorney reads the file.
- The board turns over next year and there is nothing to hand the next secretary.
Billed once a year, priced by how many members your community has rather than by seat, and every band gets every module. Pay by card, or ask for an invoice and send a check.
THE FOURTH THING PEOPLE MEAN
Property management software is a different category.
It shows up in the same search results, and for a volunteer board it is almost always the wrong buy.
Buildium
Buildium is property management software for landlords and property managers, and governance.center is not that. If you manage rental units and need leases, tenant screening, maintenance, work orders and a general ledger, buy Buildium and stop reading this page. Nothing below is going to change that answer.
Read the short version
How to tell which you are
If the people in the buildings signed a lease, you are property management. If they own their homes and elect a board, you are a community association. Property management software is built for the first and carries a great deal of machinery the second will never open.
THE DECISION, IN ONE PARAGRAPH
Buy for the job that is costing you hours.
Write down where your board's volunteer hours actually go this year. If most of them go to chasing dues and reconciling the bank, buy accounting-first software and be done. If most of them go to a management company's queue of requests and violations, that portal is your manager's decision more than yours. If most of them go to calling the meeting, sending the notice, counting the quorum, writing the minutes and running the election, that is the governance year and it is what we built. Nothing in this category requires you to move the others, and no vendor here should tell you it does.
EVERY HOA COMPARISON
Read the ones that apply to you.
PayHOA alternative
PayHOA publishes its price by unit count, billed yearly: $49 a month for 0 to 25 units, $59 for 26 to 50, $99 for 51 to 100, $129 for 101 to 150, $169 for 151 to 200, $199 for 201 to 300, $229 for 301 to 400 and $249 for 401 to 500.
Read the comparison
HOA Start alternative
HOA Start publishes three plans, charged annually and priced by the number of homes in the neighborhood: Professional at "Packages Start at $39/mo", Premium starting at $49 a month and White-Glove starting at $149 a month..
Read the comparison
TownSq alternative
TownSq publishes monthly prices in US dollars by community size, with 10% off annual.
Read the comparison
FRONTSTEPS alternative
FRONTSTEPS does not publish pricing. Its site asks you to request or book a demo instead, and frontsteps.com/pricing answered 404 on September 1, 2026.
Read the comparison
Buildium alternative
Buildium publishes three plans: Essential "starting at $62/month", Growth "starting at $192/month" and Premium "starting at $400/month".
Read the comparison
WHAT WE DO NOT DO
The limits, before you find them.
- No payment processing. Dues and assessments are marks in a record. The money moves between the member and the association, never through us, and no bank account is connected to this software.
- No violations. There is no violation notice, no fine ladder and no hearing tracker here. If your board needs one, say so on the phone and we will tell you honestly whether it is coming.
- No work orders. Maintenance requests, vendors, bids and work orders stay with your management or accounting software. We run the governance year, not the property.
- No legal advice. Where we quote a statute we say it is our reading, to support your review, not legal advice, and we tell you to have your attorney confirm it before the board acts. We never tell a board that it is compliant.
- No inspector of elections in California. Cal. Civ. Code 5110(b) disqualifies anyone under contract to the association for other compensable services, and the association pays us for the software. California boards get a published directory of independent inspector firms instead, and we take no part of their fee.
Notice periods, ballot rules and inspector requirements differ by state and by whether a community is a condominium or a planned community. Our reading, to support your review, not legal advice. Confirm with your attorney before the board acts. We never tell a board that it is compliant.
WHO WROTE THIS
A vendor making its case, and saying so first.
governance.center is from the team behind vote.direct.
governance.center publishes this comparison and sells one of the products in it, so read it as a vendor making its case rather than as independent research. Every competitor fact on this page was read off that company's own public pages on September 1, 2026, the page says which page each one came from, and where a competitor is the better buy this page says so and says why.
vote.direct is operated by Syft8, Inc. and is 100% owned by its founder, Oday Brahem, with no outside investors. Who owns a voting platform is worth knowing before you trust it with an election, so this one is on the record: the person who owns the company is the person who builds the software and answers (512) 222-8191.
Competitors change their pricing and their features without notice, and these are re-read every quarter. If you work at one of these companies, or you are a customer who finds something here that is out of date or wrong, email [email protected] and it will be corrected.
QUESTIONS BOARDS ASK
Answers, before you have to call.
What is HOA management software?
It is three different kinds of product sold under one phrase. Accounting-first products collect dues, hold the ledger and pay the bills. Portal-first products run the daily operations of a managed community: requests, violations, architectural review and communications, usually bought by the management company. Governance-first products run the annual cycle a board is legally responsible for: the notice, the meeting, the minutes, the resolutions, the record and the election. Most boards need two of the three, and buying the wrong one first is the common mistake.
Which one does a self-managed HOA need?
Start with whichever job is currently costing your volunteers the most hours. If it is chasing dues and reconciling a bank statement, buy accounting-first software. If it is notices, meetings, minutes and the election, buy governance-first software. Boards commonly end up running both, and neither category asks you to move the other.
Is governance.center accounting software?
No, and it is worth saying plainly. There is no general ledger, no bank reconciliation and no dues collection here. Dues are marks in a register: who owes, who has paid, and who gets the reminder. The money moves between the owner and the association and never through us. If dues collection with bank sync is what you need, PayHOA and HOA Start do that.
What does HOA management software cost?
It depends entirely on which of the three kinds you buy, and several vendors publish nothing at all. Each vendor page linked from here carries that company's published price, the exact page it was read from and the date, or says plainly that no price is published. governance.center is $348 a year for a community of up to 50 members, billed once a year, rising to $1,788 a year for up to 1,000 members.
Do we have to switch away from our management company's portal?
No, and you probably should not try. If your manager runs TownSq or FRONTSTEPS, keep it. Fighting your management company over the resident portal is not a good use of a volunteer board year. Governance-first software sits beside it and is bought by the board, so it stays with the association when the management contract changes.
Is Buildium HOA management software?
Buildium is property management software for landlords and property managers, and it names community associations as one portfolio type among rentals, commercial and student housing. If you manage rental units, it is the right product. If you are a volunteer board of an association, it is a much bigger tool than the job.
Does any of this software make our association compliant?
No, and be careful with any vendor that says otherwise. Where we quote a statute we say it is our reading, to support your review, not legal advice, and we tell you to have your attorney confirm it before the board acts. Your bylaws and your state law decide whether a notice was sufficient or a ballot was valid. We never tell a board that it is compliant.
NEXT
Where to go from here.
What we do for an HOA board
The governance year as a self-managed board runs it, start to finish.
Read the page
Every alternative
All twelve products, grouped by what they are for, with their published prices.
See the shelf
For management companies
Annual meeting season across a portfolio, priced on a call.
Read the page
Read the price
The whole ladder, the annual number first, and what sits outside it.
See every band
STILL NOT SURE
Call and we will tell you which one you need.
Including when the answer is one of the other products on this page. There is no charge for that call and no obligation attached to it.