· Independent
Board budgets are annual; vendor pages quote monthly. We converted every published Buildium and DoorLoop tier into a single yearly figure, added the dues-collection fees a 60-home association actually pays, and flagged the numbers neither vendor publishes.
Loistrofi Editorial — Sep 6, 2026 — 7 min read
For 60 homes, the published floor is DoorLoop Pro at $149 a month billed yearly — $1,788 for the year. Buildium's middle tier, Growth, is $192 a month, which is $2,304. Add dues-collection fees and a realistic first-year number lands between roughly $1,800 and $3,400. Neither page publishes a 60-unit price, so vote on a written quote.
Both vendors price on units, and for an association a unit is a home — a lot, a townhouse, a condo door. Sixty homes means 60 units, whether or not anyone lives in them and whether or not the owner is delinquent. Count from your assessment roll, not from your mailing list, and decide now whether you count a home that pays two assessments as one unit or two. Then count your bank accounts separately: operating and reserve is two, and both Buildium and DoorLoop charge per bank account somewhere in their pricing.
The second thing to count is dues transactions per year, because that is where the money quietly goes. Sixty homes billed monthly by bank transfer is 720 incoming payments a year. Billed quarterly it is 240. That single choice changes your Buildium bill by more than a thousand dollars, and no plan page will tell you that because the plan page only shows the per-transaction rate.
| Plan | Published price | Over 12 months | What the page does not say |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buildium Essential | $62/mo, "starting at" | $744 | How many units are included |
| Buildium Growth | $192/mo, "starting at" | $2,304 | How many units are included |
| Buildium Premium | $400/mo, "starting at" | $4,800 | How many units are included |
| DoorLoop Starter | $69/mo, billed yearly | $828 | Capped at 10 units — rules out 60 homes |
| DoorLoop Pro | $149/mo, billed yearly | $1,788 | Included unit count; how "$3/unit" applies |
| DoorLoop Premium | $209/mo, billed yearly | $2,508 | Included unit count; how "$3/unit" applies |
Take Essential at $62 a month. Twelve months is $744, and that is the cheapest headline number in this comparison. Then add what you pay to collect assessments. Buildium lists incoming EFT on Essential at $2.35 per transaction. Sixty homes paying monthly is 720 transactions: 720 × $2.35 = $1,692 a year in payment fees alone, more than double the software. Add the bank account setup fee of $99 per business bank account — $198 for an operating and a reserve account — and Essential's first year is $744 + $1,692 + $198 = $2,634.
Growth at $192 a month is $2,304 for the year, and it cuts incoming EFT to $1.35. The same 720 transactions cost 720 × $1.35 = $972, and Growth includes 10 free business bank accounts, so your two accounts cost nothing to set up. First year: $2,304 + $972 = $3,276. Growth is $642 more than Essential once you run the fees, not the $1,560 the plan prices suggest. It also drops eSignature from $5 per document to $1 and folds in the HappyCo property inspections fee that Essential charges $99 to set up plus $40–$95 a month.
Premium is $400 a month, $4,800 a year, with incoming EFT free for the first 12 months and $0.60 after. So year one is $4,800 flat and year two is $4,800 + (720 × $0.60) = $5,232. For 60 homes that is hard to justify against Growth unless you need the Open API or 100 free bank accounts.
Switch your association from monthly to quarterly billing and the same Buildium plans look different. Quarterly is 240 incoming transactions: $564 a year on Essential, $324 on Growth, $144 on Premium after the free year. That one governance decision saves you $1,128 on Essential. If your CC&Rs allow quarterly assessments, price both ways before the board votes.
Two more line items an association will actually hit. Buildium charges 2.99% per credit card transaction on every plan — if half your owners pay a $250 monthly assessment by card, that is 360 payments × $250 × 2.99% = $2,691 a year, which is why most associations push owners to bank transfer. And 1099 e-filing is $50 per batch plus $4.50 per form, so six vendor 1099s is $50 + $27 = $77.
Starter is out. It is capped at 10 units, and you have 60. That leaves Pro at $149 a month billed yearly — $1,788 — or Premium at $209, which is $2,508.
Pro's fee schedule: $0.99 per ACH payment, $1 per eSignature document, $25 per merchant application, $35 for background checks, and your own website at $49 monthly plus a $199 setup fee, or $499 a year. DoorLoop's own FAQ says residents pay the ACH fee rather than you, but if your association absorbs it the way most boards do, 720 assessment payments × $0.99 = $712.80 a year.
Premium at $209 a month waives most of that: free ACH, a free website, $25 background checks, VIP priority support, and the ability to charge ACH fees to owners. Do the arithmetic before you assume the cheaper plan is cheaper. Pro plus absorbed ACH plus the annual website is $1,788 + $712.80 + $499 = $2,999.80. Premium with both included is $2,508. That is $491.80 less for the higher tier. Pro only wins if you push payment fees onto owners and skip the website.
DoorLoop's annual-billing FAQ works an example: "if you add 10 units on the basic plan, it would cost $708 upfront for the entire year ($69 x 12 months)." But $69 × 12 is $828, not $708. Either the listed monthly rate or the worked total is wrong, and you should ask which before you sign. The same page advertises "Save up to 25% on Yearly!" on the billing toggle while the FAQ says annual billing gets "up to 20% off." And the plan comparison lists $0.99 per ACH payment on Pro while the payments FAQ says $1. Small gaps, but they tell you to get every figure in writing.
If you bill assessments monthly and collect by bank transfer, pick DoorLoop Pro at $1,788 a year, because Buildium's incoming EFT rate of $2.35 on Essential adds $1,692 on the same 720 transactions and wipes out its cheaper headline.
If you want a branded association website and do not want to charge owners a payment fee, pick DoorLoop Premium at $2,508 a year, because Pro plus the $499 website plus $712.80 of absorbed ACH comes to $2,999.80 — nearly $500 more for less.
If your management company already runs Buildium and you are adding this association to it, pick Buildium Growth at $2,304 plus $972 of EFT fees, because Growth's 10 free bank accounts and $1 eSignatures absorb the per-association overhead that Essential charges for line by line.
If your board bills quarterly and has fewer than a hundred transactions to process, run Buildium Essential's numbers again: $744 plus 240 × $2.35 = $564, plus $198 for two bank accounts, is $1,506 for the first year and $1,308 after — the cheapest defensible total in this comparison, provided 60 units actually qualifies at the starting price.
- Ask each vendor, in writing, what 60 units costs on the tier you want, and whether the "starting at" or "$3/unit" language changes that number. Neither page answers this.
- Confirm whether Buildium's $62, $192 and $400 are monthly-billed or annual-billed rates. The page does not say, and a monthly-billing surcharge would move your annual total.
- Ask whether the product handles association assessments, violation tracking and architectural review requests, or only tenant rent. Both pricing pages describe tenants, leases and rent, not owners and dues.
- Get the onboarding or implementation fee in writing. DoorLoop advertises "ZERO onboarding fees on select plans" as a limited offer ending Friday November 07, which implies a standard fee it does not publish.
- Confirm contract length and what happens if the board votes to cancel mid-term. Neither page states a minimum term or a refund policy.
- Count the bank accounts you will connect and confirm the per-account charge. Buildium lists $99 per business bank account on Essential; DoorLoop lists a $49 one-time setup per bank account on Starter and $25 on Pro.
Budget $2,508 and buy DoorLoop Premium. For a 60-home association the fee schedule matters more than the sticker, and Premium is the only tier in this comparison where assessment collection, the website and eSignatures are all included — which means the number you put on the budget line is the number you actually spend twelve months later. Pro at $1,788 is the right answer only if your board is comfortable passing payment fees to owners and skipping a website. Whichever you pick, walk into the meeting with a written 60-unit quote, because the published price is a floor and the board is voting on a ceiling.
Loistrofi does not take vendor briefings or speak to sales teams. Every figure here comes from a page the vendor publishes itself, checked on Sep 6, 2026. Where a number could not be confirmed at source, it is marked rather than smoothed over.
