Today, we are comparing STRATAFOLIO to a property management software called AppFolio.
A little background
AppFolio was formed in 2006 in Santa Barbara, California, and launched its first product in 2008 for property managers. If you are looking for an upgrade to your current systems, one of the first names you are likely to come across is AppFolio. They have a great marketing strategy and have gained a lot of momentum over the last 15 years. But how does AppFolio compare vs. STRATAFOLIO?
AppFolio may not be the right system for you if you prefer to remain with QuickBooks and focus on commercial real estate or need easy access to a view of your global company investments and debt.
STRATAFOLIO and AppFolio – Comparison
This high-level feature and functionality comparison is based on user reviews and current uses of the system. Let’s see how STRATAFOLIO and AppFolio compare.
STRATAFOLIO VS AppFolio Features And Functionality
| Feature/Functionality | STRATAFOLIO | AppFolio |
|---|---|---|
| Common Area Maintenance (CAM) | STRATAFOLIO has created a 3-step process to complete CAM reconciliation. The end product can be emailed directly to tenants with a detailed summary by month on expenses. | Although the CAM reconciliation feature was released in 2015, the feature continues to not function well. Users frequently resort to using spreadsheets instead of the system. |
| Asset Focus | STRATAFOLIO supports 12 different asset classes but our focus is on commercial real estate - companies that manage NNN leases. | AppFolio states they serve many asset classes, including commercial properties, but the reviews suggest this continues to be a struggle and the functionality does not work as efficiently as touted. |
| Loan Management | Immediately access all debt and asset values across your portfolio including key metrics your lenders are watching (LTV, DCR). An exportable, configurable table can be shared with lenders upon request. | You can pay your loans out of AppFolio, but the product was not designed to illustrate global debt or asset value. |
| Global Portfolio View | STRATAFOLIO starts with the high-level performance of the entire portfolio, plus provides property management, asset management, and investor management capabilities. | Focuses on the day-to-day activities of managing multifamily units. |
| Accounting System | Rely on the accounting from QuickBooks which has a broad audience of experienced users. Most tax accountants also have experience with QuickBooks which makes communication with your tax accountant easier and faster, and as a result, costs less. | Internal to AppFolio. Although they state they have a complete accounting system, users are unable to obtain a global view of their portfolio. As a result, they return to using QuickBooks and doing double data entry transactions at the end of each month into QuickBooks. |
| Onboarding and Training | Experienced team of accountants and QuickBooks ProAdvisors that know and understand real estate, and guide you through the onboarding experience. They make sure your portfolio is up-to-date and accurate from the beginning. | Onboarding has been described as mechanical in nature. The onboarding will follow a pre-defined schedule of activities; if your data is not quite right, the process still continues. AppFolio does data entry on a timeline. If something is started incorrectly, it is time-consuming and difficult to correct and often requires higher-level support from AppFolio to correct. Many teams run concurrent books for a couple of months to ensure everything is functioning as expected. Additionally, if you want to bring in historical data from your other accounting system, it requires manual entry of transactions. |
| Customer Support | Dedicated onboarding and support team that not only trains users but is available after onboarding to answer questions. | Reviews suggest AppFolio struggles to answer both basic and complex customer concerns in a timely manner and their support staff does not always have deep knowledge of the product, resulting in misinformation and delays. |
Pricing | Affordable even to small to medium-sized businesses. Pricing is based on the # of buildings in the portfolio and the feature set needed. | The base fee begins at $250 per month and if you do not meet their bottom threshold, they will recommend you use another product. |
AppFolio is a complex software targeted at large multifamily companies. For the large teams that have dedicated staff for property management activities, AppFolio can be an excellent choice. However, for the thousands of companies, from large to middle and small market operations, that are rapidly growing and need a lean, cost-effective, yet comprehensive system to manage their commercial real estate or mixed-asset portfolio, AppFolio is not the right solution.
These companies need a system to easily track their building operations, tenant lease changes, and portfolio rollups. STRATAFOLIO is the asset and property management system of choice. Call us today to see how we can help your team better track operations and performance in a user-friendly, straightforward way!
