GnomeOwner vs. PayHOA, KindHOA, Buildium, TownSq & HOA Express.
There’s no single winner: GnomeOwner starts at $29/month flat (a founding rate the first 150 HOAs lock for life; $39 standard after) plus a 0.75% payment fee capped at $5, includes a free AI assistant on every plan, and never holds your dues — money goes straight to your HOA’s own Stripe account. PayHOA beats us on flat per-transaction pricing and storage. KindHOA is the only other vendor here with a genuinely free tier that includes online payments. Buildium goes deeper on accounting for larger portfolios. The comparison table on this page has every number we could verify, vendor by vendor.
Every competitor number on this page is verified against that vendor's own published pricing page as of September 8, 2026 — pricing changes, so check each vendor's site for current terms.
How does the price compare for a small self-managed board?
Six vendors, one table, sourced entirely from each company’s own published pricing page — no third-party review-site numbers.
| GnomeOwner | PayHOA | KindHOA | Buildium | TownSq | HOA Express | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price, ~20-unit board | $29/mo (Starter, up to 25 units — founding rate for the first 150 HOAs; $39/mo standard after) | $49/mo (0–25 units, billed annually) | $29/mo or $300/yr (flat) | $62/mo (Essential, entry tier) | $90/mo minimum (Pro, up to 300 units) | $15–21/mo |
| Free tier | Free forever (“Neighbor”): full AI assistant, docs, compliance calendar, minutes — dues collection is the paid unlock | None — 30-day trial only | $0 forever, and it includes online payments (usage-capped: 1-month message history, 10 active violations) | None | None | Real free tier, up to 50 households — website & documents only, ad-supported, no online payments |
| Payment fees | 0.75%, capped at $5/payment* | ACH $2.45/transaction flat · card 3.5% + $0.50 | Free tier: 1.2% card / 1% ACH, capped $8 · Paid tier: 1% / 0.8%, capped $5 | EFT-in $2.35 (Essential) · card 2.99% | Not published | Not published |
| Document storage | 5 GB free / 50 GB on every paid plan | “Unlimited” (vendor's published claim) | 5 GB free / 25 GB paid | Not published | Not published | “Unlimited” site & document storage (vendor's published claim) |
| AI assistant | Included free, unmetered, on every plan — cited answers from your own governing documents | Not published | Paid tier only | Lumina AI, Premium tier only | Not published | Not published |
| Who holds your dues money | Never — every payment is a direct charge straight to your HOA's own Stripe account | Never — their security docs state payments route via Stripe and “never touch a PayHOA bank account” | Runs on Stripe Connect; they state they never store bank/card numbers — no explicit funds-custody statement published | No custody statement found on their site — their pages describe transfers to your bank, not who holds funds in transit | No custody statement found on their payments or FAQ pages | Payments accumulate in a platform balance and transfer to your bank weekly — who holds funds in the meantime isn't stated |
* GnomeOwner’s 0.75% fee is on top of Stripe’s own processing cost — free to residents by bank transfer, and covered by the HOA (never charged to residents) if the board opts to accept cards. We never hold funds; every payment is a direct charge to your HOA’s own Stripe-connected account. “Not published” means that vendor doesn’t publish a number for that row as of September 8, 2026 — it isn’t a claim that the feature doesn’t exist.
No vendor here is best at everything — including us.
A comparison page that only lists our own strengths isn’t honest, and it isn’t useful to a board making a real decision. Here’s where each competitor genuinely comes out ahead.
PayHOA's flat $2.45 ACH fee is cheaper than our 0.75% once a single payment passes about $327 — a board collecting a large special-assessment payment will pay less per transaction there. Every plan also gets every feature with no tier-gating, and storage is published as unlimited. What PayHOA doesn't publish: a free tier (30-day trial only) or any AI feature.
KindHOA is the only other vendor here with a real $0-forever tier that includes online dues collection — a genuine free path to collecting money that GnomeOwner doesn't match (we gate dues collection behind a paid plan). Their flat pricing ($29/mo or $300/yr) is simple and published up front. The trade-off: free-tier payment fees run higher than ours (1.2% card / 1% ACH, capped $8, vs. our 0.75% capped $5), the AI assistant is paid-only, and both of their tiers cap storage below ours (5 GB free / 25 GB paid vs. our 5 GB free / 50 GB paid).
Buildium goes deeper on accounting than any vendor here — it's built for management companies running many properties, not a single volunteer board — and its Lumina AI assistant (Premium tier only) is a real, published AI feature from a major vendor. That depth comes at management-company pricing: $62/month to start, no free tier, and AI locked to a higher tier.
TownSq is priced and built for larger communities — its Pro plan covers up to 300 units for a $90/month minimum, more headroom in one plan than any other vendor here publishes. It doesn't publish a free tier, payment fees, storage limits, or an AI feature, so a small self-managed board has less to compare before committing.
HOA Express has the simplest genuinely free tier of anyone here — a real $0 website and document library for boards up to 50 households, no trial clock running out. It's ad-supported and doesn't publish online payments at any tier, so a board that wants to collect dues digitally will outgrow it.
The questions boards actually ask.
Is GnomeOwner cheaper than PayHOA?
On the subscription, yes — GnomeOwner starts at $29/month for boards up to 25 units (a founding rate the first 150 HOAs lock for life; $39/month standard after); PayHOA starts at $49/month for the same size, billed annually. On a single payment, though, PayHOA's flat $2.45 ACH fee beats our 0.75% once that one payment is larger than about $327; GnomeOwner is cheaper per payment below that.
Which HOA software has a real free tier?
Three of the six vendors here publish one. GnomeOwner's free tier includes a full AI assistant, documents, and the compliance calendar, with dues collection as the paid unlock. KindHOA's free tier is the only one that includes online payments (at higher fees than its paid tier). HOA Express is free for a website and document library up to 50 households, with no online payments. PayHOA, Buildium, and TownSq don't publish a free tier — trial periods only.
Does any of this software hold my HOA's dues money?
GnomeOwner never does — every dues payment is a direct charge to your HOA's own Stripe-connected account; we're paid a capped processing fee, not a party to the transfer, and residents are never charged an extra card fee. PayHOA, KindHOA, Buildium, and TownSq don't publish how their payment processing is structured, so we can't say how they handle custody of the money — ask each vendor directly.
Does any of this software include AI for free?
GnomeOwner is the only one of the six that includes an AI assistant at no cost on every plan. KindHOA and Buildium both offer AI, but only on a paid tier (KindHOA's paid plan, Buildium's Premium tier). PayHOA, TownSq, and HOA Express don't publish an AI feature.
See it against your own board’s numbers.
Add your documents and GnomeOwner sets up the rest — free tier included, no credit card, and a 45-day full-access trial to see the paid features before you decide.
