Compared with
Board Butler or a property-management platform for a self-managed board.
Buildium and AppFolio are property-management platforms built for companies that manage many properties. A self-managed board is one property run by its own directors, and needs the opposite shape of tool.
Comparison
Side by side
| What we are comparing | Board Butler | What that includes | Buildium and AppFolio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Self-managed boards. | One corporation, volunteers, and no professional staff to train. | See their site |
| Pricing | Per unit per month with a $99 minimum and no annual contract. | One plan, month to month, cancel from the billing page. | See their site |
| Governance record: decisions, minutes, votes, conflicts | Yes, as one linked record. | Every decision gets a permanent ID that later payments and contracts point back to. | See their site |
| Statutory compliance calendar | Yes, from your own dates. | Ontario and Florida obligations with citations and evidence requirements. | See their site |
| Procurement enforcement | Yes. | An award cannot happen without the quote count your policy and statute require. | See their site |
| Fund accounting with restrictions enforced | Yes, enforced in the database. | A reserve outflow without a linked decision fails before it posts. | See their site |
| Designed for volunteers | Yes, three clicks to any recurring task. | No training course, and every screen says what happens if you do nothing. | See their site |
| Lending marketplace | Yes. | Partner lenders bid on a standard file, with the no-debt alternatives beside every offer. | See their site |
A fair comparison
When Buildium or AppFolio may suit you better
If your board has decided to hire a management company, let the company choose its platform. Both are mature, and the manager will be faster on the tool they know.
Board Butler is for the board that runs its own operations, and for a manager who would rather a client board owned its record than kept it inside the manager's own system. Neither of those is a portfolio, which is what these platforms are built and priced for.
Questions
Questions boards ask
Can a management company use Board Butler?
Yes. A manager, bookkeeper or fractional operator works inside a client board's account as a delegate today, with scoped permissions and a spending limit the board sets. A white-label mode is planned and is not available at launch.
Try it with your building's numbers
Put your unit count into the calculator, or set up your corporation and look around.