Buildium is genuinely excellent at what it was built for: management companies with hundreds or thousands of doors and trust-account rules to follow. It was never built for you, the person self-managing 1 to 25 rentals on the side. I'll show you the price-per-door math, and exactly where the line between you and them sits.

Buildium's pricing, on paper

Per Buildium's public pricing page (as of May 2026):

  • Essential: from $62 per month, billed monthly.
  • Growth: from $192 per month, billed monthly.
  • Premium: from $400 per month, billed monthly.

The list price is the start of the bill. Buildium also charges per-transaction and per-document fees on the lower tiers: roughly $2.35 per incoming EFT and $5 per e-signature on Essential, and a $99 bank-setup fee per account. A 10-unit landlord collecting rent every month from 10 tenants pays $23.50 a month in EFT fees on top of the $62 base. The "30 to 50 percent on top of list" estimate from independent reviewers is not unfair.

Who Buildium is actually for

Buildium's own product positions Essential at "fewer than 150 units." The full feature set (trust accounting, owner portals, retail vacancy reporting, multiple management companies) only earns its keep when you have a back office, a leasing agent, and a maintenance coordinator. A self-managing landlord with 8 units does not need most of it.

What the same portfolio costs with us

Rentari.ai's per-unit model:

  • $10 per month flat for the first 5 units (or $8 per month on annual billing).
  • $2 per month per additional unit for units 6 through 200 (annual: $1.60).

That works out to:

  • 5 units: $10 a month monthly, or $96 a year annual.
  • 10 units: $20 a month monthly, or $192 a year annual.
  • 25 units: $50 a month monthly, or $480 a year annual.

No per-EFT fee, no per-eSignature fee, no bank-setup fee. The screening fee is paid by the applicant (you never see the bill) and the tenant-side ACH is free on the standard rent collection rail.

Feature for feature, honestly

Buildium has features Rentari.ai does not match, and vice versa. The honest breakdown for a 1-to-25-unit landlord:

  • Trust accounting. Buildium yes (required for PM companies). Rentari.ai no (self-managers do not hold third-party funds).
  • Owner portal. Buildium yes. Rentari.ai no (you are the owner).
  • AI maintenance triage. Buildium no. Rentari.ai yes.
  • 50-state Legislation Watch. Buildium no. Rentari.ai yes.
  • 1099 + W-9 vendor tracking. Both yes.
  • Listing syndication to Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com. Both yes.
  • FCRA-compliant screening. Both yes.
  • Open API for custom integrations. Buildium yes (Premium tier). Rentari.ai on the roadmap.

Pro Tip: Trust accounting is not always a feature you want

Trust accounting only matters if you are a licensed property manager holding funds on behalf of owners. If you own the rentals yourself, trust accounting is overhead you do not need and disclosures you do not have to make. Picking a platform built for PM companies when you are a landlord adds work, not protection.

When Buildium is still the right call

If you are running an actual property management company with 150-plus units, employees, owner-investor reporting, and trust-account obligations, Buildium is the safer pick. Rentari.ai does not yet serve that segment and we tell prospects that on the call. If you are a self-managing landlord under 25 units who keeps finding Buildium overwhelming and over-priced, the Rentari.ai demo will feel like the platform that was actually built for you.