RentGuard vs AppFolio: Do You Really Need Enterprise PM Software?

If you've been researching property management software and landed on AppFolio's pricing page, you probably had the same reaction I did: "Wait, what?"

AppFolio Core starts at $1.49 per unit per month. Sounds reasonable until you see the minimum monthly spend: $298. That's equivalent to 200 units at the per-unit price. Even if you have 10 units, you're paying $298/month.

Let me save you some time. If you have under 50 units and you're self-managing, AppFolio is not built for you. Here's why, and what to use instead.

What AppFolio Actually Is

AppFolio is enterprise property management software. It's built for property management companies that manage hundreds or thousands of units with a team of employees.

Their three tiers tell the story:

Core: $1.49/unit/month. Minimum spend $298/month (200 units). Includes accounting, marketing, leasing, work order management, inspections, tenant and owner portals, and standard support.

Plus: $3.20/unit/month. Minimum spend $960/month (300 units). Adds advanced leasing metrics, corporate accounting, premium integrations, and enhanced support.

Max: $5.00/unit/month. Minimum spend $7,500/month (1,500 units). Adds leasing CRM, custom fields, database APIs, and a dedicated account manager.

These are serious tools for serious operations. If you run a PM company with 200+ doors and a staff of 5, AppFolio is genuinely excellent. It's the industry standard for a reason.

Why It Doesn't Fit Small Landlords

The math doesn't work. At 10 units, you're paying $298/month. That's $29.80 per unit per month just for software. If your average rent is $1,200, you're spending 2.5% of gross rent on software. A property manager typically charges 8-10%, so at that point you might as well hire one and get a human being out of the deal.

You don't need 80% of the features. Corporate accounting? You have 10 units. Advanced leasing metrics? You lease maybe 2-3 units per year. Owner portals? You are the owner. Inspection workflows? You walk through the unit yourself.

The complexity is a cost itself. Learning AppFolio takes weeks. Setting it up properly takes days. Every minute spent navigating a complex dashboard is a minute not spent managing your properties. For a self-managing landlord, simplicity is a feature.

What RentGuard Is

RentGuard is a monitoring layer for your existing spreadsheet. It's not PM software. It doesn't try to be.

You have a Google Sheet where you track rent payments. RentGuard connects to it. Every day, it reads your sheet and checks whether tenants have paid. If someone is past the grace period and hasn't paid, you get an email and optional text alert.

It also monitors your maintenance tracker spreadsheet. If a high-priority maintenance request has been sitting for 3 days, you get an alert.

That's the whole product. $15/month flat. No per-unit pricing. No minimums. No setup fees.

The Real Comparison

This isn't really an apples-to-apples comparison. It's more like comparing a delivery truck to a bicycle. Both get you somewhere, but they're built for completely different situations.

Cost. AppFolio: $298/month minimum. RentGuard: $15/month. That's a $269/month difference, or $3,228/year. On a 10-unit portfolio averaging $1,200/month rent, that $3,228 is about 2.2% of your gross annual rent.

Setup time. AppFolio: days to weeks. Every property, unit, tenant, lease, and bank account needs to be entered. RentGuard: 5 minutes. Connect your Google Sheet. Set your grace periods. Done.

Learning curve. AppFolio has a significant learning curve. It's powerful software with hundreds of features. RentGuard has basically no learning curve. You get emails when things are overdue. That's it.

Tenant features. AppFolio has tenant portals, online payments, maintenance request portals, and communication tools. RentGuard has none of this. It's landlord-facing only.

Accounting. AppFolio has full property accounting with trust account management. RentGuard has no accounting features. If you need NOI reports and owner disbursements, AppFolio delivers. If you just need to know who hasn't paid, RentGuard delivers.

Who Is AppFolio Best For?

AppFolio is best for professional property management companies managing 200+ units with staff. If you have a team handling leasing, maintenance, and accounting, AppFolio brings it all together in one platform. The per-unit cost drops quickly at scale. At 500 units, $1.49/unit is $745/month. That's very reasonable for the feature set.

If you're building a PM business, AppFolio is a serious tool worth the investment.

Who Is RentGuard Best For?

RentGuard is best for self-managing landlords with under 20 units who already have a spreadsheet system. You don't need corporate accounting or tenant portals. You just need to stop missing late payments.

If you Googled AppFolio because someone recommended "property management software" and got sticker shock, RentGuard might be what you actually needed. Most small landlords don't need software that manages everything. They need something that watches their existing system and sends alerts. I lay out why in best PM software for 5-10 units.

The Honest Take

If you have 50+ units and a team, AppFolio is the right choice. It's industry-leading for a reason and the investment pays for itself at scale.

If you have under 20 units and you're managing them yourself alongside a day job, spending $298/month on software is throwing money away. You need a bicycle, not a delivery truck.

Keep your spreadsheet. It works. Add monitoring for the one thing it's missing. descoshop.com. $15/month. Free forever. 5 minutes to set up.