What users are saying about
6 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 9.3 out of 101
Based on 6 reviews and ratings
3 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 7.2 out of 101
Based on 3 reviews and ratings
Add comparison
Likelihood to Recommend
AppFolio
AppFolio Property Manager is great for small to medium-sized businesses (managing 300 - 1,000 units). I don't know if it would be as useful for extremely large organizations or extremely small organizations. There are so many features that we don't use (we don't currently have a need for) but I can't imagine a smaller business owner needing half of the features this software offers. As I haven't worked for a large organization that utilizes this program, I'm not sure if it would be beneficial or if it would meet all the needs of an extremely large organization (10,000+ units); therefore, I'm unable to speak on that portion.
Office Manager
Birwood Property ManagementReal Estate, 11-50 employees
CoStar Real Estate Manager
Gen-Y and younger will have no problem learning how to use CoStar but its not very intuitive for the older generations (they have to hunt and peck for what they are looking for and have no idea how to manipulate the reporting features)
Client Services Specialist
CBREReal Estate, 10,001+ employees
Pros
- It helps us to keep the Maintenance side of the business very organized. Anyone from our organization can go in and know exactly where a work order is in process (new, waiting, assigned, completed). We know if a work order has been printed and if the tenants are still having an issue we know to contact the Maintenance team. We can build on existing work orders by adding a "-2" or "-3" work order and keep track of the history when managing ongoing issues.
- AppFolio makes it easy to see exactly what tenants owe and categorizes charges/credits efficiently on their ledgers. We can tell if there are water/sewer charges, pet fees, electricity allocations, late fees, security deposits, etc... It's all easy to follow and understand and it set up in chronological order.
- I also utilize the Reports and Letters section of this software program quite often. It's great to have a uniform format which helps us maintain the professional element by remaining consistent and accurate. It's easy to run a report with tenant information at a certain property for maintenance and send select tenants letters at a large property without everyone being included. It's very intuitive and the formatting has definitely improved over the past two years I've been using the program.
Office Manager
Birwood Property ManagementReal Estate, 11-50 employees
- For my role within the company, I find CoStars database of historical information very helpful. Previous users, owners, financing lien holders, tax information and county data are things I look for on a daily basis.
Client Services Specialist
CBREReal Estate, 10,001+ employees
Cons
- There is some reporting that we would like to see for our Owners and Tenants. Their vacancy report is one we wish we could pull in the tenants phone number to be able to have it on our report when we print.
- Maintenance also has reporting that we would like to be able to produce from the keys checked out and keys returned so we can stay on top of checking out our units better. We would also like to do reports from the inspections. Being able to print the units coming vacant at the end of any given month and printing it so we know which unit needs to have painting, cleaning and carpet cleaning done would be very helpful. Right now we export the units and copy and paste into a spreadsheet template to have what we need for our maintenance board.
- The process to remove misapplied rent or how to refund money to a tenant is a several step process we would like to see simplified.
Operations Manager
INVESTMENT REALTY, INCReal Estate, 11-50 employees
- In our market (Portland, OR), not enough users implement the tools that could make CoStar so much better. For example, I specialize in medical but brokers and owners don't take the time to mark medical as an approved use in their buildings so I have to search much longer and cross-reference the data by contacting the brokers directly.
- I find it really annoying that when I download documents CoStar doesn't use smart technology to automatically name my files. It is especially irritating since every piece of marketing we post to CoStar has a relevant file name yet when we download the same file we have to rename it.
Client Services Specialist
CBREReal Estate, 10,001+ employees
Usability
AppFolio10.0
Based on 1 answer
It's very user-friendly and it's an easy to learn system. The display is easy to understand and it's easy to find what you're looking for on the desktop site. We've had at least 3 new hires in the last year and everyone has picked up the program rather quickly without much training or assistance. Everyone learns differently but at the same time, everyone was able to implement the program within weeks of starting.
Office Manager
Birwood Property ManagementReal Estate, 11-50 employees
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Support
AppFolio8.0
Based on 1 answer
Typically, AppFolio answers all questions the same day. However, I've had issues with Apartments.com pulling our information on available listings and consistently advertising incorrectly. I've contacted AppFolio more than 3 times about this in the last month and they said they would look into it and work on getting it figured out with them. However, I've had two more incidents since then and I just feel like I'm not being heard. However, I do give them a higher rating because I feel like they DO try their best and they are VERY responsive when we have major issues (this is more of an inconvenience issue). They do have room for improvement but overall, they're on the right track.
Office Manager
Birwood Property ManagementReal Estate, 11-50 employees
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
This was our old program and it was not user friendly and very inefficient to use. We was never able to answer a question for an owner or a tenant very easily and many times we had to ask for them to let us call them back while we research their question because it was so difficult to maneuver in the program.
Operations Manager
INVESTMENT REALTY, INCReal Estate, 11-50 employees
One of our landlords requested we try VTS but we didn't continue because it was such a small portfolio it too more time to update the database than we wanted to spend
Client Services Specialist
CBREReal Estate, 10,001+ employees
Return on Investment
- AppFolio has converted prospective clients to actual clients once they saw how my company could use the program to communicate with on-site property management teams and improve the communication and budgeting process.
- AppFolio is expensive, especially for a small company, so that may have had some negative impact on the ROI.
- Overall, AppFolio has also helped improve our ability as a company to communicate with asset manager levels.

Verified User
Analyst in Finance and Accounting
Real Estate Company, 11-50 employees- Since CoStar has linked with LoopNet we have had fewer bad data calls. By which I mean old data from LoopNet that was available to the general public is now more regularly updated through CoStar so we have less confusion with our clients.
Client Services Specialist
CBREReal Estate, 10,001+ employees
Screenshots
CoStar Real Estate Manager—
Pricing Details
AppFolio
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Additional Pricing Details
—CoStar Real Estate Manager
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No