GnomeOwner vs. PayHOA, Buildium & TownSq: HOA software, compared.
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 0.75% of each payment, capped at $5 — never more than $10 all-in on a bank payment — includes an AI assistant on every plan (25 questions a month free, many more on paid), and never holds your dues — money goes straight to your HOA’s own Stripe account. PayHOA beats us on flat per-transaction pricing above about $158 and on storage. 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 (PayHOA's size bands re-verified September 19, 2026) — pricing changes, so check each vendor's site for current terms.
How does the price compare for a small self-managed board?
Five vendors, one table, sourced entirely from each company’s own published pricing page — no third-party review-site numbers.
| GnomeOwner | PayHOA | 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) | $65/mo (Essential, entry tier) | $90/mo minimum (Pro, up to 300 units) | $15–21/mo |
| Free tier | Free forever (“Neighbor”): the Bramble assistant (25 questions a month), docs, compliance calendar, minutes, dues billing — online payments that record themselves are the paid unlock | None — 30-day trial only | None | None | Real free tier, up to 50 households — website & documents only, ad-supported, no online payments |
| Payment fees | 0.75% of each payment, capped at $5 | ACH $2.45/transaction flat · card 3.5% + $0.50 | 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) | Not published | Not published | “Unlimited” site & document storage (vendor's published claim) |
| AI assistant | Free plan: 25 Bramble questions a month. Paid plans: many more questions each month. Cited answers from your own governing documents | Gable AI add-on: on by default, free for 3 months, then from $24.50/mo (grows with community size) | 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” | 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% of each payment, capped at $5 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; never more than $10 all-in on a bank payment. 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 per bank payment than our 0.75% + Stripe's own ACH cost once a single payment passes about $158 — 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). Its Gable AI assistant is a paid add-on, switched on by default and free for the first 3 months, then from $24.50 a month.
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: $65/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. Per payment it depends on size: below about $158, GnomeOwner's 0.75% of each payment, capped at $5 plus Stripe's own bank-transfer cost is cheaper than PayHOA's flat $2.45 ACH fee; above that, PayHOA's flat fee wins. We don't claim to be cheapest per payment — our honest claims are the lower subscription, never more than $10 all-in on a bank payment, and residents paying $0.
Which HOA software has a real free tier?
Two of the five vendors here publish one. GnomeOwner's free tier includes the Bramble assistant (25 questions a month), documents, the compliance calendar and dues billing, with online payments that record themselves as the paid unlock. 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, 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 includes an AI assistant on every plan: 25 Bramble questions a month on the free plan, many more each month on paid plans. Buildium offers AI on its Premium tier. PayHOA's Gable AI is a paid add-on, switched on by default and free for the first 3 months, then from $24.50 a month. TownSq and HOA Express don't publish an AI feature.
