Avail Review: Pricing, Features, and Alternatives
Finding the right property management software can be tough.
What features does this one have? What about the other?
Pricing? Customer service? Ease of use?
It can all be a bit overwhelming, and hard to review one software vs. another without diving deep into customer reviews first to do that.
Fortunately, we did that for you and pooled together all the most relevant information to review one of the premier property management software tools in the industry: Avail property management software.
So, is it the right choice for you? Does it lack anything key that you need, and is there an alternative that would be better suited for you?
Read on to find out questions to both of these questions and more.
What is Avail property management software?
Avail is a low-cost property management software option designed for landlords with basic features and a premium-priced version for those looking for more.
What sets it apart is its free version. While it’s not truly free and with limited features compared to its competitors, it is still an option for property managers just getting started.
Avail features
Let’s start by diving into what features Avail offers.
Right off the bat, it’s important to understand that Avail is divided into two buckets: the free and paid account.
The premium version of Avail offers access to features such as:
- Online rent payments and tenant portal
- Leasing features
- Tenant screening
- Maintenance system
- Listings tools
With the free version, you have access to some of these features but not others.
For example, with the free version you don’t have access to:
- Custom applications
- Expedited rent payment processing (takes multiple days with the free version)
- Property website
- And more
Avail pricing
Avail’s basic Unlimited plan is free, with some stipulations.
You don’t have a monthly fee for the software, but there are fees for things such as:
- ACH payments
- Application fees
- Other processing fees
Keep in mind that they’re entirely transparent, as nowhere on their official website do they list out 100% of what you get from their free plan or what fees it includes.
If you move up to their Unlimited Plus premium plan, you’ll get their full feature set and no ACH fees.
The trade-off, however, is that you’ll pay a hefty $5 per unit, per month which is much more than the average throughout the industry (closer to $2 per unit, per month).
Avail.co reviews
Now that we’ve talked about some basics, let’s dive into some real customer reviews.
These are readily available for viewing on major review platforms, in this case the below reviews are referenced from Softwareadvice.com and Capterra.com.
Avail has some great reviews, such as this one from user Ashanti:
“I love the fact that I can upload my Own lease. While I enjoy the option to create a lease using the template provided by Avail, I love being able to truly customize my lease.”
However, one area where customers frequently mention issues is in ease of use, such as in this review from user Tim:
“It’s not easy to get started… not easy to just jump in and figure out. Creating a lease or even trying to upload your own lease is extremely difficult! “
Another review from user Allyson said:
“I can easily see maintenance request previous leases and a payment history then I’m able to print off for taxes. The software is just easy to navigate.”
On the flip-side, the ease-of-use issue is a common problem that crops up in reviews:
“The software can sometimes feel like a hammer when you need a scalpel. When you post your listings the software will scrub out anything that looks like contact information… it forces us to use clunky lines of communication while simultaneously trying to make a first impression with prospective tenants.
“There are enough examples of how that manifests itself that my newest tenant just moved in and isn’t exactly thrilled when I tell her we have use Avail for certain operations.”
Avail alternative: Avail vs. DoorLoop
Now that we’ve covered Avail’s features, pricing, and actual customer reviews, what about alternatives?
We’ve put Avail head-to-head with our own software at DoorLoop and shown why DoorLoop is the #1 Avail alternative.
But let’s review a few of the reasons why we believe that DoorLoop is the best choice if you’re considering Avail:
Features
When comparing features, the full feature set of both Avail and DoorLoop are similar.
Let’s take a look:
We talked about Avail’s features earlier. They include:
- Online rent payments
- Leasing tools
- Tenant screening
- Maintenance management
- Rental listings
- And smartphone application
DoorLoop, however, offers a complete suite of features designed by property managers, for property managers.
That includes:
- Automated rent payments
- Maintenance management
- Full accounting suite including a chart of accounts, reconciliations, and QuickBooks Online integration
- eLeasing and screening tools
- Tenant portal that makes communicating with your tenants a cinch
- An owner portal to help manage everything to do with your owners including printing checks and running reports
- A convenient mobile app
- Marketing tools such as automatic listings
- And much more
Pricing
Pricing is where there is the greatest difference.
So far, we’ve touched on the fact that Avail offers a limited free plan with a high-priced premium plan in the form of $5 per unit, per month if you want their full suite of features.
For example, if you have 20 units, you’d pay $100 per month.
With DoorLoop, however, you get access to a massive list of features with their starter plan and pay just $49 per month for the same 20 units.
You also get a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try the software risk-free and decide if it’s a fit for you later.
But where the divide becomes even larger is when you consider adding more units.
If you have 100 unts, for example, Avail’s pricing plan would cost you a whopping $500 per month.
Those same 100 units would cost you just $129 per month with DoorLoop.
Ease-of-use
Remember that ease-of-use was a sticking point for Avail customers? Not so with DoorLoop.
In fact, it’s a strength of DoorLoop’s that it is the easiest– and smoothest– property management software to use in the industry.
Not only is it lightning fast, but the UI is simple and easy to use.
Users report a seamless experience navigating the software from one section to another while never having a problem finding what they’re looking for.
Customer service
An extension of ease-of-use, bad customer service can completely ruin your experience with a software.
Afterall, when you’re first starting out there’s a bit of a learning curve, and having someone there you can contact at a moment’s notice really helps work through issues when getting setup and beyond.
Avail users typically report not having a hard time getting a hold of support, though their documentation is lacking and it can be hard finding an answer online when you just want to do it yourself.
DoorLoop users, on the other hand, report having an easy time navigating its extensive help guides anytime they need.
But the best part is, DoorLoop support makes it easy to quickly get access to real human beings who can talk you through any questions you may have.
Plus, you can get access to priority Zoom and phone support via the Pro plan.
Choose the tool that works for you
We know it’s a bold statement claiming that DoorLoop is the #1 Avail alternative, but we’re confident in that statement.
While the choice is up to you to decide what property management software is the best fit for your business, if you’re looking for:
- A massive feature set
- At an affordable price
- With the best customer service in the industry
- And incredible ease-of-use
Then give DoorLoop a try.
You can get started now with a 30-day money back guarantee and see how DoorLoop can help you supercharge and simplify your property management:
