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Comparison

GatherAMS vs PayHOA: the PayHOA alternative, priced honestly

Built for self-managed homeowners associations, priced by door, with every feature included at every tier.

When PayHOA is the better answer

A self-managed HOA that wants assessments, accounting and violations in one place and does not need events, committees or member email.

What each one costs you

Put in your own numbers. Nothing is sent anywhere — this runs in your browser.

Everyone in the database — what our plans are counted in.

What PayHOA bills on. Two owners on title is two contact records but one home.

Dues, tickets and donations taken by card in a year.

GatherAMS
Chapter
$89/ mo
Subscription, yearly
$1,068
Payment markup
None
Card processing
$1,740

Processing is Stripe’s own 2.9% + 30¢, billed to you by Stripe. We add nothing to it.

Year one$2,808
PayHOA
by homes in your community
$252/ mo
Subscription, yearly
$3,024
Card processing
$2,100

Processing at their published 3.5% card rate. Plus incoming card payments at 3.5% + $0.50, and ach at $2.45 each, as published.

Year one$5,124
Difference in year one
$2,316less with GatherAMS
Apply for access

PayHOA pricing as published by them, checked July 2026. Our own price is exact. Card processing figures are estimates from published rates, not quotes, and your negotiated rate may differ. Sources: PayHOA pricing.

Where the two genuinely differ

Payment processing
PayHOA

Published at 3.5% + $0.50 for incoming card payments and $2.45 per incoming ACH.

GatherAMS

Whatever your own Stripe account charges you — typically 2.9% + $0.30 — with nothing added by us.

Beyond assessments
PayHOA

Focused on HOA accounting and compliance. Events and member email are not the point.

GatherAMS

The same violations, ARC queue and assessments, plus events, committees, elections and email in the same subscription.

If your board also runs a club
PayHOA

One vertical, done properly.

GatherAMS

Four, and the console changes its vocabulary to match which one you are.

What you are billed on
PayHOA

Doors, which is the natural unit for an HOA.

GatherAMS

Contact records — so a 320-home community with both owners on title is billed as roughly 640 records.

The GatherAMS console running a self-managed HOA: assessments billed on schedule with late fees and delinquency at a glance

The console the comparison is about — a live demo account with real records, not a mock-up. Open it yourself below.

Feature by feature

46 of these 59 capabilities are live in GatherAMS today; 39 are in PayHOA. Where a line does not apply to a product it is marked with a dash rather than counted against it.

Members & contacts

CapabilityGatherPayHOA
Central member/contact database✓✓
Custom/configurable data fields✓✗
Company/business membership type✓–
Individual/household/owner membership type✓✓
Member/owner self-service portal✓✓
Bulk data import from spreadsheet✓✓
Searchable public/member directory✓–
Access control by level/role✓✓
Application/registration approval workflow✓–
AI-driven engagement/health scoring✓✗
Duplicate detection / data-cleanup tooling✓✗
Contact segmentation / tagging✓✓

Events & scheduling

CapabilityGatherPayHOA
Event listing & online registration✓✗
Ticketing with tiered/early-bird pricing✓✗
Waitlist management✓✗
On-site / QR check-in✓✗
Continuing-education (CE) credit tracking✓✗
Shared community calendar✓✓
Amenity/facility booking✓✓

Website & public pages

CapabilityGatherPayHOA
No-code website builder✓✓
Custom domain support✓✓
Gated / members-only content✓✓
Blog / news publishing✓✗
Document library / storage✓✓

Communications

CapabilityGatherPayHOA
Mass email campaigns✓✓
Email open/click analytics✓✓
SMS text messaging✗✓
Automated voice/phone announcementssoon✓
Discussion forums / message boards✓✓
AI chatbot for member/resident support✓✓
Physical mail fulfillment (USPS)soon✓

Payments, billing & accounting

CapabilityGatherPayHOA
Online dues/assessment payment (ACH & card)✓✓
Autopay / recurring billing✓✓
Automated late-fee assessment✓✓
Native full general-ledger accountingsoon✓
Two-way QuickBooks sync✗–
Built-in tax-form filing (1120-H/1099)soon✓
AP / bill-pay with OCR invoice capturesoon✓
Budgeting toolssoon✓
Donation processing✓–
Online store / e-commerce✓–

Compliance & governance

CapabilityGatherPayHOA
Violation / compliance-notice tracking✓✓
Architectural review (ARC) requests✓✓
Online voting / elections✓✓
Resale/ownership-transfer document automationsoon✓
Committee/board-level governance permissions✓✓

Mobile

CapabilityGatherPayHOA
Dedicated admin mobile appsoon✗
Dedicated member/resident mobile appsoon✗

Reporting & analytics

CapabilityGatherPayHOA
Custom report builder✓✓
Real-time dashboard✓✓
Export to Excel/CSV✓✓

Integrations & API

CapabilityGatherPayHOA
Public / open REST API✓✗
Zapier integration✗✗
Webhooks✓✗
Named financial/vendor integrations✓✓

Platform & security

CapabilityGatherPayHOA
PCI-DSS compliant payments✓✓
Two-factor authentication✓✓
Free 30-day trial — starts at approval, usually within a business day✓✓
Dedicated onboarding / account managementsoon✓

Capability marks for PayHOA reflect published material and product documentation as of July 2026. Products change; if something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

Check these claims against the software itself

Every row in the table above describes a real account you can open. One field, no card, no call — then judge the comparison for yourself.

Up to 5 visits per address. We will not put you on a drip campaign — the only follow-up is one invitation to apply, and only if it looks like a fit.

PayHOA questions, answered straight

What does PayHOA cost?

PayHOA publishes its prices: from $54/month for up to 25 units to $275/month for 500 (then $0.55 per unit), with all features on every tier. Payment processing is charged on top at published rates of 3.5% + $0.50 per card payment and $2.45 per incoming ACH. On $60,000 of annual assessments, card processing alone is roughly $2,100 a year.

What is a good PayHOA alternative for a self-managed HOA?

GatherAMS covers the same core — scheduled assessments with automatic late fees, violation tracking with photo evidence, architectural review, owner records and an accounting export — and adds events, committees, elections and member email in the same subscription. Payments run on your own Stripe account at Stripe's rate with nothing added, which is the largest practical difference for most boards.

What do PayHOA reviews tend to say?

Reviews on the aggregators are broadly positive about its HOA accounting depth and per-door pricing, with the recurring caveats being payment processing cost and the absence of anything beyond HOA operations. That matches our read: for pure HOA bookkeeping it is a strong product — our page on it says exactly who should still pick it.

How is GatherAMS priced for an HOA?

On contact records rather than doors: a 320-home community with both owners on title is roughly 640 records, which lands on the $89/month plan with every feature included, no setup fee, and 0% added to payments. The comparison page has a calculator that prices both products against your own community size and assessment volume.

Do not take our word for any of this

Open a live demo and check the claims yourself. An email address, no card, no call.

The other comparisons

Same shape, same sourcing: their published prices, ours exact, and the part where they suit you better than we do.