Chickadee Bandit vs. PayHOA
For a volunteer board choosing between a payments-and-books system and a workspace for the board.
Compare › Chickadee Bandit vs. PayHOA
Which is a better fit?
Choose PayHOA if owners should pay dues online and the treasurer needs real books with bank reconciliation — that is most self-managed associations of any size. Chickadee Bandit fits a small board, of up to 20 people in one space, whose dues already arrive by check or bank transfer and who need the reserves, violations, ARC decisions, elections and minutes in one record.
Where PayHOA shines — and where it doesn't
PayHOA is built for the association that runs itself. Its pricing page has a Self-Managed tab of its own, every feature is on every plan, and the core is money: owners pay online, autopay and late fees run on their own, and the treasurer keeps a real general ledger with bank reconciliation, budgets and 1099s. Violations, architectural requests, amenities, voting, mailed letters and a website sit around that.
Chickadee Bandit is not a payment system and does not keep the books. It is the board's workspace: the dues status and reserve funds, the violation and ARC records, the elections and the minutes, in one place the next board inherits. If your association needs money to move through its software, PayHOA is the better buy, and the table below says so row by row.
Side by side
| PayHOA | Chickadee Bandit | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Priced by units, every feature on every plan: $49/mo billed yearly for up to 25 units ($54 month to month), $59/mo for 26–50, $99/mo for 51–100, $129/mo for 101–150, up to $249/mo for 401–500, then $0.55 per unit. 30-day free trial with no card; no long-term contract. | Priced by the sponsoring board member's plan, not by units: Family $6/mo ($60/yr) sponsors a space of 8 people and 10 apps; Organization $30/mo ($300/yr) sponsors three spaces of up to 20 people and 14 apps each. The rest of the board joins free. 30-day free trial with no card. |
| Collecting dues | Owners pay online by bank ($2.45 per payment) or card (3.5% + $0.50; no American Express), with recurring invoices, autopay, and automatic late fees and interest. The association pays the fee unless it passes it on as a convenience fee. | We collect no money. Dues & Contributions lists each member's status for each billing period, the treasurer records payments as they land, and closing a period reconciles what was billed, collected and allocated. Owners keep paying by check or bank transfer, and there is no processing fee. |
| Accounting | A general ledger with your own chart of accounts, cash or accrual, bank reconciliation through a bank connection, budgets, payables with approvals, 1099 e-filing and financial reports. A bookkeeping service (from $199/mo) and tax filing (from $399) are extra. | No general ledger, bank reconciliation, budgets or tax forms. Each recorded payment posts to the right reserve fund, and a dashboard shows every fund's balance, goal, ledger and capital projects to all members. Keep the books in your accounting software. |
| Violations & architectural review | Violation tracking for CC&R enforcement, and architectural requests the board reviews and can export. | Violation notices to a unit that the homeowner can acknowledge, answer or dispute, tracked to resolution with a trail per unit. Architectural requests with their documents go to a committee vote and a written decision. |
| Amenities & parking | Amenity scheduling with reservations, fees, agreements and availability. | Amenity bookings with windows, per-household limits and optional approval, but no fees. First-come guest parking passes that cannot be overbooked, and a vehicle and parking-spot registry. |
| Voting & minutes | Voting and surveys, and message boards. | Officer elections with nominations, a secret ballot, majority or ranked-choice voting and a certified result. Minutes record each motion and every director's roll-call vote, and adopted minutes are frozen for every member to read. |
| Reaching owners | Unlimited email, texts and phone calls; USPS letters mailed from the app for $1.05–$1.25 each; a website builder and hosting. | Announcements on every member's phone and Today view, with optional email to every member, and a forum. No text messages, voice calls, mailed letters or public website. |
| Documents & requests | Document storage, resale documents, and maintenance requests the board tracks. | A versioned library for the CC&Rs, bylaws and rules with an archive of agendas and minutes, and maintenance requests members file and follow to resolved. No resale certificates. |
| Apps | Runs in a web browser. We found no PayHOA app in the App Store or on Google Play. | iPhone, Android and the web. |
| Who it fits | Self-managed associations from under 25 units to over 500, and management companies. | A board and its committees, or a small building where each owner joins: a space holds up to 20 people. Not an association of a hundred homes that all need to log in. |
| Beyond the association | HOA management only. | Each board member keeps a private household of their own, with over 100 installable apps, on the same plan. The association's space cannot see into it. |
Comparison reflects each product's published pricing and features and widely reported user feedback as of September 2026. Products change — always check the other product's site for current details.
Weighing more than these two? See every PayHOA alternative we'd point you at.
Or step back from both: every self-managed HOA option compared, by what each is for.
When PayHOA is the right call
For most self-managed associations it is. If you want owners paying online, autopay and late fees that run themselves, statements, and books your CPA can reconcile, PayHOA does all of it, on every plan. It is also the answer the moment more owners need to log in than a space of 20 holds.
When Chickadee Bandit fits better
A small board whose dues already arrive by check or bank transfer, and whose problem is everything else: the reserve balances nobody can see, the violation that was never written down, the ARC approval the last board gave by email, an election members trust, and minutes the next board can find. That is a workspace, not a payment system, and it costs a board member's household plan rather than a per-unit fee.
Moving from PayHOA
Nothing imports from PayHOA. Before you cancel, export the request lists and budgets, save each owner's account history and your financial reports, and keep them with the association's records. Then create a space, tick the apps you need in the HOA starter pack, and invite the board. See what an HOA board gets for how the space is set up.
The feature list is not fixed
Every other product on this page is a fixed set of features: it does what it does, and a need it did not anticipate gets a no. Chickadee Bandit is built from small apps, and a household can add one of its own. An admin describes the app in a paragraph on the Apps page and the hub builds and installs it, using the AI credits that come with every plan; someone who writes code can start from any of the open-source apps and install their own version from a URL. A custom app gets the same checks as the ones we ship: it declares what it reads and writes, keeps its data in your household's own database, and the hub refuses anything it did not ask for.
A record the next board inherits
30-day free trial. One board member's plan covers the space, and the rest of the board joins free.
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