Comparison · Structured data · Sourced
Yardi Breeze vs Buildium: the two most price transparent products in the category
These are the two products in this category that let a small or mid sized manager work out a budget without a sales call, and they do it in structurally different ways. Yardi Breeze charges per unit with a monthly minimum. Yardi publishes 1.00 per unit per month for residential Breeze with a 100 per month minimum, and 2.00 per unit per month for commercial Breeze with a 200 per month minimum. Breeze Premier is 1.00 per unit for residential, 3.00 for affordable housing and 1.00 for associations, each with a 400 per month minimum. Commercial Breeze Premier, self storage and manufactured housing are quote only. Rates are stated as monthly on an annual agreement. Buildium charges a flat monthly plan price. Essential starts at 65 per month, Growth at 202 and Premium at 420, with no minimum unit count stated. Both pricing pages print a bare dollar sign with no ISO code, so US dollars is an inference drawn from each being a US site, not a vendor statement.
The structural difference decides the answer for most buyers. On Breeze the monthly minimum, not the per unit rate, sets the real cost for a small portfolio. A residential manager with 40 units pays the 100 per month minimum, an effective 2.50 per unit, and only reaches the headline 1.00 rate at around 100 units. Breeze Premier does not make economic sense below roughly 400 residential units. Buildium has no unit floor at all, and offers a 14 day free trial with sample data and no credit card, which is a trial and not a free version.
Last reviewed 7 November 2026
The products
Yardi Breeze
Yardi Systems
Yardi Breeze is Yardi's simplified, per unit priced property management and accounting software for smaller residential and commercial portfolios, with a higher Breeze Premier tier covering affordable housing, associations, self storage and manufactured housing.
Full profileBuildium
Buildium
Buildium is a cloud property management platform for residential managers, community associations and smaller commercial portfolios, with genuinely published tiered pricing starting at 65 per month and a 14 day free trial.
Full profileThe main differences
Buildium is the more complete published price, but the cheaper headline hides per use fees. Several items are charged separately rather than bundled: tenant screening at 17 per screening, 20 for enhanced screening on Growth and Premium, or 35 applicant paid; eSignatures at 5 per document on Essential, falling to 1 on Growth and unlimited on Premium; credit card payments at 2.99 percent per transaction on every plan; property inspections at a 99 setup fee plus 40 to 95 per month on Essential, included on Growth with a 0.40 per unit charge after three years, and included on Premium; and Showings Coordinator from 41 per month. New Growth and Premium customers are also required to buy paid onboarding, whose price is not published. Portfolios over 5,000 units and community association pricing go to a phone call.
Breeze has its own caveats. Yardi notes that the maintenance call center and online lease execution can attract extra charges, and Breeze Premier residential carries a terms and minimums apply footnote. No trial offer was found on the Breeze pages read, so trial availability is a question for Yardi rather than a stated no.
On capability the two overlap heavily and diverge at the edges. Both verify accounting, rent collection, lease management, maintenance requests, tenant and owner portals and reporting. Breeze adds verified service charge handling, with automated CAM reconciliation and a commercial tenant portal in Breeze Premier, which is the single clearest functional reason to pick it. Buildium adds verified inspections and an Open API, though the API appears in the Premium plan highlights, so treat it as a top tier entitlement. Buildium lists commercial and mixed use as supported property types but nothing public describes recovery handling, so commercial depth there should not be assumed. For Breeze, inspections, a named mobile app and any API are unverified rather than absent.
Side by side
| Attribute | Yardi Breeze | Buildium |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Yardi Systems | Buildium |
| Primary use | Mixed portfolio property management | Residential property management |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud |
| Organisation size | Small, Medium | Small, Medium |
| Licensing model | Commercial | Commercial |
| Free version | No | No |
| Trial | Not verified | Yes |
| Published price | USD 1 per unit per month on an annual agreement, tiered, monthly minimum applies | USD 65 per month, per plan, starting at, with several items charged separately per use |
| Product status | Active | Active |
| Capabilities | ||
| Mobile app | Not verified | Not verified |
| Documented API | Not verified | Yes source |
| Listing and channel management | Not verified | Not verified |
| Reporting | Yes source | Yes source |
| Document management | Yes source | Not verified |
| Tenant portal | Yes source | Yes source |
| Owner portal | Yes source | Yes source |
| Inspections | Not verified | Yes source |
| Maintenance requests | Yes source | Yes source |
| Accounting and general ledger | Yes source | Yes source |
| Service charges and recoveries | Yes source | Not verified |
| Rent collection and payments | Yes source | Yes source |
| Lease management and renewals | Yes source | Yes source |
| Tenant management | Not verified | Yes source |
| Portfolio and unit management | Yes source | Yes source |
| Last reviewed | 7 November 2026 | 7 November 2026 |
| Profile | View profile | View profile |
Not verified means the capability has not been checked for that product. It does not mean the product lacks it. Blank cells and unverified rows are never counted as a "no".
Strengths and limitations
Drawn from each product's own profile, where every item is labelled a verified fact or an editorial judgement.
Yardi Breeze
Read the full assessmentBuildium
Read the full assessmentWhich to choose
Pick Buildium if you are below roughly 100 units, if you want to trial before you talk to anyone, or if you manage community associations. There is no unit minimum, the entry plan is 65 per month, and the trial needs no card. Price the per use fees against your actual volumes first: a manager doing a lot of screening and eSigning on Essential will find the real monthly bill well above the headline, and that calculation often justifies moving up a tier rather than staying cheap.
Pick Yardi Breeze if you are a residential manager above about 100 units, where the 1.00 per unit rate becomes genuinely cheap, or if you have commercial units and need CAM reconciliation. Breeze Premier is also the only tier Yardi offers for affordable housing, associations, self storage and manufactured housing, so operators in those niches should price Premier directly rather than base Breeze. The other Breeze advantage is upward: Yardi advertises an upgrade path into Voyager without stopping operations or moving data by hand, which matters if you expect to outgrow entry level software.
Two things to settle whichever way you lean. Confirm the billing term, because the Breeze per unit rates are stated as being based on an annual agreement and Buildium requires paid onboarding on its upper plans. And ask about data access explicitly. Yardi documents no open API for Breeze and names few integrations beyond listing syndication to RentCafe and other sites, while Buildium Open API access sits in the Premium highlights. If you have a reporting warehouse or a bespoke integration in mind, that question changes the economics more than the per unit rate does.
Frequently asked questions
At 50 units Yardi Breeze bills the 100 per month residential minimum, because 50 units at 1.00 falls below it. Buildium Essential starts at 65 per month with no unit minimum. On base price Buildium is lower, but you must add Buildium per use fees for screening, eSignatures and card payments to get a fair figure.
Buildium offers a 14 day free trial with sample data and no credit card required. It is a trial, not a free version. No trial offer was found on the Yardi Breeze pages read, so treat Breeze trial availability as an open question rather than a confirmed no.
Breeze, on the published evidence. Yardi prices Breeze for commercial at 2.00 per unit per month, and Breeze Premier commercial features include automated CAM reconciliation and a commercial tenant portal. Buildium lists commercial and mixed use as property types but publishes nothing describing service charge or recovery handling.
Buildium documents an Open API, which appears in the Premium plan highlights rather than as a standard inclusion. For Yardi Breeze no public API documentation was found, so API availability is unverified. Ask Yardi directly if data access is a requirement.
Related comparisons
Sources and review basis
Attribute values come from each product's structured profile rather than being written into this page, so a correction made once appears everywhere. This comparison was last reviewed on 7 November 2026. Assessment of this category is documentation-based, not hands-on testing of every product.
- Yardi Breeze pricing accessed 7 November 2026
- Yardi Breeze Premier features accessed 7 November 2026
- Buildium pricing accessed 7 November 2026
- Buildium features accessed 7 November 2026
Disclosure
Alongside advisory work I also build a CMMS and CAFM platform, so I have a commercial interest in enterprise software generally. No vendor here has paid for inclusion, placement or wording, and there are no reseller or affiliate arrangements.
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