Most residential developers who ask for a custom resident app actually need one of four things, and a platform already sells each:
- Building operations (requests, billing, notices, access): Unitify, BuildingLink.
- Access hardware with an app: ButterflyMX, SmartRent.
- Leasing and accounting with a resident portal: AppFolio, Buildium.
- A branded resident experience: Livly, with Amenify for services.
Compare them first, and build custom only for what the platforms don't do. In practice that means a branded app layered over a platform's API.
| Platform | Category | Region | Pricing (Oct 2026) | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unitify | Building OS: requests, resident app, billing, smart building | EU and beyond | Free / €1 / €3 per apartment/mo | Not for office towers, malls, industrial |
| BuildingLink | Condo/HOA/multifamily building management | US & Canada | Demo/quote | No leasing or rent features |
| ButterflyMX | Video intercom and access + resident app | US | Software $30–42 per unit per year + hardware | Access only |
| SmartRent | Smart apartment hardware, access, self-tours | US | Quote | Hardware-heavy rollout |
| AppFolio | Property management + leasing CRM | US | From $1.49/unit/mo (50-unit min.) | API only on top tier |
| Buildium | PM accounting + Resident Center | US | From $62/mo | Add-ons priced per transaction |
| Livly | Brandable resident app for Class-A multifamily | US | Quote | Sales-led |
| Amenify | Resident services marketplace | US | Quote | An add-on, not a core app |
§ 01Unitify: an operating system for the building
Unitify describes itself as "an operating system for residential buildings":
- a resident app;
- a requests CRM for the management team, and a technician app;
- billing;
- an AI concierge and AI reports;
- smart-building integrations: access, intercoms and meters.
Pricing is per apartment per month: a genuinely free plan (one news post a month, no AI), Base at €1 (30-day trial, digital passes and booking), and Pro at €3 with the AI concierge, billing, API and smart building. Its scope is clear: residential buildings, not standalone office towers or malls that need lease administration. It's the only option here with transparent per-apartment pricing outside the US, which makes it the natural shortlist entry for European developers.
§ 02BuildingLink: the condo and HOA standard
BuildingLink serves 7,000+ residential communities in the US and Canada: packages, amenity booking, maintenance requests, announcements and payments. Pricing is by demo. It covers building life, not leasing or rent.
§ 03ButterflyMX and SmartRent: access first
- ButterflyMX sells video intercoms and access control with a resident app. Its pricing is unusually transparent: software at $30–42 per unit per year, plus intercom hardware from about $3,995 (promo price at the time of writing).
- SmartRent (NYSE: SMRT) goes further into smart-apartment hardware and self-guided tours.
Choose these when the brief is "phones open the doors". Neither is a full resident app.
§ 04AppFolio and Buildium: when you also manage leases
If the developer also operates the rental, the property-management system usually brings the resident portal with it:
- AppFolio starts at $1.49 per unit per month with a 50-unit minimum, and its read/write API is on the Max tier only.
- Buildium starts at $62 a month and suits smaller US portfolios.
§ 05Livly and Amenify: the experience layer
- Livly offers a custom-brandable resident app (rent, packages, access, events, amenities) for Class-A US operators.
- Amenify adds a services marketplace (cleaning, chores, dog walking) that can earn amenity revenue.
Both are sales-led.
§ 06Building custom: where it actually pays off
A custom resident app makes sense when one of these is true:
- The brand is the product. Examples: a developer selling a lifestyle across several projects, or a build-to-rent operator.
- You need to combine systems no single platform covers, such as access from one vendor, billing from another and services from a third.
- The market is underserved, which is the case for most of LATAM and much of Europe outside the platforms' home regions.
Even then, the right architecture is a branded app over platform APIs (Unitify Pro exposes an API, AppFolio Max has read/write). Don't rebuild requests and billing from scratch. That's how we approach mobile builds at Invental: see mobile app architecture and our two-week sprint contract.