RealPage vs. ExactEstate: A Comparison of Key Capabilities
Updated May 2026
TL;DR
RealPage was built for enterprise scale — and operators at every other size pay for it in outages, add-on fees, and support that doesn't answer. ExactEstate offers full-feature affordable housing compliance software at $3/unit/month with 99.9% uptime and live U.S.-based support included. No add-ons, no premium tiers, no module fees.
Why this comparison matters
Property managers depend on strong, comprehensive software to do their jobs effectively. There’s no shortage of property management software to choose from, but they’re not created equal, with some PMS platforms rife with functionality issues, privacy violations, or inadequate support.
We previously analyzed ExactEstate and DoorLoop's capabilities in affordable housing. In this article, we’ll see how ExactEstate performs against RealPage in three key performance areas.
ExactEstate Assurance #1: Software That Stays Up
Why It’s Important
Software outages can significantly impact your ability to conduct business, collect rents, manage maintenance requests, and much more. They can lead to:
- Reputation Damage: Persistent outages can severely damage your reputation and erode resident trust. Residents will only be frustrated if they can’t access their resident portal, pay rent on time, or use other features offered by PMS
- Legal and Compliance Issues: Software outages can even result in legal repercussions if they lead to data breaches, loss of sensitive information or violate regulatory requirements
- Financial Loss: Outages can lead to financial losses due to interrupted operations, missed deadlines, and lost employee productivity.
- Competitive Disadvantage: Property managers who run on software with frequent outages may lose ground to competitors who offer more reliable services, leading to long-term market share loss.
What ExactEstate Offers
At ExactEstate, we pride ourselves on providing software that experiences zero outages 99.9% of the time so that you can stay fully operational without interruption.
How Real Page Compares
RealPage, on the other hand, experiences frequent outages, which frustrate customers and impede their ability to do business.
ExactEstate Assurance #2: Live U.S.-Based Support
Why It’s Important
Live US-based customer support and training are essential for these reasons:
- User Onboarding: Effective training reduces the learning curve and lets property managers and their staff leverage the software's full potential from their first day of use. Property management software can be complex, with various modules for lease management, maintenance tracking, financial reporting, and more. Our live, ongoing US-based customer support ensures that users can get immediate assistance and guidance as they navigate through these features.
- Troubleshooting and Issue Resolution: Even with robust software, issues can arise, such as integration hiccups, user errors, or even emergencies. ExactEstate's customer support will provide real-time assistance in troubleshooting these issues, minimizing downtime and frustration for users and residents alike.
- Continuous Improvement: Feedback from users during live support interactions can provide valuable insights for software developers to improve the product. This feedback loop helps in identifying areas for enhancement or additional features that could further streamline ExactEstate’s property management processes.
What ExactEstate Offers
Providing reliable and accessible live support helps us build trust with our users; we want you to feel supported, understood, and listened to. The customer support we provide is the channel where that can occur.
That said, the easier our system is to use, the less we need to call on customer support. That’s why we offer visual user guides with walkthroughs of nearly every page in case users get stumped. Our goal was to make our system as user-friendly as possible so that customers wouldn’t need to constantly hold up their day by reaching out to a support team.
How RealPage Compares
RealPage’s customer support function falls woefully short. The consensus among their customers is that they are hard to get a hold of and not helpful when spoken to.
One customer declared, “You send emails, and they get "lost" until you call and have someone search for a specific email you sent. Customer support is PAINFUL.” Long phone wait times and emails that take weeks to respond to are commonplace.
According to a former employee, “Customers are routinely unhappy in part due to the company being understaffed after massive layoffs.” Another said, “The company has been subject to lawsuits and FBI raids, hindering their ability to support customers.”
ExactEstate Assurance #3: Comprehensive Software, No Pricey Add-Ons
Why It’s Important
- Ease of Use: Comprehensive software provides a unified platform where all essential features are integrated, not locked behind paywalls that limit functionality.
- Cost Efficiency: A comprehensive software solution typically offers a better value proposition than one with numerous add-ons.
- No Piecing Together: Not having comprehensive software forces the user to piece the software’s functionality together on their own, one payment add-on at a time. This makes for an undeniably poor user experience.
How RealPage Compares
At RealPage, property management companies are often forced to choose between the features they want or pay for them with ever-increasing, costly add-ons. RealPage does not provide a comprehensive product from the start because they want to monetize each additional, inevitable need. Additionally, former employees lament that their software is outdated, with one noting, “Their tech stack is 15+ years old, with near zero efforts to develop it.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most common complaints about RealPage?
The three issues that come up most consistently in user reviews are reliability, support, and cost surprises. RealPage has logged over 141 documented outages since 2020, with failures frequently landing during month-end processing and rent collection windows. Support is widely described as difficult to reach and slow to resolve issues. And operators regularly report that their actual costs ran two to three times higher than the initial quote once add-on modules and integrations were factored in.
How much does RealPage actually cost for a mid-size portfolio?
RealPage charges a base fee plus additional costs for modules most operators consider essential — advanced reporting, document management, compliance tools, and accounting integrations. For a 300–500 unit portfolio, operators have reported final costs running 2–3x the initial quote. ExactEstate charges $3/unit/month with every feature included. For a 500-unit portfolio, that's $1,500/month total, with no add-ons.
Is there affordable housing property management software that doesn't charge extra for compliance features?
Yes. ExactEstate includes LIHTC, Section 8, HOME, USDA Rural Development, Section 202/811, RAD, and HOTMA-ready compliance tools in the base price. TRACS submission via ShofCorp integration, HAP voucher processing, and TIC generation are all included. Most enterprise platforms — including RealPage — treat compliance as a separate module tier.
How long does it take to switch from RealPage to ExactEstate?
Most operators are fully live within two weeks. ExactEstate supports CSV and Excel bulk import for residents, units, chart of accounts, and balances, plus MAT file import for HUD-assisted portfolios. If you're mid-contract with RealPage, both systems can run in parallel until your contract expires.
What happens to my data if I leave RealPage or ExactEstate?
With ExactEstate, you own your data and can export everything in standard formats at any time. RealPage's data portability terms are worth reviewing carefully before signing — data access and export rights vary by contract, and operators have reported friction when attempting to leave.
Does ExactEstate work for small portfolios, or is it built for large operators? ExactEstate was specifically built for operators that enterprise platforms price out — small and mid-size PHAs, rural affordable housing authorities, and mixed-finance portfolios under 500 units. Pricing starts at a $300/month minimum for portfolios under 100 units, then $3/unit/month above that. All features are included regardless of portfolio size.
Key takeaways
- Uptime determines whether you are managing properties or managing software failures. ExactEstate maintains 99.9% uptime. RealPage has logged 141+ outages over five years.
- Support quality makes or breaks your software investment. ExactEstate responds in under two hours with live U.S.-based experts. RealPage users report week-long email waits.
- Transparent pricing means you know your costs. ExactEstate charges $3 per unit monthly with everything included. RealPage adds fees for essential features, with customers reporting final costs running 2-3x initial quotes.
- Comprehensive beats piecemeal. ExactEstate provides a unified platform. RealPage forces you to assemble functionality one payment at a time.
- Affordable housing compliance is core, not a bolt-on. LIHTC, Section 8, HOME, USDA RD, and HOTMA readiness are native to ExactEstate.
What ExactEstate Offers
ExactEstate’s goal is to make property management easier, and that includes pricing. At $2 per unit per month, users have access to our full suite of features. As we add additional tools and resources, they will be immediately accessible rather than hidden behind a substantial paywall.
ExactEstate is proud to be an ethical, customer-first PMS that is committed to helping you run as efficiently as possible. You can learn more about ExactEstate by requesting a demo.