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Some links are affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We do not accept payment for rankings, and we do not invent star ratings.

PickHOA

Listing

HOA Ally

Freemium private community website for volunteer boards — assessments, docs, and messaging from $0, premium about $1/home/mo.

Self-managed boards Free / freemium 1–500 units Dues/billing only — not fund accounting

HOA Ally® is a private, invite-only community website for self-managed homeowners (and condo) associations — documents, news, assessment tracking, Stripe online payments, messaging, polls, and light ops tools in one place. It is part of the Community Ally product family (Terms also name Condo Ally, Townhome Ally, and related “Ally” sites). The About story is neighbor-built software that started as Condo Ally for the founders’ own association; the Help Center history dates that origin to 2010, and the premium-plan Help page describes a small company based out of Denver. Legal branding in the Terms refers to Community Ally Inc.; support is reached at hello@CommunityAlly.org. On-site testimonials often say Condo Ally for condo buildings — same suite, different front door. Do not confuse the Community Ally open-source front-end with a fully self-hosted back-end: the published GitHub repo is the web app UI only.

Pricing (researched September 29, 2026) is freemium, and the public pages do not always say that the same way. The homepage markets a risk-free / free start (no credit card; “doesn’t matter how many units you have”) and a premium plan for more communication, storage, and tools. The features / pricing page leads with Only $1 per home per month ($0.50 each home over 50) and a 3-month free trial for all sign-ups, then lists a long feature set without a crisp free-vs-premium table. The clearest split is on Community Ally’s Help Center Why Go Premium?: Free keeps core site use but caps group email (1/month from a board/admin; non-admins cannot send group emails), document storage at 50 MB, and no automatic bank download; online payment fees are 1.6% on free vs 0.8% on premium; email open tracking and texting (10/month) are premium. Premium is $1/home/mo ( $0.50 each home over 50 ), or $11/home/year (one month free); groups with 10 or fewer homes must pay annually. Confirm live numbers and your unit count before a board vote.

On money and ops, HOA Ally is strongest as a dues-and-portal tool, not a CAM general ledger. Marketing and Help copy cover assessment schedules, special assessments, Stripe online payments (US only; PCI claims on marketing pages), auto-generated income/spending summaries, a budget tool, and — on premium — linked bank accounts that pull and categorize transactions. That is enough for many small volunteer treasurers to collect and see cash movement; it is not pitched as double-entry fund accounting, multi-entity books, or a CPA year-end package. Ops extras include calendar/events/maintenance history, amenity reservation, dynamic forms (e.g. violations or maintenance requests), custom look-and-feel, and role-based access so renters see less than owners and only the board can change data. Payments run through Stripe (past processors are mentioned in Terms); the board can choose whether residents or the association cover the published % fee, and the Stripe sign-up guide notes an additional $1.50 per resident who signs up to pay — budget that separately from the Ally subscription.

Differentiators worth a trial: a real free forever tier (with honest caps), unusually low published per-home premium, sister branding for condos, and an open-source front-end at CommunityAlly/CommunityAllyWebApp. Caveats: the marketing pages blur free vs premium more than the Help Center does; review density on G2/Capterra was not found in this pass (do not invent stars); Reddit has older creator/self-managed mentions and occasional free-plus-$1/unit references, but not a thick independent review trail. Compare feature depth for elections, ARC, and violation workflows against peers before you standardize.

Who it is for: a small volunteer HOA or condo board that wants a private website, assessment tracking, and US Stripe payments without a CAM sales process — especially if the free caps are enough, or ~$1/door premium is an easy board vote. Who should keep looking: boards that need CPA-grade fund accounting, multi-association CAM portfolios, or dense third-party proof; start with self-managed boards and accounting / reserve, and compare day-to-day fit against KindHOA (freemium + flat paid, broader ARC/elections pitch), PayHOA (dues-and-portal reference for small boards), and HOA Hub (published flat tiers with a stronger GL story). Another freemium website-first name sometimes discussed in the same aisle is HOA Express — verify that product separately if website-first freemium is your shortlist theme.

Sources

Best for

Small self-managed HOA or condo boards that want a private invite-only website with assessments and Stripe payments, and are willing to stay on a capped free plan or pay roughly $1/door for premium messaging, storage, and bank sync.

Pricing notes

Official freemium model (researched Sep 29, 2026). Homepage markets a free / risk-free start with no credit card and unit-count-independent messaging, plus a separate premium plan for more tools. Features page and Community Ally Help Center publish Premium at $1 per home per month ($0.50 each home over 50); annual option $11/home/year (one month free); associations with 10 or fewer homes/units must pay annually. All sign-ups get a 3-month free trial of premium. Free plan limits (Help Center “Why Go Premium?”): 1 board/admin group email per month (non-admins cannot send group emails); 50 MB document storage; no automatic bank transaction download; online payment fee 1.6% vs 0.8% on premium; no email open tracking; no text messages (premium includes 10 texts/mo). Stripe processes association and resident payments (US only / PCI claims on marketing pages); board can choose whether payers or the association cover the published % fee; Help Center also notes Stripe charges $1.50 per resident who signs up to make payments. Vendor abuse note: very high storage/email usage may trigger a conversation about other options. Legal/product family: Community Ally (Community Ally Inc. in Terms; sister brands include Condo Ally, Townhome Ally, etc.). Verify live amounts and free-vs-premium limits on hoaally.org and help.communityally.org before a board vote.