Avail vs DoorLoop: Side-By-Side Comparison for 2025

Verdict: Tie

DoorLoop gives you more ways to get paid and more levers to manage fees. It supports ACH, cards, and cash via Western Union, plus modern wallets, so you can serve banked and unbanked renters without side workflows. Avail, on the other hand, doesn’t offer a cash network.

DoorLoop also tiers ACH costs by plan — down to $0 on Premium — and documents a flat 3.25% card platform fee, letting you standardize tenant-paid fees at scale. Funding typically follows a T+3 cycle, which is predictable across larger portfolios.

Meanwhile, Avail shines for speed and simplicity. On Unlimited Plus, tenant ACH fees are waived, and FastPay can clear funds as soon as the next day (faster than DoorLoop’s T+3), while the free tier pushes a $2.50 ACH fee to tenants and 3.5% on cards.

If you’re a small DIY landlord looking for faster deposits, Avail Plus is the better experience. However, for most PM workflows, DoorLoop’s broader payment methods and plan-based fee structure make cash flow more controllable as you grow.

Verdict: Tie

If you’re a DIY landlord, Avail feels better out of the box. It gives you state-specific, lawyer-reviewed lease templates, free e-signing on every plan, and TransUnion-powered screening where you or the tenant can pay. All of these keep leasing fast, compliant, and low-friction for small portfolios.

However, if you’re running a team, DoorLoop pulls ahead on workflow. Applications and screening are built-in (also via TransUnion), you get bulk comms and a lease renewal wizard, and e-sign flows scale — $3/doc on Starter, $1/doc on Pro, and free on Premium — with the option on Pro to mark up screening costs to tenants. That makes renewals, communications, and document volume easier to manage, even if lower tiers charge per-document.

Verdict: DoorLoop wins

DoorLoop handles the full maintenance loop — tenants and owners submit and track requests in their portals, staff can log phone/text reports, then managers convert requests to work orders, route them to vendors tied to bills/expenses, and coordinate follow-ups. Its built-in Communications Center enables centralized, premium SMS, so announcements and updates aren’t scattered across tools. That end-to-end workflow is purpose-built for teams and multi-vendor coordination.

Avail, on the other hand, is simpler by design. Tenants submit tickets online with photos, chat with you in-app, and you (or your staff) can create tickets and track the thread. It’s clean and effective for solo landlords, but it doesn’t match DoorLoop’s vendor workflows or SMS/announcements depth, so communication and coordination take more manual effort as door count grows.

Verdict: DoorLoop wins

DoorLoop is built for PM-grade books. You get full AP/AR, robust financial reports (P&L, cash flow, owner statements), and QuickBooks Online sync on higher tiers — plus, live bank connect for reconciliation. In practice, that replaces spreadsheets and manual owner statements once you’re managing multiple owners/entities.

In comparison, Avail’s accounting is intentionally lightweight, built for smaller operations wanting built-in income/expense tracking tied to rent collection and easy CSV exports for tax prep. It doesn’t aim to be a full accounting stack and integrate with outside ledgers, which is why DoorLoop pulls ahead for PM teams.

If you file owner statements and reconcile multiple accounts, DoorLoop is the safer long-term fit. However, if you just want organized books for a handful of doors, Avail is simpler and free.

Verdict: DoorLoop wins

Compared with Avail, DoorLoop gives growing teams far more control. You can assign and customize user roles/permissions (Full Access, Accountant, Maintenance, Owner, etc.). You can also create or edit roles and limit access by property/portfolio on higher tiers.

DoorLoop also automates more of the PM workflow at scale: recurring charges beyond rent, bulk late-fee enablement, company/property/lease-level late-fee policies, and even management-fee automation — features that remove the tedious spreadsheet work as your investments multiply.

Avail automates the essentials, like auto-assessed late fees, recurring payments, and reminders, which is plenty for solo landlords. It strongly emphasizes a landlord-first, single-operator model and does not document team role management like DoorLoop’s, limiting how cleanly you can delegate as you scale.

DoorLoop’s role granularity and portfolio-level controls will grow with you if you expect to add staff or separate duties (leasing vs accounting vs maintenance). However, Avail’s lighter automation is the go-to option if you’ll stay lean.

Verdict: DoorLoop wins

DoorLoop explicitly supports QuickBooks Online sync, a Zapier connector, and an open API, giving growing teams thousands of ways to push/pull data and automate bookkeeping, communications, and ops. In practice, that means fewer spreadsheets and manual double-entry as you add doors and staff.

Meanwhile, Avail emphasizes an all-in-one workflow with built-in tools and broad listing syndication (Realtor.com and 20+ rental sites). However, it doesn’t readily advertise third-party accounting integrations on its website.

If you need a plug-and-play ecosystem, DoorLoop is the safer bet. And if you prefer to keep everything inside one lightweight platform and rely on syndication rather than external apps, Avail fits that model.

Verdict: DoorLoop wins

DoorLoop is simply more hands-on. New customers get an assigned onboarding specialist, structured data migration and training, plus ongoing education through DoorLoop University and live training sessions. Support is multichannel and responsive; DoorLoop brags about its 24-second average phone response, with phone lines open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., ET.

Avail’s approach is lighter in that it has a thorough Help Center, weekday Customer Care via chat/email/phone (from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., CT), and general guidance. That said, it’s pretty easy to start with Avail, but if you are migrating data, are training staff, or need real-time help during setup, DoorLoop’s dedicated onboarding really comes in handy.

Verdict: DoorLoop wins

Both platforms cover the basics, but DoorLoop provides a stronger compliance portfolio for professional use. It documents trust accounting concepts, supports 1099-NEC/MISC workflows (on higher tiers), and publishes details on data security (encryption at rest/in transit, backups, AWS infrastructure). Reports are exportable, and DoorLoop’s security and owner-portal materials explicitly reference encryption and routine protections, reducing risk as you handle multiple owners and entities.

With Avail, you can export payments and tax reports and issue 1099-Ks when applicable. For sensitive data like screening, Avail routes SSNs through TransUnion and states that it doesn’t store that information. Plus, it uses ID verification for fraud prevention — good practical safeguards, just less “PM-grade” guidance than DoorLoop’s trust-accounting and security docs.

Yes, as Avail’s Unlimited plan is $0/unit/month. It comes with unlimited units and includes listings, screening, state-specific leases with e-sign, online rent, maintenance tracking, tenant portal, and basic accounting. Its paid Unlimited Plus plan is $9/unit/month. Tenants on the free tier pay $2.50/ACH (cards 3.5%); ACH is $0 on Plus.

Yes, DoorLoop supports monthly and annual plans, with pricing starting at $99/month (monthly billing) for the first 20 units. Beyond 20, users will have to go for the higher-tier plans. The pricing page also details plan-specific fees (e.g., ACH and e-sign) and many fees that are reduced or waived on higher tiers.

Avail’s Unlimited Plus waives tenant ACH fees (no ACH fee to the renter). DoorLoop’s Premium tier includes free incoming ACH and the ability to charge ACH/convenience fees, giving managers more control over who pays what.

Yes, DoorLoop supports cash payments via Western Union Quick Collect^®, with tracking built into the platform. On the other hand, Avail’s payments focus on ACH and cards.

Avail’s FastPay (on Unlimited Plus) advertises next-day deposits for qualifying payments. Meanwhile, DoorLoop processes online payments through Stripe, meaning that actual funding time depends on the processor/bank clearing.

Yes. Avail’s website explicitly calls out state-specific, lawyer-reviewed lease templates with digital signatures.