Gather Commons vs PayHOA
PayHOA is built around HOA accounting, invoicing, and dues collection. Gather Commons keeps the books a volunteer board actually keeps — ledger, budget, cash flow, year-end — and leads with the part accounting software treats as an afterthought: events, amenities, and getting neighbors involved.
Start free trialWho this comparison is for
You are on a board or committee for a neighborhood, HOA, or club. The books need keeping — they always do — but the thing your community is short on is attendance. People do not know what is happening, the pool schedule lives in someone's inbox, and the last three events were organized over text message. You would rather not buy two systems to fix both.
Choose PayHOA if…
- You need accounts payable, payroll, or bank feeds. We record what a community takes in and pays out; we do none of those.
- Your accountant produces formal or audited statements out of the system itself, rather than from figures your treasurer hands them.
- You have a management company that owns communications, and the board only touches finances.
Choose Gather Commons if…
- Your amenities — pool, courts, clubhouse, pavilion — are the center of community life and need real scheduling.
- You want members opening an app to RSVP and book, not just to pay a bill.
- You want a public site that makes the neighborhood look like somewhere people want to live.
- You would rather run one system than two: dues arriving, the ledger recording them, and the budget and year-end built on the same figures.
How the two are positioned
Differences in what each product is built around — not a feature scorecard.
| PayHOA | Gather Commons | |
|---|---|---|
| What the product is organized around | The ledger — invoices, dues, and financial records | The community — events, amenities, and participation, with the ledger behind them |
| Who logs in most often | Board members and the treasurer | Every member, from their phone |
| What a member does on a typical visit | Pays an invoice | RSVPs to something, books a court, reads an announcement |
| Public-facing presence | Secondary to the financial workflow | A branded site on your own domain, treated as a first-class feature |
PayHOA is a HOA accounting & dues management product and may well be the right fit for communities whose main problem lives in that domain. Gather Commons is for communities that lead with engagement. We describe positioning rather than feature lists, because feature claims about other people's software go out of date the week they ship something.
What switching actually involves
Two shapes are common. Some communities keep dues where they are and add Gather Commons for everything members touch. Others consolidate: member records import from a spreadsheet, payments run through your own Stripe or Square account so funds land in your community's bank account directly, and each one posts to the ledger as it arrives rather than being keyed in again somewhere else.
Common questions
Do we have to move our accounting to switch?
No, and you have it either way. Gather Commons keeps a full set of community books — a ledger that records dues as they arrive, budgets by account, cash flow, capital planning, and year-end close — so communities do move everything across. Others keep bookkeeping where it is and use the rest. What we do not do is accounts payable, payroll, or bank feeds.
Can we still collect dues in Gather Commons?
Yes. You can collect dues, membership fees, and event payments online, with due dates and autopay. Funds flow through your community's own connected payment account. Every payment posts to the ledger as it arrives, so the books and the bank tell the same story without anyone retyping anything. Where we stop is accounts payable, payroll, and bank feeds — and formal or audited statements, which your accountant produces from the figures rather than from the system.
Can we use Gather Commons alongside PayHOA?
Yes, and plenty of communities do. Gather Commons covers the community side — events, reservations, the directory, announcements, and a public site — and keeps a set of books behind it: a ledger that records dues as they arrive, budgets by account, cash flow, year-end close, and the figures a tax professional asks for. Communities happy with their existing bookkeeping keep it and use the rest. Nothing about our setup requires you to rip anything out.
How long does it take to get set up?
Most communities have a working site and their first event live within an afternoon. Importing a member roster is a spreadsheet upload, branding is colors and a logo, and a custom domain can be connected once DNS propagates.
What does it cost?
Plans start at $149/month with a free trial, billed monthly or annually, and you can cancel yourself from inside the platform at any time. Court and facility reservations and online payments are both included in the base plan — see the pricing page for the full breakdown.
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