What an Apartment Website Costs at 50, 100, and 200 Units
Cost questions in this industry arrive with a unit count attached. Here is the answer in that shape, with the per-door math and the break-even at each size.
Nobody asks what an apartment website costs in the abstract. They ask what it costs for their 73 units, or their 198, because the number only means something against the property it serves. So here is the answer the way the question actually arrives.
Our prices are published and fixed: $2,500 one-time for a LeaseUp site, $4,500 one-time for CommunityPro, first year of hosting and care included, then $99 to $299 a month depending on how much help you want. Across the wider market, most communities investing in a custom, lead-focused site land between $4,500 and $8,000, and the few vendors who publish pricing at all quote monthly subscriptions rather than a build price.
The same purchase at three sizes
| 50 units | 100 units | 200 units | |
|---|---|---|---|
| $2,500 build, per door | $50.00 | $25.00 | $12.50 |
| $4,500 build, per door | $90.00 | $45.00 | $22.50 |
| Vacant days to recover $2,500 (at $1,700 rent) | ~44 days | ~44 days | ~44 days |
| Days saved per turn to break even, year one (45% turnover) | ~2.0 | ~1.0 | ~0.5 |
The middle rows are the ones an approver cares about. The build cost is fixed, so the per-door number falls as the community grows, and the break-even burden falls with it. A vacant unit costs roughly one thirtieth of its monthly rent per day, which at $1,700 rent is about $57 a vacant day. Substitute your own rent; the arithmetic is deliberately simple enough to redo on the back of an envelope.
What changes at each size
- Around 50 units: the question is whether to buy at all, and the honest answer depends on vacancy, not unit count. We wrote the full break-even case, including when a small community should not buy, in a separate post. If you do buy, the LeaseUp package is usually the right scope: five focused pages that answer a renter and capture a tour request.
- Around 100 units: this is where the CommunityPro scope starts earning its difference: full floor plan galleries, more pages for amenities and neighborhood, review integration. At $45 per door once, it is also where the purchase stops being a debate and starts being a line item.
- Around 200 units: the website is competing against a meaningful marketing budget, and the comparison worth making is against one month of that spend. The build also carries more integration weight at this size: availability, applications, and payments connected to whatever system you run, which for our builds includes Yardi, RealPage, AppFolio, Entrata, AMSI, Buildium, and Rent Manager.
What is not in those numbers
Three things people forget to price. The integration scope, if your system needs deeper work than portal and application links; we quote it separately and say so, rather than burying it. Photography, which we do not sell and you should budget with a local real estate photographer once the property is ready to shoot. And the ongoing cost after the free first year, which is $99 a month at the base tier; a purchase that looks clean in year one should still look clean in year three.
If you need this in a form someone can approve
Take the per-door figure for your size, the break-even row, and a fixed quote, and put them in a one-page memo. We publish a free recommendation memo template with that structure already written, along with a budget-line version for planning season. Both exist because in this industry the person who researches the website is rarely the person who signs for it, and the paperwork is usually the hard part.
We build leasing-first websites for apartment communities, with pricing in the open. Get a free quote or see what it costs.
Related articles
How Much Should an Apartment Website Cost? A Transparent Breakdown
The whole industry hides pricing behind a contact form. Here is what an apartment website actually costs and what drives the number.
Read articleWhat Does It Cost to Add Online Applications and Payments to an Apartment Website?
Nobody publishes a straight answer, so here is one: what actually drives the price of adding online applications, availability, and payments, and how to keep the two costs separate.
Read articleBudgeting a Community Website: What to Put In, Per Door
Budget season opens in August. If you need a website approved rather than just priced, the number that matters is cost per door, and it is smaller than most approvers expect.
Read article