Two of the leading investment management software platforms in the commercial real estate ecosystem are Juniper Square and AppFolio Investment Manager. Both of these tools help investors manage their deals and fundraising efforts, and weighing the pluses or minuses of each can be challenging.
In this article we’ll arm you with the information you need to make an educated decision between two of the most commonly used investment management software solutions: Commonalities, points of distinction, and how to know which solution is the right one for you.
How does Juniper Square work?
Juniper Square includes the full spectrum of core investor relations features:
- A CRM
- A portal where investors can log in to sign documents or view performance data
- A payment handling functionality
- Reporting tools
- Automated waterfall calculations and other metrics
- Analytics on investments
- Investor verification capabilities
- Other features focused on improving smoothness through the equity fundraising process
AppFolio Investment Management offers a similar toolset.
How does AppFolio work?
AppFolio Investment Manager is one of the AppFolio tech suite’s two main offerings alongside AppFolio Property Manager. It shares most of the same base features with Juniper Square, offering an investor CRM, investor portal, document signing functionality, and more. It also provides a deal tracking tool where real estate teams can monitor prospective investments and turn them into investor offerings. Some features, such as payment handling, are locked behind additional fees.
Juniper Square vs AppFolio pricing
AppFolio Investment Manager starts at $650/month for the lower-tier Core offering, which lacks advanced features such as API access, custom fields, and a Zapier integration. The more advanced option, Premier, is priced on a custom basis. Additional add-on features beyond the main platform include the data visualization-focused asset management platform AppFolio Alpha, a custom web development solution, an investor accreditation verification service, and full payment processing functionality.
Juniper Square’s pricing is broken down into three tiers: Sponsor, Professional, and Enterprise, each with more functionality. Like AppFolio, it also keeps some features (investor compliance verification, API access, accounting integration, and backups off the cloud) locked behind additional paywalls, but payment handling is offered in the core platform. Unlike AppFolio, Juniper Square doesn’t publicize a minimum pricing tier.
Juniper Square vs AppFolio features: Key differences
In this section, we’ll run through the key differentiators between these two investor management software platforms.
Top Features
While the core offerings (investor portals, analytics, and CRM system to streamline communications) remain the same between the two platforms, Juniper Square’s payment functionality is included, while AppFolio’s costs extra. However, it should be noted that some users report that Juniper Square’s payment methods are limited. Meanwhile, AppFolio’s connection to AppFolio Property Manager is a unique feature that Juniper Square does not have an answer to.
Focus
Both of these solutions are flexible enough to serve starting investors through sophisticated syndicators. However, Juniper Square’s three pricing tiers allow it to cater to a wider variety of earlier-stage investors who may not need the full enterprise-level solution.
Ease of use
According to reviewers, both platforms score highly in terms of ease of use-and setup-with no clear winner. Note that Juniper Square is a standalone platform while AppFolio Investment Manager is part of a broader property software suite. If you have used and enjoyed the interface of the company’s other products, you’ll likely respond well to the investment management solution.
One last note: Users of investment management platforms, like Mexico City’s CapX, often report preferring simple, streamlined solutions without visual clutter. Keep that in mind when demoing Appfolio and Juniper Square.
Customer support
Both platforms offer high-quality support, attested to by numerous reviews. However, AppFolio’s support received a few dings due to slightly harder access. Users comment that it requires an email request for phone help, while Juniper Square offers more available phone support.
Platforms supported
Both platforms offer a web application. AppFolio distinguishes itself here with a mobile app available for the investor portal component of the tool. Juniper Square currently lacks a mobile application, although the web application has been described as mobile-friendly in reviews.
Value for money
For investment firms that are busy enough to need a dedicated investor management solution, both of the platforms represent a good value for the money.
Reviews
Both platforms have amassed numerous verified user reviews on the popular tech rating sites Capterra and G2. Here’s a rundown of reviews for AppFolio Investment Manager vs Juniper Square:
| Review site | Juniper Square | AppFolio Investment Manager |
| Capterra | 4.9 | 4.8 |
| G2 | 4.8 | 4.6 |
Across both sites, Juniper Square edges out a slight lead. However, in both cases, AppFolio Investment Manager has substantially more total reviews. Reviewers of Juniper Square rave about the platform’s functionality and support while in some cases critiquing its startup time requirement and learning curve. Meanwhile, reviewers of AppFolio Investment Manager report excellent feedback about the platform’s features and customer service, while sometimes noting that advanced functionality and integrations with AppFolio Property Manager can fall short.
Which platform is right for you?
Both AppFolio Investment Manager and Juniper Square are powerful solutions for growing multifamily and commercial real estate investment firms. In short, if you’ve already bought into the AppFolio property management ecosystem, making the jump to their investment management solution would be a logical step. Meanwhile, if you use one of AppFolio’s competitors, Juniper Square’s combination of streamlined, focused features and strong customer support make it stand out as a good option.
Agora’s value proposition
Our own investment management platform, Agora, has a number of unique differentiators from Juniper Square and Appfolio Investment Manager. Agora provides a variety of features specifically tailored around administration, such as an add-on CPA to assist with tax operations, a bookkeeping service, and the ability to make cross-border payments. Plus, we recently added the ability to manage your own debt fund via our platform. Those features are in addition to our platform’s standard investment management tools-a CRM, investor portal, domestic payment functionality, and more.
Conclusion
Neither of these platforms is a bad option for investors looking to enhance their processes and tech stack. Reading between the lines of numerous user reviews, barring differences in pricing and integrations, the choice between the two may come down largely to feel. For that reason, it’s critical that prospective users demo both platforms before making a long-term decision.
Furthermore, since it won’t just be your team but your investors using these tools, it pays to get the choice right the first time. Regardless of the platform you choose, be sure to spend the time properly setting up, configuring, and exploring the system and its interface before inviting your investors to log in for the first time. Making their user experience as smooth as possible could be the difference between repeat investment and one-time contributors.
