We’re continuing our series on the top commercial real estate investment management software with a head-to-head comparison between two of the biggest names in the industry: InvestNext and Juniper Square. Both of these tools help real estate professionals manage portfolios, but where do these platforms get the job done, where do they fall short, and how do they differ? Let’s dive in.
InvestNext overview
InvestNext is a platform offering many of the real estate syndication and management features scaling investors need to launch and grow their property portfolios. One particular emphasis: Communication tools.
- Streamlined presentation creation tools
- Payment processing
- Communication features such as post feed and email tools
- Automated investment insights and metrics
- Investor portal, where investors can log in and view documents and details
Juniper Square overview
Juniper Square is an investment management tool that describes itself as an end-to-end solution for private partnerships. With that, it offers many of the same features as InvestNext:
- CRM
- Payment processing
- Subscription management tools
- Investor reporting
- Investor portal
- Tools to surface insights automatically
InvestNext vs Juniper Square: Pros and cons
| InvestNext | Juniper Square | ||
| Pros | Cons | Pros | Cons |
| Simple, cheap basic offering | Lower user rating on G2 | Great reviews across G2 and Capterra | Does not advertise a basic subscription option |
| Zapier integrations | Big price jump to the main subscription tier | Wide variety of add-on services | API access costs extra |
| Rich communication feature set | API to extend functionality | ||
InvestNext vs Juniper Square: Key platform differences
In this section, we’ll inventory the biggest differentiation points between these tools.
Top features
While both platforms offer a fundamentally similar feature set, it’s worth investigating their particular focus areas. As mentioned above, InvestNext highlights its communication features, allowing for different forms of investor relations management: Mass email, social media-like status updates, and photo/video sharing are all part of the offering. Juniper Square, on the other hand, emphasizes advanced features for different kinds of funds and unique situations.
While not a specific feature differentiation, Juniper Square’s language and marketing demonstrate an emphasis on larger and more sophisticated investors, such as private equity firms, while InvestNext puts a focus on eliminating bottlenecks and manual tasks for scaling, ostensibly smaller real estate teams.
Pricing
Juniper Square pricing is not public, although the platform provides a number of extra-cost add-ons, including an API and administration services such as accounting and treasury management.
InvestNext breaks down its offering into three subscription tiers: the $99/month Fundraising plan, focusing on the tools necessary to actually raise money for deals (such as the CRM and marketing features); the $399/month All-In-One plan, which layers on the bulk of InvestNext’s’s features-things like custom investor portals and operations management toolsets-and finally the custom-priced Fund Admin plan with additional administration-focused capabilities.
Market segments
Most investors will find that Juniper Square is the more sophisticated offering between the two, while InvestNext occupies the niche of supporting scaling investors from their early to mid-stages. Both are satisfactory for a range of property types.
Ease of setup and use
InvestNext and Juniper Square alike claim to emphasize ease of setup and use throughout their marketing materials. InvestNext’s cheapest subscription tier offers a streamlined feature listing, which might make it easier for investors to approach and deploy than the more powerful Juniper Square plans.
Deployment & support
Both tools offer a variety of support options, though InvestNext’s value-priced Fundraising plan lacks the dedicated support resources of the other offerings. Meanwhile, Juniper Square doesn’t advertise a phone support option.
Integrations
Juniper Square gives users the ability to integrate with several popular tools such as Gmail, and also offers paid-separately API access and accounting platform integrations. InvestNext does not advertise an API but does connect with Zapier, allowing users to build their own integrations and data-sharing capabilities across apps.
Platforms supported
Both investment management software platforms are solely available via web app, and neither offers a mobile application.
Ratings and reviews
| InvestNext | Juniper Square | |
| G2 | 4.5 (171 reviews) | 4.8 (86 reviews) |
| Capterra | 4.9 (20 reviews) | 4.9 (61 reviews) |
Juniper Square is neck and neck with InvestNext on Capterra but has a noticeable lead when it comes to G2 reviews. Although users seem to appreciate InvestNext’s ease of setup and investor-facing features (such as the investor portal), it seems to have garnered a number of reviews critical of its complexity, problems accessing support, and lack of platform customizability.
Juniper Square garnered praise for its automation/tracking features, service quality, and robust security. Some reviewers commented on its learning curve, which is less than ideal customization options, particularly with regard to various data fields, and some friction points when it comes to handling payments.
Alternatives
In our series on the best commercial real estate investment management platforms, we’ve already discussed several competitors to InvestNext and Juniper Square. Appfolio Investment Manager is a great choice if you’ve already been bought into the Appfolio ecosystem. SyndicationPro is another option for investor relations pros looking for an option on the simpler side, but perhaps less applicable for more sophisticated private equity teams and funds.
Agora, our investment management platform, ties Juniper Square with a 4.8 average rating on G2 but with substantially more ratings at 126 in total. According to G2’s product review grid, we outperform InvestNext as a market leader and substantially outperform Juniper Square in terms of user satisfaction. If you’re interested in a real estate investment management platform that’s loved by its users and widely praised in terms of reviews, check out what we have to offer.
InvestNext vs Juniper Square: Which platform is better for you?
The reality is that there is a large overlap between these two platforms. InvestNext is available at an attainable price point and with a bite-size feature set option, so if you’re just starting out in your real estate syndication career, it may be the better option for you. Meanwhile, for real estate professionals such as fund managers who need advanced tools and a more powerful feature set, Juniper Square might be the right choice for you.
Conclusion
As we’ve discussed in this article, InvestNext and Juniper Square are both feature-rich tools that help teams manage their real estate investments, though they do have their own particular niches. Before committing to either platform, be sure to reserve a demo with both options-and the others discussed under Alternatives above. In our experience, the feature set is only part of what makes a good tech tool. The user experience, interface design, and customer service quality are also critical components to consider, and the best way to judge them is to try them for yourself.
