DoorLoop vs. ExactEstate: An Affordable Housing Comparison
Updated May 2026
TL;DR
DoorLoop is a well-designed platform for small market-rate landlords — and genuinely earns its strong ratings in that market. But affordable housing is a different job entirely. DoorLoop has no TRACS submission, no income certification automation, no compliance tooling, and no voucher reconciliation. ExactEstate was built for affordable housing from day one, at $3/unit/month with every feature included. For related operational guidance, review affordable housing compliance software.
Why this comparison matters
Affordable housing is a critical but complicated market. The managers who undertake these properties have far more administrative upkeep than traditional property management companies. When it comes to property management software (PMS), affordable housing isn’t going to fit neatly into the framework of just any PMS.
At the end of the day, affordable housing and traditional housing are two entirely different animals. Most property management software companies don’t acknowledge or adapt to that simple fact.
PMS companies will often market themselves as a solution for affordable housing while changing almost nothing about their system to support that market.
For example, popular systems like DoorLoop lack key functionalities that are essential for managing subsidized units efficiently. By contrast, ExactEstate offers a comprehensive set of capabilities specifically designed to meet the needs of property managers in affordable housing.
We’ll take a closer look at how these two platforms compare when it comes to affordable housing capabilities.
Capability #1: Voucher Payment Tracking
The collection and tracking of subsidies is one of the chief challenges of the affordable housing market. PMs need to know that if the software can’t split a lease into subsidized and tenant rent, then it can’t truly handle affordable housing.
What ExactEstate Offers:
- Easy Voucher Payment Tracking: ExactEstate integrates with HUD TRACS, enabling property managers (PMs) to go through and see which voucher payments clients have received. Any subsidized payment in ExactEstate’s system is locked as an external payment and tracked as a payment made for that lease. However, ExactEstate does not generate or validate vouchers.
- Ledger Automation: After receiving payment, by uploading the deposit form to the platform, ExactEstate updates each resident's ledger, reconciling tenant and subsidized rent automatically, saving PMs tons of time and effort.
What DoorLoop Offers:
- Manual Voucher Payment Tracking and No Ledger Automation: DoorLoop does not offer a HUD TRACS integration and they do not handle vouchers. You can collect payments from the government and assign them to a tenant manually, without any of the useful ledger automation ExactEstate offers. You would have to manually designate “Section 8” or “Government” as a “tenant” in the system and set its fixed contribution to be able to pull reports on it. You also cannot submit for the voucher within DoorLoop.
- Basic Payments: Like any normal property management software, DoorLoop allows you to see the upcoming, due, and past-due payments for your units. This, however, is standard and not customized for affordable housing.
Capability #2: Income Certification
Another distinguishing feature of affordable housing is the income certification process, ensuring tenants meet the income requirements to justify government support. While DoorLoop claims to support subsidized units, it is not set up to currently provide the necessary tools to manage income certification efficiently.
What ExactEstate Offers:
- HUD TRACS Integration: ExactEstate integrates with HUD TRACS to automate the process of tracking income certification, allowing property managers to certify income in a single click.
- Form Generation: PMs can generate and fill out TIC forms with all necessary tenant information, like wages and asset data, simplifying the process of submitting these forms to the government.
What DoorLoop Offers:
- No HUD TRACS Integration: DoorLoop doesn’t integrate with the department that partially makes affordable housing possible. This increases the manual workload for property managers around income certification.
- No Form Generation: DoorLoop does not offer any capabilities for generating income certification documents. Property Managers using DoorLoop must manually upload and fill these documents in their system, which can be time-consuming and error-prone.
- Basic Storage: At most, you can simply store a pre-filled income certification doc in DoorLoop’s system.
Capability #3: Compliance Tools
Property managers need to maintain compliance with federal regulations, but there must be a degree of flexibility in how that compliance is achieved under the hood. Different software systems take different approaches to compliance that can help or hinder a company in its day-to-day operations.
What ExactEstate Offers:
- Flexible Compliance: ExactEstate gives clients all of the tools necessary to be compliant within their affordable housing property. However, they don’t rigidly enforce compliance. Strict compliance measures are one of the biggest pain points for PMs that use certain other software. These competitors do enforce compliance. This can lead to platform unusability, preventing the property managers from doing their job.
A customer who had previously utilized another affordable housing software provider expressed concern that this compliance configuration would require their entire system to be locked unless an administrator manually closed out the books at the end of each day.
With ExactEstate, you can close your books whenever you want. They believe in customization and flexibility, with the tools to enable compliance with your terms as you collect voucher payments.
What DoorLoop Offers:
- No Compliance Tools: While ExactEstate gives you the tools you need to be compliant on your terms, DoorLoop does not offer tools that facilitate compliance at all. There is no reporting back to the government with their system.
Capability #4: Customization
Every property has nuances that make them a little bit different from each other. That’s why customization plays a vital role in property management software, allowing PMs to tailor the system to their specific needs and requirements.
While both DoorLoop and ExactEstate offer some level of customization, there are notable differences in the extent and functionality of their customization capabilities.
What ExactEstate Offers:
- Client-Requested Features: ExactEstate prioritizes the creation of new features that benefit all users in the system. For example, they quickly implemented mass resident email functionality in response to a client request.
- Templating System: ExactEstate features a robust templating system that allows property managers to generate customized documents quickly and easily. They can fill out dynamic leases and forms with whichever resident information they choose. This capability was also created in response to a client request, who needed this capability to prefill documents based on tenant data.
- AI Assistance: ExactEstate utilizes AI to assist property managers in various tasks, like writing custom emails or generating email templates. This AI-powered assistance streamlines communication processes and improves productivity.
What DoorLoop Offers:
- Application Customization: DoorLoop allows property managers to customize application questions and fees, providing flexibility in screening potential tenants.
- Tenant Portal Customization: DoorLoop offers some level of customization for tenant portals, allowing PMs to tailor the portal experience to their specific requirements.
- AI Assistance: DoorLoop also offers AI assistance with syndicating listings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can DoorLoop handle HUD-assisted affordable housing?
Not meaningfully. DoorLoop has no TRACS integration, no TIC form generation, no automated voucher reconciliation, and no compliance tooling for LIHTC, Section 8, HOME, or USDA Rural Development. You can store documents and manually assign government payments to a tenant record, but the compliance workflows that define affordable housing operations don't exist in the platform. Most operators who try to run affordable housing on DoorLoop end up running it in spreadsheets alongside DoorLoop.
What's the real per-unit cost difference between DoorLoop and ExactEstate for an affordable housing portfolio?
For a 50-unit affordable portfolio, DoorLoop's Pro tier runs $149/month and includes none of the affordable housing-specific features — no TIC generation, no TRACS integration, no recertification automation — and charges $1 per e-signature document on top. ExactEstate is $150/month for 50 units with every feature included. For larger portfolios, ExactEstate scales linearly at $3/unit; DoorLoop jumps at tier thresholds.
What does TRACS integration actually mean, and why does it matter?
TRACS is HUD's system for processing tenant certifications and voucher requests for project-based Section 8, Section 202, Section 811, and related programs. Without native integration, every 50059 submission is a manual process — exporting data, reformatting it, uploading it, correcting rejections. ExactEstate handles TRACS submission via a ShofCorp partnership, including 50059 data generation, HAP voucher processing, and rent roll sync. DoorLoop has no TRACS connection at all.
How does income certification work in ExactEstate versus DoorLoop?
ExactEstate generates state-specific TIC forms pre-filled with household, income, asset, and rent data, with HOTMA-compliant relationship codes and income exclusion rules built into the data model. Recertification notices go out automatically at 120, 90, 60, and 30 days. DoorLoop lets you store a document you've already filled out somewhere else. For any portfolio with annual recertifications, that's the difference between an automated workflow and a manual one.
Will DoorLoop add affordable housing features if it keeps growing?
Compliance tooling isn't something that gets bolted onto a market-rate platform later. It has to be in the data model from the start — designation matrices, AMI tier pricing, HOTMA-aware income calculations, layered program rules per property, TRACS-compatible data structures. The same problem has slowed Yardi, AppFolio, and Entrata in this market. A platform built for market-rate landlords and later expanded toward affordable housing carries that architecture debt throughout.
How long does it take to migrate from DoorLoop to ExactEstate?
Most operators are fully operational within days. ExactEstate supports MAT file import for HUD data and CSV or Excel bulk import for chart of accounts, units, residents, designations, and historical balances. Running both systems in parallel during cutover is straightforward, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager handles the process from Day 1.
Key takeaways
- DoorLoop is a strong product for what it is. Small market-rate landlords get fast onboarding, a clean UI, and responsive support.
- Affordable housing is not what DoorLoop is. No TRACS submission, no TIC generation, no compliance tooling, no automated voucher reconciliation.
- ExactEstate was built for affordable housing first. LIHTC, Section 8, HOME, USDA RD, and HOTMA-readiness are in the data model — not bolted on.
- $3 per unit per month, flat, with every feature included. DoorLoop's tiered pricing gates features ExactEstate ships to every customer from day one.
- Ask targeted questions in demos. Operators evaluating PMS for affordable housing need to push past the marketing claims. Ask how the platform handles TRACS submission, TIC generation, voucher reconciliation, and HOTMA — and watch how the answer changes.
Ultimately, property managers who handle affordable housing need to be cognizant of the fact that property management companies will tell them they can handle this market, even though they can’t.
Managers and operations professionals have to be discerning and inquisitive in demos with software salespeople, asking targeted questions about how the platform supports this market segment.
Ready to see ExactEstate for yourself?
ExactEstate is built for affordable housing. Request a demo and see how the platform handles the work your current PMS pushes back to spreadsheets.