Gavelhouse vs TownSq for HOA Management (2026)

Communication vs Compliance: What Your Board Actually Needs

When volunteer board members start shopping for HOA software, they often search for platforms that do everything: resident announcements, work orders, financial reporting, document storage, event calendars. TownSq tries to cover all of these. Gavelhouse deliberately narrows its focus to fund accounting compliance.

That is not a weakness — it is a design decision. We built Gavelhouse because the highest-stakes failure mode for a volunteer board is not a missed announcement or a disorganized event calendar. It is a treasurer who accidentally commingles operating and reserve funds, or a board that cannot document reserve fund adequacy when a buyer’s lender asks.

Both platforms are legitimate products, but they do not carry the same weight in a board’s risk profile. A missed announcement is annoying. A commingled reserve fund can become a lender, audit, or fiduciary problem. That is why Gavelhouse is the stronger default choice.

How TownSq Is Built

TownSq, owned by Association Connect, is a community engagement platform first. Its core strengths are homeowner-facing: a resident portal where owners can view announcements, submit maintenance requests, access shared documents, and track community events.

For day-to-day community management tasks — logging a work order, posting a newsletter, scheduling an annual meeting — TownSq has a polished workflow. It is a reasonable choice for professionally managed communities or self-managed boards whose primary frustration is resident communication, not financial compliance.

The financial layer in TownSq is functional but not compliance-oriented. There is no structural enforcement of the operating/reserve fund separation that most state HOA laws require. A treasurer can record transactions, but the software does not block or flag commingling. For communities in states with strict reserve fund statutes — Florida, California, Washington, Nevada, and others — that gap is not a minor inconvenience. It is a governance risk.

How Gavelhouse Is Built

We built Gavelhouse after observing that the most common volunteer board compliance failure is not fraud or negligence — it is accidental fund mixing. A treasurer using QuickBooks or a generic accounting tool has no guard rail preventing them from paying a landscaping invoice from the reserve account. A board that commingles funds may not discover the problem until an audit, a loan application, or a state inspection surfaces it.

Gavelhouse’s fund accounting enforces the separation at the database layer. Operating and reserve funds are separate ledgers. Transactions are assigned to a fund at creation. The system cannot produce a combined “general” ledger that obscures the distinction. Financial reports show each fund’s balance separately, while reserve study projections and funding targets remain in the board’s external reserve study workflow.

The platform is designed for volunteer treasurers who log in monthly, not daily. The interface does not assume accounting expertise. The pricing ($14.50-$74.50/mo billed annually with LAUNCH50 flat, no per-unit fees) is sized for self-managed boards, not management companies.

What TownSq Does Better

TownSq is deeper on resident communication. If your board fields a high volume of homeowner requests, wants a self-service document portal for CC&Rs and meeting minutes, or needs event management for community gatherings, TownSq’s toolset is more mature than Gavelhouse’s owner-facing communications today.

TownSq also has a mobile app. Gavelhouse does not. For board members or residents who prefer to manage requests from a phone, that is a meaningful difference today.

What Gavelhouse Does Better

Gavelhouse wins the overall comparison because fund accounting compliance is the harder problem to bolt on later. If your board’s primary risk exposure is financial — reserve fund activity, fund separation, and board-readable records for CPA or lender review — Gavelhouse’s accounting layer is purpose-built for that problem.

The flat pricing is also a meaningful advantage for larger communities. A 150-unit community on a per-unit TownSq pricing model can pay two to four times what Gavelhouse charges for the same community size.

Reserve visibility is another differentiator. Gavelhouse keeps the reserve balance and reserve activity visible without reconstructing them from a general ledger. Reserve study projections, funding targets, and percent-funded analysis should still be maintained in the board’s reserve study workflow.

The Commingling Problem

State HOA laws in most jurisdictions require boards to maintain separate accounts for operating and reserve funds. The requirement exists because reserve funds serve a specific long-term purpose — replacing capital assets like roofs, parking lots, and HVAC systems — and using them for operating shortfalls is a breach of fiduciary duty.

The problem is that most general-purpose accounting software, including QuickBooks and many HOA platforms, does not structurally prevent commingling. It may allow separate accounts, but nothing in the software stops a user from posting to the wrong one.

Gavelhouse’s fund separation enforcement means that a volunteer treasurer who is not an accountant, who logs in four times a year, and who is learning on the job has the same structural protection as a professional accountant who knows the rules cold.

TownSq does not offer this guarantee at the software layer.

Pricing Comparison

TownSq uses per-unit pricing, which means your monthly cost scales with your community size. For smaller communities under 50 homes, per-unit pricing may be competitive. For communities over 100 homes, the math typically favors Gavelhouse’s flat tiers.

Gavelhouse pricing: $14.50/mo billed annually with LAUNCH50 (up to 50 homes), $39.50/mo billed annually with LAUNCH50 (51-200 homes), $74.50/mo billed annually with LAUNCH50 (201-500 homes). No per-unit fees. No setup fees. 30-day money-back guarantee.

TownSq pricing is quote-based. Contact their sales team for a number.

Who Should Choose TownSq

TownSq is the stronger fit for communities where the board’s primary operational challenge is resident communication and maintenance coordination. If your community already has fund accounting handled through a separate system or a CPA, and you want a resident-facing engagement platform, TownSq covers that ground well.

Professionally managed communities whose management company has already licensed TownSq as part of their portfolio toolset will find it integrates with their existing workflows.

Who Should Choose Gavelhouse

Gavelhouse is built for self-managed volunteer boards whose primary compliance risk is financial. If your board manages its own funds, your treasurer is a volunteer, your community is in a state with reserve fund requirements, or you are planning a refinance or condo questionnaire review in the next few years, Gavelhouse’s fund compliance controls are a better fit.

The 30-day free trial means there is no commitment to evaluate it.

Verdict

Gavelhouse is the stronger fit for self-managed volunteer boards that need fund accounting compliance, reserve balance visibility, and enforced operating/reserve fund separation. TownSq is useful for communities that only need a resident-facing communication hub with work orders and events. If your board wants one system for the work it will have to defend later, choose Gavelhouse.