AppFolio Reviews

Pros

Note: I'm in the Product Development department, which houses software engineers, quality-assurance engineers (QA), user-experience designers (UX), and product managers (PM). It also contains our Operations and Security teams. Other departments are probably great also, but this review pertains to my department. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Small teams. We... work in small, focused, 6-person autonomous teams comprised of a few software engineers, a UX designer, QA engineer, and a product manager. Each team is focused on cranking out software solutions to delight our customers; there is very little bureaucracy and very few top-down mandates. My team's product manager presents several high-impact projects, and we work on whichever project we think is most interesting. We all have a say in what we work on, so we all feel a sense of ownership over our projects. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No deadlines. We try hard to deliver quality software in incremental stages, getting feedback from our customers along the way, so we hardly ever waste time developing features that no one wants. Management trusts us to iterate quickly and deliver value rapidly, but there is also an understanding that it's important to build sustainable, maintainable code. Consequently, we can take the time to code it right, and be proud of our work. I've been really impressed that no one imposes arbitrary deadlines on us. For example, toward the end of a recent project, even though we had finished shipping the feature, we decided we needed an extra week to refactor the code to integrate it nicely into our codebase. So we took the time to do it right, and no one batted an eye! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Great culture. Every couple weeks our team has a "retro" -- a meeting where we look back on the last couple weeks to see how we can improve. Retros start with "appreciations", where people take turns thanking their teammates for their help and support. It sounds corny but it's actually really nice. Who doesn't want to be appreciated at work? And there are lots of events: We have team outings (we took a trip to the local zoo), volunteer days (the company gives us a day a year of paid "volunteer time", we recently went out into the Santa Barbara hills and repaired some hiking trails), hackathons, tech retreats, and contests to make the best guacamole and present it in a funny skit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Good infrastructure. Writing tests for our software is deeply ingrained in our culture. We have a huge suite of tests that run in an automated fashion every time you change the code. The philosophy is essentially, "If the tests pass, then you didn't break anything." It's very luxurious to be able to release code knowing that you didn't break some feature on the other side of the codebase. It lets us move quickly with confidence. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Investment in employees. We have a great onboarding program, bi-weekly 1-hour in-depth tech lectures, bi-weekly sequences of 15-minute tech-demos, and a curriculum of ~40 one-hour workshops on various aspects of our tech stack. Management agrees that it's vital for us to keep our skills up-to-date and sharp, and it's a great asset to have so much knowledge-sharing as part of our culture. We also do a lot of pair-programming, which I really like. It's a very high-bandwidth way to learn about our code base. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Good work-life balance. AppFolio does a good job of providing some amenities, but not so many that you feel pressure to live at work. For example, we have lots of yummy snacks, coffee, and various sodas (all free!), but you wouldn't be able to eat all your meals at work. I like that we don't have on-site massages, laundry, child-care, or haircuts. Santa Barbara is too beautiful for us to spend all our time at work, so we have enough amenities to make our work-time enjoyable and comfy, but not enough to stay cooped up in the office. People get to work around 8:30 or 9 and leave around 5:30 or 6. Because we try to deliver value in a steady stream of small improvements, the work is very consistent, which contributes to my work-life balance.

Cons

It is expensive to live in Santa Barbara!

Advice to Management

Keep up the good work!! Try to maintain our wonderful culture as the company enjoys its meteoric growth!

Pros

Great company culture that emphasizes a healthy work life balance. There are frequent company events to foster community and team building. The leadership is open-minded and transparent about strategy and direction. Company encourages professional growth and give more responsibility to individuals who've earned it.

Cons

Salaries are on the lower end for the Customer Success team members. Majority of leadership is male and white.

Pros

Everyone is friendly, warm, welcoming, and supportive! The managers take great care in coaching you to be the best you can be.

Cons

Sometimes it gets really cold in the office space but that is to make sure the computers don't over heat.

Pros

Competent and friendly colleagues. Incredible access to resources for career growth and personal development. Fun culture. Easy to work remote.

Cons

Keeps you very busy. High priority projects can be stressful and consuming (though such projects do not come along often).

Pros

Appfolio allows you to work without micromanagement. They provide you the tools to succeed and allow you to move within the company. They are responsive to employee needs and everyone makes working here a lot of fun. This place rocks.

Cons

There are a lot of meetings but that is part of the business world.

Advice to Management

keep doing what you are doing. Everyone loves working at Appfolio because management is responsive to employee needs and listens to what needs to change.

Pros

A great company to grow your career and get exposed to new professional experiences. I'm surrounded by passionate, intelligent, and kind people who are customer focused.

Cons

Lacking guidance and communication from leadership, forcing me to solve problems without having greater context. Also, the overall headcount growth at the company has created crowded and disruptive working conditions. I regularly cannot find an available conference room for confidential conversations and team meetings.

Advice to Management

Since I started at AppFolio, I've consistently felt my compensation is below industry average. If this theme continues, it may encourage me to look elsewhere for employment. Also, we need more space! There is a lot of background noise on my calls with customers, and I'm regularly unable to find an open stall in the restrooms.

Pros

Great people Fun Events Lots of Perks Good Atmosphere

Cons

Pay is not competitive based on Cost of living.

Advice to Management

Adjust Pay so we can afford to live to close to work.

Pros

Great work-life balance, friendly management, fantastic training, dog-friendly, fun culture.

Cons

I can't think of any at the time.