Your spreadsheet isn't a business tool. It's a coping mechanism.
Google Sheets is free. But the 20 hours a week you spend maintaining it, the leads that slip through the cracks, and the deals you lose because nobody followed up — those cost real money.
This is our comparison, so read it knowing who wrote it — we've tried to be fair.
The old way
~$690/mo on this illustrative stack — before you hire a VA
None of them talk to each other.
The Doughy way
A spreadsheet organizes the chaos. Doughy comes with a team that does the work.
Spreadsheets + Google Drive
- Manual entry — leads go cold in forgotten rows
- Dialer, texts, and email all disconnected
- Monthly reconciliation nightmare; errors surface in April
- Works at 3 properties, breaks at 20
Doughy
- Leads captured, and the follow-up written automatically
- Every conversation logged in one platform
- Books kept in the same platform, with QuickBooks-ready CSV export
- The same platform at 5 properties or 500
Spreadsheets + Google Drive
Manually entering leads into a spreadsheet. No automated follow-up. Leads go cold because you forgot row 47 was a hot callback.
Doughy
AI captures every lead and has the follow-up email ready automatically, with SMS on the way. Leads stay warm. Row 47 never gets forgotten.
Spreadsheets + Google Drive
Copy-paste phone numbers into your dialer. Text from your personal phone. Email from Gmail. Nothing is connected or tracked.
Doughy
Email and texts drafted in one platform — email sends on your OK today, texting is in carrier review, voice calling is on the way. Every conversation logged, every follow-up lined up, every response tracked.
Spreadsheets + Google Drive
Monthly nightmare of reconciling bank statements against spreadsheet rows. Manual categorization. Errors you find in April.
Doughy
Rent and income tracked across your portfolio, with late payments flagged — expense categorization is on the way. Your books stay current without the monthly spreadsheet nightmare.
Spreadsheets + Google Drive
Works fine with 3 properties. At 10, your spreadsheet becomes a full-time job. At 20, it breaks entirely.
Doughy
Built to scale. The same platform manages 5 properties or 500. Your AI assistant handles the volume — you handle the decisions.
Where Spreadsheets + Google Drive wins
Free is genuinely free — with two or three properties and no growth plans, a spreadsheet honestly does the job.
The Verdict
Spreadsheets are where real estate businesses go to stall. They feel productive because you're always busy maintaining them, but that's the trap. You're spending time organizing chaos instead of growing your portfolio. Doughy replaces the spreadsheet, the manual follow-ups, and the midnight data entry sessions with an AI assistant that does the work while you focus on deals.
What Your Stack Costs You
Slide the bars to match what you spend today on tools and help.
Your Current Monthly Spend
Your Stack, Per Year
$25,200/yr
Across 6 separate tools + services — and none of them talk to each other.
Per month today
$2,100/mo
what the stack costs before Doughy
Tools consolidated
6 → 1
one platform instead of a stack that doesn't talk to itself
Doughy is one platform instead of the stack, and it gives you back your time. Every hour you're not wrestling with broken integrations is an hour you're closing deals.
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Join the waitlist and see what one platform can do.
See Also
All competitor information is based on publicly available data, and products change, so check each vendor’s site for what is current. Trademarks belong to their respective owners. Doughy is not affiliated with or endorsed by any competitor mentioned on this page.