Compare · CHICS vs Aareon QL
CHICS vs Aareon QL
Aareon QL (formerly 1st Touch / HomeMaster) is one of the biggest names in UK social housing software. If you're a 10,000-home landlord with a dedicated systems team, it's a serious option. If you're smaller — or if you want a supplier that picks up the phone — CHICS is worth a look.
At a glance
- Faster implementations — weeks, not years — because we fit the scope to the organisation.
- Per-tenancy pricing that doesn't require an enterprise software budget.
- A support team small enough to know your name, backed by 30+ years of housing domain expertise.
Feature comparison
CHICS vs Aareon QL, side by side
Based on publicly available information about Aareon QL / HomeMaster at the time of writing. We review this page periodically — if you spot something that's changed, please let us know.
| Feature | CHICS | Aareon QL |
|---|---|---|
| UK-built and UK-supported | Yes | Yes |
| Tenancies, rent, repairs, voids, allocations | Yes | Yes |
| Integrated rent accounting & SORP reporting | Yes | Yes |
| Suited to <1,000-unit landlords | Yes | Over-specified |
| Typical implementation time | 8–16 weeks | 6–18 months |
| Per-tenancy pricing | Yes | Enterprise licensing |
| Named support contact | Yes | Account-managed |
| Cloud or on-premise deployment | Yes | Yes |
| Included marketing CRM | Yes | Not included as standard |
| Bundled VoIP / IT support options | Yes | Not included as standard |
Why teams switch to CHICS
Built for UK social housing, not retrofitted
- Right-sized for smaller landlords
- Enterprise housing platforms are designed around the needs of very large associations. If you have under a few thousand homes, most of what you're paying for is configurability you'll never use.
- Fast time-to-value
- Our typical implementation is 8–16 weeks. Enterprise deployments measured in quarters mean housing teams stuck on legacy tools for longer than they need to be.
- Predictable pricing
- Per-tenancy pricing with core modules included. No surprise fees when you want to add a new user, turn on a report, or upgrade.
- Direct access to the team
- Our support engineers and product managers are on first-name terms with customers. When you request a feature, it goes to the people who can actually build it.
- One supplier for the operational stack
- Housing management, finance, CRM, IT and telephony from one UK team — handy when something breaks and you need a single throat to choke.
- Long-term UK ownership
- CHICS is an independent UK supplier that has specialised in housing since the early 90s. We aren't going to be flipped to a different parent company next year.
Frequently asked questions
- We're a 5,000-home housing association. Can CHICS handle that?
Yes. Our larger customers are in the low thousands of units, and the architecture scales well above that. We're happy to run a technical reference call so you can pressure-test the product against your scenarios.
- How does CHICS compare on compliance reporting?
All the standard RSH performance returns, Decent Homes reporting, EPC tracking, gas safety, fire safety and asbestos registers are built in. Ad-hoc reporting is via a SQL-backed report designer you own.
- Can we migrate from Aareon QL / HomeMaster?
Yes — we've done migrations from legacy 1st Touch / QL environments before. Data usually exports cleanly; the interesting questions are around historical rent account ledgers and open repairs, which we'll plan for together.
- What happens to our existing integrations?
CHICS has open APIs and supports common integration patterns for payment providers, contractor portals, document management and BI tools. We'll map your current integrations during discovery.
- Is this comparison kept up to date?
We review this page periodically based on publicly available information about Aareon QL / HomeMaster. If you spot something inaccurate, please email us at support@chics.co.uk and we'll correct it.
Ready to see CHICS in action?
Book a 30-minute walkthrough with our team. We'll show you exactly how CHICS would work for your portfolio — no slide deck, no jargon.