10 Best Free Property Management Software Platforms in 2026

It’s the end of the month. You just sent late payment reminders to your tenants for your 10+ rental units, the receipts are piled high, and the bank accounts (yours and the LLC's) are still not reconciled. The only thing you can clearly see is that your planned portfolio growth is on hold.

This financial and administrative chaos isn’t the exception—it’s the routine. Those endless texts about maintenance, fragmented payments, and the fear of missing a crucial tax deduction? They eat up your weekends and halt your ambitions.

The right property management software (PMS) can put an end to the chaos.

We’ve curated a definitive list of the best free property management software to help you cut down on the financial busywork and take back time to find your next big deal.

Key takeaways

• Property management software (PMS) helps you automate repetitive tasks, improve tenant relations, and maintain clear financial records.
• PMS platform typically offers built-in online rent collection, tenant screening, bookkeeping, and financial reporting.
• We've analyzed Baselane, TurboTenant, Apartments.com, Buildium, Innago, Avail, RentRedi, TenantCloud, Rentler, and Zillow Rental Manager. You can use a bunch of them at once to manage your properties end-to-end.
• Baselane stands out by offering an all-in-one platform—integrating a free, purpose-built banking system with automated bookkeeping, advanced financial reporting, and online rent collection—all without monthly fees or minimum balance requirements.

Why should you use property management software?

A dedicated property management solution acts as your centralized command center, addressing key financial and operational challenges by giving you several powerful advantages:

• Save significant time and reduce errors by automating daily tasks such as rent invoicing, payment reminders, and expense categorization.
• Gain a real-time, clear financial view of your portfolio’s health through integrated tracking and reporting, helping you make smarter, data-driven investment decisions.
• Simplify your organization by centralizing all resident and lease data, payments, and work orders in one platform.
• Enable easier scaling because the automation handles the added workload of new properties or units without requiring a huge increase in your time commitment.
• Improve tenant relations through features like a dedicated portal that streamlines communication and maintenance requests, which is vital for tenant retention.

Key features to look for in a property management solution

When doing your research, run each platform’s offering through these points to make sure you're getting the most for your effort.

• Automated online rent collection: Look for software that supports multiple payment methods (ACH, credit/debit cards, wire transfers, and checks), automates late fees, supports auto-pay, and sends digital receipts.
• Tenant & lease management: Check if the platform offers essential features e-signatures, digital lease templates, and automated renewal reminders, to help you stay compliant.
• Automated accounting: Check if the software helps you track income and expenses by property/unit and categorize them automatically.
• Tax preparation tools: Consider features that automatically map your transactions to Schedule E categories. This simplifies year-end tax preparation dramatically.
• Integrated banking: Look for platforms with built-in banking to manage funds across properties, organize security deposit accounts, and sync all financial data with your bookkeeping.

• Tenant screening: Prioritize tools that offer built-in screening reports to run credit, background, and eviction history checks to help you expedite the tenant qualification process.

• Maintenance management: Consider platforms where tenants can submit maintenance requests online (with photos). The software should allow you to track work orders, assign tasks to vendors, and keep a clear history of all repairs.
• Listing & syndication: Look for tools that can create vacancy listings and automatically post them (syndicate) to popular rental websites like Zillow to minimize downtime.
• Dedicated portals: Assess whether the platform offers separate portals for both tenants (for payments and requests) and owners (for real-time reporting).

We have picked up a mix of software that handles the finance side of property management, while others focus more on marketing and maintenance. You can use multiple tools alongside to manage various aspects of your rental portfolio.

Our best picks for property management software

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the top property management software.

Baselane

We built Baselane to solve the core challenges of fragmented finances and context switching between multiple tools. Baselane integrates your banking and bookkeeping under a single login to help you keep funds separated by property or units, categorize income and expenses, and generate tax-ready reports.

With rent collection built, you can get started on tenant screening, lease signing, and rent collection in an instant.

As your finances are automated and live in a single place, you can focus on growing your business, which is why you really got into real estate.

Key features

• Automated rent collection: Send rent invoices, charge late fees, collect security deposits, and send automatic reminders to tenants.
• Automated bookkeeping: Automatically synchronize and categorize transactions to property/unit and Schedule E categories.
• Property-specific banking: Offers unlimited checking and savings accounts for each property, unit, and security deposit, each with its own account number.
• Virtual debit cards: Offers multiple debit cards with custom spend controls and auto-tagging rules for seamless expense tracking and sharing with vendors.
• Financial reporting: Auto-generates real-time reports, including Income Statements, and a downloadable Accounting Tax Package.

• Tenant screening: Screen tenants through credit, income, eviction, or identity reports and set up rent collection instantly.
• Lease signing and management: Get rental leases signed digitally and store them in a dedicated portal.

When it comes to having everything in order for all of my real-estate needs, as far as tenants, Payments, Rental agreements, and Tenant screening, Baselane has me covered. It provides me with easy and secure access to all of my properties and all of my tenant activity. ~ Eudania Burrell

Pros and cons

Pros

• Helps you centralize financial aspects of your properties, from banking to rent collection.
• Zero monthly fees and no minimum balance requirements.
• Unlimited free accounts and debit cards for fund organization and expense management.

Cons

• No mobile app yet (under development).

Pricing

Baselane has two pricing plans.

• Baselane Core: $0. Full suite of tools and premium features with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements‍
• Baselane Smart: $20/month billed annually. Unlock advanced auto-tagging rules, 2-day rent deposits, shared access, and more.

TurboTenant

TurboTenant is an affordable rental property management software focused on the listing and tenant acquisition process. While it handles online applications, tenant screening, and rent collection, many key financial features are siloed or require a paid plan.

TurboTenant is a useful tool for getting tenants in the door, but it lacks the financial depth needed for efficient, large-scale portfolio management.

Key features

• Rental advertising: Advertise rental property to credit a pool of interested tenants.
• Tenant screening: Run background and credit checks on qualified applicants.
• State-specific leases: Create lease agreements tailored to various states (for a fee on the free plan).

Pros and cons

Pros

• Comprehensive tools for advertising vacancies and tenant screening are available.
• Includes automatic deposits to the landlord's bank account.

Cons

• Multiple bank accounts and faster payouts (less than 5-7 days) are restricted to the Premium plan.
• No integrated banking, automated bookkeeping, or real estate-specific financial reporting.

Pricing

TurboTenant offers a free plan that covers basic listing, screening, and rent collection. The paid plans, which include features like multiple bank accounts and phone support, range from $9.92 to $12.42/mo.

Apartments.com

Apartments.com is a property listing and tenant communication solution. It provides fundamental features like tenant screening and online rent collection, but is limited in advanced financial management and detailed reporting.

Apartments.com is better suited for the tenant-facing side of management rather than the financial engine of your growing portfolio.

Key features

• Rental listings: Advertise vacancies directly on Apartments.com.
• Online rent collection: Supports multiple payment options with automatic email reminders.
• Virtual tours: Create 360-degree tours of your property to show to tenants virtually.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Free for landlords and provides broad exposure for listings.
• Supports splitting rent payments among roommates.

Cons

• No integrated banking or automated bookkeeping for efficient financial tracking.
• Lacks essential features for multi-unit investors, such as lease generation and detailed financial reporting.

Pricing

The core Rental Manager platform is free for landlords. However, premium features like listing promotion or tenant screening services incur additional, variable costs.

Buildium

Buildium is a comprehensive property management software that caters primarily to professional property managers and landlords with larger portfolios. It offers advanced property management features, from leasing to financial reporting, but it requires a high starting budget and lacks integrated banking solutions.

Buildium’s complexity and fee structure make it an expensive choice for an independent investor.

Key features

• Online rent payments: Collects credit, debit, and ACH rent payments with automated reminders.
• Financial reporting: Provides a range of accounting and financial reports suitable for larger operations.
• Tenant communication: Provides a portal and tools to manage communication with your tenants.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Offers fast rent payment processing times of 1-2 days.
• Comprehensive suite of features ideal for property managers and large portfolios.

Cons

• Expensive, with pricing scaling based on the number of units.
• Charges a significant $99 setup fee for each bank account receiving rent payments.
• No integrated banking to streamline finances.

Pricing

Buildium does not offer a free plan, only a 14-day free trial. Pricing starts at $62/mo for the Essential plan and increases based on the number of units managed.

Innago

Innago is a simple property management solution designed for small to mid-sized landlords who want to create customizable lease agreements at scale.

While it’s free for landlords and provides core features like rent collection, tenant screening, and document storage, it is not a comprehensive financial platform. It primarily focuses on operational tasks, and tenants cover the fees for rent payments, which can be a point of friction.

Key features

• Online rent collection: Tenants can set up automatic payments and receive payment reminders.
• Customizable leases: Create customizable lease agreements for each unit or tenant.
• Offline tracking: Track payments received offline to monitor outstanding balances.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Free for landlords, with no setup fees or contracts.
• Easy to use and affordable for small to growing portfolios.

Cons

• Passes all fees to tenants, including ACH and credit card fees, making it potentially costly for the renter.
• Lacks integrated banking and bookkeeping features for a full financial solution.

Pricing

Innago is free to use for landlords. Fees for services like tenant screening and rent payment are charged directly to the tenant.

Avail

Avail focuses on simplifying the process of advertising vacancies and collecting rent online. It provides strong tools for the front end of property management, including listing on major sites and lease creation.

However, Avail’s core financial benefit, FastPay, is locked behind a per-unit fee, making it expensive to scale, and it lacks the deep financial integration of banking and automated bookkeeping.

Key features

• Rental listing: Primarily a listing platform that posts vacancies to popular sites.
• Online applications & leasing: Allows you to manage the tenant application and leasing process digitally.
• Autopay and credit reporting: Includes autopay for tenants and CreditBoost to report on-time payments to credit bureaus.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Help tenants build credit, which can attract high-quality renters.
• Strong focus on getting properties listed and tenants screened.

Cons

• The essential FastPay feature for next-day deposits costs $9 per unit per month, which quickly adds up as your portfolio grows.
• No integrated banking, automated bookkeeping, or built-in financial reporting.

Pricing

Avail offers a free plan. The Unlimited Plus paid plan, which includes expedited payments and waived ACH fees, costs $9 per unit/mo.

RentRedi

RentRedi is a mobile-focused rental management platform that specializes in online rent collection and tenant screening. A notable feature is its ability to accept cash rent payments at retail locations, which can be useful for certain tenant demographics.

However, it does not offer a free plan and requires a paid subscription for even basic features, while lacking integrated financial tools and fast deposit times.

Key features

• Online applications & lease signing: Includes a digital platform for new tenant paperwork and e-signing leases.
• Automated late fees: Automatically set up and charge recurring late fees.
• Mobile app: Dedicated mobile app available for both landlords and tenants.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Accepts cash rent payments, offering a unique payment flexibility.
• Affordable pricing structure for investors with small portfolios.

Cons

• Lacks integrated banking and automated bookkeeping/tax reporting.
• Deposits take at least 4–5 business days to process.

Pricing

RentRedi does not offer a free plan. Paid plans range from $12 to $29.95/mo.

TenantCloud

TenantCloud is a property management platform that offers a broad range of tools, including listing, screening, and rent collection. It supports reconciliation with external bank accounts, helping you keep track of your finances. However, its dashboards are confusing to navigate, and payments can take up to seven days to process.

Key features

• Online payment history: Provides tracking for all rent payments in a central dashboard.
• E-signature leases: Allow for the digital signing of lease agreements.
• Customizable rules: Landlords can adjust rules for due dates, late fees, and partial payments.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Supports multiple landlord bank accounts on its paid tiers.
• Allows customizable tenant payment options.

Cons

• Rent payment processing can take as long as seven days, which is exceptionally slow.
• The user interface is confusing to navigate.

Pricing

TenantCloud offers a 14-day free trial. Paid plans range from $18 to $60+/mo, based on the number of properties.

Rentler

Rentler is a rental management platform mainly used for its marketing and tenant screening capabilities, allowing you to list vacancies on multiple platforms.

However, it is good as a starting tool to advertise your listing and gain exposure. But you’ll need to pair it with an integrated rental financial management platform to streamline bookkeeping and track your cash flow.

Key features

• Marketing and screening: Helps you list properties, providing tenant screening reports.
• Online rent payment: Support rent payments, security deposits, and one-time fee collection through Stripe.
• Rentability reports: Get a customized report with comparable properties, local trends, and a recommended rental price for your property.

Pros and cons

Pros

• A free plan is available for managing a single property.
• Strong marketing reach across multiple listing platforms.

Cons

• Online rent payments, advanced listings, and legal forms all require additional fees or a paid plan.
• Lacks financial reporting, banking, and automated bookkeeping features.

Pricing

The basic plan is free listing and managing properties. Paid features, such as advanced listings, rentability reports, and legal forms, incur variable, per-use fees. For example, a rentability report costs $19.95/report.

Zillow Rental Manager

Zillow Rental Manager is a free tool built into the Zillow Rentals Network, specializing in listing properties and basic rent collection. It’s an accessible option for DIY landlords, STR investors, and property managers. It offers core features including listing, advertising, tenant screening, and rent collection.

But that’s where the Rental Manager hit the ceiling.

The primary limitation is its lack of advanced financial features like financial reporting, bookkeeping, or the ability to link multiple bank accounts, which is non-negotiable for multi-unit investors seeking clarity and control.

Key features

• Listing integration: Seamlessly lists properties on Zillow, Trulia, and HotPads.
• Online rent collection: Offers ACH and card payment options with automatic reminders.
• Payments tracking: Tracks payments in a central dashboard.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Free for landlords and simple to use for basic needs.
• Excellent for advertising listings due to integration with the Zillow network.

Cons

• Lacks integrated banking, bookkeeping, and P&L reporting.
• Only one bank account can be linked to receive payments across all properties.

Pricing

Zillow Rental Manager is free for property listings. Premium pricing of $39.99 gives you listings more exposure and benefits for up to 90 days.

Save time and money managing your properties with Baselane

There’s no single property management software that fits every investor's needs, as all of the platforms we discussed focus on particular stages of the property lifecycle.

Some solutions excel at vacancy listing and tenant acquisition, while others help manage the daily financial grind—rent, bookkeeping, banking, and reporting.

The best way forward is to assess your current portfolio size, the geographic spread of your properties, and your budget. Then, select tools that provide end-to-end management, from property listing to financial automation, without the high monthly fees that chip away at your profits.

For example, a lot of our users use Zillow to market their properties and switch over to Baselane to screen tenants, get leases signed, and set up rent collection. What’s even more interesting is that you receive rent or security deposits in property-specific accounts with our integrated banking and categorize all transactions as per Schedule E categories with automated bookkeeping.

Ready to organize your property finances? Get started with Baselane today!