Guide

Best Free Landlord Software in 2026: What's Actually Free (and Who Pays the Fees)

Free landlord software compared for 1–50 units: what each free plan includes, what tenants pay per rent payment and screening, and when upgrading makes sense.

By Landlord Software Directory · Updated on Oct 28, 2026 · Pricing checked Oct 2026

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The short answer
Free plans compared
What each free plan is good for
How to choose
How we checked
FAQ
Related

Plenty of landlord software costs the landlord nothing. Usually that's because your tenants and applicants pay the fees instead: a charge on each bank payment, a percentage on card payments, and the screening fee when someone applies. "Free" can still be a good deal. You just need to know who pays what before you choose.

Best for: most small landlords who want one free all-in-one tool: Innago, which has no paid tier, a 2.99% card fee and 1–2 day payouts. If tenants must pay nothing for bank transfers, pick Zillow Rental Manager; if bookkeeping matters most, use one of the accounting-first tools in the short answer below.

This guide covers eight tools with a permanent free plan, using each vendor's own pages. We haven't tested these products hands-on.

The short answer

You want a free all-in-one platform and are fine with tenants paying small fees: TurboTenant, Innago or Avail.
You want tenants to pay nothing extra for bank transfers: Zillow Rental Manager. It says ACH is free for tenants. Two others can also avoid the tenant ACH fee: Stessa when rent lands in a Stessa account, and Baselane when it lands in a Baselane account.
Your main problem is bookkeeping and tax time: Baselane or Stessa. Note that Stessa's Schedule E report is on its paid Manage plan.
You have three units or fewer and want an accounting-first app: the free Go plan from Landlord Studio.

Baselane is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank.

Free plans compared

**Pricing checked Oct 28, 2026.**
Tool	Landlord cost	Tenant ACH fee	Tenant card fee	Applicant screening fee	ACH payout time (free plan)
TurboTenant Free	$0	$2 per payment (landlord can cover it)	3.49%*	$55	5–7 business days
Innago	$0	$2 (landlord can absorb)	2.99%	$30–35	1–2 business days (first payment held 3)
Avail Unlimited	$0	$2.50 per bank transfer	3.5%	$30–$55 (landlord or applicant pays)	2–3 business days
Zillow Rental Manager	$0	$0	2.95% credit, $9.95 debit	$40 (reusable for 30 days)	Up to 5 business days
Stessa Essentials	$0	$0 into a Stessa account; up to $2 into an outside bank	3%	$49 full package ($29 credit-only)	Up to 5 business days
Baselane Core	$0	$2 per its payment policy (landlord can cover; waived for Baselane deposits)	3.49%	From $24.99	5 business days (2 on paid Smart)
Landlord Studio Go	$0 (up to 3 units)	$2.50 (landlord pays unless assigned to tenant)	3.49%	Paid by tenant	3–5 business days
Hemlane Starter	$0	Rent collection is on paid Basic	3%	$40	Not on free plan

*TurboTenant's pricing page lists 3.49% card payments, but its help center lists accepting card payments as an Essentials feature. Confirm in your account.

What each free plan is good for

TurboTenant: the broadest free toolkit, with fees passed to tenants

The free plan includes listings, applications and screening, condition reports, maintenance requests, online rent collection, a rent roll, and electronic security deposit returns. Visit TurboTenant

Who pays:

Applicants pay a $55 application fee on the free plan, or $45 if you're on a paid plan. TurboTenant says the fee is non-refundable.
Each ACH rent payment carries a $2 fee. You can cover it (it's deducted from your deposit) or pass it to the tenant.
Card payments cost 3.49%, paid by the tenant. TurboTenant's help center lists accepting card payments as an Essentials feature.

Watch for:

Free-plan ACH payouts take 5–7 business days. The paid plans cut that to about 2–4.
Unlimited state-specific leases and e-signatures require Essentials.
The accounting suite (P&L, Schedule E) requires Pro.
Paid plans are billed once a year: Essentials is $149 and Pro $199 per year for 1–10 units. See TurboTenant pricing.
TurboTenant doesn't post self-managed listings directly to Zillow. It says leads may come from Zillow-affiliated sites such as HotPads or Trulia.
TurboTenant now owns TenantCloud and REI Hub. Azibo has shut down, and its users moved to TurboTenant (TurboTenant's notice for Azibo landlords).

Innago: free for landlords, with no paid tier to upgrade to

Innago says it's "100% free for landlords" with no tiers. You get rent collection, leases with e-signature, screening, maintenance tracking, listing syndication (Realtor.com, Zumper, Apartment List and others) and basic income and expense tracking.

Who pays: tenants pay $2 per ACH payment and 2.99% on cards, unless you choose to absorb those fees. Screening costs the applicant $30–35, plus $10 if you add income verification.

Watch for:

Funds usually arrive in 1–2 business days. The first payment, and the first payment from any new funding source, is held for 3 business days.
For full accounting, Innago points you to an integration (Ledgre) rather than building it in.
Innago is US-only.

Avail: free listings, leases and rent, with a per-unit upgrade

Avail is part of Realtor.com and now lives at avail.com. Its free Unlimited plan includes listings on 19 sites, applications and screening, state-specific leases with digital signing, rent collection, maintenance tracking and income and expense tracking.

Who pays: on the free plan, tenants pay $2.50 per bank transfer. Card payments carry a 3.5% fee on every plan. Avail lists TransUnion screening at $30–$55, and you choose whether you or the applicant pays, subject to state rules.

Watch for:

Unlimited Plus costs $9 per unit per month. It waives the tenant ACH fee and adds next-day deposits (FastPay).

Zillow Rental Manager: no ACH fee for tenants

Zillow says rent collection is free for landlords and free for tenants who pay by ACH.

Who pays: tenants pay 2.95% on credit cards and a flat $9.95 on debit cards. Screening is free for landlords. Zillow's screening page says applicants pay a $40 fee that covers 30 days of applications to participating rentals (one Zillow help article still says $35).

Watch for: deposits can take up to 5 business days. Its rent-collection page doesn't describe property-level bookkeeping.

Stessa Essentials: free bookkeeping with built-in rent collection

The free plan covers unlimited properties, automatic bank feeds, basic reports, rent collection, tenant screening and maintenance tracking. Stessa says landlords never pay rent-collection fees.

Who pays: ACH into a Stessa Cash Management account is free for tenants. ACH into your own outside bank costs the tenant up to $2. Cards cost 3%. Screening runs through RentPrep: $49 for credit plus background, or $29 for credit only. With an application, the applicant pays; with Screening Only, you can choose to pay.

Watch for:

ACH can take up to 5 business days.
The Schedule E report is on Manage, which costs $12 a month billed annually.
On the free plan, state lease templates cost $15 each, and smart receipt scanning is limited to 5 a month.

Baselane Core: banking first, with rent collection built in

Core is free. It includes unlimited property-specific checking and savings accounts (banking through Thread Bank, Member FDIC; Baselane itself isn't a bank), property-level bookkeeping, Schedule E reports and automated rent with reminders and late fees. Visit Baselane

Who pays: Baselane's payment policy and FAQ both say each ACH rent payment carries a $2 fee that you can cover or pass on. It's waived for rent deposited into a Baselane account. (The fee table on its pricing page shows "$2 - $5", so confirm in the app.) Card payments cost tenants 3.49%. Screening starts at $24.99.

Watch for:

On Core, rent takes 5 business days to arrive. Two-day deposits need Smart, at $20 a month on an annual plan.
Baselane doesn't do listings or maintenance in the way the all-in-one tools do. Pair it with a separate tool if you need those.

Landlord Studio Go: accounting-first, free up to 3 units

Go is free for up to 3 units and one user. It includes listing and syndication, tenant screening (paid by the tenant), online rent collection, optional partial payments, automated late fees and manual income and expense tracking.

Who pays: rent collection is free for landlords. ACH costs $2.50 per payment, which you pay by default unless you assign it to the tenant. Cards cost the tenant 3.49%. Landlord Studio says ACH arrives in 3–5 business days and cards in 3–4.

Watch for:

You can store only 10 documents, and you get standard reports only.
Bank feeds, Schedule E and Xero sync are on Pro, which is $15 a month or $144 a year in US pricing. Pro covers 3 units, plus $1.20 per extra unit on the monthly table.

Hemlane Starter: free marketing and screening, paid rent collection

The free Starter plan covers advertising on Apartments.com, Zillow and other sites, screening, and rental accounting. Online rent collection with $0 ACH fees starts on the paid Basic plan, which is a $28 monthly platform fee plus $2 per unit on annual billing (Hemlane's default view; it says annual saves up to 20%, so month-to-month costs more). Visit Hemlane

Who pays: screening is $40, paid by the tenant. Card payments are 3%.

Watch for: Hemlane's real draw is its paid repair coordination, at $28 a month plus $20 per unit on the Essential plan (annual billing). That matters most if you own rentals out of state.

How to choose

Count the money that moves. On fees alone, a $2 ACH fee on 10 units is $20 a month, and somebody pays it. A $1,500 rent paid by card at 3% or more is $45 or more per payment.
Check local rules on application fees. Some states and cities limit what applicants can be charged, so confirm that tenant-paid screening is allowed where your rental is before you rely on it.
Plan the upgrade. Find out what the first paid tier costs at your unit count. For flat versus per-unit pricing, see landlord software by unit count. For median paid prices per unit across 76 tools, see our landlord software price index.

How we checked

On October 28, 2026, we read each vendor's own pricing page and the help or fee pages it links to. Fees come from those pages, not from third-party lists. Where a vendor's pages disagree (TurboTenant's card payments, Baselane's ACH fee, Zillow's screening fee), we say so. We haven't used these tools with our own rentals. Free plans and fees change often, so confirm on the vendor's site before you sign up.

FAQ

Is there truly free landlord software?

Yes for the landlord. All eight tools here have a $0 plan, but tenants or applicants usually pay rent-payment and screening fees.

Which free landlord app has no tenant ACH fee?

Zillow Rental Manager says ACH is free for tenants. Stessa and Baselane waive it when rent goes into their own accounts.

Which free plan pays out fastest?

Innago says 1–2 business days, with the first payment held 3. TurboTenant's free plan takes 5–7.

Does any free plan include Schedule E?

Baselane Core does. Stessa puts Schedule E on Manage ($12 a month billed annually), and TurboTenant puts it on Pro.

When should I pay for landlord software?

When you need faster payouts, unlimited leases and e-signatures, or tax-ready books. A flat plan such as RentRedi's ($12 a month billed annually, unlimited units) can cost less than several upgrades. See TurboTenant vs RentRedi and Baselane vs Stessa.