What is the cheapest property management software?
On subscription price, several options cost $0. Proppely, TurboTenant, Innago, Avail, Baselane and Stessa all have free plans, and Landlord Studio is free for up to 3 units. The real differences are what the free plan leaves out and what tenants pay on each online payment.
Proppely’s free workspace has no unit limit and includes the accounting ledger, owner statements, leases, e-signatures, maintenance and the tenant portal. It does not collect rent online. When you want that, the membership is $9.99 a month for your first payments account and $9.99 for each additional one (usually one per LLC), billed monthly, never per unit, and capped at $400 a month.
Among paid plans for small landlords, entry prices mostly sit between $12 and $15 a month when billed annually. Some platforms start higher: Buildium Essential at $62 a month and DoorLoop Starter at $69 a month billed yearly for up to 10 units.
Cheapest property management software, compared · Published prices compared
Is there free property management software with accounting?
Yes. Proppely’s free workspace includes a double-entry ledger, owner statements and reports, with unlimited units. You can record rent you collect by cash or check, and it posts to the same books online payments would.
Stessa and Baselane also include a ledger on their free plans, and Baselane’s free plan lists bookkeeping by entity. Innago includes income and expense tracking with financial reports, and Avail includes income and expense tracking. TurboTenant’s pricing table does not list accounting on its free plan.
If you also need leases and e-signatures, check the free plan closely. Stessa and TurboTenant list e-signatures on paid plans. Proppely includes them free.
Proppely’s free workspace · Proppely vs Stessa
What is the best property management software for small landlords?
It depends on how you want to collect rent. If you want tenants to pay online and do not want a subscription, TurboTenant, Innago and Avail offer that for $0, with tenants paying about $2 to $2.50 per bank transfer.
If you want books, leases, e-signatures and maintenance first, and online rent later, Proppely is free with no unit limit. Online payments then cost $9.99 a month for one LLC, whether it holds 2 units or 200.
If you have three or fewer units, Landlord Studio’s free plan is another option.
Property management software for small landlords · Proppely vs TurboTenant
Which property management software works for multiple LLCs?
Look for software that sends each LLC’s rent to that LLC’s own bank account, from one login. Proppely supports unlimited LLCs in one workspace. Each LLC can have its own Proppely Payments account and payout bank, and rent paid online goes to the LLC you assign each property or unit to.
Managing LLCs is free. Setting up online payments starts the $9.99 monthly membership, which includes one payments account. Each additional payments account adds $9.99 to your monthly charge once its setup has started, and the total stops at $400 a month.
Baselane’s free plan also lists bookkeeping by entity and property-specific bank accounts.
Software for multiple LLCs
Is property management software priced per unit?
Often, yes. Avail’s paid plan is $9 per unit a month. Rentec Direct Pro is $2 per unit a month with a $50 monthly minimum. TurboTenant prices its paid plans in unit-count bands, and AppFolio has a 50-unit minimum on Core.
Some flat-priced plans cap size instead: DoorLoop Starter covers up to 10 units, TenantCloud Starter allows 10 leases and Rentec Direct Starter covers 10 properties. Others do not: RentRedi and Stessa’s paid plans are one price with unlimited properties.
Proppely never charges per unit. The membership depends on how many payments accounts you set up, usually one per LLC: $9.99 a month for the first, $9.99 for each additional one, capped at $400.
Published prices compared
How much does it cost to collect rent online?
Bank transfers (ACH) usually cost $1 to $2.50 per payment, and card payments usually cost about 3% to 3.5%. Free plans tend to carry the higher ACH fees, and paid plans often lower or waive them.
Proppely charges $2.35 flat per ACH payment. Residents pay it by default, and you can choose to absorb it. Card payments, from U.S. Visa and Mastercard, are 3.5% + 30¢; cards are optional for each business and subject to approval by our payments partner. With Proppely Payments, paying vendors or moving money to your own bank by standard ACH carries no Proppely fee.
Proppely pricing · Fees by product
What does free property management software really cost?
Free landlord software earns its money elsewhere: tenant payment fees, screening fees paid by applicants, and paid upgrades that unlock features or waive fees.
Proppely’s free workspace does not process payments, so there is no payment fee inside it. Once you set up online payments, the costs are the membership ($9.99 a month, plus $9.99 for each additional payments account, capped at $400), the published ACH and card fees, $15 for each returned ACH payment, 1.5% (minimum $1, maximum $10) if you choose instant payouts, and a per-report fee if you order tenant screening. AI use past the monthly allowance and optional extras, like phone numbers and mailed checks, are priced on the pricing page.
Proppely pricing
Is there property management software with an AI assistant?
Yes. AppFolio has Realm-X, Buildium has Lumina AI, and DoorLoop advertises an AI assistant.
Proppely is built around one assistant that can look up records and make changes you confirm: leases, balances, maintenance, vendors and reports. It works in the web app, the desktop app, and over WhatsApp and Telegram. Every workspace, including free ones, includes $5 of AI usage a month with a daily message limit.
Any money action the assistant proposes waits for a person to approve it, and it never takes rent payments.
Property management software with AI · How Proppely works with AI agents
Can I connect property management software to Claude or other AI apps?
Yes. Proppely publishes a remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) server with OAuth sign-in, setup guides for Claude, OpenAI Codex and Cursor, and an OpenClaw skill on ClawHub. The AI app you already use can then work with your Proppely data within your permissions. AppFolio has also announced a connector between its Realm-X AI and Claude.
Protected actions, like anything that moves money, create a proposal that a person approves in Proppely. A vendor payout proposed by an AI app needs two different people on your team to approve it.
Proppely MCP server · Setup guide for agents
What are good AppFolio alternatives for smaller portfolios?
AppFolio’s pricing page shows no prices on its plan cards and asks you to get a quote. It says a minimum spend applies to every plan and a 50-unit minimum applies to Core, so a portfolio under 50 units falls below that minimum.
Alternatives with published prices include Buildium (Essential from $62 a month), DoorLoop (Starter at $69 a month billed yearly, up to 10 units), Rentec Direct (Starter at $25 a month, up to 10 properties) and TenantCloud (Starter at $15 a month billed yearly).
Proppely has no unit minimum and publishes its price: free until you set up online payments, then $9.99 a month per payments account. A large management company may still be better served by AppFolio’s mature platform.
AppFolio alternatives · Buildium alternatives
How hard is it to switch property management software?
Most of the work is moving tenants, leases and balances. Before you cancel, export everything your current software offers as spreadsheets and PDFs.
Proppely imports spreadsheets and reads your existing lease PDFs to pre-fill lease terms. In the web and mobile apps you check and correct those terms before the lease is created. Workspaces are set up with our team on a short call, so bring your export to it.
Proppely’s free workspace
Can tenants pay rent through a chatbot or AI assistant?
Not on Proppely. Residents pay rent in the resident portal, through a payment form hosted by our payments provider.
The assistant can record a cash or check payment you already collected, and any money action it suggests waits for a person on your team to approve it.