Best Property Management Software For Small Landlords in 2025

Researching the finer points of the best property management software for small landlords in 2024 involves more than just examining software companies’ features and pricing structures.

In addition to the platform itself, you’re also investing in an entire ecosystem of educational content and community services to help you become the best landlord you can be. When you know more, you grow more.

With that in mind, we wanted to deliver a deep dive into rental property management software for small landlords on the market today. In addition to key feature sets, we’ll examine the importance of education and community to give small landlords an edge.

The Need for Property Management Software

Smaller landlords, or those with between one and 10 rental properties, have different missions depending on their goals. Some want to grow their portfolio fast, while others want to manage their existing rentals via a single solution. They all want to provide convenience to their tenants while cutting down on time-busting manual tasks.

These goals are achievable with today’s best property management software for small landlords.

For those focused on growth, you’ll want to automate as much as possible to allow yourself the time to scope out that next deal or quickly analyze your financial picture. Just because you’re small now doesn’t mean you want to stay that way.

Or if you’re focused on reducing the time spent managing your property or properties, those same automations drastically reduce the time spent just getting a tenant in the door and collecting rent.

Ultimately, small landlords benefit from software designed to eliminate the tedious tasks associated with running a property so they can focus on what they love.

Key Features to Look for in Property Management Software

Property Marketing

Getting as many leads as possible for your rental properties is essential, especially as a small landlord. You’re already time-strapped, so uploading images and descriptions to dozens of listing sites just isn’t in the cards. Then there’s the issue of sorting through all the websites to find qualified tenants.

The right software solution automates this process for you. Instead of sorting through websites individually, look for software that advertises your listings across all the most popular sites with just a single click. From there, the software you choose should filter each lead into a centralized dashboard where you can see and manage them all. Bonus points if you can use AI to draft your property description in just a few seconds.

Tenant Screening

Finding the right tenant is paramount. A bad tenant can financially devastate a landlord by damaging the property, missing rent payments, or even requiring an eviction. Thorough tenant screening can eliminate these issues before they start.

However, screening tenants is often a manual process. You have to input names into background-checking sites, pay for the service, and wait for the results. With the best property management software for small landlords, you can collect applications and fees online and run background checks on potential tenants via integrated background-checking services.

Because these screening tasks happen in a single interface alongside every other part of your business, you can find the best tenants without jumping through hoops.

Lease Agreement Creation and Management

Lease agreements serve as the basis for the relationship between landlords and tenants. They outline all the rules and requirements for both parties, but often, landlords use recycled leases that might need to be revised to comply with recent laws.

That’s why finding a company to partner with who can help you navigate these rental laws while outlining who’s responsible for what can set the stage for a fruitful relationship with your new or future tenants.

When looking for the best property management software for small landlords, the ability to quickly build leases — in about 15 minutes or less — for any state or lease term length can represent substantial time savings. The ability to sign and store that lease digitally is just the icing on the cake.

Online Rent Collection

One of the biggest challenges facing landlords is rent collection. Often, landlords track rent payments manually, depositing checks or cash into a bank account and writing a rent receipt by hand.

Thankfully, online rent collection enables convenience for both landlords and tenants. When configured properly, tenants can pay their rent anywhere.

With the ability to set up auto payments, enforce late fees, send payment reminders, and automatically deliver rent receipts, small landlords are more empowered to collect rent than ever.

Financial Reporting

So much of being a good landlord is putting the right pieces together in the right spots, and financial reporting is no different.

If you use disparate tools to track and record rent payments, expenses, and more, it’s easy to lose sight of your entire financial picture. As your number of units grows, the problem becomes worse.

With the right software, you can combine all these financial aspects in a single place to quickly gain an idea of your financial situation without having to check multiple pieces of software or dig around for receipts.

Maintenance Request Management

Stuff happens. And a lot of times, it happens at the worst time.

Juggling maintenance requests can be tricky for small landlords. You could hire a property management company to do the work, or maybe you know a handyperson. Property management companies aren’t cheap, and your handyperson might have their hands full with another job or two before they can get to you, which isn’t the news your tenant wants to hear.

When you utilize a maintenance request management system, you eliminate the costly overhead of a property management company while tapping into a network of vetted contractors capable of completing whatever job you have. Plus, the software organizes all the requests, pictures, and contacts into a single location.

Continuing Education and Community

Real estate investing requires continual learning. There are countless facets to being a landlord, so approaching the profession like a student can benefit both new and experienced landlords.

Software companies that consider the educational and community aspects ensure you’re well supported no matter how many properties you have now or in the future. When the software you choose grows with you and fits your expanding needs, you can focus on getting work done and not looking for supplementary software solutions.

Top 11 Property Management Softwares for Small Landlords in 2025

1. TurboTenant

TurboTenant is purpose-built rental property software for small landlords, big landlords, and everything in between. But for small landlords who need to be mindful of every dollar spent, TurboTenant’s free tier offers the most value of any option on the market.

By signing up for a free account, landlords automatically get access to online rent collection, unlimited listings across the most popular rental websites, a lease builder tool, expense tracking, and more.

Simply put, for the low admission price of zero dollars, landlords can modernize their rental property management processes with software that grows at the same rate they do.

Aside from pure feature sets, TurboTenant’s focus on education and community ensures you become the best landlord you can be. Continuing educational offerings include free webinars, weekly Be A Better Landlord podcasts, thoughtful ebooks, and a thriving Facebook community.

Sign up for free and explore the product at your own speed without worrying about limited time trials.

2. RentRedi

RentRedi’s landlord software solution offers a number of features that may intrigue small landlords. These include rent collection and accounting, tenant screening, and the ability to sign leases digitally. These features are undoubtedly time savers, but RentRedi doesn’t offer a free tier.

Compared to TurboTenant, RentRedi doesn’t include a lease builder tool. TurboTenant’s lease agreements are all lawyer-reviewed and help small landlords remain compliant in the face of shifting laws. For remote landlords, they’re a no-brainer.

Plus, landlords can build TurboTenant leases in minutes, and landlords and tenants can sign them digitally as well. With RentRedi, landlords need to rely on older leases they may have used in the past and upload them into the platform. Or they’ll have to draft a new one from scratch.

Lease agreements aren’t the only place TurboTenant has the edge. TurboTenant’s diverse educational content is updated regularly, and while RentRedi has several pieces, it hasn’t added to its educational content library in some time.

Check out TurboTenant vs. RentRedi for a deeper look at how TurboTenant helps small landlords tackle tedious administrative tasks and more.

3. RentSpree

For owners looking for free property management software for small landlords to get started, RentSpree includes a number of free features in its “Basic” tier that could interest you.

Their Basic tier includes free online rental applications, rent payment collection, and rental listing pages. Like TurboTenant, tenant screening comes at the applicant’s cost, which is $15 less than TurboTenant’s offering at the time of publication.

But once you’ve outgrown the basic features and decide to step up in pricing tiers, TurboTenant’s Premium offering shines compared to RentSpree. RentSpree’s PRO tier clocks in at $20/user per month. TurboTenant, on the other hand, includes unlimited tenants for $12.42 a month.

That fee gives you complete access to the TurboTenant platform and includes our Landlord Forms Pack, reduced screening fees ($45 vs $55), waived ACH tenant fees, lease addendums, and much more. TurboTenant’s Premium upgrade hits the mark for small landlords looking to go big.

In terms of education and community, RentSpree regularly updates its posts. Still, if you want additional content like YouTube videos and podcasts, TurboTenant’s regular educational content provides you with weekly content.

4. TenantCloud

Small landlords often require their property management software to come with a number of free features to reduce costs and boost their bottom lines. Unfortunately, TenantCloud doesn’t offer a free option.

Instead, interested landlords can sign up for a 14-day free trial to see what TenantCloud offers. After the 14-day trial expires, landlords can choose the Starter tier for $15.60/month or $187 if billed annually.

Once paid, small landlords get access to rent payments, maintenance request management, listings, and applications. Also included in that price is the ability to manage 15 leases, access to 10 document templates, and tenant screening paid by the applicant. Plus, when you buy into the platform, TenantCloud does a good job of regularly providing educational content.

TurboTenant’s free option, on the other hand, includes free online rent payments, unlimited listings, online pre-screeners and rental applications, showing scheduling, and DIY maintenance tracking.

In short, landlords get access to several free features they’d have to pay for with TenantCloud, and when they upgrade to Premium, the rewards expand.

To learn more, visit TurboTenant vs TenantCloud.

5. DoorLoop

Like TenantCloud, DoorLoop doesn’t offer a free tier, and the monthly price increases depending on your number of units.

Typically, DoorLoop costs $59 a month for up to 20 units, though it occasionally runs promotions that bring the cost down. Those promotions usually last a few months before reverting to standard pricing.

Beware: For small landlords with growth in mind, as the number of doors grows, so does DoorLoop’s pricing. For example, once you add your 21st door, your rate increases by $10. You’ll add another $10 for your 41st door. That said, DoorLoop includes critical features that fit within the parameters of the best property management for small landlords.

When you sign up and pay for DoorLoop, you can access maintenance management, tenant screening, rent payments, and e-signatures in its Starter tier. However, you must upgrade to their Pro tier to access syndicated rental listings.

As a small landlord, getting as many leads as possible helps reduce vacancy rates, and TurboTenant offers this feature for free.

To learn more about real estate investing and property management, DoorLoop regularly updates its blog, YouTube channel, and webinars. However, it doesn’t currently offer ebooks.

For a deeper dive, head on over to TurboTenant vs. DoorLoop.

6. Yardi Breeze

While Yardi Breeze doesn’t offer a free version of its software, small landlords can feel comfortable with the base tier if they don’t need the platform for lease agreement management. But more on that later.

Yardi charges a monthly fee of $100 in its entry-level tier, which enables landlords to manage up to 100 units. You’ll be charged a dollar for each additional unit you add over 100.

For small landlords, this upcharge likely won’t be an issue because who among them has over 100 units? Features included in their base pricing include accounting, vacancy and prospect tracking, online applications, digital payments, and a bunch of other beneficial features.

However, the one missing piece from the base tier that could cause some landlords to reconsider is online lease agreements and execution. You’ll need to upgrade to their Breeze Premier offering for lease access. When you make that move, the minimum monthly spend jumps to $400 for up to 100 units.

For some, that might not be a big deal. You’ll also gain access to features like rent deferment, customer relationship management (CRM), and job cost tracking, amongst a slew of others. However, if you want leases at a reduced cost, TurboTenant Pro provides an unlimited number for less than $10 a month.

Finally, in terms of education, Yardi educates its customers mainly through its resources page. There, you can find client stories, webinars, blog posts, and more, though it doesn’t seem like Yardi updates them all that frequently. The same can be said for its YouTube page.

7. Buildium

Industry-wide, Buildium is seen as a major player for property managers with hundreds of units. But that doesn’t mean they don’t provide something for smaller players.

Like pretty much every other platform on the market, Buildium offers a tiered pricing structure. For small landlords, you’ll probably want to stick with their Essential plan, which comes to $58/mo for up to 20 units. It includes standard features like maintenance, tenant screening, and online payments.

However, you should prepare to pay for some add-ons. Additional charges include $5 per e-signature and $99 bank setup fees per bank account. Additionally, a number of Buildium’s features may be too tailored to large-scale property managers to get much mileage from. It’s worth noting that TurboTenant’s accounting functionality is also an add-on.

Let’s get back to Buildium. Every plan includes Buildium’s resident and board member communications and a hosted marketing site. These tools might be great for property managers, but they could be overkill for DIY/small landlords who manage a pool of personally owned properties.

Regarding TurboTenant, our Premium plan, which costs $149 annually, includes unlimited e-signatures and bank accounts. Upgrading to Growth or Premium within Buildium grants you unlimited e-signatures, but bank accounts still cost $99 to set up. Ultimately, while we can’t say that we offer every feature Buildium does, you might find that TurboTenant provides everything a small landlord would want.

In terms of education, Buildium provides many fantastic resources, including industry reports, an academy to help you learn the software, and a regularly updated YouTube channel.

8. Stessa

What’s in a name, you may ask? Stessa, “assets,” spelled backward, tells you just about everything you need to know about this software.

Financial reporting and accounting functionality are Stessa’s main points of emphasis. After all, accounting is the top-listed feature in their main navigation bar. As such, the platform provides small landlords with important tools to help make bookkeeping easier.

But that’s not all the solution provides. Stessa also has leasing, tenant screening, and online rent collection capabilities. And with a free tier, landlords can get a taste of the software without commitment. As you traverse tiers, you gain access to more features.

For $12 a month, paid annually, landlords in the Manage tier can access their Schedule E report, 60+ legal forms and templates, and accelerated rent payments. The Pro tier costs $28 a month, paid annually. It gives landlords full access to Stessa’s platform, including managing unlimited portfolios, all advanced reports, and seven e-signatures monthly.

Compared to TurboTenant, Stessa appears to target accounting functionality. TurboTenant focuses more on non-accounting tasks like showing properties, digital move-in/move-out reports, and maintenance. However, TurboTenant does offer accounting features as an add-on with its REI Hub integration.

Finding the right fit for you depends on what you value. If you value education, Stessa provides a regularly updated blog and newsletter but no YouTube channel. Both platforms have forums that users can visit to interact with other landlords. However, Stessa’s forum doesn’t see much activity.

9. Landlord Studio

Like Stessa, Landlord Studio’s contribution to the best property management software for small landlords category includes a number of helpful accounting features that property owners may find valuable.

While the free tier does provide some of those capabilities, such as income and expense tracking and a mileage tracker, you’ll have to upgrade to the higher tiers to access their more comprehensive features.

Capabilities like bank feed accounts, automated bank rules, recurring expenses, and Xero integration are found in their Pro ($12/month—$144/year) or Pro Plus ($28/month—$336/year) plans. The difference between them is the number of bank feed accounts or recurring expenses that landlords can use.

Again, like Stessa, TurboTenant’s offering isn’t as accounting-focused unless you add on TurboTenant accounting, which is available via our integration with REI Hub. If you’re looking for more property management features than bookkeeping, Landlord Studio has some of the standard tools you’d expect to see.

These include online rent payments, tenant screening, and property marketing. However, digital, lawyer-approved lease agreements — provided via a partnership with Rocket Lawyer and not automatically integrated into the platform — are missing from their feature set.

You also won’t find options like our hands-off Maintenance Plus service, which, through our partnership with Lula, allows landlords to automate maintenance chores.

Finally, regarding education, Landlord Studio offers an education center with tax information, webinars, calculators, and a regularly updated YouTube channel.

10. Hemlane

Hemlane’s feature set resembles TurboTenant’s. However, when you start peeling back the layers, some differences emerge, and they’re apparent in the free version.

Hemlane’s free tier delivers accounting functionality like bank syncs, cash flow reports, income statements, and more. It also includes some of the less accounting-specific features property managers look for.

Within their free tier, you can advertise your rental properties to four listing websites. Additionally, landlords can access tenant screening reports covering credit, criminal, eviction, and income reporting. As you elevate in tiers and pricing, you unlock more features.

To bring it back to TurboTenant, within its free tier, you can collect rent online, advertise to dozens of listing sites, send digital rental applications, and screen tenants. There is obviously some feature overlap, but for small landlords who need to collect rent, you’ll have to upgrade to Hemlane’s Basic tier.

Basic costs at least $30 a month. Here’s how the price breaks down. You’ll pay a $28 platform fee monthly, then $2 for each unit you manage. For example, five units will ultimately cost $38 a month. Upgrading to their Essential tier grants you access to add-on services and more features.

In fact, Hemlane’s pricing structure is unique in that regard. Their first two tiers, Starter (free) and Basic, are software-only options. The following two higher-cost levels, Essential ($20/unit) and Complete, offer access to services like end-to-end repair coordination and local leasing agents.

Regarding leasing, the Essential tier is required to access state-specific rental contracts. In contrast, for unlimited leases, TurboTenant’s Pro offering is less than $10/month.

Then, as far as educational resources go, Hemlane has a podcast, blog, webinar, access to state-specific laws, and a YouTube channel that is updated every few months.

11. Rentec Direct

We chose Rentec Direct as the final best property management software for small landlords on our list.

Like the other options on this list, Rentec Direct offers a number of features that simplify property management. For example, the platform provides accounting functions, property marketing, tenant screening, online rent payments, and work order/maintenance tracking, among other tools.

If all those features seem familiar, they are. TurboTenant offers many of the same ones, but the difference really boils down to pricing. If you choose Rentec Direct, you’ll pay at least $45/month, including the ability to manage unlimited tenants. But, if you have more than 25 units, the price increases.

Compared with TurboTenant, which enables you to manage an unlimited number of properties within its free tier, you’ll need to decide if some of the additional property manager features appeal to you.

Rentec Direct provides owner portals, automated CAM charges, and the ability to pay owners via ACH. However, you might not need those features if you’re a small DIY landlord.

On the other hand, if you value services like a cash payment network so your tenants can pay rent in cash without you ever having to go to the bank, Rentec Direct could be the solution you need. Plus, if you’re deeply embedded in Quickbooks, Rentec Direct features an integration with that tool. Ultimately, as with each solution on this list, you’ll need to account for your budget and the things that matter most to you.

For users who value education, Rentec Direct has a regularly updated blog, a live webinar series, their REalized Gains podcast, and a YouTube channel they update monthly.

Why TurboTenant is the Top Choice for Small Landlords

The choice is clear: TurboTenant is the best free property management software for small landlords. Because TurboTenant offers a significant number of free features that similar software competitors include as part of their subscription plans, landlords who want an all-in-one software solution to simplify property management should start by signing up for a free account today.

There is no risk to you; you don’t have to enter a credit card, and we won’t bug you to start a demo. Just create an account and reveal everything you can do with TurboTenant today.

And if you’re hungry to learn more outside of the platform, TurboTenant’s deep focus on educational content will help you Be A Better Landlord.

Best Property Management Software for Small Landlords FAQ