If you’ve spent an afternoon comparing rental property software, you’ve probably noticed the pricing pages don’t tell you much. Every company says “free” somewhere on the homepage, and then the real cost shows up later, usually on your tenant’s bank statement.
Here’s what these tools actually cost in 2026, broken down by band, and where the money hides.
The four price bands
Most landlord software falls into one of four rough bands. No specific products are named here on purpose. The pattern matters more than any one brand’s marketing.
Free, with tenant fees
A lot of the software marketed as “free for landlords” is free because the landlord isn’t the one paying. The tenant is. When rent gets paid by ACH transfer, a fee of $2 to $3 per payment is common, and it’s usually passed straight to the renter. Debit and credit card payments often run a percentage on top of that, sometimes 2.9% or more.
This band typically includes listing syndication, a basic tenant portal, and online rent collection. Look closely and you’ll usually find a landlord fee waiting behind a card payment or an add-on, even when sign-up itself costs nothing.
$10 to $20 a month
This band usually adds e-signature leases, maintenance ticket tracking, and some level of accounting or reporting. Some products in this range charge per unit instead of a flat rate, which matters a lot once you’re past a handful of doors (more on that below). Tenant payment fees often still apply even at this price point. Paying a monthly fee doesn’t automatically mean the ACH fee goes away.
$30 to $60 a month
Here you’ll typically find more automation: rent reminders, late fee rules, multi-user access for a property manager or bookkeeper, and better reporting. Some of these plans absorb the ACH fee into the subscription. Some don’t. Read the fine print, not the headline.
Enterprise
Above that, you’re in territory built for management companies running hundreds or thousands of units: custom contracts, dedicated account managers, and pricing you negotiate rather than read off a page. Not the neighborhood a self-managing landlord with a handful of properties needs to be in.
Where the hidden fees actually live
Three patterns show up again and again once you dig past the pricing page.
Tenant ACH fees. A landlord sees “free” and signs up. Every month after that, their tenant pays $2 to $3 to hand over rent electronically. Over a year, that’s $24 to $36 out of a renter’s pocket for the privilege of paying on time. Tenants notice. Some landlords hear about it only when a tenant complains or asks to pay by check instead.
Screening markups. Tenant screening (credit, background, eviction history) runs through a consumer reporting agency, and that agency has an actual cost per report. Plenty of landlord software marks that report up well above what it costs to run, sometimes by double or more, and pockets the difference. The landlord usually can’t tell where the markup starts, because the screening fee is bundled into one number.
Per-unit math at scale. A price like “$1 per unit per month” sounds cheap on a spreadsheet. At 5 units it’s nothing. At 50, it’s $50 a month, and at 150 units, which isn’t rare for a growing self-managed portfolio, it’s $150 a month before you’ve added a single feature. Per-unit pricing scales with you, which is exactly the point: the vendor’s revenue grows in lockstep with your rent roll, whether or not your actual usage does.
Where LeaseRooster sits
LeaseRooster runs four tiers, and every price is what you pay. No per-unit multiplier, no separate tenant fee stacked on top.
- Starter: free. One unit, real core features, no card required.
- Solo: $5 a month ($50 a year if billed annually).
- Growth: $10 a month ($100 a year).
- Business: $20 a month ($200 a year).
Three things are deliberately left off the table:
- No cut of rent payments. Rent flows straight from the tenant’s bank to yours through Stripe. LeaseRooster never touches the money in between.
- No tenant ACH fee. Your tenant pays exactly what they owe. Nothing tacked on for paying online.
- Screening passed through at cost. The credit bureau’s actual report cost is what you pay. No markup layered in.
Frequently asked questions
Is any landlord software actually free? Some is, in the sense that the landlord doesn’t pay a subscription. But “free” almost always means someone else is covering the cost, usually the tenant through a per-payment fee. Ask directly whether tenants pay anything to pay rent online before you sign up anywhere.
Why do some tools charge per unit? Because it scales revenue with your portfolio automatically. It’s a reasonable business model, but it means the software gets more expensive exactly as you grow, which is the opposite of what you want from a tool meant to make growth easier.
Is screening markup legal? Yes. There’s no rule against marking up a tenant screening report. It’s worth asking what the underlying credit bureau charges and comparing it to what you’re billed, since the gap is sometimes substantial.
What should a landlord with 1 to 10 units actually pay? For a portfolio that size, you shouldn’t need to spend more than $5 to $10 a month for core rent collection, leasing, and maintenance tracking, assuming the software doesn’t also nick your tenant on every payment.
Does LeaseRooster charge for tenant payments? No. Rent goes straight to your bank through Stripe, and tenants don’t pay a fee to pay online.
Want the short version? See our cheap landlord software breakdown, or go straight to pricing. Rules and required disclosures vary by state. Check your state’s rental laws before you set up your lease.