7 Top-Rated Affordable Property Management Software
Having open communication with tenants, property owners, and maintenance teams is just one of the many things property managers, realtors, and homeowners have to deal with. As more properties are added to your portfolio, it requires more than manual oversight to manage them.
In such situations, investing in property management software can help you centralize managing multiple properties and tenants and facilitate rent collection and financial management. First, you can invest in an affordable solution and test how a property management platform aligns with your business needs.
To help you choose, this article highlights seven top-rated affordable property management software based on verified software reviews and pricing found on vendor websites. Per our research, we’ve considered products priced less than $22.77 per month as affordable software and arranged them in ascending order of their prices. Read more.
All the products mentioned in this article are dedicated property management platforms and offer core features of maintenance management and occupancy management.
1. Propertyware
Propertyware is a property manager solution that lets you handle tenant management, rent collection, recordkeeping, and compliance management through a centralized dashboard. You can create work orders for property inspectors and compare a tenant's past self-inspections. Such a process helps screen high-quality tenants and ensures there are no discrepancies in tenant inspection reports. Propertyware lets you create reports showcasing property portfolio performance and overall financials.
Product features of interest*:
Mobile inspection: Conduct thorough property inspections with the maintenance mobile app. You can send tenants a link to complete an online move-in report, create work orders for your team from the inspection, and share inspection reports with tenants and owners.
Website designing: Use pre-built website templates to create a mobile-responsive website and showcase your properties to potential tenants. You can track leads and send them customizable online lead capture forms.
Online rent payment: Help tenants pay rent through an online portal that supports bank withdrawal via ACH, credit and debit cards, and check-scanning.
Starting price: $1 per property per month
Billing cycle: Monthly
Customer support options: Chat, email, phone support, knowledge base
Who should consider Propertyware?
Propertyware is a platform that integrates with multiple third-party platforms through application programming interfaces (APIs). Property managers already using data storage and marketing software to keep track of their properties and showcase them to clients can benefit from such integrational support and easily migrate their data sets without errors and data loss.
Analysis performed December 2023**
2. Rent Manager
Rent Manager is a property management platform designed for residential and commercial real estate property portfolios of any size. It offers a complete suite of accounting and reporting, marketing and leasing, business operations, maintenance, and software customization features.
Rent Manager lets you upload your listings on industry-leading leasing sites and invite online applications from tenants. You can customize and embed your application templates with your listing to quickly convert prospective clients into tenants.
Product features of interest*:
Guest cards: Let owner prospects browsing your website request a follow-up call and submit details about their property via a guest card template. Their submission automatically creates an owner prospect account within your Rent Manager database.
Web chat: Enable online communication between you, your owners, and owner prospects. Quicker and more convenient than email, property owners and renters can send you a message that instantly appears in Rent Manager's "my conversations" window.
Tenant screening: Uncover possible credit difficulties, such as late payments or accumulated debt, and criminal and eviction histories through previous rental references, payment histories, and employment verification.
Starting price: $1 per property per month
Billing cycle: Monthly
Customer support options: Chat, email, phone support, knowledge base
Who should consider Rent Manager?
Property owners for whom tenant compliance is critical can take advantage of Rent Manager's compliance and renters' insurance tracking functionality. The software provides a system for documenting and storing proof of insurance, such as policy details and coverage information. It sends automated reminders to prompt tenants to provide updated proof of renters' insurance when their policies expire.
Analysis performed December 2023**
Pro tip
Assess if you want a tool for landlords and tenants only or include vendors for maintenance and repair tasks. Property management tools offer dedicated portals for all three types of stakeholders to facilitate effective and on-time communication via text message and email. Additionally, it facilitates collaboration on documents, work orders, tenant applications, leases, etc.
3. Yardi Breeze
Yardi Breeze is a property manager solution that offers its services for residential, commercial, self-storage units, and manufactured housing properties. The software lets you manage your properties from any mobile device and centralizes all communication with prospects, residents, and property owners via a built-in messaging dashboard.
You can track property and corporate general ledgers and maintain escrow and trust accounts for all your properties. Yardi Breeze makes it easy for tenants to pay rent online through a tenant portal that lets them view unpaid balances and pending fees associated with their property.
Product features of interest*:
Maintenance tracking: Create and manage maintenance requests and work orders based on complaints issued by homeowners and tenants, track service requests, and communicate with maintenance staff via the application.
Marketing and leasing: Showcase available properties on third-party listing sites, create customizable screening and leasing applications, and communicate with prospects via text and email.
Housing compliance: Manage low-income housing tax credit, rural development, and home programs. The software lets you generate and electronically distribute the tenant rental assistance certification system (TRACS) when new tenants move in.
Starting price: $1 per property per month
Billing cycle: Annual
Customer support options: Chat, email, phone support, knowledge base
Who should consider Yardi Breeze?
Property managers and housing businesses dealing with commercial properties where multiple investors have fractional ownership can take advantage of Yardi Breeze's accounting and general ledger features that create custom dashboards to manage each owner's account and generate pro rata statements.
Analysis performed December 2023**
Pro tip
Select a property management solution with a secure payment gateway to collect and send payments between owners, vendors, and tenants. The platform should encrypt and store banking information using 256-bit military encryption. Also, check for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance to ensure safety from cyber threats.
4. Appfolio Property Manager
AppFolio Property Manager is a tool for landlords, tenants, and vendors. It offers dedicated online portals for landlords to access insights into occupancy and accounts, vendors to view work order details, manage invoices, etc., and tenants to pay rent, download lease agreements, or submit maintenance requests. Additionally, you can share documents with all the landlords on their dedicated portals for quick access.
Product features of interest*:
Feedback surveys: Send surveys to collect feedback from tenants, vendors, and the landlord about the property, maintenance, renting experience, etc.
Centralized communication: Send individual or mass texts and emails to tenants regarding important updates and events related to the property, lease agreement, and rent payments.
Online payment plans: Track and account for deferred rent, dues, and other charges from tenants and vendors via a real-time tracker.
Starting price: $1.40 per property per month
Billing cycle: Monthly
Customer support options: Chat, email, phone support, knowledge base
Who should consider Appfolio Property Manager?
Appfolio provides a centralized dashboard to manage landlords, vendors, tenants, and property auditors. Property managers who keep track of multiple affordable housing properties with many stakeholders can benefit from such a setup. Such centralization helps avoid errors and misses in managing the property, communicating with the tenants, owners, or vendors, and keeping track of upcoming property audits and compliance checks.
Analysis performed December 2023**
5. Hotelogix
Hotelogix is a hotel management platform that lets you manage reservations and daily operations, such as payments and housekeeping. You can manage multiple properties via a single dashboard and use the mobile app to manage day-to-day operations, such as check-ins and check-outs, fee collection, and housekeeping.
The software features a front desk management system with a reservation chart grid, displaying real-time room reservation status. You can use the reservation chart to add and update bookings and view room inventory.
Product features of interest*:
Mobile property management system: Get a mobile app to handle hotel operations, such as check-ins and check-outs, housekeeping, and changing seasonal booking rates.
Web booking engine: Helps increase the number of hotel direct bookings by including calls-to-action on your website and offering special rates and discounts via an integrated web booking engine.
Guest services app: Allows guests to finish all pre-check-in formalities via a dedicated application. They can also raise service requests, such as room service, cleaning, and baggage claims, which you can track and fulfill with the help of the dashboard.
Starting price: $3.99 per room per month
Billing cycle: Monthly
Customer support options: Chat, email, phone support, knowledge base
Who should consider Hotelogix?
Hoteliers and property managers overseeing daily check-ins and check-outs can use Hotelogix and its booking management functionality. The software can help manage visitor requests, address them promptly, and send feedback surveys upon check-outs. You can use positive feedback in your online social promotions and marketing campaigns.
Analysis performed December 2023**
Pro tip
Assess the type of property your business owns (commercial, residential, etc.) when selecting property management software. Not all software solutions cater to all property types and their management requirements. Checking beforehand will save you time and money with a solution that does not meet your business requirements.
6. Avail
Avail is a property management solution for landlords. The tool lets you create landlord accounts as a centralized portal to manage all property-related tasks. You can create and post rental listings with descriptions, photos, and contact details across rental sites. With real-time listing tracking, landlords can respond to potential tenants, share relevant information, and screen tenants before they sign the lease.
Product features of interest*:
Rent price recommendations: Compare your rent price with similar listings to get a comprehensive analysis report and an estimate for your property.
Tenant screening: Screen tenants using their name and email address to get details such as eviction history, credit report, criminal history, and other background details.
Digital leases: Get lawyer-approved digital lease templates to add property and tenant details. You can add custom clauses and request e-signatures from tenants.
Starting price: $7 per property per month
Billing cycle: Monthly
Customer support options: Call, chat, help center, and blogs
Who should consider Avail?
Users looking to provide a self-service property management system for landlords to manage listings, screen tenants, and request payments can benefit from Avail. The tool gives complete control to landlords for managing properties and tenants without involving the property managers. This helps avoid delays in the process and miscommunication between tenants and landlords.
Analysis performed December 2023**
7. RentRedi
RentRedi is a mobile landlord app to help you manage multiple properties. You can collect tenant rent via credit, debit, and ACH transfers. RentRedi also offers cash deposits at many retail locations for tenants. The software helps identify high-quality tenants through tenant screening, which involves analyzing their credit history and past occupancy details.
RentRedi provides a rental accounting dashboard that automatically syncs tenant data and maintenance charges for multiple properties. You can link your bank and credit card accounts and get monthly recurring transaction reports.
Product features of interest*:
Transaction matching: Use rules to match transactions based on description or amount to specific properties and revenue or expense accounts.
Rental listing: Create professional listing pages and get access to syndicated networks to showcase your properties and find tenants and potential buyers in the marketplace.
Third-party maintenance: Offer maintenance to tenants through third-party partnerships with maintenance firms. When your tenant submits a request, you can view it on the RentRedi dashboard and track its status.
Starting price: $9 per month
Billing cycle: Annual
Customer support options: Call, chat, help center, and blogs
Who should consider RentRedi?
Homeowners managing multiple properties needing centralized accounting can use RentRedi's transaction matching feature to match financial data against each property and simplify bookkeeping. The software also lets you create financial reports, view overall cash flow, and prepare tax-ready IRS Schedule E reports.
Analysis performed December 2023**
How much does property management software cost?
Property management software can cost as low as $1 per user, per month, or up to $479+ per month, depending on various factors—features, number of listings, online portals, business size/type, integrations, and storage. Most property management solutions typically include the following pricing plans based on the number of users:
Free trial: No-cost trial plans ranging from 14 to 30 days, giving users access to either all or limited features of the software.
Free version: Free software plans offer basic features and limited premium feature access; ideal for small businesses or individuals with a limited budget.
Entry-level: Ranges from $1 per user, per month to $52 per month and offers limited features; good option for small landlords or property management teams with basic property management needs such as listing, screening, and leasing.
Mid-tier: Mid-range pricing ranges from $2 per user, per month to $214+ per month and offers advanced features such as custom applications, lease templates, and property advertising.
High-end: Advanced plans range from $12 per user, per month to $479 per month and are ideal for large enterprises with cross-functional teams such as vendor management, and marketing.
Hidden costs associated with property management software
Besides the software license, additional costs for property management software can include:
Implementation and training: These include data migration, customization, and employee training. These expenses can be substantial, especially for complex systems or large organizations.
Hidden fees: Beware of per-user fees, transaction charges, and other seemingly minor costs that can add up quickly, particularly for larger workforces.
Software upgrades: Additional costs may be incurred for software upgrades to access the latest features and security patches, ensuring the software remains up-to-date and functional.
Frequently asked questions when selecting property management software
Here are some questions to ask property management software providers before making a final purchase:
What type of tenant screening does the software offer?
Tenant screening includes background checks, criminal records, income statements, credit status, and eviction history. However, the types of screening available vary for different property management software. You need to assess the selected tool keeping in mind the kind of screening your business requires.
Can the software integrate with CRM systems?
Customer relationship management (CRM) software assists with creating and managing a centralized system for all tenant and prospect-related information. The information includes name, contact information, property address, screening reports, and rental status. Having a unified system assists with maintaining accuracy in records during the stay and clearing dues at the time of eviction.
What are the property marketing capabilities of the software?
The marketing capabilities of a property management solution usually range from third-party website listings to advertising on search engines and social media. These capabilities vary for different software subscription plans. You need to assess and find a tool and plan that meets your property management and marketing needs while staying within the budget.
Methodology
To be considered for this list, products had to:
Each product should be a part of Software Advice’s Frontrunners Report 2023 for Property Management Software.
Include maintenance management and occupancy management as core features.
Meet our market definition for property management software: “Rental property management software solutions help property management companies collect payments, manage tenants, and track expenses.”
We assessed all products that met the first three criteria for their monthly pricing and considered the products with publicly available pricing information. Based on the assessment, the average price was calculated to be $22.77. Products with a monthly subscription price lower than $22.77 were then shortlisted to be included in this list and arranged in ascending order.
*Our research team identified these features from vendor websites (as of Dec. 27, 2023) based on their analysis of what users find valuable in or expect from video editing software. This list is not exhaustive. For additional features, refer to the vendor's website.
**We selected products for this article based on their average ratings as of December 2023; however, the article displays each product’s current average rating, which may differ if more reviews have been left since our analysis.
We select and rank products based on an objective methodology developed by our research team. While some vendors may pay us when they receive web traffic or leads, this has no influence on our methodology.
Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Software Advice’s property management software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in the Software Advice directory that offer them.