7 Best Rent Collection Apps for Landlords: Paid & Free (2023)

Collecting rent isn’t all “sunshine and early rent checks,” despite what people might think.

Rent collection is thankless work, and most landlords have experienced their share of late rent payments, worn-out excuses, and missing deposit slips.

But there is hope, thanks to rent collection apps. These rent payment systems provide a solution for landlords who A) want the rent paid on time and B) need a one-stop shop for tracking their finances.

But which app gives the most bang for your buck? This article ranks and reviews the best rent collection apps available today, highlighting what each app does well and who they’re suited for.

Let’s get started.

Best Rent Collection Apps: Top Picks

1. Baselane (Best All-In-One Rent Collection App)

Baselane is an all-in-one app for managing rental property finances. And while I dislike the term “one-stop shop,” this app is close to becoming the only app a landlord needs. Here’s why.

First, Baselane is already a top-tier banking and finance management app. They offer free, high-yield business checking accounts that integrate seamlessly with their bookkeeping software.

Imagine your local branch entering your bank statements into your QuickBooks account, organizing and tagging your transactions according to property, and then sending detailed reports to your CPA before tax season. That’s essentially what Baselane does.

But banking and bookkeeping are just the start. The app comes out of the box with a ton of other useful features—things like:

• Receive rent payments quickly and remotely through the online tenant portal (a hands-free rent collection process for you and your tenants).
• Make payments easily with free outgoing wires, transfers, and unlimited ACH payments.
• Ability to track unlimited units (with no added cost), store documents against those units (lease contracts, photo IDs), and generate performance reports in a few clicks.
• Auto-reminders help keep your tenants—and employees—informed and accountable.
• Tenant screening with TransUnion reports.
• Easy access to loans and insurance products through Baselane partner companies.

And they’re adding more to this list every year.

I had the opportunity to chat with the Baselane team, and some of the highly-requested features—maintenance request dashboard, tenant messenger, and vacant unit listings—are part of their roadmap for 2024. Sweet.

Baselane Pricing

Baselane is free. And here’s a screenshot showing what’s included:

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2. Azibo (Best Rent Collection App For Beginners)

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Azibo is relatively new to the rent collection software scene but is already making a name for itself as a powerful, budget-friendly app for independent landlords.

It doesn’t get much more budget-friendly than free, and Azibo’s rent collection app is 100% free, not in the “14-Day free trial” way either. I spent several hours with the app for this review, accessed all the cool features, and wasn’t asked to spend a dime the entire time.

Besides the cost value, the software is surprisingly robust. Azibo allows a property owner to collect rent online, charge late fees, process applications, generate reports, and have a detailed billing and tax prep ledger.

Here is a short list of features Azibo has baked in—right now—in 2023:

• Online rent collection (tenants can pay rent with ACH, debit, or credit card)
• Track rental income (deposits made, payments due, late fees, etc.)
• Connect the app with your bank account for real-time transaction updates
• Create property profiles to help organize your assets
• Built-in tenant screening tools (background and credit reports)
• Process applications in-app
• Organize people and contact info (e.g., tenants, employees, and vendors)
• Downloadable Reports (e.g., payroll, income statements, tax prep)
• Insurance policy tracker (see terms and properties covered)
• …and more.

Azibo Pricing

Azibo is free to use. However, there are costs for some of their optional add-on features and services.

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3. Hemlane (Best Customer Service)

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4. Avail (Best For Small Portfolios)

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Avail (formerly Rentalutions) has built an attractive software bundle for newer, DIY-style rental property owners.

The Avail app has standard online payment features (e.g., tenants can pay rent online, set up recurring payments, etc.) But what makes Avail unique are its features designed to help lease the property in the first place.

After all, what good is a rent collection app if you don’t have tenants to pay rent?

Avail’s built-in listing service is one of the unique ways they help in the onboarding process. Users can list their rental property directly through the app, and those listings are then syndicated to major websites like Zillow, Rent.com, and others.

Avail’s other features come into play once a prospective tenant has seen your listing, including:

• Basic tenant screening with the Free option. (For $45, you can upgrade to an in-depth background check that includes a credit report and criminal history)
• Built-in lease templates that can be customized—these documents can be sent and completed digitally.
• Direct-deposit online rent payments allow tenants to make upfront security deposits with ease.

Helping landlords collect rent is one thing, but Avail attempts to help landlords do everything that leads to a rent payment, which can’t be said for some of their competitors.

Avail Pricing

Avail’s base package, “Unlimited,” is Free, while “Unlimited Plus” is $5/unit.

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5. Buildium (Best for Large Portfolios)

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Buildium is one of the longest-running online rent payment applications—the company has been in the game for over a decade, and we’ve seen several iterations of their app in that time.

The latest version of the app is particularly popular with users who manage large rental portfolios, and most of that popularity is accredited to the app’s property management features.

Buildium’s property management software is likely the best you’ll find for a rent collection app. It has built-in background checks, a tenant application portal, a maintenance request system, and many other features designed to lease property and maintain occupancy.

Furthermore, Buildium comes out of the box with all the rent collection tools you’d expect, including niche features like the option to accept partial payments from roommates.

This ‘one-two-punch’ of billing software, plus property management features, can be intimidating to learn initially. But Buildium has a robust customer service and education platform to help users get the most out of their app.

Buildium Pricing

Buildium has three tiers that range from $52 to $479 per month.

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6. Stessa (Best Money Management Features)

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Stessa began life as a property management software start-up. But in 2021, Stessa was acquired by Roofstock. Since then, Stessa has seen a bit of a rebrand and is advertised as accounting software rather than property management software.

The app’s main draw is what they call a “Cash Management” account for real estate investors. You can use this account to collect rent online, move money, manage expenses, and earn cash back from purchases with your business debit card.

While Stessa isn’t a bank, they’ve partnered with Blue Ridge Bank N.A., Member FDIC, to offer these interest-earning bank accounts to app users. The interest rate is pretty good for business savings accounts (3.37%).

Additionally, Stessa users get access to the parent company’s (Roofstock) web of property analysis data, including local government records. Users can leverage this data to analyze any property they want to purchase and assess the rental market in an area.

As a result, investors gain insight into how much rental income they can expect from their portfolio and what opportunities they might be missing out on.

Stessa Pricing

Stessa is free to use.

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7. PayRent (Best Cash Flow Features)

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PayRent is a one-part rent collection app and one-part “sassy robot accountant.”

Firstly, the app has a robust feature list for collecting rent online. It allows tenants to pay rent online using a credit card, debit card, or ACH and even offers interest-free loans for tenants to pay their rent.

Yes, that’s right, PayRent offers the ability to loan your tenants money to help them catch up on rent payments.

PayRent has the features you’d typically want in a rent collection app, plus a few you didn’t know you wanted. You can block partial payments, automate late fees, or report rent payments to credit bureaus.

Those clever bits of tech are what I like to call “the sassy robot accountant,” a colorful name for a set of features designed to ensure that tenants pay rent on time, every time.

PayRent Pricing

• “Pay-As-You-Go,” the base plan, doesn’t have a monthly fee but charges $5 for bank transfers and 3.5% + $0.30 per credit card transaction.
• “Do-It-Yourself,” for $19 monthly, with $2 charges for bank transfers.
• “Go-Like-A-Pro,” their premium offer, is $49 monthly, with free bank transfers.

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What Is A Rent Collection App?

A rent collection app is any software that allows property owners to process rent payments online—that’s it, that’s the baseline.

However, rent collection features are tucked inside all kinds of applications, such as property management software, payment apps, apps for landlords, payment processing software, and rent payment systems, to name a few.

Software companies always dream up new labels for their tools, which can be confusing, but if the app collects rental payments… it’s a rent collection app.

How Can Tenants Pay Rent Online?

Rent collection apps are the best way for landlords to collect rent online. They’re as user-friendly as Venmo or CashApp but have the added benefit of money management features like transaction ledgers and tax document prep.

Most rent collection apps offer a tenant payment portal too, where tenants pay rent due, set up recurring payments, and see any outstanding balances. Tenants can connect to their accounts for ACH deposits or pay rent with debit and credit cards.

Final Thoughts

Rent collection apps can eliminate the stress and clunkiness of collecting monthly rent, whether you manage one door or ten thousand!

I’ve been collecting rent for nearly 15 years and spent nine of those years doing the old-fashioned rent chase…

• Nine years of sending “Where is the rent?” texts to tenants.
• Nine years of repeatedly checking the P.O. Box for late rent checks.
• Nine years of forgetting who paid when and what late fees are owed.

I started using rent collection apps in 2016 and haven’t looked back. And since 2016, the software has only improved—it’s easier than ever to set up and use, and you can pick and choose what features you like a la carte.

Landlords or PMs can start by introducing tenants to online rent payments (Baselane allows you to do this cost-free). Then, slowly but surely, you’ll see the benefit of automating other things, like income reporting or tenant screening.

Before you know it, you’ll collect rent on auto-pilot, have happier—and more independent—tenants, a better bookkeeping system, and overall, have more oversight on the health of your business.