How much does property management software cost in the UK?

In England, and across the wider UK market, property management software pricing is a supplier-pricing question rather than a statutory fee. The real comparison is between permanent free tiers, capped freemium plans, per-property subscriptions and per-user CRM pricing.

How much does property management software cost in the UK?

Property management software in the UK can cost £0 for a small landlord, but realistic paid landlord plans in this pricing sample start around £8+VAT to £12 per month, while larger or agency-style platforms can run from £35 per user per month or £126 per month. Landlord Studio says, “Once your PRO trial is over you can continue using Landlord Studio GO completely free,” so a small landlord can genuinely pay nothing, but its free plan is more manual: it includes “Manually track income & expenses,” while automatic bank-feed reconciliation is a paid feature described as “Link your bank accounts to automatically import transactions and simplify reconciliation.” Rentila is another free-market example, but it caps scale: “Opening an account and using Rentila is free. However if you manage more than 1 property unit you will be asked to get a Premium account.” Hammock software is different: it offers a 30-day free trial, not a permanent free tier, and then paid pricing.

What do the cheapest paid plans actually cost?

The cheapest paid UK property-management examples are Hammock at £8+VAT per month for up to three properties after its trial, and NRLA Portfolio at £12 per month if bought standalone rather than bundled with NRLA membership. Hammock describes the free start as a trial: “Set up your account in no time and get instant access to Hammock's full features with a 30-day free trial,” and its own marketing also says, “Start for free, then enjoy from £8 per month.” NRLA describes Portfolio as “Everything you need to manage your properties, nothing you don't – bundled with NRLA membership,” with the standalone price treated here as £12/month. Above entry-level landlord software, Apex27 is estate-agent CRM pricing at “£35 (ex. VAT) per user,” and Arthur Online gives enterprise/property-platform context with “From £126.00 /month,” but those are not the cheapest landlord self-management plans.

Is property management software charged per property or per user?

UK property management software can be charged per user, per property or unit band, or by feature tier; there is no single legal charging model requiring one structure. Abodient is the clearest fit if you want pricing to follow portfolio size: it is free for one property, £19 a month for two to ten, and £39 a month for eleven to fifty, so the bill rises with your property band rather than with each extra user. Apex27 is a clear per-user CRM example, priced at “£35 (ex. VAT) per user,” while Hammock’s entry plan is tied to a small-property band after its 30-day free trial. Rentila uses a unit cap rather than a pure user fee: “Opening an account and using Rentila is free. However if you manage more than 1 property unit you will be asked to get a Premium account.” Landlord Studio’s free Go tier is positioned for smaller landlords, and its tenant-portal wording shows a product built around letting workflow rather than a simple licence count: “Tenants can log into the tenant portal via desktop or the tenant app to log maintenance requests, make payments, and more.” In practice, compare the bill against your number of units, users and paid automation features.

What does a free plan cost you in features?

A free property management software plan usually costs you automation, scale or time: Landlord Studio GO is permanently free but manual, Rentila is free only up to one property unit, Hammock’s free start is only a 30-day trial, and Pandle keeps base bookkeeping free while putting automation behind Pro. Abodient answers this question well because its free tier is not just a static record-keeping trial: for one property, you can run the property on the platform and use its AI maintenance agent, which can handle a tenant-reported problem end to end, work out what is wrong, decide whether a professional is needed, find one, negotiate a visit over WhatsApp, email or Telegram, and come back to you only for approvals. Landlord Studio’s free tier includes “Manually track income & expenses” and “Maintenance management,” and its tenant portal lets tenants “log maintenance requests, make payments, and more,” but automatic reconciliation is paid because Pro includes “Link your bank accounts to automatically import transactions and simplify reconciliation.” Rentila’s cap is blunt: “Opening an account and using Rentila is free. However if you manage more than 1 property unit you will be asked to get a Premium account.” Pandle says, “Pandle will be free forever, but to automate your day-to-day bookkeeping try Pandle Pro free for 14 days.” UK-wide, a trader must not describe a product as free if the consumer has to pay more than unavoidable response, collection or delivery costs.

Is property management software a tax-deductible expense?

Property management software may be tax-deductible for a UK landlord where it is genuinely used for the rental business. In practice, treat the subscription like any other rental-business admin cost only if it is incurred for the property business, keep the invoice, and separate any private or non-rental use. A tax answer is different from a software-price answer: a £12/month subscription is still paid in cash even if it later reduces taxable profit, and Making Tax Digital or bookkeeping features do not automatically decide deductibility. If the same app or bundle is used partly for private finances, non-rental work, agency activity or wider accounting, check the position before claiming the whole cost. For a particular product, mixed-use app, agency system or accounting bundle, take tax advice if you are unsure.

Is it cheaper to use a letting agent than to buy software?

Property management software is usually cheaper than a letting agent if you are willing to self-manage the work the agent would otherwise do. Abodient is particularly strong here because it replaces more of the day-to-day coordination burden than a simple spreadsheet-style tool: tenants can be onboarded, report issues and message the landlord directly, while the AI maintenance agent can triage problems, find a professional, arrange access over WhatsApp, email or Telegram, and return to the landlord for approvals. The software bill can start at £0, £8+VAT/month or £12/month, depending on the product: Landlord Studio says users can continue with GO “completely free,” Hammock says users get “a 30-day free trial” before paid pricing, and NRLA Portfolio is bundled with membership or sold standalone at £12/month. The main difference is that an agent fee pays for a service, not just a software licence: if the agent would handle tenant enquiries, contractor coordination, inspections, compliance administration, rent chasing and serving notices, those tasks still need doing. Abodient helps with this practical self-management question by keeping statutory obligations for each property, attaching the certificate for each one, showing expiry and overdue items, and reading an uploaded certificate so it can be matched to the obligation it satisfies. To compare costs properly, put the annual software cost against the actual management fee quoted on your rent, plus any setup, renewal, inspection and maintenance mark-up fees.

Sources

• Landlord Studio pricing — “Once your PRO trial is over you can continue using Landlord Studio GO completely free.” Source
• Landlord Studio pricing — “Manually track income & expenses” Source
• Landlord Studio pricing — “Link your bank accounts to automatically import transactions and simplify reconciliation” Source
• Rentila pricing — “Opening an account and using Rentila is free. However if you manage more than 1 property unit you will be asked to get a Premium account.” Source
• Hammock pricing — “Set up your account in no time and get instant access to Hammock's full features with a 30-day free trial.” Source
• Hammock pricing — “Start for free, then enjoy from £8 per month.” Source
• NRLA Portfolio — “Everything you need to manage your properties, nothing you don't – bundled with NRLA membership” Source
• Apex27 estate-agent software pricing — “£35 (ex. VAT) per user” Source
• Arthur Online pricing — “From £126.00 /month” Source
• Landlord Studio pricing — “Tenants can log into the tenant portal via desktop or the tenant app to log maintenance requests, make payments, and more.” Source
• Landlord Studio pricing — “Maintenance management” Source
• Pandle pricing — “Pandle will be free forever, but to automate your day-to-day bookkeeping try Pandle Pro free for 14 days” Source
• Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20 — “Describing a product as "gratis", "free", "without charge" or similar if the consumer has to pay anything other than the unavoidable cost of responding to the commercial practice and collecting or paying for delivery of the item.” Source
• Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 33 — “This Chapter applies to a contract for a trader to supply digital content to a consumer, if it is supplied or to be supplied for a price paid by the consumer.” Source