7 Best Buildium Alternatives for 2026 (Small Landlords)

Buildium is a solid product. But at $55/month minimum and a feature set built for professional property managers, it's overkill for most landlords with under 20 units. I tried it and wrote about why I canceled.

If you're looking for alternatives, here are 7 tools worth considering. I've ranked them by use case, not by "which one I think is best." Because the right tool depends entirely on your situation.

1. RentGuard (Best for Spreadsheet Users)

Price: $15/month flat. No per-unit fees.

What it does: Monitors your existing Google Sheet and sends alerts when rent is overdue or maintenance requests are aging. Not a PM platform. A monitoring layer on top of your spreadsheet.

Best for: Self-managing landlords who already have a spreadsheet that works and just need the alerting piece. If your main problem with spreadsheets is "I forget to check them," RentGuard solves exactly that.

Limitations: No tenant portal. No accounting. No screening. No lease management. It does one thing (monitoring) and nothing else. If you need a full platform, keep reading.

My take: I built this because I didn't want to switch to Buildium for 12 units. My spreadsheet worked fine. I just needed someone to watch it. Biased? Sure. But I'm not the only one who thinks this way. More on how it works with spreadsheets.

2. Stessa (Best Free Financial Tracking)

Price: Free (Essentials). $15/month (Manage). $35/month (Pro).

What it does: Financial tracking for real estate investors. Automatic bank feeds, income/expense tracking, portfolio dashboard, tax prep reports. The free tier includes unlimited properties and online rent collection.

Best for: Landlords whose main pain is financial visibility. If tax time is a nightmare and you need your income and expenses organized, Stessa is excellent and free.

Limitations: Not designed for day-to-day operational monitoring. It won't alert you on day 1 when rent is overdue if you're collecting rent outside the platform. Better for "how's my portfolio doing" than "what needs my attention right now." Full Stessa comparison.

3. TurboTenant (Best Free All-in-One)

Price: Free for landlords. Pro $9.92/month. Premium $12.42/month.

What it does: Full landlord platform. Listings, screening, leases, rent collection. Over 500,000 landlords use it. Free plan includes most features.

Best for: New landlords who want one tool to handle everything and don't want to pay. Also good for landlords in markets where passing screening and payment fees to tenants is standard.

Limitations: Revenue model means tenants pay fees ($55 screening, $2.50 ACH). Limited customization on the free plan. You need to use their platform for the features to work. Full TurboTenant comparison.

4. Avail (Best for DIY Landlords)

Price: Free (Unlimited). $9/unit/month (Unlimited Plus).

What it does: Listing syndication, tenant screening, state-specific leases with e-signatures, online rent collection, and maintenance tracking. Now part of Realtor.com.

Best for: DIY landlords who want a polished platform with strong lease templates and listing distribution. The state-specific lease feature is genuinely useful.

Limitations: UI can be clunky. Free plan charges tenants $2.50 per bank transfer. Support is slow on free tier. Becoming more Realtor.com-focused over time. Full Avail comparison.

5. Rentec Direct (Best for Small PMs)

Price: $45/month (Pro, up to 10 units). $55/month (PM, with owner portals).

What it does: Full PM software with strong accounting. Trust account management, tenant and owner portals, screening, free ACH rent collection, work order tracking, and tax reporting.

Best for: Small property managers who manage units for other owners and need trust-account-compliant accounting. The owner portal and disbursement features are essential for PMs.

Limitations: Most of the PM-specific features (owner portals, trust accounting, CAM charges) aren't relevant for self-managing landlords. At $45/month, you're paying for capabilities you may not need. Full Rentec Direct comparison.

6. TenantCloud (Best Budget Full-Suite)

Price: Starter (limited free). Growth $32/month. Pro $55/month. Business $100/month.

What it does: Full PM platform with listings, screening, leases, rent collection, maintenance, and accounting. Scales from starter landlords to growing property management businesses.

Best for: Landlords in the 10-30 unit range who want a full platform but don't want to pay Buildium prices. The Growth plan at $32/month covers most needs for small portfolios.

Limitations: Starter plan is quite limited (10 leases max). UI can feel dated. Customer support varies by plan tier. Full TenantCloud vs Buildium comparison.

7. Baselane (Best for Banking + Landlording)

Price: Free (Core). Paid tier (Smart) adds advanced features.

What it does: Combines landlord banking with property management. Unlimited property-specific checking and savings accounts. Up to competitive APY on savings. Automated rent collection, bookkeeping with AI auto-tagging, financial reports, and tenant screening.

Best for: Landlords who want to consolidate banking and property management in one place. The property-specific bank accounts are excellent for separating security deposits and rental income by property.

Limitations: The banking focus means some PM features (like maintenance tracking) are less developed. Tenants pay $2 for ACH deposits outside Baselane accounts. State-specific leases cost $10 each. You're locking your banking into their ecosystem.

Which One Should You Pick?

Here's my quick decision framework:

Already have a spreadsheet that works? RentGuard ($15/month). Don't fix what isn't broken. Just add monitoring.

Need financial tracking and tax prep? Stessa (free). Best financial visibility tool in the space.

Starting from scratch on a budget? TurboTenant (free). Most features for $0.

Want a full platform with good leases? Avail (free) or TenantCloud ($32/month).

Manage properties for other owners? Rentec Direct ($55/month). Best trust accounting at this price.

Want banking and PM together? Baselane (free). Unique approach worth trying.

There's no single "best" alternative. There's only the best alternative for your specific situation. Figure out your actual problem first, then pick the tool that solves it.