Best Rent Tracking Apps for Small Landlords (2026)

Every landlord needs to track rent. The question is how. There are dedicated apps, full PM platforms, free tools, and good old spreadsheets. Here are 8 options worth knowing about, ranked by use case.

1. RentGuard (Best for Spreadsheet Monitoring)

Price: $15/month flat.

What it does: Monitors your existing Google Sheet and sends proactive alerts when rent is overdue or maintenance is aging. Connects to your spreadsheet in 5 minutes. Checks daily. Emails and texts you when something needs attention.

Pros: Works with your existing spreadsheet. No data migration. No learning curve. Catches late payments on day 1. Also monitors maintenance. $15/month regardless of unit count.

Cons: Not a rent collection tool. Doesn't track finances, handle screening, or manage leases. Requires you to maintain your spreadsheet as the source of truth.

Best for: Spreadsheet landlords who want to keep their system but add automated monitoring. If you've ever missed a late payment because you forgot to check your sheet, this solves that specific problem. More on how it works with spreadsheets.

2. Stessa (Best Free Tracking)

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

What it does: Financial tracking for real estate investors. Automatic bank feeds that pull in transactions. Income and expense categorization. Portfolio dashboard showing NOI, cash-on-cash return, and property performance. Tax prep reports including Schedule E.

Pros: Free tier is genuinely useful. Automatic bank feeds save manual entry. Portfolio-level visibility is excellent. Tax prep features save hours during filing season.

Cons: Not designed for operational rent monitoring. If you collect rent outside Stessa (Venmo, Zelle, check), it can't track individual tenant payment status. Won't alert you on day 1 when a specific tenant is late. Better for "big picture" than "who owes me rent today."

Best for: Investors focused on financial performance and tax efficiency. Works great paired with RentGuard (Stessa for finances, RentGuard for daily monitoring). Full comparison.

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

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

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

Pros: Free plan includes listings, screening (tenant pays), leases, payments, and maintenance. Listing syndication to 10+ sites. State-specific lease templates are genuinely useful.

Cons: Free plan charges tenants $2.50 per bank transfer. UI can be clunky. Support is slow on free tier. Increasingly tied to Realtor.com ecosystem. Requires adopting their platform as your workflow.

Best for: DIY landlords who want one platform for everything and are starting from scratch. Less ideal if you already have a working spreadsheet system. Full comparison.

4. Baselane (Best Banking Integration)

Price: Free (Core). Smart (paid tier with advanced features).

What it does: Combines landlord banking with property management. Create unlimited property-specific checking and savings accounts. Competitive APY on savings. Automated rent collection with invoices and reminders. AI-powered bookkeeping that auto-categorizes transactions. Financial reports. Tenant screening.

Pros: Property-specific bank accounts make security deposit segregation easy. Banking and bookkeeping in one place. AI auto-tagging reduces manual categorization. Free ACH rent collection to Baselane accounts. Accountant tax package with Schedule E.

Cons: $2 fee for ACH deposits outside Baselane accounts. State-specific leases cost $10 each. E-signing costs $5 each. Maintenance tracking is basic. You're locking your banking into their ecosystem, which makes switching harder.

Best for: Landlords who want to consolidate banking and property management. Especially useful if you currently have rent deposits going into your personal account and want clean separation by property.

5. TurboTenant (Best Free + Screening)

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

What it does: Full landlord platform with listings, screening, leases, and rent collection. Over 500,000 landlords. Free plan includes most features. Paid plans add lease templates, expedited payouts, and income verification.

Pros: Genuinely free for landlords. Unlimited listings. Good screening reports. Large user community. Easy onboarding process.

Cons: Tenants pay $55 for screening and $2.50 per ACH payment. Limited lease customization on free plan. You must use their platform for features to work. Not spreadsheet-compatible.

Best for: New landlords who need an all-in-one starting point. Landlords comfortable passing some costs to tenants. Full comparison.

6. Rentec Direct (Best for Growing Portfolios)

Price: $45/month (Pro, up to 10 units). Scales with portfolio size.

What it does: Full PM software with strong accounting. Free ACH rent collection. Tenant and owner portals. Trust account management. Work order tracking. Screening. Tax reporting with 1099 e-filing.

Pros: Best trust accounting at this price point. Free ACH (no tenant fees). Owner portals for property managers. Strong reporting and tax features. US-based support.

Cons: $45/month minimum even for a few units. UI is functional but not modern. Most PM-specific features irrelevant for self-managing landlords. Requires full data migration.

Best for: Landlords with 10-25 units who are outgrowing simple tools and need proper accounting. Small PMs who manage properties for other owners. Full comparison.

7. Google Sheets (Best DIY)

Price: Free.

What it does: Whatever you make it do. Build your own rent roll with custom columns, formulas, conditional formatting, and monthly tabs. Track exactly what you want, exactly how you want.

Pros: Free. Unlimited customization. No learning curve. Portable (export anytime). Real-time collaboration. Version history. Works on any device. I share my exact setup in the best rent tracking spreadsheet template post.

Cons: Zero alerting. You must check it manually. No automation. Gets unwieldy above 20-30 units. No tenant-facing features. Only as reliable as your discipline. Formula mistakes can hide problems.

Best for: Landlords with under 10 units who check their sheet daily. Also the foundation for a spreadsheet + RentGuard monitoring setup at any unit count.

8. Microsoft Excel (Best Offline)

Price: $6.99/month (Microsoft 365) or one-time purchase.

What it does: Same as Google Sheets but with more powerful features. Pivot tables, VLOOKUP, macros, and VBA scripting. The desktop version works offline. OneDrive enables sharing and collaboration.

Pros: More powerful formulas and macros than Google Sheets. Works offline. Most landlords already have it. Pivot tables are great for year-end analysis. Data stays on your computer.

Cons: Same alerting gap as Google Sheets. No proactive monitoring. Desktop-first means less convenient on mobile. Sharing and collaboration is clunkier than Google Sheets. Not natively compatible with RentGuard (requires Google Sheets for monitoring).

Best for: Landlords who prefer desktop tools, need offline access, or want advanced spreadsheet features like macros. If you use Excel, consider mirroring your rent roll to a Google Sheet for RentGuard monitoring.

Which Should You Pick?

Here's my quick framework:

You want maximum control for $0: Google Sheets. Build it yourself. Check it daily.

You want maximum control + automated alerts: Google Sheets + RentGuard. $15/month. Best of both worlds.

You want financial tracking and tax prep for $0: Stessa. Portfolio dashboard and Schedule E reports are hard to beat at that price.

You want everything in one free platform: TurboTenant or Avail. Both have trade-offs (tenant fees, platform lock-in) but deliver real value.

You want banking + tracking integrated: Baselane. Unique approach that solves the "separate accounts per property" problem.

You're growing and need proper accounting: Rentec Direct at $45/month. Real accounting for real landlords.

There's no single best answer. But there is a best answer for your situation. Figure out your biggest pain point, then pick the tool that solves it without adding complexity you don't need.

If your biggest pain point is "I catch late payments too late because I don't check my spreadsheet," descoshop.com solves that for $15/month. Free forever. 5 minutes to connect your sheet.