Most comparisons of landlord software rank tools by feature count. That is the wrong question for a Massachusetts landlord. The right question is which tool handles the parts of the job that carry real legal exposure here, and what the arrangement actually costs once you count the fees your tenants pay rather than only the fees you pay.
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See how your rent compares →This is a comparison of three platforms that solve different problems. TurboTenant handles the leasing cycle and is free for landlords. Rentec Direct handles accounting across a portfolio and charges a subscription. Baselane handles banking and bookkeeping and sits underneath either of them. They are not really competitors, which is why the useful question is not which one wins but which one you need first.
The Massachusetts constraint that shapes everything below. Under M.G.L. c.186 s.15B, a security deposit must be held in a separate, interest bearing account at a bank located in Massachusetts, and it remains the tenant’s money. No software changes that obligation. Any platform that pools deposits or holds them outside the Commonwealth creates a compliance problem, and three categories of violation under section 15B carry mandatory treble damages plus attorney fees. Whichever tool you pick, the deposit account is a decision you make separately and carefully.
Who each platform is actually built for
Vendor marketing blurs this, so it is worth stating plainly.
TurboTenant was founded in 2015 and reports serving more than 900,000 landlords. It is built for the do it yourself landlord with somewhere between one and roughly a hundred units who wants listing syndication, applications, screening, a lease, and rent collection without a subscription. Pricing does not scale per unit, which matters if you are growing.
Rentec Direct has been operating since 2007 and is aimed at portfolios in the range of roughly ten units upward, including property managers who need trust accounting. It is a general ledger accounting system with property management wrapped around it, rather than the reverse. That distinction shows up at tax time.
Baselane is not property management software at all. It is business banking and bookkeeping built for rental property owners, with accounts you can organise per property or per entity. If your rental income currently lands in the same account as your groceries, this is the gap it fills.
What each one costs, and who pays
This is where the comparison gets interesting, because “free for landlords” and “cheap” are not the same thing. The free platforms generally move the cost onto your applicants and tenants.
| Cost | TurboTenant | Rentec Direct |
|---|---|---|
| Landlord subscription | Free tier available. Paid tiers roughly $149 and $199 per year billed annually. | Subscription from roughly $45 to $55 per month at the entry level, scaling with unit count. |
| Tenant ACH rent payment | Tenant pays a fee on the free tier. | Free to the tenant. Landlord pays roughly $0.50 per outgoing transfer. |
| Card payment | Around 3.49 percent, paid by the cardholder. | 2.95 percent, paid by the cardholder. |
| Tenant screening | Applicant pays the screening fee. | Roughly $10 to $18 per report depending on depth, ordered by the landlord. |
Read that table twice, because the conclusion is not obvious. If you fill a unit once every three years and rarely take card payments, TurboTenant’s free tier costs you nothing and the fees land on people who are only in the process briefly. If you are running fifteen units with regular turnover, the subscription model can work out cheaper in total, because per applicant and per transaction costs collapse.
Verify current pricing directly before you commit. Both companies adjust their tiers, and the figures above reflect what was published in mid 2026.
Free landlord software for smaller portfolios
TurboTenant covers listing syndication, online applications, screening, lease agreements and rent collection. The core platform is free for landlords, with screening fees paid by applicants. Reasonable starting point if you manage a handful of units yourself.
Homzora earns a commission if you sign up through this link, at no cost to you.
Where the Massachusetts specifics actually bite
National platforms generate leases from state templates. That is genuinely useful, but it is not the same as compliance, and a template will not catch a mistake you make outside the document. The clearest example is late fees, where nearly every platform defaults to a grace period Massachusetts does not permit. We covered that separately in the thirty day rule on late rent.
The Statement of Condition
Massachusetts requires a written statement of the present condition of the premises when you receive a security deposit, delivered within a short statutory window. Most software will store a document you upload. Very little of it will remind you that the clock is running. Put the deadline in your calendar rather than trusting the platform to raise it.
Deposit interest
Interest accrues on deposits held a year or longer and is payable annually. Accounting software will track the account balance. It will not automatically calculate and pay what the tenant is owed, and unpaid interest accumulates quietly until a tenancy ends and someone adds it up.
Separate accounts, which is where banking matters
Commingling a security deposit with operating funds is one of the violations that carries treble damages. This is the practical argument for a banking product that lets you open accounts per property rather than running everything through one business checking account. Whether or not you use a dedicated landlord banking platform, the separation itself is not optional.
Keeping rental property books separate
Baselane is business banking built for landlords, with separate accounts per property, income and expenses categorised automatically, and Schedule E ready reports at tax time. No monthly fee to open an account.
Homzora earns a commission if you open an account through this link, at no cost to you.
The accounting question, which decides it for most people
Here is the split that matters more than any feature list. Ask yourself what happens in February when you prepare Schedule E.
If you own two or three units, a spreadsheet and a separate bank account will get you there. Free leasing software plus disciplined banking is enough, and paying for a general ledger you will not use is waste.
If you own eight or fifteen units, spread across entities, with a mix of long term tenants and turnover, that spreadsheet becomes the worst hour of your year. This is the point where a real accounting system earns its subscription, because the alternative is reconstructing twelve months of transactions from memory and bank statements.
Rentec Direct sits on that second side. It is built around property, tenant and trust accounting, includes tenant screening and maintenance work orders, and provides US based support with no per user charge. It also gives every subscriber API access, which matters if you want your data feeding anything else you run.
Managing more than a couple of units
Rentec Direct handles accounting, tenant and owner portals, maintenance tracking and bank reconciliation across a portfolio. Paid software rather than free, and it shows in the accounting side. Worth a look once you are past the point where a spreadsheet and a free tool cover it.
Homzora earns a commission if you subscribe through this link, at no cost to you.
Buildium
Aimed at larger portfolios and professional managers rather than an owner with one or two units. Accounting, maintenance workflow, tenant and owner portals, and reporting built for managing on behalf of others. Pricing scales with unit count, so it is worth pricing against your actual portfolio before committing.
See Buildium pricing and trial →
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What none of these tools will do for you
Worth saying clearly, because software marketing tends to imply otherwise.
- They will not make you compliant. A state specific lease template is a starting point, not a legal review. Massachusetts has requirements around deposits, habitability, heating dates and lead paint that live outside the lease document.
- They will not screen for you. A screening report returns data. Deciding what to do with it, consistently and without running into fair housing problems, is your judgment and your liability.
- They will not chase a non paying tenant. Automated reminders help. Massachusetts eviction procedure is a court process with strict notice requirements, and no platform shortens it.
- They will not fix bad record keeping retroactively. If you have been running three years of rental income through a personal account, the software will organise everything from the day you start, not before.
A practical way to decide
Rather than comparing feature matrices, answer three questions.
How often do you fill a unit? If it is once every few years, the leasing side matters less than you think and free is fine. If you have student turnover every September, listing syndication and application handling save real hours.
Who is doing your books? If an accountant is, ask what format they want. If you are, be honest about whether a spreadsheet has actually held up over the past two tax years.
Are your deposits separated correctly right now? If the answer is anything other than a confident yes, fix that before you evaluate software. It is the single largest source of avoidable liability for a Massachusetts landlord, and it has nothing to do with which platform you pick.
Written by the Homzora Team · Homzora, Boston housing research
Pricing changes. Figures cited reflect publicly available pricing as of mid 2026 and should be verified directly with each provider before you commit. Nothing here is legal or tax advice. For questions about Massachusetts security deposit handling, consult a Massachusetts attorney, and confirm current requirements at Mass.gov.
Homzora publishes housing research. It is not a licensed real estate brokerage. This page contains affiliate links, which are labelled where they appear. We were not paid to write this comparison and no vendor reviewed it before publication.
A practical software and records test for this workflow
Run the same fictional property through two products using an ordinary rent receipt, a maintenance invoice and an unresolved adjustment. Judge whether someone other than the original operator can explain the results.
Write the expected result before the demonstration
A product demonstration becomes more useful when it has an answer that you can check. Create fictional records instead of uploading resident identities, bank details or private documents to several trials. Write down the opening facts, the action you will take and the record you expect afterward. Give the same instructions to each provider. If the demonstration changes the assumptions halfway through, note that change rather than comparing unlike results.
Start with the task already discussed in this guide. Add one exception that occurs in your own operation, such as a correction, a missing document or a change in who is responsible. The exception should test the process, not create a legal conclusion. A tool recording a reminder does not establish the correct legal deadline, and a completed status does not establish that the underlying work was performed properly.
| Check | Evidence to request | Result to record |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary task | Complete the task from start to finish | Pass, fail or not tested |
| Correction | Show the original entry and the change | Who changed it and why |
| Responsibility | Assign the next action to a named role | Owner and review point |
| Access | View the record with a restricted test account | What that role can see and edit |
| Export | Open the exported record outside the product | Whether the evidence remains usable |
| Commercial terms | Obtain the quote and applicable plan details | Included items and additional costs |
Check the record after a correction
Do not stop when the dashboard looks right. Find the source document, the revised record and any report affected by the change. A correction to a property identifier should appear in the correct place without creating a second expense. A rescheduled appointment should not leave two apparently active bookings. A replaced document should not keep appearing in a message intended to contain the current version. Ask the provider to demonstrate the actual behavior instead of answering only with a feature name.
Record a failure plainly. Distinguish a feature the product cannot provide from one that needs configuration, a paid addition or a different permission level. Those are different purchasing decisions. A workflow that works only with a staff member manually repairing the result may still be acceptable for a small operation, but include that work in the comparison. Do not describe an untested workaround as a verified solution.
Use a transparent cost comparison
As a hypothetical example, a product costing $60 each month plus a $120 initial setup charge would cost $840 in the first year before other charges. A second product at $75 each month with no setup charge would cost $900 on the same assumptions. The difference is $60 for that year. These are invented amounts for arithmetic, not current prices for any provider linked below. Obtain actual written terms for the plan and portfolio you intend to use.
Then list payment processing, extra users, data conversion, training and optional services separately where applicable. A lower subscription can be offset by charges elsewhere. Conversely, a more expensive product is not automatically worthwhile because it offers more features. Write down which observed problem it solves and how often that problem occurs. Keep estimated staff time separate from documented subscription charges so readers of your comparison can distinguish assumptions from invoices.
Finish with a portable decision record
Save the test date, product and plan, sample inputs, results, unanswered questions and the person who reviewed the decision. Open at least one exported file using ordinary software outside the product. Check whether attachments, identifiers and dates remain understandable. A button labeled export is not enough evidence that every record you need can be taken with you. Ask for written clarification of any limits before committing.
Set a review point after a limited pilot using your actual approved process. Keep a way to retrieve existing records during the transition and verify totals before relying on automated notices. This worksheet evaluates operational fit; it does not certify a platform’s legal compliance, security or suitability for every property. The final choice should follow the needs demonstrated by your own records.
Related renter moving budget and preparation guide · Explore the Boston edition
Continue with a focused decision worksheet
Further reading in other housing markets
For rental operations in other markets, these guides offer additional software evaluation workflows. Local legal requirements still need separate review.