Whether you track and collect rent manually through Excel or with accounting software like QuickBooks, there's a better way to collect rent payments online.
Excel spreadsheets and QuickBooks are great tools, but they are not designed for property managers and landlords who need specific tools to track and collect rent efficiently.
This is where online rent payment services, or property management software, come in. Online rent payment software simplifies tracking and automates rent collection.
Here's the 7 best online rent payment services for 2024.
7 Best Online Rent Payment Services
- Best for easy navigation: Avail
- Best for robust features: Buildium
- Best for a good UI: AppFolio
- Best affordable option: TenantCloud
- Best for an expansive feature-set: Rentec Direct
- Best for a straight-forward pricing model: Yardi Breeze
- Best all-in-one solution: DoorLoop
There are many great online rent services out there that make managing rent payments easier—but these are the best of the best.
1. Best for easy navigation: Avail
Pros: User-friendly interface that is very intuitive and offers a free plan.
Cons: $7 per unit per month pricing model can get expensive large portfolios.
Avail is an online rental payments service with a user-friendly interface and easy navigation.
The tool offers a good range of features for managing units and collecting rent online.
Features include:
- Online rent collection
- Tenant screening
- Maintenance order management
- Digital leasing
- Automated listings
Avail pricing
Avail offers a 100% free plan to get started, with no charge on unlimited units. However, the plan is pretty limiting in terms of features. So, you’ll need to pay for their higher-tier plans to get many of their premium features.
The Unlimited Plus Plan offers the rest of their feature set for $7 per unit per month.
2. Best for resident paid rent collection: PayYourRent
Pros: Affordable starter plan at $9.95 per month.
Cons: Included ACH transactions are limited per plan as of June 2024.
PayYourRent has a lot unique features that make it a great choice for property managers and owners, which include:
- Custom Themes
- iOS & Android Mobile App
- Phone & Email Support
- Invoicing
- Automatic Late Fees
PayYourRent Pricing
PayYourRent offers very competitive pricing starting at $9.95 per month for their Rental plan and $19.95 for their Landlord plan.
3. Best for a good user interface: AppFolio
Pros: Caters to diverse portfolios.
Cons: Has an onboarding fee to get started.
AppFolio is another good all-around option with a good combination of residential and commercial property management features.
Users report that the UI is easy to use and the feature set is robust.
Features include:
- Accounting features like smart bill entry and automated late fees
- Automated and online rent payments
- Good reporting features
- Security deposit account holding
AppFolio Pricing
AppFolio has an onboarding fee to get started.
In addition to the onboarding fee, Appfolio’s plans come in at $1.40 to $3.00 per unit per month. It also has $280 or $900 monthly minimum, depending on the plan you choose.
4. Best affordable option: TenantCloud
Pros: Very affordable for those just getting started.
Cons: Business plan is not transparent on website as of May 2024.
TenantCloud is a rather affordable option. However, similar to Avail, its feature set is limited. While it’s a good place to get started, you’ll likely want to quickly move up to the paid tier.
Features include:
- Online rent payments
- Vendor payments
- Maintenance order management
- Insurance reminders
TenantCloud Pricing
TenantCloud starts at $15 per month for basic features. If you want more, you'll have to upgrade to its Growth plan for $50 per month.
5. Best for an expansive feature-set: Rentec Direct
Pros: Has many great features for property managers and owners.
Cons: New pricing model reaches $900 per month for 500 units on the Rentec Pro plan as of May 2024.
Rentec Direct is a similar entry to the likes of Buildium, with a robust set of features but it has a less aesthetic UI.
While Rentec Direct’s feature list is one of the most impressive, users had reported that navigating the software could be a bit of a pain due to its dated UI, but they have recently updated things on the front end.
Features include:
- Great accounting features like online rent payments, multiple payment methods, and robust reporting tools
- Owner portal
- Maintenance management tools
- Tenant screening
- Tenant communications via SMS and email
Rentec Direct Pricing
Rentec Direct’s pricing starts at $45 per month for up to 10 units. Additional units increase the monthly amount based on tiers:
- 50 units = $90 / Month
- 100 units = $180 / Month
- 250 units = $450 / Month
- 500 units = $900 / Month
6. Best for a straight-forward pricing model: Yardi Breeze
Pros: Intuitive software with great customer support.
Cons: Does not appear to offer a free trial as of May 2024.
Yardi Breeze is another well-known rental property management solution that offers a diverse set of features.
Users tout the software’s design as intuitive and easy to use, while customer service is great.
Features include:
- Automated and online rent payments
- Accounting features like reports and budget tracking
- Owner portal
- Management of maintenance requests
Yardi Breeze pricing
Yardi Breeze offers a straightforward per unit, per month pricing model depending on the portfolio type, but with a minimum added in.
The basic plan for residential properties is $1 per unit per month with a $100 minimum.
The higher-tier plan for residential property portfolios moves up to $2 per unit per month with a $400 monthly minimum.
7. Best all-in-one solution: DoorLoop
Pros: All-in-one solution that is easy to use, affordable, and has an expansive feature set.
Cons: No free trial.
DoorLoop is an all-in-one property management solution that offers a full suite of rent payment and collection features, making it an excellent online rent payment service and much more.
With DoorLoop, you’ll never have to scramble around collecting rent payments again. On the first of each month, rent payments will pour in automatically, just like that.
Plus, you get the bonus of the many great property management features DoorLoop offers, all to help you streamline and automate your business.
Features include:
- Automatic rent collection: Collect online and cash rent payments (with DoorLoop CashPay) conveniently so you can focus on other important issues.
- Built-in CRM with tenant portal: Track all your leads, applicants, and tenants.
- Tenant portal: Owners can collect rent online and accept cash payments with DoorLoop CashPay, manage other fees, set up payment reminders, and more in their own portal.
- Complete suite of accounting features: Make accounting easy a full chart of accounts, bank reconciliations, and more.
- Owner portal: Print checks and issue reports for your property owners.
- Multiple payment options to your bank account: Accept credit or debit card, and ACH (eCheck) payments with Stripe.
- Open API powered by Zapier: Enjoy a massive number of integrations with other software and tools so you can streamline all aspects of your property management.
DoorLoop Pricing
DoorLoop’s online rent payment and property management software starts at just $59 per month.
Collect More Rent in Less Time
No matter which software you choose, we hope this list helps you find a tool that streamlines and automates your property management efforts each month, giving you more time for what really matters: growing your business or even just living life.
With DoorLoop, you’ll get not only all the excellent rent tracking and collecting features we’ve been mentioning but also the ones listed below:
- A built-in CRM with tenant portal
- Maintenance order management service
- Tenant screening and online applications
- Collect rent by credit card & ACH (eCheck) with RapidRent
Experience DoorLoop’s rent collection features, and schedule a free demo today.