Published 21 June 2026 by Prop-Pocket Team
Find the best landlord app for your UK portfolio in 2026. Compare Landlord Studio, August, Baselane & more for tax, compliance, and rent collection.
If you are asking "what is the best landlord app" for your UK portfolio, the answer depends on three factors: your portfolio shape, your financial workflow, and your compliance posture. The market has shifted sharply in 2026. New legislation, the closure of a long-standing platform, and HMRC’s digital push have rewritten the rulebook. This guide cuts through the noise to answer the question for your specific circumstances, whether you manage a single flat in Manchester or fifteen HMOs across Birmingham. We have evaluated the top options against the realities of being a landlord right now, with no vendor bias and no filler.
The landscape for UK landlords looks fundamentally different this year. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025, in force since 1 May 2026, abolished Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions entirely. For any landlord who needs to regain possession, the burden of proof now rests on a valid Section 8 claim. Ground 8, covering serious rent arrears, requires clear evidence that a tenant is at least three months behind. Timestamped, court-ready rent ledgers are no longer a nice-to-have; they are your first line of defence. An app that merely logs a payment date without an immutable audit trail leaves you exposed.
Classic red brick terraced houses in a residential district of London, UK.
Photo by Lina Kivaka on Pexels
A second shock arrived with the announcement that Property Hawk, a platform used by thousands of UK landlords for over a decade, will close at the end of July 2026. That deadline has triggered a scramble for replacement software, and many landlords are discovering that their old data export habits were not as clean as they assumed. If you are affected, you need to act before August, not after.
On top of this, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax continues its rollout. HMRC-compatible digital records are becoming mandatory for more landlords each year. Apps that generate Schedule A property income summaries and export directly to accounting software save you from a last-minute panic in January. Meanwhile, letting agent fees for full management still run between 8% and 15% of monthly rent. For portfolios under fifteen units, DIY software remains the more cost-effective route, provided the app handles the compliance burden properly.
A simple list of features tells you very little. The right app for a landlord with two properties is wrong for one with twelve. We assess each option against three dimensions that reflect how you actually operate.
The side-hustle landlord with one to three properties needs low cost and simplicity above all. You are likely juggling a day job and do not want to learn a complex dashboard. Free tiers, such as Landlordy’s basic single-property plan, or low-cost options like Landlord Studio at £12 per month for up to three units, cover rent tracking, expense logging, and basic reporting without overwhelming you.
The growth landlord managing four to fifteen properties sits in the sweet spot for most paid apps. At this scale, compliance reminders become essential. You cannot rely on memory to track when each property’s Gas Safety certificate expires or when the next EICR inspection is due. Tenant communication features, maintenance request logs, and expense categorisation by property move from optional to critical.
HMOs and student lets introduce a specific headache: per-room rent tracking and utility bill splitting. Most generalist apps handle properties as single units. If you rent by the room, you need software that lets you assign tenants, rents, and deposits to individual rooms within a property. Few apps do this well, and the gap is worth noting before you commit.
Above fifteen properties, you may outgrow standard landlord software. Agency-grade platforms like Reapit or Jupix offer bulk reporting, full double-entry accounting, and workflow automation designed for portfolio managers. These come at a higher price and steeper learning curve, but the time savings justify the cost at scale.
Lease agreement document with pen and American flag keychain on a black table.
Photo by Artful Homes on Pexels
Your app should mirror how money actually moves through your portfolio. Bank feed integration via Open Banking is the single biggest time-saver available. Apps that connect directly to your bank account, such as Baselane and Landlord Studio, eliminate manual data entry and reduce errors. Transactions appear in your ledger automatically, ready for categorisation.
Tax readiness separates serious tools from basic trackers. Look for apps that generate a Schedule A breakdown matching HMRC’s property income categories. Direct export to Xero or QuickBooks matters if you use an accountant who works in those ecosystems. Even if you file yourself, the ability to produce a clean year-end report saves hours of spreadsheet wrangling.
Rent collection functionality varies widely. Some apps simply let you log a payment you received elsewhere. Others integrate with GoCardless for direct debit setup, automating the collection and providing a clear, timestamped record of every payment and missed payment. For Section 8 evidence, automatic collection with failure logs is far stronger than a manual note saying “tenant didn’t pay.”
UK law imposes specific, non-negotiable obligations on landlords. Your app must track Gas Safety Certificate renewals annually, Electrical Installation Condition Reports every five years, Energy Performance Certificate validity, and Right to Rent checks for each tenant. Expiry alerts should arrive well before the deadline, not on the day.
Document storage is equally important. You need secure cloud storage for tenancy agreements, deposit protection certificates, inspection reports, and compliance certificates. The app should let you share documents with tenants or contractors without exposing your entire file system. Retention periods matter too: HMRC requires property records to be kept for at least five years after the filing deadline.
GDPR compliance is a gap in most competitor coverage, and it matters. Your app stores tenant names, contact details, financial information, and sometimes passport scans for Right to Rent checks. The provider must have a clear Data Processing Agreement and servers located in the UK or EEA, or covered by an adequacy decision. If the privacy policy is vague about data location or third-party sharing, walk away. We have filtered our recommendations accordingly.
Each app below has been assessed against the framework above. Pricing and features are accurate as of mid-2026.
Landlord Studio has earned its reputation among UK landlords who prioritise clean financials. Pricing starts at £12 per month for up to three properties, scaling with portfolio size. The mobile app includes receipt scanning that captures key details automatically, and the desktop dashboard produces MTD-ready reports structured for Schedule A filing. Customer support is consistently rated highly, with response times under a few hours for paid plans. The main weakness is tenant communication: messaging and maintenance request handling are basic compared to newer entrants. If your primary need is bookkeeping and tax preparation, it remains the benchmark.
Landlord Vision starts at £20 per month and earns its price with stronger compliance tracking than Landlord Studio. It includes property inspection logs, maintenance request workflows, and document storage with expiry alerts for Gas Safety, EICR, and EPC certificates. The desktop experience is comprehensive, offering portfolio-wide dashboards that show rent arrears, upcoming compliance deadlines, and profit per property at a glance. The mobile app, while functional, feels less polished than the desktop version. For landlords managing multiple properties who need to stay on top of legal obligations without a separate spreadsheet, this is the strongest option.
Baselane takes a different approach, building its platform around a free banking account with integrated rent collection. Landlords can open dedicated accounts per property, earn interest on deposits, and automate rent collection with clear payment tracking. Tenant screening is built in. The platform originated in the US, and its UK compliance features for Gas Safety and EICR tracking are less developed than UK-native apps. If your priority is separating property finances from personal banking and automating rent collection, Baselane is worth a look, but you may need a second tool for full compliance management.
Landlordy offers a genuinely free tier for one property, albeit with limited features. It handles basic expense tracking and simple profit and loss reports. The Pro version is a one-time purchase of $99.99 and unlocks additional properties and reporting. There are no compliance alerts, no document storage, and no bank feeds. For a landlord with a single buy-to-let who simply wants to log income and expenses without a monthly subscription, it does the job. Anyone with more than one property or any compliance anxiety should look elsewhere.
August positions itself explicitly as landlord-first software built for the post-Section 21 world. The app is designed to collect and organise the evidence needed for Section 8 claims, with timestamped rent ledgers, arrears tracking, and communication logs that hold up in court. It has also been actively courting Property Hawk users with migration support and data import tools. As a newer entrant, its user base is smaller than Landlord Studio or Landlord Vision, and the feature set is still maturing. For landlords who view compliance and legal protection as their top concern, August’s focused approach is compelling.
Several other apps appear in discussions but come with caveats. Stessa is popular in US landlord communities and offers strong asset tracking, but its UK compliance features are minimal. RentRedi excels at tenant communication, including maintenance requests and messaging, but its accounting module is lightweight. Rightmove is included in some lists as a landlord tool, but it serves one function: finding tenants. It is not a management app and should not be evaluated as one.
Property Hawk will shut down at the end of July 2026. If you have data on the platform, export it now. Log into your account, navigate to the data export section, and download your rent ledgers, tenant details, and compliance documents in CSV format. Do not assume you can do this in August; once the servers go offline, access may be lost permanently.
For accounting-heavy users, Landlord Studio offers a straightforward CSV import process and free migration guidance. For compliance-heavy users, August has built specific tools to ingest Property Hawk data and map it to their compliance framework. Both options are viable; the wrong choice is waiting. Whichever app you choose, verify that tenant records, active lease terms, and upcoming compliance deadlines have transferred correctly before the July deadline passes.
Not every app marketed to landlords is fit for the UK market. If an app does not track EICR renewal dates or Gas Safety certificate expiries, it is not suitable regardless of how polished the interface looks. If the privacy policy lacks a clear GDPR statement or Data Processing Agreement, do not upload tenant data. A mobile-only app with no desktop export capability will frustrate you at tax time and may fail to produce court-ready evidence. Watch for hidden fees on rent collection, typically a percentage per transaction, and document storage limits that force you onto a higher tier just to keep compliance records accessible.
What is the best free landlord app in the UK? Landlordy works for a single property if your needs are limited to basic bookkeeping. Baselane offers free banking and rent collection but requires supplementing for UK compliance tracking.
Which app is best for HMOs? Landlord Vision handles per-room rent tracking better than most, though many HMO landlords still maintain a custom spreadsheet for room-level detail and use their app for portfolio-wide compliance and accounting.
Do I need an app if I use a letting agent? Yes, if you want to independently verify rent collection and compliance records. Agents manage multiple landlords; having your own digital record protects you if something is missed.
Are these apps GDPR compliant? The apps we recommend have published Data Processing Agreements and clear privacy policies. Always review the DPA before uploading tenant data, particularly if the provider hosts data outside the UK.
If you manage one to three properties and need to keep costs down, start with Landlordy’s free tier or Landlord Studio at £12 per month. For four to fifteen properties where compliance tracking becomes critical, Landlord Vision or August are the strongest contenders, with the choice hinging on whether you prioritise full accounting or legal protection. Ex-Property Hawk users should migrate to August or Landlord Studio immediately, well before the July deadline. Whatever you choose, use the free trial period, typically fourteen to thirty days, to test rent tracking and compliance alerts with real data. The best landlord app is the one that fits your portfolio shape, your financial habits, and your appetite for legal risk. In 2026, that last factor matters more than ever.
Join thousands of UK landlords using Prop-Pocket to track certificates, manage repairs and stay compliant — for free.
Try Prop-Pocket Free