Baselane is banking-led, and the free tier is no longer the whole story — Smart is $20/mo and the ACH fee waiver depends on rent landing in a Baselane account.
Baselane figures read from baselane.com/pricing on 16 October 2026. Vendor pricing changes — confirm before deciding.
Free is now a tier, not the product. Baselane runs Core at $0 and Smart at $20/mo on an annual plan. That is still competitive — but if you picked Baselane because it was free forever, the shape of the deal has changed and it is worth re-checking what you are actually on.
The fees steer your banking. Tenant ACH transfers are shown at $2 to $5 and are waived when rent is deposited into a Baselane account. Card payments are 3.49% either way. None of that is hidden, but it is a design that rewards moving your money, and that is a bigger decision than picking software.
Tagging is not a ledger. Auto-tagging across 120+ categories with vendor and amount rules is genuinely good, and for many landlords it is enough. It still produces an approximate picture. There is no chart of accounts behind it, so no trial balance, no balance sheet, and no way to drill from a number in a report to the entry that created it.
| Item | Baselane | Rentwelly |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Core, $0 | 14-day full trial |
| Paid tier | Smart, $20/mo annual | $39/mo, up to 20 units |
| Tenant ACH | $2-$5, waived to Baselane | No bank lock-in |
| Card payments | 3.49% | Standard processing |
| Accounting | Auto-tagging & rules | Double-entry ledger |
Baselane also charges separately for split rent payments and rent reporting. A true month-to-month Smart price is not published — only the annual rate.
Auto-tagging sorts transactions into buckets and produces an approximate P&L. Double-entry posts them to accounts, which is what produces a balance sheet that balances and a trial balance you can audit.
Your banking relationship and your accounting should be separable. Clean books should not depend on moving your rent into someone else's account to dodge a fee.
A deposit is a liability you hold, not income you earned. Recorded correctly it stays right through the tenancy, through deductions, and through the return.
Schedule E figures, 1099s and owner statements come out of the ledger instead of an export you clean up every spring.
Baselane is a good product and for a lot of landlords it is the right one. Stay if:
You are happy to bank there. If you genuinely want landlord banking and bookkeeping in one place, Baselane is built for exactly that, and the fee waivers then work in your favour rather than against you.
You want per-property accounts. Unlimited property-specific checking and savings accounts is a real feature, and it is a tidy way to keep deposits and reserves physically separate.
Core at $0 covers you. If the free tier does what you need, nothing here is a reason to start paying. Switch when your books need to tie out, not because a comparison page said so.
Move when you want to keep your existing bank, or when someone — a lender, an accountant, a partner — needs statements that balance.
Rentwelly — a real double-entry ledger under rent collection and a tenant portal, with any bank you already use. $39/mo, no unit minimum.
Stessa — good at showing what happened, thinner on running the operation. Free Essentials, $12/mo Manage, $28/mo Pro on annual billing. See our Stessa comparison.
Landlord Studio — free to 3 units, then $15/mo or $144/yr plus $1.20 per extra unit. Best mobile app in the tier. See our Landlord Studio comparison.
Avail — free for unlimited units, $9/unit/mo for Plus, with Realtor.com listing reach. See our Avail comparison.
TurboTenant — listings and screening lead the product; Premium is annual billing only at $149 to $999 a year. See our TurboTenant comparison.
QuickBooks — real double-entry, but built for general business and needing a lot of setup before it understands units, leases and deposits. See our QuickBooks for landlords guide.
All competitor pricing read from each vendor's own public pricing page on 16 October 2026. Confirm current details before deciding.
Also worth reading: Stessa alternative, property management accounting software, and software for small landlords.
Free for 14 days, no credit card. Import your portfolio and see a balance sheet that ties out.
Partly. Baselane now runs two tiers: Core is free, and Smart is $20/mo on an annual plan. Baselane publishes only the annual rate, so a true month-to-month price is not stated. The free-forever story that Baselane was known for is no longer the whole picture.
Rent paid by ACH carries a fee, and Baselane's own pricing page shows tenant ACH transfers at $2 to $5, waived when the money lands in a Baselane account. Landlords can absorb that fee or pass it to the tenant. Card payments, debit or credit, carry a 3.49% convenience charge paid by the tenant. Split rent payments and rent reporting are separate monthly add-ons.
No. Baselane auto-tags transactions to properties across 120+ categories and lets you build rules based on vendor, amount and description. That is categorisation, and it is well executed. It is not a general ledger, and double-entry is not mentioned anywhere on their site.
Not technically, but the product is designed around it and the economics push you there — the ACH fee waiver depends on rent being deposited into a Baselane account. If you want to keep your existing bank and still get clean books, that pull is the thing most landlords run into.
Yes. Rentwelly imports properties, units, leases, tenants and opening balances by CSV, so you can switch mid-year and keep reporting continuity instead of restarting in January.
More on the pricing page or contact us.