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.
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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.
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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 Realty LLC 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.
