Comparison · Structured data · Sourced
Rentec Direct vs Innago: a paid minimum fee against a genuinely free product
The headline difference is simple and the detail underneath it is where buyers go wrong. Innago is genuinely free to landlords. That is a free version, not a free trial. The Innago help centre states that pricing is simple, it is free, that there is no monthly fee, yearly fee or setup fee, and that Innago costs nothing for landlords to use. The marketing page adds no contract. There is no trial period to expire. Some aggregator sites claim paid Innago tiers and a different card rate; those contradict the vendor help centre and are not recorded here.
What is charged on Innago is tenant side, and the distinction about who pays matters. From the vendor help centre: ACH rent payments incur a 2 fee; credit and debit card payments incur a 2.99 percent fee; both are paid by the tenant by default, and the landlord may optionally choose to absorb either. Applicants that you choose to screen pay 30 to 35 to produce the screening report. So the cost is shifted to residents and applicants unless you decide otherwise. Currency is inferred as US dollars from bare dollar signs on a US site quoting ACH rails, not stated.
Rentec Direct is paid, and its structure is a minimum monthly fee plus a per unit rate, which is the trap in quoting it. Rentec Starter is 25 per month flat for up to 10 properties and tenants, which is also the minimum monthly fee. Rentec Pro starts at 50 per month with a starting rate of 2 per unit. Rentec PM starts at 50 per month with a starting rate of 2.50 per unit and adds trust accounting and owner tools. Quoting 2 per unit alone to a small landlord is misleading, because the 50 floor is the price. The vendor supplies a calculator from 1 to 2,500 or more units to resolve the exact figure, and above 2,500 units you must contact Rentec. An annual billing saving of 60 is noted on Pro and PM, so the 50 figures are the monthly floor rather than annual headlines. A two week free trial is offered on every edition and there is no free version. Currency is again inferred.
Last reviewed 7 November 2026
The products
Rentec Direct
Rentec Direct
US property management software for landlords and professional managers, with double-entry and trust accounting, online rent payments, tenant and owner portals, screening, a documented REST API and a published minimum monthly fee plus per-unit pricing.
Full profileInnago
Innago
Rental management software that is genuinely free for landlords with no monthly, yearly or setup fee. Innago earns revenue from tenant-paid fees: 2 USD per ACH rent payment, 2.99 percent on card payments and 30 to 35 USD per screening report paid by the applicant.
Full profileThe main differences
The evidence gap between these two is large, and it is not a feature gap. Rentec Direct is one of the best evidenced profiles in the category: unit level portfolio records, tenant management, lease management, rent collection, accounting, maintenance requests, inspections, owner portal, tenant portal, document management, reporting, a documented API and a mobile app are all verified. Innago verifies tenant management, lease management, rent collection, maintenance requests and a mobile app, and that is the list. Accounting, reporting, document management, tenant and owner portals, inspections, unit level records and any API are all unverified, not absent, and the reason is access: innago.com/features and /features both returned 404, so the capability list is limited to what the home page and help centre confirm. Innago may well have an owner portal. We cannot show you a page that says so.
Two Rentec Direct strengths are worth singling out. Trust accounting is included in the Rentec PM edition, which matters if you hold client money on behalf of owners and is a regulatory requirement in many jurisdictions rather than a convenience. And a documented RESTful open API is published, with keys self generated in account settings and access included with Pro and PM at no extra cost, which is a notably better deal than Propertyware charging 1.00 per unit per month for API access or AppFolio gating it behind the top tier. Rentec also publishes a long and specific integration partner list covering bank sync, payments, cash payments, e signature, mobile inspections, lease forms and multiple screening bureaus, with Twilio named. For Innago, no third party integration could be confirmed and no developer documentation was found, only a customer help centre.
Both are heavily US specific. Rentec payments, screening, tax filing and listing syndication partners are all US services, which makes it a poor fit outside the United States. Innago fee structure is built on US ACH rails. Rentec is classified mixed use on the strength of a vendor FAQ stating the software suits residential or commercial property, but no commercial specific capability such as service charge apportionment or rent review is advertised, so a commercial buyer should test that claim rather than rely on the classification. Innago is residential.
Side by side
| Attribute | Rentec Direct | Innago |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Rentec Direct | Innago |
| Primary use | Mixed portfolio property management | Residential property management |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud |
| Organisation size | Small, Medium | Small, Medium |
| Licensing model | Commercial | Free |
| Free version | No | Yes |
| Trial | Yes | Not verified |
| Published price | USD 25 per month flat, Rentec Starter, up to 10 properties and tenants | Contact vendor for pricing |
| Product status | Active | Active |
| Capabilities | ||
| Mobile app | Yes source | Yes source |
| Documented API | Yes source | Not verified |
| Listing and channel management | Not verified | Not verified |
| Reporting | Yes source | Not verified |
| Document management | Yes source | Not verified |
| Tenant portal | Yes source | Not verified |
| Owner portal | Yes source | Not verified |
| Inspections | Yes source | Not verified |
| Maintenance requests | Yes source | Yes source |
| Accounting and general ledger | Yes source | Not verified |
| Service charges and recoveries | Not verified | Not verified |
| Rent collection and payments | Yes source | Yes source |
| Lease management and renewals | Yes source | Yes source |
| Tenant management | Yes source | Yes source |
| Portfolio and unit management | Yes source | Not verified |
| Last reviewed | 7 November 2026 | 7 November 2026 |
| Profile | View profile | View profile |
Not verified means the capability has not been checked for that product. It does not mean the product lacks it. Blank cells and unverified rows are never counted as a "no".
Strengths and limitations
Drawn from each product's own profile, where every item is labelled a verified fact or an editorial judgement.
Rentec Direct
Read the full assessmentInnago
Read the full assessmentWhich to choose
Take Innago if you are a small landlord with a handful of units and you want working software at zero cost to you. No monthly, yearly or setup fee and no contract is a real offer, confirmed in the vendor help centre rather than only in marketing copy, and the fee disclosure is explicit about exactly what tenants pay. Go in knowing two things. First, your tenants pay 2 per ACH payment and 2.99 percent on cards unless you absorb it, and your applicants pay 30 to 35 for screening, so decide now whether you are comfortable with that and whether your market will accept it. Second, the capability evidence is thin by circumstance, so test the things that are unverified, accounting depth, reporting, portals, document handling, inside a live account before you commit your whole book to it.
Take Rentec Direct if you are a professional manager rather than a landlord, and especially if you hold client money. Trust accounting in the PM edition, an owner portal, document management and a documented open API included at no extra cost on Pro and PM is a considerably more complete and more verifiable package, and the two week trial on every edition lets you prove it. Model the cost properly: the 50 per month floor on Pro and PM rises with unit count, so use the vendor calculator at your actual unit figure rather than reasoning from the 2 or 2.50 per unit starting rate, and remember that above 2,500 units nothing is published.
One honest framing for the choice. Free is the right answer when the alternative is spreadsheets and the cost of being wrong is low. The moment you are holding other people money, filing on behalf of owners, or need to prove to an auditor where a deposit went, the 50 per month floor is not the expensive option. Neither product has verified service charge handling, so if commercial recoveries are in scope neither belongs on your shortlist.
Frequently asked questions
It is a genuine free version, not a trial. The Innago help centre states there is no monthly fee, yearly fee or setup fee and that Innago costs nothing for landlords to use, and the marketing page adds no contract. There is no trial period to expire. Aggregator claims of paid Innago tiers contradict the vendor and are not used here.
Tenants and applicants, by default. ACH rent payments incur a 2 fee and credit or debit card payments incur a 2.99 percent fee, both paid by the tenant unless the landlord chooses to absorb them. Applicants you choose to screen pay 30 to 35 for the screening report.
Starter is 25 per month flat for up to 10 properties and tenants, which is also the minimum monthly fee. Pro and PM start at 50 per month, with starting per unit rates of 2 and 2.50 respectively, so they are a minimum fee plus a per unit rate rather than one number. Use the vendor calculator at your unit count. Above 2,500 units pricing is not published.
Rentec Direct. Trust accounting is included in the Rentec PM edition, alongside an owner portal and document management. For Innago, accounting depth, reporting and an owner portal could not be verified from vendor sources, so it should not be assumed to handle client money obligations.
Sources and review basis
Attribute values come from each product's structured profile rather than being written into this page, so a correction made once appears everywhere. This comparison was last reviewed on 7 November 2026. Assessment of this category is documentation-based, not hands-on testing of every product.
- Rentec Direct Pricing accessed 7 November 2026
- Rentec Direct Open API accessed 7 November 2026
- How Much Does Innago Cost, and How Does It Make Money accessed 7 November 2026
- Are There Any Processing Fees for Tenant Payments accessed 7 November 2026
Disclosure
Alongside advisory work I also build a CMMS and CAFM platform, so I have a commercial interest in enterprise software generally. No vendor here has paid for inclusion, placement or wording, and there are no reseller or affiliate arrangements.
Deciding between these?
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