Landlord Guides
What Property Management Software Actually Costs
Headline prices in this market are close to meaningless until you know the pricing model, the minimums, and who pays the fees you don't see.
The Three Pricing Models
Per-unit
A rate multiplied by your unit count, often with a monthly minimum that quietly makes small portfolios expensive. Easy to compare on paper, easy to underestimate as you grow — every new door raises the bill.
Flat banded
One monthly price for the unit band you fall into. Predictable, and adding a unit within your band costs nothing. The trade-off is a step up in price when you cross a boundary.
Free to the landlord
No subscription, with revenue coming from tenant application fees and payment processing. Genuinely free to you — but the cost lands on your applicants, which affects how many of them finish applying.
The Costs That Don't Appear in the Quote
- Payment processing — A percentage of every rent payment, or a flat ACH fee. On a full portfolio this often exceeds the software subscription itself.
- Screening fees — Charged per application, sometimes to you and sometimes to the applicant. Worth knowing which.
- Setup and onboarding — Some platforms charge an implementation fee, particularly at the mid-market and enterprise end.
- Extra users — Adding a co-owner, a bookkeeper, or staff can carry a per-seat cost.
- Unit minimums — The most common nasty surprise — the price is fine but you need 50 or 200 units to qualify.
For Reference: What Kelpic Charges
We use flat banded pricing on a single plan. These are the bands a landlord with 50 or fewer units falls into, pulled live from our pricing API — the whole account pays this, not per unit.
| Units | Total per month |
|---|---|
| 1–4 | $8.99 |
| 5–10 | $19.99 |
| 11–20 | $34.99 |
| 21–30 | $49.99 |
| 31–40 | $59.99 |
| 41–50 | $69.99 |
Paying annually saves 10%. Rent payments carry standard Stripe processing fees. Kelpic does not charge screening fees, because Kelpic does not sell screening reports — you run those through your own provider.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does property management software cost?
It ranges from free landlord tiers funded by tenant-paid fees to enterprise contracts costing thousands a month. For owners with a handful of units, expect somewhere between nothing and roughly a hundred dollars a month depending on the model. The bigger variable is not the headline number but whether pricing is per-unit, flat by band, or carries a unit minimum.
What's the difference between per-unit and flat pricing?
Per-unit pricing multiplies a rate by your unit count, so the bill grows every time you add a door and is easy to underestimate. Flat banded pricing charges one monthly price for the band your unit count falls into, so cost is predictable and adding a unit inside your current band costs nothing extra. Kelpic uses flat banded pricing.
Are there hidden costs in property management software?
Frequently. The common ones are payment processing fees on rent, per-application screening charges, setup or onboarding fees, charges for adding users, and fees your tenants pay that you never see on your own invoice. Ask specifically about each of these before comparing headline prices, because they are what makes two similar-looking quotes differ.
Is free property management software worth it?
It can be, as long as you understand who is actually paying. Most free-to-landlord products recover their costs through tenant application fees and payment charges. That is a real cost in your business even though it does not appear on your statement — and in a competitive rental market, high applicant fees can reduce the number of people who apply.