rents.ai vs Baselane
Banking with books attached, or books with no bank at all.
Baselane's answer to bookkeeping is to own the bank account. Unlimited checking and savings, automated rent collection, a tenant portal with autopay, and an accountant tax package with Schedule E reports are all on the free Core plan, with Smart at $20/mo adding auto-tagging and cost segregation. rents.ai takes the opposite position: no banking, no payment rails, no connected login, and a subscription that buys the tax engine rather than a place to keep money.
Short answer
Baselane's Core plan is $0/mo and includes landlord banking, automated rent collection, transaction import, a tenant portal with autopay, and an accountant tax package with Schedule E reports; its Smart plan is $20/mo. rents.ai costs $10/mo, has no banking and no payment rails, and asks for no bank login at all. Choose Baselane if you want the money and the books in one account, and rents.ai if you want the depreciation and Schedule E work done on rent that arrives however it already arrives.
What each one costs
Published prices, both sides.
Baselane
- Core
- $0/mo
- Smart
- $20/mo
30-day free trial
rents.ai
- Basic
- $10/mo
- Pro
- $18/mo
- Trial
- $0
one property, every feature
unlimited properties, every feature
7 days
Baselane figures read from baselane.com/pricing on August 10, 2026. Products change. If a line here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
The $10 question
What the subscription actually buys.
A year-round record for each property: rent roll, ledger, work orders, documents, deposits, notes, and renewal dates. No bank login is required, no rent moves through the product, and nothing changes for your tenants. Keep collecting rent exactly how you do today. If that is not the gap you have, Baselaneis very likely the better answer.
Side by side
Where each one actually earns its keep.
| What it does | Baselane | rents.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Free plana plan you can stay on at $0, not a trial | Core is $0/mo | paid only, after a 7-day trial |
| Automatic bank feedspulls transactions from a connected bank login | transaction import plus QuickBooks and Xero sync on Core | manual entry or CSV import; no bank login |
| Online rent collectiontenant payments move through the product | automated rent payments on Core | records rent you receive elsewhere |
| Tenant screeningcredit, background, and eviction reports | not listed in a plan on the pricing page | not a leasing tool |
| Listings and syndicationposts a vacancy to the rental sites | not stated on the pricing page | not a leasing tool |
| Schedule E reportincome and expenses arranged by tax line | accountant tax package and Schedule E reports on Core | per-property rollup by year, print view, CSV export |
| Residential depreciation computedcost basis and land split on the 27.5-year mid-month schedule | Smart lists cost segregation; a 27.5-year schedule is not stated | computed from cost basis and land on the 27.5-year mid-month schedule |
| Mobile appa native iOS or Android app | Baselane mobile app on Core | responsive web app, no native app |
| Maintenance and work orderswork orders with the vendor and what the job cost | not stated on the pricing page | Kanban work orders with vendor and cost tracking |
Free plan
a plan you can stay on at $0, not a trial
- Baselane
- Core is $0/mo
- rents.ai
- paid only, after a 7-day trial
Automatic bank feeds
pulls transactions from a connected bank login
- Baselane
- transaction import plus QuickBooks and Xero sync on Core
- rents.ai
- manual entry or CSV import; no bank login
Online rent collection
tenant payments move through the product
- Baselane
- automated rent payments on Core
- rents.ai
- records rent you receive elsewhere
Tenant screening
credit, background, and eviction reports
- Baselane
- not listed in a plan on the pricing page
- rents.ai
- not a leasing tool
Listings and syndication
posts a vacancy to the rental sites
- Baselane
- not stated on the pricing page
- rents.ai
- not a leasing tool
Schedule E report
income and expenses arranged by tax line
- Baselane
- accountant tax package and Schedule E reports on Core
- rents.ai
- per-property rollup by year, print view, CSV export
Residential depreciation computed
cost basis and land split on the 27.5-year mid-month schedule
- Baselane
- Smart lists cost segregation; a 27.5-year schedule is not stated
- rents.ai
- computed from cost basis and land on the 27.5-year mid-month schedule
Mobile app
a native iOS or Android app
- Baselane
- Baselane mobile app on Core
- rents.ai
- responsive web app, no native app
Maintenance and work orders
work orders with the vendor and what the job cost
- Baselane
- not stated on the pricing page
- rents.ai
- Kanban work orders with vendor and cost tracking
How to read this
- Yes / nothe source page states it, in those words
- Partialincluded, with a real condition: a higher plan, or a separate fee
- Not publishedthe pricing page does not say. It is a fact about the source, never a mark against the product
Source
Baselane figures read from baselane.com/pricing on August 10, 2026. Products change. If a line here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Beyond the axes
What this table does not cover.
The rows above compare a narrow set of pricing-page features. rents.ai also keeps these records behind each rental.
- A per-property ledger, categorized to Schedule E lines all year rather than in April
- Rent roll with late fees computed from each lease's due day, grace period, and fee rule
- Residential depreciation from cost basis, land, and in-service date on the 27.5-year mid-month schedule
- Documents attached to the property, tenant, transaction, or property record they belong to
- Append-only tenant notes that become immutable after a 15-minute edit window
- Insurance, property tax, and rental licence records with an SMS renewal reminder before they lapse
- Per-property P&L, NOI, and cap rate, plus CSV import and export
The honest version
There's a right answer for you.
Sometimes it isn't us, and we'll say so. Here's the short way to tell.
Choose Baselane if
- You want a dedicated landlord bank account and the books derived from it.
- You want rent collected and deposited without a second product.
- A $0 plan that already includes Schedule E reports is hard to argue with.
- You want the mobile app and tenant autopay that come with it.
Choose rents.ai if
- You already have banking you like and do not want to move it.
- You want depreciation computed on the 27.5-year mid-month schedule and placed on line 18.
- You would rather type or import transactions than connect an account to a third party.
- You want the rent roll to compute late fees from each lease's own due day and grace period.
On purpose
One of these wants your bank account.
That is the whole comparison, and it is not a criticism. Baselane can be free precisely because banking pays for it, and if you are happy to open an account there you get a great deal. rents.ai charges a subscription because it never touches your money, which means the only thing it can sell you is the bookkeeping and the tax math. Pick the trade you actually prefer.
Questions
What landlords ask comparing the two.
Is Baselane free?
Yes. As published on baselane.com/pricing on August 10, 2026, Baselane's Core plan is $0/mo and includes unlimited checking and savings accounts, automated rent collection, transaction import with QuickBooks and Xero sync, a tenant portal with autopay, a mobile app, and an accountant tax package with Schedule E reports. The Smart plan is $20/mo and includes a 30-day free trial.
Do I have to open a Baselane bank account to use it?
Banking is the centre of the product and is what funds the free plan. Baselane also connects and imports transactions from outside accounts. rents.ai has no banking of any kind, so if avoiding a new financial account is the point, that is the difference between them.
Which one handles depreciation?
Baselane's Smart plan lists cost segregation, but its pricing page does not state that it computes a 27.5-year residential schedule, so this comparison marks that row as partial rather than claiming more than the source shows. rents.ai computes residential depreciation from cost basis, land value and in-service date on the 27.5-year mid-month convention and reports it on Schedule E line 18.
See the books without opening an account.
The public demo shows a full year of categorized transactions, a per-property Schedule E, and the depreciation inputs, with no signup and no bank connection.
- Live demo: no signup or card
- No bank connection. Nothing changes for your tenants
- Trial: 7 days, card required, $0 today
- Then $10/mo for one or $18/mo for unlimited
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Every page below reads from the same verified price and feature records, so the numbers agree across all of them.
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