rents.ai vs Buildium
Twenty years of management accounting, or one landlord's tax workflow.
Buildium has been doing property-management accounting for two decades and it shows: a full general ledger, rent collection, screening, syndication, 1099 filing, maintenance and a resident portal, with a 14-day trial that does not ask for a card. It is priced for a management company, from $62/mo on Essential to $400/mo on Premium, with onboarding required on the higher plans. rents.ai is $18/mo and does not attempt any of it.
Short answer
Buildium's Essential plan starts at $62/mo, Growth at $192/mo and Premium at $400/mo, with the upper two requiring onboarding, and it offers a 14-day trial with no card required. It is a full property-management platform: general ledger, rent collection, screening, syndication, 1099 filing, maintenance and a resident portal. rents.ai is $18/mo, self-serve, and covers only the ledger, the Schedule E rollup and residential depreciation.
What each one costs
Published prices, both sides.
Buildium
- Essential
- from $62/mo
- Growth
- from $192/mo
- Premium
- from $400/mo
onboarding required
onboarding required
rents.ai
- Basic
- $10/mo
- Pro
- $18/mo
- Trial
- $0
one property, every feature
unlimited properties, every feature
7 days
Buildium figures read from buildium.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 If a line here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.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, Buildiumis very likely the better answer.
Side by side
Where each one actually earns its keep.
| What it does | Buildium | rents.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Free plana plan you can stay on at $0, not a trial | 14-day trial, no card required, then paid | paid only, after a 7-day trial |
| Automatic bank feedspulls transactions from a connected bank login | not stated on the pricing page | manual entry or CSV import; no bank login |
| Online rent collectiontenant payments move through the product | ePay included | records rent you receive elsewhere |
| Tenant screeningcredit, background, and eviction reports | included | not a leasing tool |
| Listings and syndicationposts a vacancy to the rental sites | included | not a leasing tool |
| Schedule E reportincome and expenses arranged by tax line | tax reports and 1099 filing listed; Schedule E is not | per-property rollup by year, print view, CSV export |
| Residential depreciation computedcost basis and land split on the 27.5-year mid-month schedule | not stated on the pricing page | computed from cost basis and land on the 27.5-year mid-month schedule |
| Mobile appa native iOS or Android app | not stated on the pricing page | responsive web app, no native app |
| Maintenance and work orderswork orders with the vendor and what the job cost | included | Kanban work orders with vendor and cost tracking |
Free plan
a plan you can stay on at $0, not a trial
- Buildium
- 14-day trial, no card required, then paid
- rents.ai
- paid only, after a 7-day trial
Automatic bank feeds
pulls transactions from a connected bank login
- Buildium
- not stated on the pricing page
- rents.ai
- manual entry or CSV import; no bank login
Online rent collection
tenant payments move through the product
- Buildium
- ePay included
- rents.ai
- records rent you receive elsewhere
Tenant screening
credit, background, and eviction reports
- Buildium
- included
- rents.ai
- not a leasing tool
Listings and syndication
posts a vacancy to the rental sites
- Buildium
- included
- rents.ai
- not a leasing tool
Schedule E report
income and expenses arranged by tax line
- Buildium
- tax reports and 1099 filing listed; Schedule E is not
- 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
- Buildium
- not stated on the pricing page
- rents.ai
- computed from cost basis and land on the 27.5-year mid-month schedule
Mobile app
a native iOS or Android app
- Buildium
- not stated on the pricing page
- rents.ai
- responsive web app, no native app
Maintenance and work orders
work orders with the vendor and what the job cost
- Buildium
- included
- 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
Buildium figures read from buildium.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 Buildium if
- You run a management company and need platform-grade accounting.
- You want a mature product with onboarding help importing existing data.
- 1099 filing, resident portals and inspections are part of your operation.
- A 14-day trial with no card is the right way for you to evaluate.
Choose rents.ai if
- You own a handful of units and $62/mo starts above your ceiling.
- You want the Schedule E and depreciation work done rather than a general ledger.
- You want to sign up and use it the same afternoon with no onboarding call.
- Per-property P&L, NOI and cap rate are the reports you actually read.
On purpose
Platform pricing has a floor for a reason.
Buildium starts at $62/mo because the customer it is designed for has staff, clients and a trust obligation. None of that is wasted spend for that reader. It is entirely wasted spend for someone with four doors who wants the depreciation line right. The mismatch is about who you are, not about which product is better built.
Questions
What landlords ask comparing the two.
How much is Buildium?
As published on buildium.com/pricing on August 10, 2026: Essential starts at $62/mo, Growth at $192/mo and Premium at $400/mo, with Growth and Premium requiring onboarding with a dedicated data-import team. A 14-day free trial is offered with no credit card required. Bank account setup is $99 per account, with allowances on the higher plans, and eSignature is $5 per document on Essential and $1 on Growth.
Is Buildium suitable for a small landlord?
It is capable of it, but the entry price is $62/mo and the product is shaped around managing for owners, with 1099 filing, resident portals and inspections. A self-managing owner with a few units pays a platform price for surface area that has no reader in their situation.
Does Buildium produce a Schedule E?
Its pricing page lists tax reports and 1099 filing but does not state a Schedule E report, so this page marks that row as not published. rents.ai produces a per-property Schedule E rollup by year and computes line 18 depreciation on the 27.5-year mid-month convention.
Sized for the person who owns the buildings.
No onboarding, no minimum, no sales call. The public demo is the whole product working on a real portfolio.
- 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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