rents.ai vs spreadsheets
A spreadsheet is great until row 400.
Nearly every landlord started in a spreadsheet, and there's nothing wrong with that. A spreadsheet is free, it's yours, and it does exactly what you tell it. This page isn't here to talk you out of one. It's here for the moment a spreadsheet quietly drops something: a late fee you forgot to add, a depreciation line you never set up, an insurance renewal that lapsed because the reminder lived only in your head. So this comparison isn't about features. It's about hours.
Short answer
A spreadsheet is free, portable, and completely adequate for one property whose whole picture fits on one screen. It starts costing you when it silently drops something: a late fee nobody added, a renewal that lived only in your head, or the depreciation line most rental spreadsheets never set up at all. rents.ai costs $10/mo for one property and replaces the hand-maintained parts, while importing and exporting the same CSV files you already use.
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, Spreadsheetsis very likely the better answer.
Side by side
Where each one actually earns its keep.
| What it does | Spreadsheet | rents.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Tracking this month's rentwho paid, who's short, what's the late fee | manual reconciliation and late-fee math | expected, received, balance, and lease-based late fees |
| Schedule E at tax timeevery transaction sorted to its tax line, per property | manual unless you build and maintain the categories | already categorized - export the CSV in a click |
| Depreciation27.5-year mid-month convention, line 18 | the line most spreadsheets quietly skip | computed per property, all year |
| “Did the insurance lapse?”knowing a renewal is coming before it's late | you remember, or you don't | dated once, then it reminds you early |
| Surviving a tab fixa wrong formula doesn't quietly corrupt last year | one dragged cell can break a column | totals derive from the data, not hand formulas |
| Your data is portableno lock-in, leave whenever | it's already a file you own | import your CSV in, export every table out |
Tracking this month's rent
who paid, who's short, what's the late fee
- Spreadsheet
- manual reconciliation and late-fee math
- rents.ai
- expected, received, balance, and lease-based late fees
Schedule E at tax time
every transaction sorted to its tax line, per property
- Spreadsheet
- manual unless you build and maintain the categories
- rents.ai
- already categorized - export the CSV in a click
Depreciation
27.5-year mid-month convention, line 18
- Spreadsheet
- the line most spreadsheets quietly skip
- rents.ai
- computed per property, all year
“Did the insurance lapse?”
knowing a renewal is coming before it's late
- Spreadsheet
- you remember, or you don't
- rents.ai
- dated once, then it reminds you early
Surviving a tab fix
a wrong formula doesn't quietly corrupt last year
- Spreadsheet
- one dragged cell can break a column
- rents.ai
- totals derive from the data, not hand formulas
Your data is portable
no lock-in, leave whenever
- Spreadsheet
- it's already a file you own
- rents.ai
- import your CSV in, export every table out
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
A spreadsheet has no pricing page to cite. Every row above describes work you either do by hand or do not do, which is the only honest way to compare against a file you built yourself.
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 a spreadsheet if
- You have one property and the whole picture fits on one screen.
- You genuinely enjoy the control, and the formulas are yours.
- You're never planning to scale past what you can hold in your head.
- Tax time is one property's worth of sorting, and you don't mind it.
Choose rents.ai if
- You've felt the spreadsheet drop something - a late fee, a renewal, a line.
- Tax time has become a weekend, and you want it to be a click.
- You want depreciation and renewals handled, not hand-maintained.
- You've added a unit and the one-screen picture stopped fitting.
On purpose
An off-ramp in both directions.
The fairest thing a tool can promise a spreadsheet user is that you're never trapped. So: import the CSV your spreadsheet already exports to get started, and export your transaction and report data back to CSV while your account is active. You came in with a file you owned; you leave with one too. The only thing that changes in between is how much of it you have to do by hand.
Questions
What landlords ask comparing the two.
What can a spreadsheet do that rents.ai can't?
A spreadsheet is infinitely flexible - you can model anything, and it's free. If you have one property and enjoy maintaining your own formulas, a spreadsheet is a perfectly good answer. rents.ai trades some of that open-ended flexibility for structure: rent roll, Schedule E, depreciation, and renewals that maintain themselves instead of waiting on you.
Can I import my existing spreadsheet?
Yes. Export your income and expenses from your spreadsheet as a CSV - the kind most spreadsheets already produce - and import it to start. Unknown categories map to a catch-all you can re-file later, so nothing is dropped on the way in.
If I switch, am I locked in?
No. rents.ai exports transaction and report data to CSV while your account is active. You can leave with the same kind of file you used to import your ledger.
Bring the spreadsheet. Keep the off-ramp.
The public demo opens on a fully worked portfolio, so you can see a year of rent, a finished Schedule E, and the renewals before signup.
- 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
Keep comparing
Other comparisons on the same facts.
Every page below reads from the same verified price and feature records, so the numbers agree across all of them.
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