Ask five vendors what their property management software costs and you will get five answers that cannot be compared. One quotes per unit. One quotes per user. One takes a percentage of rent collected. One has three tiers with a feature table. One will not tell you until after a demo.
None of that is dishonest. It is just that the headline figure is the least informative number in the conversation. What you actually need to know is what you will pay in month one, what you will pay when the portfolio is a third bigger, and what you will pay to leave.
The five ways property software is priced
Per unit, or per door. A fee for every unit in the system. Simple, and it scales with the portfolio, which is fair. The question to ask is which units: every unit you manage, or only the ones with a tenant in them. On a portfolio with normal vacancy, the difference is a real share of the bill, and a vacant unit is already costing you rent.
Per user, or per seat. A fee for every staff login. This looks cheap for a small office and punishes exactly the behaviour you want: giving the caretaker their own login instead of sharing the manager's, or letting the accountant see the ledger directly instead of asking for an export. Shared logins are how an audit trail stops meaning anything.
A percentage of rent collected. The vendor takes a cut of the money moving through the system. This aligns the vendor with collection, which sounds good, but it also means your software bill rises every time rent does, for no additional work by anyone. Ask too whether the vendor ever holds the money, even briefly. Software that sits between your tenant and your account is a payment business, and it should be regulated like one.
Tiers. Starter, growth, enterprise. Fine when the tiers are defined by portfolio size. Less fine when they are defined by features, and the feature you need in month three (landlord statements, say, or a second branch) sits one tier up.
Quoted. No published price; a quote after a conversation. Common for anything sold to agencies, and not a warning sign on its own. It becomes one when the quote cannot be broken down into the parts above.
The costs outside the headline
The monthly figure is where the comparison usually starts and ends. These are where the actual difference between two vendors tends to live:
- Setup or onboarding. A one-time fee to configure the account, import your data and train staff. Reasonable in itself, because migration is real work. Ask what it covers, and whether it includes importing opening balances or only the list of units.
- Data migration. Sometimes inside setup, sometimes separate, sometimes "you do it". Moving tenants, leases, deposits held and arrears from spreadsheets is the riskiest week of the whole switch. We set out how to do it safely in moving a letting agency off spreadsheets.
- SMS and messaging. Reminders and receipts sent by text are often billed per message on top of the subscription.
- Payment integration. Connecting a paybill so payments arrive in the system automatically may carry its own fee from the vendor, the aggregator, or both.
- Add-on modules. Maintenance, service charge, utility billing, a tenant app. Check which of them you would need from the start.
- Support. Included, or a separate plan? And is it a person who can see your account, or a ticket queue?
- Leaving. What it costs, in money and in effort, to get all of your data back out in a usable form.
How to make two quotes comparable
Write down your own portfolio and ask every vendor to price the same thing:
- Units managed today, and how many are occupied. Use real numbers.
- The same portfolio in two years. Ask for the price at, say, a third larger.
- Staff who need their own login. Including caretakers.
- Landlords you remit to, and whether they need to see their own statements.
- What you collect besides rent. Water, power, service charge, a sinking fund.
- Expected messages per month, if reminders are billed per message.
Then ask for the first-year total and the steady-state annual total, each with every line above included. A vendor who cannot produce those two numbers for a portfolio you have described precisely is telling you something about how the bill will feel later.
Questions that reveal more than the price
"Do I pay for vacant units?" If yes, your bill does not fall when your income does.
"What happens when I stop paying on time?" Some systems lock you out automatically. For a business whose daily work runs through the software, an automatic lockout over a late invoice is a serious operational risk. Ask whether suspension is a decision a person makes.
"Can I get all of my data out, and in what format?" An export you can open in a spreadsheet, with the ledger intact, is the answer you want.
"Who holds the rent?" The right answer for most agencies is: nobody but you.
"Is the tenant app included, or sold to tenants?" A tenant app that charges tenants is a second business built on your client list.
What we charge, and how
Since you are reading this on our site: our property management software pricing is quoted for your portfolio and published in the app rather than here, because a figure kept in two places drifts. The model behind it is the one this article argues for. Billing is on occupied units, so a vacant unit costs nothing. There is a one-time setup fee and an annual or monthly subscription, and the tenant app is included at no cost to tenants. We never hold the rent, and suspension for non-payment is always a decision a person makes. There is a free 30-day trial once your account is live, with no card needed.
That is a description of a model, not a claim that it is the cheapest option for you. Run the six numbers above through every vendor you are considering, including us.
When software is not worth paying for yet
If you manage a handful of units, collect rent on a paybill with sensible account references, and reconcile weekly, a well-kept spreadsheet is a defensible choice. The point at which that stops being true is set out honestly in property management software vs Excel. The short version: the cost of software is easy to see, and the cost of a spreadsheet is the hours spent reconciling and the disputes you cannot settle from the records.
Common questions
How much does property management software cost in Kenya?
It depends more on the pricing model than on the vendor. Per-unit, per-user, percentage-of-rent and tiered models all produce different bills for the same portfolio, and setup, migration, messaging and payment integration often sit outside the headline figure. Ask each vendor for a first-year and a steady-state total for your actual portfolio.
Is per-unit or per-user pricing better for an agency?
Per-unit, in most cases, and ideally per occupied unit. Per-user pricing discourages giving each staff member their own login, which undermines the audit trail that makes the records worth keeping.
What is a reasonable setup fee for property software?
One that is stated in advance and itemised: configuration, data import including opening balances, and staff training. A setup fee that cannot be broken down, or that excludes migrating your existing balances, is the one to question.
Should property software take a percentage of rent?
Be cautious. A percentage ties your software bill to your rent roll rather than to the work the software does, and it usually means the vendor sits in the payment flow. Ask who holds the money and under what licence.
Are there free property management apps in Kenya?
Some tools are free to start and charge for the parts an agency actually needs, such as landlord statements, payment integration or more than a few units. Free is a reasonable way to try a workflow. Check what the bill looks like at your real portfolio size before you move your records into it.
