Search for the best letting agent software in the UK and you will mostly find two things: thin listicles written by people who have never let a property, and vendor pages that declare themselves the winner in the opening sentence. This guide tries to do better. We build LettingGuru, so we have an obvious interest and we are saying so upfront. We also spend every working day talking to UK agency owners about what their software genuinely does well and badly, and this comparison reflects those conversations. Where another category of product is the better fit for your agency, we say that too.
The criteria that actually separate the options
Feature lists are close to useless for comparing letting agent software, because every vendor claims the same bullet points. The real differences show up in six areas that only become visible once you are living with a system day to day.
- Coverage: all-in-one or point tool. Does the product run your whole operation, from instruction through to client accounting, or just one slice of it? A brilliant referencing tool still leaves you buying and stitching together four other products.
- UK compliance depth. 2026 is the most demanding compliance year the sector has seen. The Renters' Rights Act took effect on 1 May, every tenancy is now periodic, rent rises run through Section 13, and councils can levy civil penalties of up to £40,000. Software that still models fixed-term ASTs with renewal reminders is quietly out of date. Deposit protection, Right to Rent, AML, gas safety, EICR and EPC tracking should be built in, not bolted on.
- Pricing transparency. Can you find the price on the website, or is it "book a call"? Hidden pricing usually goes hand in hand with per-user licences, setup fees and per-module unlocks.
- Mobile apps for the people you do not pay. Tenants, landlords and contractors who can self-serve through a proper app stop clogging your inbox and phone lines. A portal that technically exists but feels like a 2015 web page does not change anyone's behaviour.
- AI that does real work. Call answering, maintenance triage, listing descriptions, photo enhancement and floor plans are the applications saving agencies measurable hours in 2026. A chat widget on the marketing site does not count.
- Support and setup time. How long from signing up to productive use, and can you reach a human during the UK working day when rent run day goes wrong?
The four realistic routes for a UK agency
Strip away the brand names and almost every agency ends up on one of four paths.
1. All-in-one platforms
Modern cloud platforms that cover the full lettings lifecycle in a single system: CRM, portal marketing, tenant onboarding and referencing, compliance, maintenance, client accounting and mobile portals, with one login and one bill. LettingGuru sits in this category, priced from £299 per month with every feature included. The strength of the category is that data entered once flows everywhere. An applicant becomes a tenancy, the tenancy generates a rent schedule, and any arrears feed straight into the evidence trail you would need to support a Section 8 ground. The trade-off is that no all-in-one platform will beat the deepest specialist tool in every single niche.
2. Legacy and enterprise CRMs
The established names, such as Reapit and Alto, run a large share of the UK's corporate chains and bigger independents. They are mature, feature-complete and deeply integrated, and for a forty-branch operation their configurability is genuinely valuable. The compromises are the ones enterprise software always carries: pricing on request rather than published, per-user licensing, onboarding measured in weeks rather than days, and interfaces that grew up before mobile-first design was the norm.
3. The point-solution stack
Pick a best-of-breed tool for each job: a specialist onboarding and referencing product such as Goodlord, a repairs tool such as Fixflo, a separate CRM, an accounting package and an e-signature service. Each product is genuinely good at its slice, which is exactly why the stack is tempting. The pain arrives at the joins. You pay five subscriptions, maintain five copies of your data, and when the systems disagree about a tenancy, each supplier's support team points at the others. We break the running costs down properly in our UK software cost guide.
4. Spreadsheets and generic tools
Excel, a shared drive and a diary. Free, familiar, and workable for the first handful of properties. It is also how deposits miss their 30-day protection window and how a gas certificate expiry surfaces only when the landlord forwards a letter from the council. Under the penalty regime now in force, the honest name for a spreadsheet operation is uninsured risk.
Side-by-side comparison
| Criterion | All-in-one platform | Legacy / enterprise CRM | Point-solution stack | Spreadsheets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage | Full lifecycle in one system | Full lifecycle, module by module | Each tool covers one slice | Whatever you build yourself |
| Typical pricing style | Published; base fee plus per-property | On request; per-user plus setup | Four to six separate subscriptions | Free, paid for in admin hours |
| Renters' Rights Act readiness | Periodic tenancies modelled natively on modern platforms | Varies; older data models assume fixed terms | Depends on every tool updating | Entirely manual |
| Compliance tracking | Built in with automated reminders | Strong, sometimes an extra module | Split across tools, gaps at the joins | Diary and memory |
| Mobile apps for tenants and landlords | Core part of the product | Portals exist, quality varies | Only for the slices that have them | None |
| AI features | Increasingly built in | Emerging, often priced separately | Per tool, if at all | None |
| Time to productive use | Hours to days | Weeks | Days per tool, weeks overall | Immediate, then it never ends |
| Best suited to | New, small and growing agencies | Large multi-branch corporates | Agencies with a strong existing CRM | Nobody beyond a handful of lets |
A fair word on the named players
A comparison that refuses to name anyone is not much of a comparison, so here is our honest view of the products UK agents actually shortlist, kept to facts that are publicly known and uncontroversial.
Reapit and Alto are the established enterprise choices, widely used by corporate chains and large independents. They are proven at scale and nobody gets criticised for choosing them at that size. Pricing is on request, licensing is typically per user, and implementations are planned in weeks. If you run many branches and have an operations team, they belong on your shortlist. If you run four people and 120 properties, they are more machine than you need.
Goodlord is a specialist in tenant onboarding and referencing, and a well-regarded one. It is not positioned as a complete agency CRM, so most users pair it with other systems and pay per tenancy processed. Good product, partial answer.
Acquaint is the budget end of the traditional CRM market: a British product with a loyal following, though its interface and mobile story show their age. If price is the only criterion, it deserves a look; if automation and consumer-grade apps matter, you are likely to outgrow it.
Fixflo is a respected repairs and maintenance specialist that many agencies bolt onto an existing CRM. As with Goodlord, the product is good and the coverage is deliberately narrow.
Where LettingGuru fits, and where it does not
LettingGuru is an all-in-one platform built specifically for UK letting agencies, and it is at its best in small, new and growing agencies that want one system rather than a stack. Every plan, from the first property to the five-hundredth, includes the full CRM, digital tenant onboarding with referencing, Right to Rent and AML, the maintenance workflow with a contractor portal, client accounting with Xero sync, compliance tracking with automated reminders, native Rightmove and OnTheMarket feeds, and seven dedicated mobile apps for tenants, landlords, contractors, inspectors, viewers, buyers and vendors. The data model is periodic-first, which matters more than it sounds now that the fixed-term AST no longer exists: Section 13 rent-review anniversaries, notice tracking and Section 8 evidence trails are native concepts, not workarounds. AI is treated the same way: an optional AI receptionist that answers your phone from £79 per month, plus AI floor plans, photo enhancement and listing descriptions billed per use.
Pricing is published on our pricing page rather than hidden behind a sales call: from £299 per month with £1.50 per property, dropping to £1.30 and then £1.10 as your portfolio grows, and no per-user fees at any size. Where are we not the right fit? If you run a corporate group with hundreds of staff across dozens of branches, the enterprise CRMs' ecosystem is built for that shape of business and you should evaluate them seriously. And if you are a sales-led agency that dabbles in lettings, a sales-first CRM may serve you better.
Our verdict by agency size
- Brand new or under 100 properties: an all-in-one platform, without hesitation. The single-system approach removes integration work you do not have time for. Our companion piece on software for new agencies goes deeper on the start-up case.
- 100 to 300 properties: still an all-in-one for most agencies. At this size the per-property economics matter, so compare published pricing carefully and be suspicious of anything you cannot see in writing.
- 300 to 500 properties: an all-in-one remains our recommendation, but this is the point to evaluate enterprise CRMs alongside it and to weigh configurability against cost and setup time.
- 500 plus or corporate multi-branch: shortlist the enterprise players, and hold whichever you choose to the compliance standard the Renters' Rights Act now demands.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best letting agent software in the UK?
There is no single best product, only a best fit for your size and model. For small, new and growing agencies we believe an all-in-one platform such as LettingGuru is the strongest choice because everything is included from £299 per month. Large multi-branch corporates are usually better served by enterprise CRMs such as Reapit or Alto.
How much does letting agent software cost in the UK?
Realistic budgets run from roughly £100 per month for basic tools to four figures for enterprise systems once per-user licences are counted. LettingGuru costs £299 per month plus £1.50 per property, with every feature included. Our full price guide sets out the market model by model.
Do I need software that supports the Renters' Rights Act?
Yes, and it is worth testing specifically. Since 1 May 2026 every tenancy is periodic, rent increases run through annual Section 13 notices, and possession requires evidenced Section 8 grounds. Ask any vendor to show you how their system models a periodic tenancy, not just whether it claims compliance.
Can I switch letting agent software mid-year?
Yes. Migrations are far less painful than most agents fear: property, landlord, tenancy and compliance data can usually be imported within days, and a short parallel-running period covers the gaps. The expensive option is staying on a system that no longer fits.
Is free letting agent software worth using?
Free tools and spreadsheets carry a real cost in admin hours and compliance risk. With council penalties now reaching £40,000, the money a spreadsheet saves is small against the exposure it creates once you pass a handful of managed properties.
See it with your own portfolio
The only comparison that really settles the question is loading your own properties into a system and running a week of real work through it. You can start a free 30-day trial of LettingGuru in a few minutes, with no card required, and see the whole platform with your own data. If you want to keep researching first, our guides to choosing letting agent software and the Renters' Rights Act are the natural next reads.