Honest comparison

ClearLord vs the alternatives.

We'll tell you what we do well and what we don't do yet. If another tool fits your portfolio better, use it — we'd rather you have the right software than the wrong subscription.

Feature	ClearLord	AppFolio	Buildium	DoorLoop	Stessa	Baselane	Excel
Free plan Try before paying anything
Starts under $50/mo For small portfolios
No per-unit fees
Property + unit + tenant + lease model
Cash + accrual reporting
AI portfolio insights
Move off spreadsheets Guided setup — you confirm every value
Online rent collection On our roadmap
Tenant portal On our roadmap
Maintenance ticketing Basic only today
Accounting / bookkeeping automation
Bank account included
Designed for 1–100 units

Full support · Partial or basic · Not available

Who each tool is really for

AppFolio

Property managers with 200+ units and a full back office.

Overkill (and overpriced) for an owner with 5–50 units.

Buildium

Mid-market property managers who need full accounting + tenant portal.

Great if you can afford it and have someone dedicated to running it.

DoorLoop

Growing property managers.

Comparable to Buildium; pick based on which UI you prefer.

Stessa

DIY landlords who want free tracking + bank-linked bookkeeping.

Free is great, but reporting is basic and there's no real cash-flow view per property.

Baselane

Landlords who want a bank account and rent collection bundled.

The bank features are the draw; the reporting side is thinner.

Excel

Everyone eventually outgrows this.

Works until you own 3+ properties, then it becomes the bottleneck.

Where ClearLord fits

You own between 1 and 100 units yourself. You're tired of a spreadsheet that drifts every month. You want a dashboard that actually tells you what to do next — not a 200-page onboarding course for enterprise property-management software.

Start free — no credit card See pricing

What we don't do (yet)

Online rent collection

You log payments manually today. Tenants pay via Zelle, ACH, or check. Online collection inside ClearLord is on the roadmap.

Tenant portal

Tenants can't log in yet. You record payments yourself and email PDF statements.

Full maintenance workflow

You can log tickets. Vendor assignment, invoicing, and tenant-facing requests aren't built out yet.

Built-in bank account

If you want banking bundled with software, Baselane is the better fit today.

Multi-user permissions

Best for owner-operators or a small team sharing one login. Roles are on the roadmap.

Native mobile app

The web app is mobile-friendly, but there's no App Store / Play Store build yet.