Comparison

Rentec Direct vs KeyTurn for Landlords Under 50 Units (2026)

Published Rentec prices, the fee line items that change the total, and the unit counts where each one is cheaper. From the founder of KeyTurn, so check the math.

By Zach Hagwood · October 19, 2026

If you manage under 50 units and you have already looked at Buildium, the next name on your shortlist is probably Rentec Direct. I put it on mine, and I still point people to it. So this is a Rentec Direct vs KeyTurn comparison from the guy who built KeyTurn, which means you should check my math. Every Rentec number below comes from its own published pricing pages, which I read on October 19, 2026. Neither page shows an effective date, so confirm the current rates before you sign up for anything.

I practice law in Fort Worth and I run my own family's rental doors, so I care about two things in this comparison: what the software costs at your actual unit count, and whether the trust accounting holds up when someone asks questions later. Here is where each tool wins.

What Rentec Direct charges, in plain numbers

Rentec sells three editions. Starter is a flat $25 a month and is limited to 10 properties, 10 tenants, and 3 user accounts. Rentec Pro is $2 per unit per month with a $50 monthly minimum. Rentec PM is $2.50 per unit per month, also with a $50 monthly minimum. Setup and onboarding are free, there is no contract, and there is a two week free trial. The per unit rates sit on its pricing transparency page, and the plan overview is on its main pricing page.

The plan that matters for a property manager is Rentec PM. According to Rentec, trust account management and reporting, the owner portal, and paying owners by ACH are PM features, not Pro features. If you hold other people's money, you are shopping at the $2.50 rate, not the $2 rate.

What KeyTurn charges

KeyTurn is $49 a month for up to 10 properties, $99 a month for up to 50, and $199 a month for up to 200. It is flat, with no per unit multiplier on the manager side, no onboarding fee, and no charge for a second bank account. The rent transaction fee is shown to the tenant before they submit and paid by the tenant. I laid out the full reasoning in the under 100 doors cost breakdown.

One caveat on the units. Rentec bills by unit. KeyTurn's tiers count properties. For a portfolio of single family houses those are the same number. For a few small multifamily buildings they are not, and KeyTurn can come out ahead by more than the table below shows. I am using one unit per property to keep this fair to Rentec.

The monthly subscription at real unit counts

UnitsRentec PM ($2.50, $50 min)KeyTurnCheaper
10$50$49KeyTurn by $1
20$50$99Rentec by $49
30$75$99Rentec by $24
40$100$99KeyTurn by $1
50$125$99KeyTurn by $26

The arithmetic is simple. Rentec PM at 40 units is 40 times $2.50, which is $100 a month, or $1,200 a year. KeyTurn at 40 doors is $99 a month, or $1,188 a year. At 20 units Rentec wins clearly, because its $50 minimum is below our $99 tier. If you manage 12 to 30 doors and the subscription is your main concern, Rentec PM is the cheaper sticker price. I would rather tell you that than watch you find it on your own.

If you only need Rentec Pro and do not do trust accounting for outside owners, the numbers move further in Rentec's favor, at $2 a unit. A landlord with 25 units of their own money is paying about $50 a month there. KeyTurn is not built to win that comparison.

The line items that change the answer

The subscription is the smaller part of a lot of quotes. These are the Rentec fees I would price out before choosing, again straight from its fee table.

Run that for a 40 unit portfolio on PM. Rent is collected by ACH, one payment per property per month, so incoming rent costs nothing. Paying 12 owners by ACH once a month at $0.50 is $6 a month, or $72 a year. Add that to $1,200 and you are at about $1,272 a year before screening and returns. KeyTurn is $1,188 for the same 40 doors. The gap is small, which is the honest summary. For a portfolio near 40 to 50 units, price is not the reason to pick either one.

Where the two differ besides price

Rentec says that once you upgrade from Starter to Pro or PM, you cannot go back to Starter. That is a minor thing, but it matters if you are testing with a handful of doors and planning to grow. Rentec Pro and PM list unlimited properties and tenants.

On the feature side, Rentec lists a wide set of features: QuickBooks sync, an open API and Zapier connections, automated late fees and rent increases, online rental applications, and mailing through PostGrid. I cannot match a feature list that long and I am not going to pretend otherwise. One thing I could not settle from its pages: the fee table says Pro and PM include up to 5 ACH deposit accounts, while the feature matrix says unlimited. If you run a separate trust account per owner, ask Rentec which is true before you rely on either.

Where I think KeyTurn is different is that it was written by someone who files Texas evictions and security deposit disputes for a living. I wrote the notice to vacate walkthrough under SB 38, the security deposit checklist, and the owner statement template because those are the places small Texas managers get hurt. Rentec's pages do not say anything about Texas specific workflows, and I cannot tell you what its support team knows about them. I can tell you what I know, and it shapes how I built KeyTurn.

Which one I would pick, by situation

  1. You own 10 to 30 units yourself and no outside owners. Look hard at Rentec Pro or even Starter. The price is hard to beat.
  2. You manage 12 to 30 doors for outside owners and the monthly bill is the only thing that matters. Rentec PM at $50 to $75 a month is cheaper than our $99 tier. Take the two week trial and see whether you like the screens.
  3. You manage 35 to 50 doors for outside owners in Texas. The subscription is a wash. Decide on trust accounting, owner statements, and whether the person who wrote the software understands the Property Code.
  4. You are running a family company where several people touch the books. Ask both vendors how a ledger entry gets edited after the fact and what record it leaves. That answer matters more than $26 a month.

Questions to ask before you pay either of us

Ask for the all in monthly cost at your exact door count, including rent collection, owner payouts, and one screening a month. Ask whether a month end statement is a report built from the ledger or something you retype. Ask how long the vendor keeps your records after you leave, because the Texas trust money rule requires a broker to keep trust documentation for four years. If a vendor cannot answer those three questions in writing, the price on the website is not the price.

See what a switch looks like on a real portfolio

Lockwood Property Management moved its ledger, deposits, and owner statements onto KeyTurn. The case study shows what they paid before, what they pay now, and how long it took.

Read the Lockwood case study

If you want to run your own numbers, the beta request form is on the KeyTurn home page. Send me your unit count and what you pay today. If Rentec is the better fit, I will tell you that.

Related reading

Sources

I am the founder of KeyTurn, so I am not a neutral party here. Rentec Direct prices and features change, and its pages show no effective date, so confirm every number with the vendor before you decide. Nothing here is legal advice for your situation.