If you manage a UK property portfolio in 2026, you already know that a spreadsheet is not a strategy. Between Making Tax Digital going live in April, rising compliance demands, and the expectation that every landlord now behaves like a business, the right software is no longer optional. The question is which platform is actually worth your money.
This guide covers what to look for, how the main platforms compare, and why the answer depends heavily on what kind of investor you are.
MTD is now live. From 6 April 2026, landlords earning over £50,000 must keep digital records and submit quarterly updates using MTD software. Any platform you choose must be compliant.
The term covers a wide spectrum. At one end you have basic bookkeeping tools that help you log income and expenses. At the other, you have full-stack wealth platforms that track portfolio performance, generate AI insights, handle MTD submissions, and give your agent live visibility over your assets.
Most landlords start at the simple end and outgrow it quickly. The smarter move is to start where you want to finish.
For this guide, we are focusing on platforms built for portfolio investors: landlords with two or more properties who need more than a receipt scanner.
This is now non-negotiable. If a platform is not built for MTD for Income Tax, remove it from your list. Quarterly submissions are mandatory for anyone earning over £50,000 from April 2026, and the £30,000 threshold follows in April 2027. Any software you adopt today needs to handle this without you having to export data elsewhere.
The difference between managing properties and managing a portfolio is the view from above. You need to see total equity, aggregate yield, cumulative rental income and combined mortgage exposure across every asset at once. Most cheap tools only give you a property-by-property view, which means the insight you need requires you to assemble it yourself.
Tracking rent received is not accounting. You need allowable expenses categorised correctly, mortgage interest properly split from capital repayment, wear and tear tracked, and your self-assessment data exportable in a format your accountant can actually use. Bonus if it connects directly to open banking so reconciliation happens automatically.
Gas safety certificates, EPCs, electrical reports, tenancy agreements, section 21 and section 8 notices: these all have expiry dates and legal consequences if missed. A good platform tracks them and alerts you before you become exposed.
The right software for a landlord with two properties may be completely wrong for one with fifteen. Check whether pricing scales fairly, whether there are limits on properties or users, and whether there is genuine human support available when something goes wrong.
Here is an honest overview of the main options available to UK property investors in 2026.
Disclosure. Proxera is the platform behind this site. We have been factual about competitor features. If something has changed, let us know.
| What matters | Proxera | Landlord Studio | Hammock | GetGround | Spreadsheets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MTD for Income Tax | In development | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| Open banking reconciliation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Partial | – |
| Portfolio wealth intelligence | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Document & compliance tracking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – |
| Agent / white-label portal | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| AI-powered portfolio insights | ✓ | Partial | – | – | – |
| Pricing model | Free plan, no property limit. PROXERA+ £19.95/mo | Per unit | Per property | Company-based | Free, but manual |
Last checked 1 October 2026. At-a-glance summary, based on publicly available information; features and pricing change, so check each provider for the latest.
Best for: Serious portfolio investors and investors managed by an agent partner.
Proxera was built from the ground up as a wealth intelligence platform, not a landlord app. The distinction matters. Where most tools treat your portfolio as a list of tenancies, Proxera treats it as a financial asset with performance metrics, growth projections, and tax obligations.
There is a free plan with no property limit, and PROXERA+ is £19.95/month. Agent partner plans are priced separately. There is no per-property cap.
Best for: Smaller landlords wanting clean bookkeeping with some rental management.
Landlord Studio is one of the more established UK landlord apps. It handles income and expense tracking well, has receipt scanning via mobile, and covers the basics of rental management including tenancy tracking. MTD compliance has been added, which makes it viable post-April 2026.
Where it falls short for portfolio investors is depth: there is no meaningful portfolio-level financial analysis, no agent visibility layer, and the AI features are limited compared to platforms built around them. It is a solid entry-level tool that most investors outgrow.
Best for: Landlords who want clean bank-linked accounting.
Hammock focuses on automated reconciliation via open banking and accounting clarity. It is genuinely good at what it does. The interface is clean, the bank feeds work reliably, and the financial reporting is solid.
The limitation is scope. Hammock is primarily an accounting tool. It does not offer the portfolio wealth intelligence, document compliance tracking or agent-connection features that a growing portfolio requires. MTD integration exists but the platform has not positioned itself as a full portfolio management solution.
Best for: Investors holding property through a limited company structure.
GetGround is built around the limited company buy-to-let model: they help you set up a company, hold your properties within it, and manage the associated accounting. If that is your structure, they are worth looking at. If you hold personally, their offering is not designed for you.
Their focus on company structures means they are not a general portfolio management platform and lack the wealth intelligence and compliance tools that individual landlords need.
Still surprisingly common. Fine for one or two properties. A genuine risk at five or more. The MTD mandate has effectively ended the viable life of unconnected spreadsheet-based approaches for higher earners, because quarterly digital submission requires software that HMRC recognises. A spreadsheet cannot file.
Before April 2026, you could reasonably defer this decision. Now you cannot. If you earn more than £50,000 from property, you are already in scope and you need MTD software. The platforms that built MTD compliance as a core feature rather than a bolt-on are the ones that handle it properly.
Read the full MTD guide for landlords.
The right platform depends on three questions:
For investors who are serious about their portfolio as a financial asset rather than a side income, Proxera is the platform we built for that purpose. It is the only option on this list that combines portfolio wealth intelligence, agent connection, and AI-powered portfolio insights in a single platform.
If you are earlier in your journey and cost is the priority, Landlord Studio or Hammock are reasonable starting points. You may outgrow them, but they will handle the basics competently.
What we would avoid: anything that is not MTD-compatible, anything that does not connect to your bank, and anything that cannot give you a whole-portfolio view.
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The table above covers the tools we are asked about most, but the UK market is wider. A quick, honest view of where some others fit (last checked October 2026 – check each provider for the latest):
Yes. PROXERA has a free plan for UK landlords with no property limit and no card required. You can track rent, costs, mortgages, fixed-rate end dates, equity and documents across every property in one dashboard, whether you own one or twenty. Most rival tools either charge per property or cap the free tier, so a genuinely free, uncapped plan is unusual.
At this size the deciding factor is portfolio-level visibility, not just per-property bookkeeping. You want total equity, aggregate yield, combined mortgage exposure and upcoming compliance dates in one view. PROXERA is built around that whole-portfolio view; Landlord Studio and Hammock remain strong if your priority is clean accounting and bank reconciliation; GetGround suits you if your properties are held in a limited company.
Where a provider is based matters for support and data handling. In short: PROXERA is a UK company, Proxera Ltd, registered in England and Wales and based in Canary Wharf, London. Hammock and GetGround are UK companies, both London-based. Landlord Studio offers a UK product and also operates internationally. Check each provider's site for current company details.
Track every property's rent, costs, mortgage, equity and documents in one dashboard. Free for UK landlords, no card required.
Create your free accountWhat is the best property management software for UK landlords in 2026?
It depends on your portfolio. Proxera suits serious portfolio investors who want portfolio wealth intelligence and an agent portal in one place. Landlord Studio and Hammock are solid for smaller landlords who mainly need bookkeeping, and GetGround fits investors holding property through a limited company. Spreadsheets no longer meet Making Tax Digital for higher earners.
Does property management software need to be MTD compatible?
If your gross property income is over £50,000 you are in scope for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from April 2026, and you must keep digital records and file quarterly using compatible software. A spreadsheet cannot file, so MTD support is now a baseline requirement rather than a nice-to-have.
How much should property management software cost?
Pricing models vary more than the headline price. Some tools charge per property or per unit, so the cost climbs as your portfolio grows; others, like Proxera, offer a free plan with no property limit and a flat £19.95 a month for PROXERA+ on top. Judge it on the cost per property at the size you are actually at.
Is a spreadsheet enough to manage rental properties?
It can work for one or two properties, but it becomes a real risk at five or more, and it cannot meet Making Tax Digital because it cannot file quarterly digital updates. Most investors move to software as they scale, for both compliance and visibility.
What is the difference between a landlord app and a property wealth platform?
A landlord app manages tenancies, rent and bookkeeping. A property wealth platform such as Proxera treats the portfolio as a financial asset, adding equity and yield tracking, capital growth and AI-powered insights, so you can see performance and plan, not just record transactions.
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