Compare rent collection software for UK landlords. We look at regular payments, late rent reminders, payment tracking, pricing and independent customer reviews.
Looking for property management or accounting tools too? See our Software for Landlords guide.
Quick answer
Top pick: OpenRent — 94/100
OpenRent collects rent, tracks whether it has arrived and automatically follows up when payments are late. Smart Rent Collection costs £10 per month and is designed specifically for UK landlords.
Best for larger portfolios: PayProp — 88/100
PayProp automatically matches incoming rent to the correct tenant and property, tracks arrears and handles landlord and contractor payments. However, its starting cost makes it much better suited to landlords with larger portfolios.
Compare rent collection software
| Tool | Best for | Viaqo score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRent | Overall | 94/100 | £10/mo* |
| PayProp | Large portfolios | 88/100 | From £79/mo** |
*OpenRent Smart Rent Collection costs £10 per month and is VAT exempt. It is available as part of OpenRent’s Rent Now tenancy service.
**PayProp licences start at £79 per month. There is also a one-off setup fee of £600–£2,000 and a service fee of less than 1% of the rent processed. Pricing varies with portfolio size.
Prices checked October 2026.
We only include products in the table when we are comfortable recommending them. GoCardless is discussed later on this page but is not in our top recommendations because current independent customer feedback is poor.
Why this ranking?
OpenRent takes first place because Smart Rent Collection is designed for the exact problem most small landlords need to solve. Rent is paid to OpenRent, matched to the tenancy and passed to the landlord. The service also tracks payment status and automatically chases overdue rent.
Independent feedback for OpenRent as a whole is also strong. It currently has a 4.4/5 Trustpilot rating from around 8,600 reviews. These reviews cover OpenRent’s wider service rather than Smart Rent Collection alone, so we do not treat the rating as a product-specific score.
PayProp comes second because its rent and payment tools are much more powerful for larger portfolios. Incoming payments can be matched automatically to the correct tenant and property, arrears can be monitored and landlords or contractors can be paid without manually checking bank transactions. PayProp itself says the service is best suited to self-managing portfolio landlords and letting agencies rather than landlords with only a few properties.
Its independent feedback is positive but limited. PayProp currently has 4.5/5 from 13 Capterra reviews, so we give that rating less weight than a score based on hundreds or thousands of reviews.
OpenRent — Best overall
Viaqo score: 94/100
OpenRent’s Smart Rent Collection service is designed specifically for landlords.
Tenants pay rent to OpenRent using the payment details provided for their tenancy. OpenRent matches the payment and transfers the money to the landlord once it arrives.
Why we like it
- Fixed £10 monthly price
- Designed for UK landlords
- Automatic rent tracking
- Late-payment alerts
- Automatic reminders to tenants
- Clear payment status
- Dedicated payment details for the tenancy
- Landlord bank details stay private
- Rent transferred once received
- Can be cancelled
OpenRent says it monitors late payments and automatically chases them. The landlord can see the payment status from the dashboard rather than checking a bank account manually.
What to watch
Smart Rent Collection is not a completely standalone service.
It is available as part of a tenancy created through OpenRent’s Rent Now service. Landlords who do not use Rent Now cannot simply subscribe to Smart Rent Collection for an existing tenancy. OpenRent
Ongoing rent is also paid by UK bank transfer, not Direct Debit or card. OpenRent recommends that tenants set up a standing order if they want the payment to happen automatically every month.
That means OpenRent monitors and manages the payment process, but it does not pull the money automatically from the tenant’s bank account.
The service also cannot guarantee payment. If a tenant does not have enough money or chooses not to pay, OpenRent can identify the missed payment and chase it, but it cannot remove the risk of rent arrears.
Pricing
- Smart Rent Collection: £10/month
- VAT: exempt
A Rent Now tenancy is required separately.
Customer feedback
OpenRent currently has 4.4/5 on Trustpilot from around 8,600 reviews. Recent feedback is generally positive about ease of use and the wider landlord service, although some customers report problems with support or parts of the website.
The reviews cover OpenRent as a whole, not only Smart Rent Collection.
Best for: Private landlords already using OpenRent who want rent monitoring and late-payment chasing handled for them.
PayProp — Best for larger portfolios
Viaqo score: 88/100
PayProp is designed for businesses and portfolio landlords handling larger numbers of rental payments.
It automatically matches incoming rent to the correct tenant and property. It can also track arrears, keep payment records and send money to landlords and contractors.
Why we like it
- Automatic rent matching
- Arrears tracking
- Payment records
- Multiple properties and tenancies
- Landlord payments
- Contractor payments
- Financial records by property
- Useful for larger portfolios
- Unlimited user accounts
- Fast landlord payments
PayProp says that landlords managing anything from around 20 properties to much larger portfolios can use the same system to monitor rent, arrears, invoices and payments.
For a landlord managing many tenancies, that can remove a large amount of manual payment checking.
What to watch
The main drawback is price.
PayProp licences start from £79 per month. There is also a one-off setup fee of £600–£2,000 depending on portfolio size, plus a service fee of less than 1% of the rent processed.
That makes it difficult to justify for someone with one or two rental properties.
PayProp itself says the product provides the most value to self-managing portfolio landlords and letting agencies, rather than accidental landlords with only a small number of properties.
Independent feedback is positive but limited. Capterra currently shows 4.5/5 from just 13 reviews.
Pricing
- Licence: from £79/month
- Setup fee: £600–£2,000
- Service fee: less than 1% of rent processed
The final price depends on the size of the portfolio.
Best for: Self-managing landlords with larger portfolios where rent administration has become a significant amount of work.
Also considered: GoCardless
GoCardless remains an interesting option because it lets landlords collect regular rent by Direct Debit.
Its Standard plan has no setup fee and charges 1% + 20p per UK transaction, capped at £4. An additional 0.3% applies to Direct Debit payments above £2,000.
On features and price alone, that would make GoCardless a serious candidate.
However, we have not included it in our top recommendations because current independent customer feedback is poor.
GoCardless currently has a 2.3/5 Trustpilot rating from 2,492 reviews. Trustpilot’s current review summary highlights recurring complaints around customer service, account checks and access to funds. Recent individual reviews also include complaints about account closures and payments being held.
There are positive reviews too, and GoCardless replies to most negative feedback. But for a service handling rent payments, we think the current level of negative feedback is important enough that landlords should consider it carefully before signing up.
Where GoCardless may still make sense
It may still be worth considering if:
- Direct Debit is particularly important to you;
- you want pay-as-you-go pricing;
- you do not need landlord-management software;
- you are comfortable reviewing the current customer feedback yourself.
We would not currently rank it above OpenRent or PayProp.
What should landlords look for in rent collection software?
Good rent collection software should make one question easy to answer:
Has the rent been paid?
Check these areas first:
- Regular payments: can payments happen automatically?
- Payment tracking: can you quickly see whether rent has arrived?
- Late-payment alerts: are you told when rent is overdue?
- Tenant reminders: will the service chase missed payments?
- Payment history: can you see what was paid and when?
- Fees: is pricing fixed or based on the amount collected?
- Payout speed: how quickly does rent reach your bank?
- Multiple properties: can each tenancy be identified clearly?
- Cancellation: can you stop the service easily?
- Customer support: what happens when a payment goes wrong?
For a landlord with one reliable tenant, dedicated rent collection software may not be necessary.
Standing order or Direct Debit?
A standing order and Direct Debit both allow regular payments, but they work differently.
With a standing order, the tenant tells their bank to send a fixed payment regularly.
With Direct Debit, the landlord or payment provider asks the tenant’s bank for the agreed payment.
A standing order is simple and usually free. However, the landlord normally has to check whether the money arrived.
Direct Debit gives the payment collector more control over when the payment is requested.
OpenRent currently uses bank transfers for ongoing rent and recommends that tenants create a standing order for automatic monthly payments. GoCardless uses Direct Debit.
Do landlords need rent collection software?
Not always.
If you have one tenant who pays reliably by standing order every month, checking your bank account may be enough.
Rent collection software becomes more useful when:
- you manage several tenancies;
- checking payments takes time;
- you regularly chase late rent;
- you want automatic reminders;
- you want clearer payment records;
- you want someone else to monitor whether the rent arrived.
The more tenancies you manage, the more useful automation becomes.
What happens if a tenant does not pay?
Rent collection software can spot and chase a missed payment, but it cannot guarantee that rent will be paid.
If OpenRent does not receive the expected rent, it can alert the landlord and follow up with the tenant.
A Direct Debit can also fail if there is not enough money in the tenant’s account or if another banking problem occurs.
Rent collection software should therefore be seen as a payment and admin tool, not rent guarantee insurance.
Rent collection software and landlord software are different
Landlord software helps manage properties and tenancies. That can include maintenance, documents, tenant information and important dates.
Rent collection software focuses on getting rent paid, recording payments and identifying missed rent.
Some landlord products include rent tracking, but tracking a payment is not always the same as collecting it.
That is why Viaqo compares the two types of software separately.
How Viaqo compares rent collection software
We compare payment methods, payment tracking, late-rent tools, payout speed, pricing and independent customer feedback.
We also consider who each product is actually designed for. A landlord with one property has very different needs from a landlord managing 50 tenancies.
Customer feedback matters particularly on this page because these services handle money. A low price or good feature list is not enough on its own if there are serious concerns in current independent reviews.
Standard prices are used where possible. Promotional prices are not presented as normal prices.
Affiliate commissions never affect Viaqo scores or rankings.
Sources — checked October 2026
- OpenRent — Smart Rent Collection pricing and payment process.
- PayProp — portfolio landlord features and UK pricing.
- GoCardless — UK Direct Debit pricing and landlord payment information.
- Independent customer feedback — Trustpilot for OpenRent and GoCardless, and Capterra for PayProp.
Looking for property management or accounting too? See our Landlord Software and Landlord Accounting Software comparisons.