Comparison

ProperLease vs per-door property management software

The large platforms are built for property management companies with hundreds of units and staff to run them. If you own three doors and manage them yourself, you are paying for an org chart you do not have.

Start free with one property One property free, forever. Priced for the portfolio, never per door.
1flat price for the whole portfolio, however many doors
48provinces and states with a lease document built in
0staff seats, work order queues or owner statements you have to configure

Property management software as a category grew up serving management companies. That shapes everything about it: user roles and permissions, work order queues routed to staff, owner statements produced for third-party clients, and pricing commonly charged per door per month, often with a monthly minimum that a small portfolio hits long before it fills.

None of that is a criticism. It is a description of who the category was built for. The question worth asking is whether you are that buyer. A self-managing owner with two to ten doors usually is not, and ends up paying a minimum, using a fraction of the product, and still opening a word processor when a lease is needed.

This page names no vendor, because pricing and features in that category change often and we are not willing to put a number next to someone else's name. Compare against whichever platform you are considering, on their own site.

Where ProperLease wins

The honest case for choosing ProperLease over a per-door platform.

The price does not scale with your doors

Premium is $14.99 CAD a month or $99 CAD a year for everything you own, with one property free, forever. Per-door pricing with a monthly minimum has the awkward property that the smallest landlords pay the most per unit, which is the opposite of how it should work.

Nothing to configure before it is useful

There are no roles to assign, no approval chains, no owner entities, no work order routing. You add a property, add a tenant, and the product is doing its job the same evening.

Jurisdiction lease documents are the point, not an add-on

Canadian provincial forms and US state leases are core to ProperLease rather than a document library sold separately. In Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec, ProperLease fills the actual government PDF.

Built for the owner, not for a manager reporting to an owner

There is no client-facing layer, because you are the client. The dashboard answers the questions an owner asks: did rent arrive, what is this door actually earning, what do I owe back in deposits.

Where a per-door platform is the better choice

A comparison you can trust has to be able to say this part out loud. Here is where they genuinely win.

Collecting rent online, end to end

The larger platforms typically include payment rails so tenants pay through the software and the ledger updates itself. ProperLease records payments, it does not process them. If you want rent to arrive without you touching it, that is a real reason to look elsewhere.

Tenant portals, applications and screening

If you advertise units regularly, take online applications, and run credit and background screening, the big platforms handle that pipeline and ProperLease does not. The same goes for maintenance ticketing routed to contractors.

Scale, staff and third-party owners

Past roughly fifty doors, or the moment you manage property on behalf of someone else, you need permissions, owner statements and trust accounting. That is exactly what the per-door platforms were built to do, and paying per door starts to look reasonable once each door pays a fee.

Side by side

ProperLease against a per-door platform, feature by feature.

 ProperLeasea per-door platform
Leases and documents
Province and state lease documentsFills the official government form in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec. Generates a residential lease carrying the required disclosures in 45 US states.Commonly offered as a template library or an e-signature add-on. Coverage of specific provincial and state forms varies a great deal, so check the ones you need.
Late rent and eviction noticesPlain-English notice templates filled from the tenancy record, emailed, and logged with the date they went out. They are our own wording, not the tribunal's official form.Usually present in some form, often tied to the platform's own communications module.
Move-in and move-out condition reportsBuilt in, photo backed, attached to the tenancy so move-out compares against move-in.Often available, sometimes as a separate inspections product or tier.
Documents stored against the tenancyDocuments attach to the tenant and the lease: the signed lease, ID, insurance, the move-in inspection. They sit on the record they belong to, not in a folder.Generally strong. Document storage against properties and tenancies is standard in the category.
Rent and money
Dated rent ledger per tenantEvery payment is a permanent dated entry. Nothing is overwritten, so the history survives.Generally strong, and usually fed automatically when rent is paid through the platform.
Late rent surfaced without you lookingExpected rent is compared to what arrived. Anything short or missing is flagged on the dashboard and in your inbox.Generally strong, with automated reminders and late fee rules.
Deposits tracked as money you owe backHeld separately from rent, so the balance you owe at move-out is never guesswork.Typically handled, sometimes with trust accounting built for managers holding other people's money.
Expenses tracked per propertyCategorised per property and unit, with receipts attached, as you spend rather than in April.Typically handled, often with an accounting integration attached.
Tax and reporting
Year-end reports built for the T776 and Schedule EOne export per property, with the categories already lined up to the form your accountant is filling in.Reporting is usually broad. Output shaped specifically to the T776 or Schedule E is less commonly a stated feature.
Real cashflow per propertyRent in, expenses out, per door, so you can see which property is actually earning.Generally strong, frequently presented as owner statements rather than as an owner's own dashboard.
Dated record of what you sentEvery notice and reminder ProperLease sends is logged with the recipient, the date and the time. A resend adds an entry rather than replacing one.Generally strong. Audit logging matters to the category's core buyer.
Cost and effort
How it is pricedone property free, forever. Premium is $14.99 CAD a month or $99 CAD a year for the whole portfolio. No per-door charge, no per-document fee.Commonly priced per door per month, often with a monthly minimum, which a small portfolio pays in full. Check the vendor's own site for current terms.
Time to get runningAn evening. Add a property, add a tenant, import your payment history from CSV.Longer. Roles, entities and workflows are usually configured before the product earns its keep.
Works from your phoneA native iPhone app. Mark rent paid, photograph a receipt, start a condition report from the doorway.Usually a mobile app, often with separate manager and tenant experiences.

This comparison reflects publicly available information as of September 21, 2026, plus our own reading of how these approaches work in practice. Products and prices change, and we do not publish other vendors' prices here. Check the vendor's own site before you decide. If you think something on this page is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.

Frequently asked questions

Why does this page not name a specific product?

Because we are not prepared to publish someone else's price or feature list and risk being wrong. Pricing and features in that category change frequently. We describe the category's shape, which is stable, and point you at the vendor's own site for specifics.

At what portfolio size should I move to a per-door platform?

There is no exact line, but the practical triggers are these: you start managing property for other owners, you take on staff, or you want tenants paying through the software rather than sending you an e-transfer. Any one of those is a better reason to switch than door count alone.

Does ProperLease collect rent from tenants?

No. Tenants pay you however they pay you today, and you record the payment against the tenancy, including the method. That keeps the ledger accurate and the deposit balance honest, but the money does not move through ProperLease. If end to end rent collection is what you need, a payments-first platform is the right choice.

Does ProperLease charge per unit?

No. One property free, forever, then Premium at $14.99 CAD a month or $99 CAD a year for the whole portfolio, whether that is two doors or twenty. Nothing about your bill changes when you buy another property.

Can ProperLease handle a portfolio of ten units?

Comfortably. Two to ten doors is the size the product is shaped around: enough units that a spreadsheet has stopped working, not enough to justify per-door software with a staff model attached.

ProperLease for 2 to 10 door portfoliosBuild a rent collection systemKnow your real cashflowLease documents by province and state

Run your rentals with absolute clarity

ProperLease helps self-managing landlords in Canada and the US track rent, generate provincial and state leases, serve notices, and stay tax ready.