Letting Agency Software: An Honest Buyer's Guide for Small UK Agencies

Letting agency software is five products, not one

Search for letting agency software and you get a list of names that do very different jobs. Some run your client accounts. Some reference tenants. Some only build websites. Buying well starts with knowing which job you are buying for, because no small agency needs all of them on day one.

This guide sorts the market into five categories, says what each does and who needs it, explains how each is usually priced, and ends with a decision table. Prices are described by model; where a figure appears, it was on the vendor's own page on 23 September 2026, so check the vendor's page before you rely on it.

The five categories of letting agent software

1. CRM and back office, with client accounting

This is the system of record: landlords, tenants, properties, tenancies, compliance dates, and the client accounting that tracks rent in, fees out and money owed to landlords. Many also send properties to the portals. Reapit, Alto (part of Zoopla) and Street are examples; Jupix, also Zoopla's, is closed to new customers.

• Who needs it: any agency that collects rent or holds client money, and any agency past a handful of managed properties. Client accounting on a spreadsheet does not scale.
• How it is priced: quote-based. Expect a conversation with sales, a contract term, a migration period and sometimes a setup fee. Some price per user, others per property or tenancy.
• Choose one if: you manage tenancies and handle money. That is what these do better than anything else here.

2. Website vendors

A site that shows your properties, captures enquiries and valuation requests, and carries your brand. Property specialists such as Homeflow and Starberry build CRM-fed sites, often with SEO and marketing services. WordPress with the Property Hive plugin is the do-it-yourself route: the plugin is free, and its pricing page lists imports at £199 a year and portal exports at £299 a year.

• Who needs it: everyone. A lettings agency without its own site relies entirely on portals and referrals.
• How it is priced: agency builds are usually quote-based with a monthly fee; plugins and self-serve platforms publish their prices.
• Choose a specialist if: brand and marketing are your priority and you already run a CRM. We cover what a good site must do in letting agency website design.

3. Referencing and tenancy progression

From offer to move-in: referencing, guarantors, right to rent checks, contracts and e-signature, holding deposits and first payments. Goodlord is the best-known specialist; OpenRent offers referencing and contracts per let; Rightmove also sells tenancy progression tools.

• Who needs it: any agency letting properties regularly. It is a compliance-heavy stretch where a mistake costs money.
• How it is priced: usually a monthly fee plus a price per tenancy or per reference. Goodlord publishes no price; OpenRent's per-let prices are on its site.
• Choose one if: your bottleneck is getting from "yes" to keys without missing a step.

4. Maintenance and property management

Repairs reporting, contractor jobs, inspections, certificates and tenant apps. Fixflo handles repairs only: its pricing page showed £75 a month with price on request and a 50-property minimum. Arthur Online covers wider property management: from £82.50 a month including 55 units, billed annually, on its pricing page.

• Who needs it: agencies with a managed portfolio. A tenant-find-only agency may never need it.
• Choose one if: your time goes on tenancies after they start.

5. The portals' own tools

Rightmove sells enquiry management, lead qualification and tenancy tools alongside its advertising. For scale: Rightmove's half-year financial report (31 July 2026) put the average monthly revenue per agency advertiser at £1,636 in the first half of 2026. That is an average per advertiser, usually a branch, not what any one agency pays.

• Who needs it: agencies that advertise on Rightmove, Zoopla or OnTheMarket, because that is where applicants search.
• Choose them if: you need portal-scale demand. Few agencies can do without it, so treat portal tools as alongside your own site, not instead of it.

How letting agency software is priced

Two habits make comparison fair. First, work out the cost for your first year and your second, including setup and migration. Second, convert everything to the same unit: per month for your agency as it is today. Our spend calculator does the arithmetic with your numbers, and nothing you type leaves the page.

Best letting agent software for the UK: it depends on your stage

There is no single best letting agent software for the UK, because agencies at different stages need different things. This table is a starting point.

If you are setting up from scratch, what it costs to start a letting agency in the UK puts these tools next to the other start-up costs.

Questions to ask before you sign

1. What is the total cost for year one and year two, including setup and migration?
2. How long is the contract, and what happens at the end of it?
3. What does adding one person, or fifty properties, do to the price?
4. Can I export all my data, in a usable format, if I leave?
5. Which other tools does it connect to, and who pays for the connection?
6. What does it deliberately not do? A vendor that can answer this quickly usually knows its product.

Where Loftfolio fits

Loftfolio is a website vendor with an applicant pipeline behind it: the front door, not the back office. It gives you a lettings website at yourname.loftfolio.com, live the same afternoon, and enquiries made through that site arrive as applications the whole team can see. Enquiries from portals, email or the phone do not arrive in it; the honest workflow is to reply with the property's link so they apply there. Applicants book their own viewings with email confirmations and reminders, landlord leads go on a valuations board, and on Pro and Agency an owner portal lets landlords check progress instead of calling.

It does not do client accounting, referencing, contracts, maintenance or portal feeds, and custom domains are not available today. It sits alongside a CRM, a referencing provider and your portals rather than replacing them. It is US$39, US$99 or US$249 a month for one, three or ten people, charged in US dollars, with no contract. Read what it does not do before you look at the plans.