Free landlord software in 2026: what happened to Cozy and which options actually work

Cozy was discontinued in July 2021 after being acquired by Apartments.com – the platform no longer exists, and all user accounts were automatically migrated to Apartments.com Rental Manager by mid-2021.

Here’s the timeline that Fort Worth landlords need to know. CoStar Group (Apartments.com’s parent company) acquired Cozy in 2018. The platform kept running under the Cozy brand until July 2021, when CoStar pulled the plug. Every active Cozy account – if you were actively collecting rent or screening tenants – got auto-migrated to Apartments.com Rental Manager between July and August 2021.

What survived the migration: free rent collection with $0 tenant ACH fees, online tenant screening through TransUnion, digital lease signing, and basic maintenance request tracking. Apartments.com kept what made Cozy popular – the zero-fee model that didn’t punish tenants for paying rent electronically.

What got lost: some of Cozy’s more robust financial reporting features and the simpler interface that made it easy for landlords managing 1-3 properties. Apartments.com Rental Manager skews toward larger portfolios and property managers, not the solo Fort Worth landlord renting out a house in Keller.

The migration had restrictions. If your Cozy account was dormant – no active rent collection, no recent screening activity – you didn’t automatically transfer. CoStar only migrated accounts that demonstrated active property management. Some landlords logged in one day and found their Cozy dashboard replaced with a “You’ve been moved to Apartments.com” message. Others just got locked out.

Why people still search for Cozy in 2026: brand recognition and search habits die hard. Cozy built a reputation as the landlord-friendly alternative to tenant-fee-heavy competitors. Five years after shutdown, “Cozy landlord software” still pulls 2,400 monthly searches from landlords who don’t know it’s gone.

If you were a Cozy user and never migrated, here’s what to do: go directly to Apartments.com Rental Manager. Don’t try to log into Cozy – that domain redirects to CoStar’s corporate site. Your old Cozy login credentials won’t work. You’re starting fresh with a new account.

Best free landlord software for Fort Worth single-family rentals in 2026

For Fort Worth landlords managing 1-3 single-family homes, TurboTenant and Innago offer the best free experience with unlimited properties and zero learning curve – while TenantCloud’s 75-unit free tier is best for slightly larger portfolios willing to trade ease-of-use for accounting features.

Apartments.com Rental Manager

(formerly Cozy) remains the best option if tenant experience matters to you. $0/month for unlimited units. Zero tenant ACH fees – your renters pay nothing to submit rent electronically. That matters in Fort Worth’s competitive market where three comparable 3BR homes at $2,100/month are sitting next to each other on Zillow. The tenant who sees “$0 fees” versus “$2 ACH fee + $45 application” is picking the zero-fee landlord.

But the interface is clunky for single-family landlords. Apartments.com built this for property managers running 20+ units across multiple buildings. If you’re managing scattered houses in Fort Worth, Haslet, and Keller, the dashboard feels like overkill. You’ll spend extra time navigating features you don’t need.

If tracking the competitive edge in Fort Worth’s rental market feels exhausting – it is. That’s why many landlords managing 4+ scattered single-family homes hand off the software juggling to professionals who run these systems daily. Learn more about property management services or call (817) 445-1108 to discuss whether DIY software or full-service management fits your portfolio better.

TenantCloud

gives you the most generous free tier – 75 units – with solid accounting features built in. Track income and expenses by property. Generate basic tax reports. Schedule rent collection with automatic late fee calculations. For Fort Worth landlords managing 4-10 single-family homes, this is where the free tier actually handles real portfolio work.

The catch: TenantCloud charges your tenants $2 per ACH payment. That’s $24/year per tenant if they pay monthly. Not catastrophic, but it’s friction. And it’s competitive disadvantage. User ratings show the struggle – 3.9/5 ease of use on Capterra versus TurboTenant’s 4.8/5. Customer support response times hit 4+ days based on Reddit user reports and G2 reviews.

When TenantCloud works: you’re managing 6-8 properties, you value accounting features over tenant experience, and you’re comfortable with longer support wait times when issues pop up.

TurboTenant

nails the sweet spot for 1-5 Fort Worth single-family rentals. Free forever. Unlimited properties. 4.8/5 ease-of-use rating because the interface is clean and the onboarding walks you through setup in 15 minutes. Tenant screening criteria includes TransUnion credit reports ($35 tenant-paid application fee), and the platform generates basic lease agreements that cover Texas requirements at a surface level.

Where it falls short: accounting is basic. You can track rent payments and generate reports, but if you want property-level P&L statements or QuickBooks sync, you’re upgrading to paid tiers. And Texas-specific lease compliance – the detailed mold disclosures, lead paint warnings, and security deposit clauses that keep you compliant with Texas Property Code §92.103 – requires manual insertion or a Pro tier upgrade.

Innago

is the dark horse. Free forever for unlimited units. Highest user ratings among free platforms – 4.9/5 on Capterra. Zero tenant ACH fees like Apartments.com. The interface is modern, the mobile app is responsive, and Fort Worth landlords managing scattered single-family homes report the property-level organization makes sense for how they operate.

The limitation: advanced accounting features are thinner than TenantCloud. You get rent tracking and basic expense logging, but complex P&L by property or year-end tax report generation requires more manual export work. For 1-3 properties, this isn’t painful. At 5+, you feel it.

Fort Worth context matters here. You’re not managing a 40-unit apartment complex in downtown Fort Worth. You’ve got a house in Keller, a townhome in North Richland Hills, and maybe a duplex in Haslet. You need software that tracks properties individually – not buildings with floors and units. TurboTenant and Innago understand this. TenantCloud’s interface can handle it but feels overbuilt. Apartments.com wants you to think in buildings and floors even when you’re managing scattered single-family homes.

TenantCloud deep dive: pricing, features, and hidden limitations

TenantCloud’s free plan supports 75 units with solid accounting features, but hidden friction includes $2 tenant ACH fees, 4+ day support response times, and no state-specific Texas leases unless you upgrade to Pro ($35-60/month).

The free plan gives you more than most landlords need for basic operations. Track 75 units – way beyond what the average Fort Worth landlord managing 4-10 single-family homes requires. Generate tax reports. Schedule rent collection with automatic late fee calculations. Create basic lease agreements. Log maintenance requests. Track expenses by property. That’s a real accounting toolkit on a $0 budget.

Paid tiers unlock automation and compliance. Starter tier runs $15-18/month and adds QuickBooks sync, bulk messaging to tenants, and online rent payments with unlimited properties. Growth tier hits $9-35/month depending on unit count and includes automated lease renewals and advanced reporting. Pro tier is where Texas landlords need to pay attention: $35-60/month gets you state-specific lease templates with Texas-required mold disclosures, lead paint warnings, and security deposit clauses that keep you compliant.

The $2 ACH fee problem creates competitive friction. Your Fort Worth tenant paying $2,100/month for a 3BR house doesn’t want to pay an extra $2 every time they submit rent electronically. That’s $24/year. Compare that to Apartments.com or Innago where ACH transfers are free to the tenant. If three comparable properties are listed side-by-side, the tenant picks the one without monthly transaction fees.

TenantCloud does offer a workaround – their rent reporting feature that reports on-time payments to credit bureaus is free to tenants and includes free ACH. But it requires tenants to opt into credit reporting, which not everyone wants.

Customer support issues surface consistently in user reviews. Reddit threads from Fort Worth landlords show 4+ day response times when technical issues hit. G2 reviews average 4.2/5 – solid but not stellar – with complaints centered on slow support and clunky mobile app performance. If you’re managing 8 properties and rent collection breaks on the first of the month, four days for a support response is four days of manual rent tracking.

When to upgrade from TenantCloud’s free tier: you hit 4-10 properties and spend 6+ hours monthly doing manual accounting work that paid tiers automate. That’s QuickBooks sync saving you 2 hours monthly reconciling transactions. That’s bulk communication saving you 1 hour monthly copying-and-pasting the same message to eight tenants. That’s automated lease renewal notifications saving you 30 minutes per property annually.

If your time is worth $25/hour and paid features save you 6 hours monthly, that’s $150 in time value against a $35/month Pro tier cost. The math works.

Managing two Fort Worth single-family homes and not planning to expand past four properties? The free tier works fine. Just know your tenants are paying $2 per ACH payment, and you’re manually inserting Texas-specific lease clauses that Pro tiers auto-populate.

The real cost of ‘free’ software: time, tenant experience, and competitive disadvantage

Free landlord software costs you 11.2 hours per month in manual work – and if your time is worth $25/hour, that’s $280 in hidden costs that make a $35/month paid plan look like a bargain.

Let’s run the real math on two Fort Worth landlords managing four single-family rentals.

Landlord A uses TenantCloud’s free tier. Tenants pay $45 application fees (standard across platforms) plus $2 per ACH payment. First-year tenant costs: $45 application + $24 in ACH fees = $69. Monthly time commitment: 11-12 hours tracking rent payments in a spreadsheet, manually calculating late fees per Texas Property Code requirements, logging maintenance requests in a separate system, and preparing year-end tax documents by exporting CSV files and categorizing expenses in Excel.

Landlord B uses Apartments.com Rental Manager. Tenants pay $35 application fees, zero ACH fees. First-year tenant costs: $35 total. Monthly time commitment: 3-4 hours because rent tracking, late fee calculations, and maintenance logging run automatically. Tax document prep still requires manual work but imports clean data instead of raw CSV files.

The tenant fee difference matters. Fort Worth renters comparing properties see Landlord A’s $69 first-year costs versus Landlord B’s $35. If both properties are 3BR homes in North Richland Hills listed at $2,100/month, identical finishes, same school district – the tenant picks Landlord B. Lower friction to move in. Lower ongoing costs to stay.

Time cost breaks down like this. Free software requires:

• 3 hours monthly tracking rent payments, marking late payments, calculating late fees
• 2 hours monthly logging and responding to maintenance requests manually
• 2 hours monthly updating property accounting spreadsheets
• 1.5 hours monthly generating reports for tax prep or portfolio review
• 2.5 hours monthly communicating with tenants (individual emails instead of bulk messaging)
• 0.2 hours monthly troubleshooting software glitches or missing features

That’s 11.2 hours monthly. Paid software with automation cuts this to 3-5 hours by eliminating manual rent tracking, auto-calculating late fees, integrating maintenance requests with accounting, and enabling bulk tenant communication.

That math changes if you’re managing 1-2 properties or value your time below $20/hour. At two properties, time commitment drops to 5-6 hours monthly on free software. If you’re comfortable with manual tracking and value your time at $15/hour, you’re looking at $90 in monthly time costs. Paying $35/month for automation doesn’t make sense yet.

Competitive disadvantage shows up in reducing tenant turnover too. Tenants staying longer because rent payments are frictionless and maintenance requests get logged and resolved quickly. That’s one fewer vacancy annually – worth $1,900 in lost rent during turnover plus $800-1,200 in cleaning and maintenance. Free software with clunky maintenance tracking and tenant-paid fees increases turnover risk.

Manual tasks that free tiers don’t automate: Late fee calculations based on Texas Property Code §92.019 (landlord can charge “reasonable” late fees after grace period). Property-level P&L statements showing income and expenses per property for tax filing. Automated lease renewal reminders 60 days before expiration. Bulk messaging to all tenants about property updates or rent increase notices. Integration with QuickBooks for seamless accounting.

You can do all of this manually. Fort Worth landlords did it for decades before software existed. But the opportunity cost is real. That 8-10 hours monthly you reclaim by automating these tasks – that’s time spent screening better tenants, handling strategic property decisions, or not thinking about landlording at all.

Texas-specific requirements: does free software handle Fort Worth compliance?

Free landlord software can handle basic Texas security deposit tracking (§92.103 30-day returns), but proper Texas lease compliance with state-required mold and lead disclosures requires upgrading to Pro tiers ($35-60/month) on most platforms.

Texas Property Code §92.103 is non-negotiable. You have 30 days from tenant move-out to return the security deposit or provide an itemized list of deductions. Miss that deadline and you’re paying the tenant’s security deposit plus $100, court costs, and attorney fees. Then triple damages if the tenant proves you acted in bad faith.

All free platforms – Apartments.com, TenantCloud, TurboTenant, Innago – track security deposits and send automated reminders as the 30-day deadline approaches. That’s baseline compliance. Where free tiers fall short: generating the itemized deduction letter with proper Texas-specific language and tracking repair costs against the deposit amount in a format that meets Texas legal standards.

Required disclosures hit harder. Texas law requires mold notifications in every lease agreement – you must inform tenants about mold prevention and give them instructions on reporting moisture issues. Federal law requires lead paint disclosures for homes built before 1978 (most Fort Worth rental stock). Free tier lease templates give you generic clauses that touch on these issues but don’t include the specific Texas-approved language that keeps you compliant.

TenantCloud’s Pro tier ($35-60/month) includes state-specific Texas lease templates with mold notifications, lead paint disclosures, and security deposit clauses written to Texas Property Code standards. TurboTenant and other platforms require similar upgrades to access Texas-compliant forms – or you manually insert the language yourself, which takes 20-30 minutes per lease and creates legal risk if you miss required clauses.

Three-day notice for non-payment of rent is where Texas Property Code compliance gets specific. Texas requires landlords to give tenants written notice demanding payment within three days before filing eviction. The notice must include specific language about the tenant’s right to retrieve belongings and cannot demand more than the rent due plus late fees. Free software generates basic “pay or quit” notices but doesn’t always match Texas legal requirements for wording and format.

Free tier limitations force manual work. You’re downloading a generic lease template, opening Texas Property Code §92, and manually copying required clauses about mold, security deposits, and late fees. Then you’re triple-checking that your three-day notice matches the wording Texas courts expect. Doable for 1-2 properties. Risky at 4+ properties where one missed clause in one lease creates liability.

Pro tier benefits beyond templates: automated compliance tracking that flags upcoming security deposit deadlines, lease expiration dates, and renewal notice timelines. Bulk generation of Texas-compliant notices when rent is late. Integration with local Fort Worth and Tarrant County court filing systems for eviction paperwork (though you’ll still need an attorney for contested evictions).

Security deposit tracking works on all free tiers – that’s the low-hanging fruit. Platforms log deposits, track balances, and generate basic refund letters. But the itemized deduction process that meets Texas legal standards (proper categorization, repair cost documentation, contractor invoices) requires Pro features or manual tracking.

If you’re managing 1-2 Fort Worth single-family homes and comfortable reading Texas Property Code sections yourself, free software works with manual compliance insertion. At 3+ properties or if you want automated protection against missed deadlines and improperly worded notices, Pro tiers ($35-60/month) stop being optional and start being liability insurance.

Fort Worth landlords who’ve been through a security deposit dispute in Tarrant County JP Court know – one missed 30-day deadline costs you triple damages (a $1,800 deposit becomes $5,400 plus court costs). That’s 150 months of Pro tier software fees. The compliance automation pays for itself the first time it saves you from a deadline mistake.