I’ve been trying out different rent payment and rental management apps, but I’m worried about hidden fees, data security, and unreliable customer support. I’d really appreciate honest reviews and real user experiences with popular rent apps, including which ones are most trustworthy and easy to use for both tenants and landlords.
Been through a bunch of these the last 3 years as a small landlord + tenant at different times. Here is what I ran into, no fluff.
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Zelle
Good for: Simple rent payments if your bank supports it.
Fees: Usually no fees for you or tenant.
Data: Runs through your bank, so you deal with bank security, not a random app.
Issues: No automatic receipts. No easy dispute process. No built-in lease or maintenance tracking. Tenants sometimes send to wrong email or phone and it becomes a mess.
Verdict: Use if you trust your tenant and want simple payments with no extras. -
Venmo / Cash App
Good for: Quick transfers, casual situations, roommates.
Fees: Instant transfer to bank costs extra. Business profiles trigger extra fees. They sometimes flag “rent” as business activity.
Data: They track everything. Lots of marketing, data sharing in privacy policy.
Issues: Terms of service are vague for rent. They can freeze accounts. I had one payment stuck for 5 days while support sent copy paste replies.
Verdict: Works in a pinch, not great for long term landlord tenant setup. -
PayPal
Good for: People who already use it.
Fees: “Friends and family” has no fee, but using that for rent violates their rules. If they treat it as “goods and services” you pay fees around 3 percent.
Data: Huge data collection, similar to the others.
Issues: Chargebacks. Tenant once opened a dispute on me after paying late fee. PayPal held the money, I had to upload lease and message history. Took two weeks.
Verdict: Avoid for rent unless no other option and you trust the other person a lot. -
Zillow Rentals
Good for: Listings plus rent payments in one place.
Fees: Tenants sometimes pay a small card fee. ACH is cheaper.
Data: Standard big company stuff, but more transparent privacy policy than some random apps.
Issues: Their support is slow. I had a listing bug that took 6 days and 4 emails to fix. Payment side was stable though.
Verdict: Decent if you already list on Zillow and want everything in one dashboard. -
Avail (now under Realtor.com)
Good for: Small landlords, 1 to 10 units. Online applications, background checks, rent payments, maintenance requests.
Fees: ACH is often free or low fee. Tenants pay for screening reports. Card payments have higher fees.
Data: They store SSNs and reports, so you need to trust them. I read their security and they state encryption in transit and at rest, but no outside audit info visible.
Issues: Had 1 failed ACH out of ~80 payments. Money bounced back in 3 days. Support answered by email in under 24 hours, not instant but not horrible.
Verdict: Reasonable middle ground if you want more structure without going full enterprise software. -
Buildium / AppFolio / Propertyware
Good for: Larger portfolios, more than 20 units. Full management platforms.
Fees: Monthly subscription, often per unit. ACH fees are usually low, card fees higher.
Data: They hold tons of sensitive data, including bank info, SSNs, docs. These are older companies with more mature security policies, but you still trust a third party.
Issues: Support depends on tier you pay for. The cheaper tier gets slower responses. The learning curve is real, your tenants need to adapt.
Verdict: Overkill for one house, solid for bigger setups.
Red flags I watch for with any rent app
• No clear “pricing” or “fees” page.
• Forced credit card use instead of ACH.
• Vague terms about “data sharing with partners.”
• No posted security info at all.
• Only email support, no phone, no chat.
• Tons of 1 star reviews on app stores about frozen funds or delayed payouts.
Stuff I do now to stay sane
• I always prefer ACH. Lower fees, fewer disputes than card.
• I read the terms about “holds” and “reserves.” Some apps keep money for extra days for “risk.”
• I test with a small payment first before full rent.
• I keep an offline backup of leases and payment history in PDF. If the app dies, I do not lose proof.
• I make it clear in the lease how rent must be paid. That avoids fights if I ever want to switch away from an app.
If you list which apps you are considering, people here can share more specific stories. My worst experiences were chargebacks through PayPal and account review delays with Venmo. My best so far have been straight bank transfer or ACH through a landlord-focused platform like Avail.