LLCR vs Landlord Studio: Comparing Two Free Plans That Do Different Jobs

LLCR vs Landlord Studio: Comparing Two Free Plans That Do Different Jobs

Landlord Studio GO is free for up to three units and PRO starts at £12 a month plus £1 per unit. LLCR is free for one property and £19 a month for five. The comparison landlords actually face is between two free plans that cover completely different ground.

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Landlords should seek independent legal advice for their specific circumstances. It describes the position in England. Pricing was verified from each provider's published pages on 22 September 2026 and changes without notice.

The free plans, side by side

This is where most landlords start, so it is where this comparison starts.

Note the asymmetry. Landlord Studio's free tier is limited by unit count and gives you most of the accounting product. LLCR's free tier is limited by property count and gives you the whole compliance product, including the Compliance Defence Pack, which is the feature most platforms would reserve for a paid tier.

What Landlord Studio is built around

Landlord Studio is a rental accounting and property management platform that operates across the UK, the United States and New Zealand. Its centre of gravity is replacing a spreadsheet: income and expense tracking mapped to the right tax categories, receipt capture from a phone, bank feed reconciliation on paid plans, tenant and lease records, and maintenance logging.

It was recognised by HMRC as Making Tax Digital compatible software in March 2026, and supports quarterly updates and the Final Declaration. Published sources differ on whether MTD submissions carry a per submission charge on the free GO tier, so confirm the current terms with Landlord Studio directly before relying on the free plan for filing.

LLCR is narrower and England specific. It exists to record compliance in a form that survives scrutiny: certificate history, proof of service, hazard records, rent ledgers built around Section 8 grounds rather than around bookkeeping, and an export that a solicitor or enforcement officer can read.

Verified paid pricing at September 2026

Landlord Studio's published pricing is set in US dollars and converted, so the sterling figure moves with the exchange rate. Check the base unit allowance included in PRO before modelling a larger portfolio, since published summaries of that allowance are inconsistent.

The unit counting question

Per unit pricing is fine at three properties and becomes the dominant cost factor at twenty, particularly for HMOs.

A landlord with four HMOs of six rooms each has four properties and twenty four units. On per unit pricing that is a meaningfully different bill from per property pricing, and the gap widens every time a room is added. LLCR counts that portfolio as four properties, well inside the Starter plan at £19 a month.

If your portfolio is single lets, the two pricing models converge and this point is minor. If it is room let HMOs, model both before committing.

Where Landlord Studio is stronger

• Rental accounting. Income and expense tracking with property level categorisation, receipt scanning, and export ready reports is its core competence, and LLCR does not compete here.
• Making Tax Digital. HMRC recognised since March 2026, with direct quarterly submissions.
• Mobile experience. The phone app is well regarded for on the move receipt capture and rent logging.
• Tenant screening and listings. Applicant handling and advertising features that a compliance platform has no reason to carry.
• Free tier breadth. Three units free is more generous on unit count than most free plans in the UK market.

Where LLCR is stronger

• Evidence rather than storage. Every change is fingerprinted and chained, with independent daily timestamps, so the record can be shown not to have been altered after the event.
• Possession readiness. Section 21 was abolished in England on 1 May 2026. Possession now runs through Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988, and LLCR builds the Form 3A notice, holds proof of service, and exports a Court-Ready Rent Ledger PDF.
• Defence bundles. The Compliance Defence Pack produces an indexed evidence file for a property in one action, and it is included on the free plan.
• England specific compliance depth. Gas Safety, EICR, EPC, HMO licensing, deposit protection, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, Right to Rent and the duties introduced by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, with the statutory basis attached rather than a generic reminder list.
• Hazard records. The Issue Register timestamps reported repairs, and where an HHSRS type is set it exports a Hazard Response Pack, separate from the Compliance Defence Pack.
• Penalty visibility. The civil penalty ceiling is totalled across the portfolio. A lapsed EICR can attract a civil penalty of up to £40,000 under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, with the amount set by the local authority on the facts.

What running both costs

A landlord with a single property can run both platforms at no cost at all, which is an unusual position in this market and worth knowing about before paying for either.

For the wider field, see the 2026 comparison of landlord compliance platforms, the Renters' Rights Act era software comparison, and what LLCR covers feature by feature. The free landlord tools include deposit cap and certificate deadline calculators with the statutory basis shown.

If you already run Landlord Studio, the gap is usually evidential rather than administrative. The free compliance checkershows in about two minutes which certificate records would not stand up if they were questioned.