Last checked: 14 October 2026. General information, not tax advice. MTD HQ is independent and not affiliated with HMRC. This page has no affiliate links.
If you’re a landlord, you can do Making Tax Digital for Income Tax with free software, or pay from about £7 a month. We checked eleven options on each provider’s own website, and the best fit depends on your situation:
- One property and you want free: RentalBux is free for one property until March 2028. Sage Sole Trader Free and My Tax Digital are also free.
- Several properties: Hammock (from £8 + VAT a month for 1 to 3 properties) and Landlord Vision are built for landlords and price by number of properties.
- Jointly owned property: RentalBux, Landlord Vision, Hammock and FreeAgent all say they split income and costs by ownership share.
- Overseas property: RentalBux, Landlord Vision and My Tax Digital say they cover it. FreeAgent and QuickBooks don’t yet.
- Rent plus self-employment: RentalBux, Landlord Vision, Coconut, Xero Simple and My Tax Digital handle both in one account. FreeAgent and QuickBooks need a separate account for each.
- You keep a spreadsheet: see our MTD bridging software comparison.
- Want to pay nothing? See our free MTD software comparison.
Not sure you need MTD yet? Use our free MTD checker first, or read our landlord guide.
MTD software for landlords compared
| Software | Price | Quarterly updates | Tax return | Overseas property | Joint ownership | Rent and self-employment in one account |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RentalBux | Free for 1 property until March 2028. Landlord plan £4.50 a month, billed yearly, plus VAT | Yes | Yes, says RentalBux | Yes | Yes, on paid plans; splits by ownership share | Yes, on the £9.50 a month Landlord + Self Employed plan |
| Hammock | £8 + VAT a month for 1 to 3 properties; £15 for 4 to 10; £25 for 11 to 20. 20% off yearly. 30-day free trial | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes, splits by ownership share | Not stated |
| Landlord Studio | MTD Go: free for up to 3 units, then £5 per MTD submission. Pro: £15 + VAT a month, or £12 a month paid yearly | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Landlord Vision | Starter (4 tenancies): £7.99 + VAT a month, paid yearly, for the first 2 years; normally £19.97. 2-week free trial | Yes | Yes, says Landlord Vision | Yes | Yes, splits by ownership share | Yes |
| Coconut (MTD filing plan) | £12.99 a month or £129.99 a year. 14-day free trial | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed; each owner reports their own share | Yes |
| Xero Simple | £7 + VAT a month, after £0.70 a month for the first 6 months | Yes | Yes, says Xero | Not confirmed | You record your own share | Yes, says Xero |
| Sage Sole Trader Free | Free. Paid Sole Trader plan £7 + VAT a month after an introductory discount | Yes | Sage says yes; check before you rely on it | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed on the free plan |
| My Tax Digital | Free | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes |
| FreeAgent (Landlord) | £10 + VAT a month or £100 a year. Free with a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank business current account, or Mettle | Yes | Yes | Not yet, says FreeAgent | Yes, joint owners can share one account | No, self-employment needs a separate account |
| QuickBooks Sole Trader Plus | From £10 + VAT a month. 30-day free trial | Yes | Yes, says QuickBooks | No, says QuickBooks | Not confirmed | No, one account per income source |
| Starling | Free with a Starling business account | Yes | Listed as “coming soon” | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
Every entry comes from the provider’s own website. We checked most on 14 October 2026; the QuickBooks prices and the FreeAgent and QuickBooks overseas property answers were checked on 5 October 2026. “Not confirmed” means the provider’s pages didn’t say, or disagreed with each other. Plans and prices change often, so check the provider’s site before you sign up.
What to check before you choose
- The tax return, not just quarterly updates. Your software has to send four quarterly updates and your end-of-year tax return. The first MTD tax return, for 2026/27, is due by 31 January 2028.
- All your income. GOV.UK says your software must support all your income sources. If you have overseas property, or self-employment as well as rent, check the software covers it.
- Joint ownership. Each owner whose share is over the threshold has to send their own updates. Software that splits by ownership share saves you doing the sums.
- How price grows. Some charge by number of properties, some per submission, some a flat fee. Work out the cost for your portfolio, and for after any introductory offer ends.
- Bank feeds and receipts. These save typing. Some free plans don’t include them.
- HMRC lists it. Search for the product in HMRC’s software finder before you sign up. HMRC doesn’t recommend any particular product.
Free MTD software for landlords
RentalBux is free for one property until March 2028, with no card needed. It covers UK and overseas property, and its paid plans split jointly owned property by ownership share.
Sage Sole Trader Free has no time limit, according to Sage, and both its free and paid plans record landlord income and expenses. The free plan connects one bank account and auto-categorises 25 transactions.
My Tax Digital is free for Income Tax and covers UK property, overseas property and self-employment. It works as bridging software for a spreadsheet, or you can keep records in it. We couldn’t confirm from its site that it sends the end-of-year tax return.
Landlord Studio MTD Go is free for up to 3 units, but each MTD submission costs £5. Four quarterly updates and a tax return would cost about £25 a year.
FreeAgent and Starling are free only if you hold one of their business bank accounts. Software is only one reason to choose a bank account. Don’t switch banks for free software without comparing the accounts themselves. We don’t earn anything from links to banks.
Paid MTD software for landlords
Hammock is built for landlords and lists quarterly updates and the final declaration on every plan. It costs £8 + VAT a month for 1 to 3 properties, with 20% off if you pay yearly. Its pages give two different prices for 21 or more properties, so confirm that price with Hammock.
Landlord Vision says it handles UK and overseas property as separate property businesses, splits joint ownership by percentage, and covers self-employment too. Its Starter plan is £7.99 + VAT a month, paid yearly, for the first two years.
Xero Simple is £7 + VAT a month after six months at 70p, for landlords and sole traders who aren’t VAT registered. Xero says one subscription can cover a property and a business. It allows 10 invoices a month.
Coconut’s MTD filing plan is £12.99 a month or £129.99 a year and covers property and self-employment income in one account, including the year-end declaration.
FreeAgent and QuickBooks both need separate accounts for rent and self-employment, and neither supports overseas property yet.
MTD rules that affect landlords’ software
- Joint owners can keep simpler records. GOV.UK lets joint owners record one figure for their share of rent each quarter, and choose not to include expenses for jointly let property in their quarterly updates. Check your software supports this. See GOV.UK: create digital records.
- Simpler categories under £90,000. If your property income is under £90,000, you only need to record whether each transaction is income or an expense, and mark residential finance costs such as mortgage interest.
- Holiday lets count as ordinary property income. Since April 2025, furnished holiday lets are no longer taxed separately.
- Letting agents. The rent counts before the agent’s fees, and the fees are an expense. Software that imports agent statements saves typing them in.
What we left out
Zoho Books Free, Clear Books Free, Pandle and Tide are in our free MTD software comparison; we couldn’t confirm how well they handle landlords’ tax returns. We couldn’t confirm that Monzo Business supports property income. We haven’t yet reviewed property management tools such as Arthur Online and Lendlord.
How we checked
We read each provider’s own pricing and MTD pages, mostly on 14 October 2026. Where a provider’s pages disagreed or didn’t say, the table says “not confirmed”. MTD HQ is independent. No provider paid to be listed and this page has no affiliate links. It is general information, not tax advice.
Sources: each provider link in the table, and GOV.UK’s guides to choosing software and creating digital records.
See also: Making Tax Digital for landlords, MTD deadline finder and how to sign up for MTD.