Published 2026-09-27 · 10 min read

Baselane vs Relay (2026): Best Bank Account for Landlords?

Landlords run on separate bank accounts. Commingling rent with your personal money is how tax season becomes a nightmare, so almost every guide to rental property bookkeeping starts with the same advice: open a dedicated account for every property. The question is where.

Baselane and Relay are the two free options landlords talk about most. Both are branchless, fee-free business banking — but they're built for different jobs. Baselane is banking for landlords (rent collection, per-unit bookkeeping, and lending baked in), while Relay is free business banking that landlords can bend to their needs (unlimited sub-accounts, integrations, and no fees of any kind). This comparison breaks down pricing, rent collection, bookkeeping, and which one fits your portfolio.

Pricing and features verified September 2026 from each company's public pages. Banks change plans — check the current plan page before you open an account.

The short answer

• Choose Baselane if you want banking built for landlords. Free business banking with rent collection, automated per-unit bookkeeping, expense tagging, and a lending arm — one login for the whole rental operation. Open a free Baselane account.
• Choose Relay if you want maximum banking flexibility. Free business checking with unlimited sub-accounts, no account or transaction fees, and integrations with bookkeeping tools like QuickBooks and Xero. General business banking, not landlord-specific.
• Use both if you scale past a few doors: many landlords keep Baselane as the operating account (rent in, expenses out, books done) and Relay sub-accounts for security deposits or reserves.

Side-by-side comparison

What each one actually does

Baselane: the landlord's financial hub

Baselane (read our full Baselane review) is the only option here designed from the ground up for rental owners. Banking is the foundation — free business checking with no monthly fees, no minimums, and no overdraft fees — but the value is what sits on top: ACH rent collection with automatic late reminders, automatic transaction categorization into landlord expense categories, per-property profit-and-loss reporting, and receipt capture. Close the loop further with Baselane's lending products when you need financing on the same platform.

The pitch is consolidation: instead of a bank account plus a rent-collection app plus bookkeeping software plus a lender relationship, Baselane folds all four into one free account. For a self-managing landlord with 2–20 units, that consolidation is worth real money in saved subscriptions.

Baselane pros

• Purpose-built for landlords: rent collection, bookkeeping, and banking in one login
• Free — no monthly fees, no minimums, no overdraft fees
• Automatic per-property bookkeeping and expense categorization
• Lending products for landlords on the same platform
• Scales from first rental to a 50-unit portfolio

Baselane cons

• Landlord-focused feature set means less general business flexibility
• Fewer third-party integrations than a generalist bank
• If you ever exit landlording, the platform's value narrows

Relay: free business banking with unlimited sub-accounts

Relay is a generalist: free FDIC-insured business checking and savings through partner banks, with unlimited sub-accounts and no fees of any kind — no monthly fees, no minimum balance, no overdraft fees, no incoming wire fees. Landlords love the sub-account model: one checking account per property plus a savings account per reserve fund, all visible in one dashboard, all free.

What Relay doesn't do is anything landlord-specific. There's no native rent collection (you'd pair it with a rent app), no per-unit P&L (you'd use QuickBooks, Xero, or Stessa through the integrations), and no lending. It's superb plumbing with no landlord fixtures — which is fine if you already like your fixtures.

Relay pros

• Truly free: no fees of any kind, unlimited sub-accounts
• Clean per-property separation with dedicated accounts
• Deep integrations (QuickBooks, Xero, Plaid, Gusto)
• Interest-bearing savings for reserves and deposits

Relay cons

• No rent collection — you need a separate tool
• No landlord bookkeeping — integrations required
• Generalist support, not landlord-savvy

Rent collection: Baselane wins outright

This is the deciding factor for most landlords. Baselane collects rent by ACH with automated reminders and late-fee handling, and the payments land pre-categorized in your books. Relay has no rent-collection feature at all — you'd add a separate service (many landlords pair Relay with a free rent app or their property management software's payments).

If rent collection is currently a manual process — checks, Venmo, spreadsheets — Baselane alone justifies the switch. Our rent collection software roundup covers standalone options if you'd rather keep banking and collections separate.

Bookkeeping: Baselane automates, Relay delegates

Baselane auto-categorizes transactions into landlord expense buckets and produces per-property P&L statements — the core of Schedule E prep. Relay pushes that job to QuickBooks or Xero via integration, which is more powerful if you're already an accounting nerd and more work if you're not. For the landlord who dreads bookkeeping, Baselane's automation is the point; for the landlord with a CPA and a chart of accounts, Relay's integrations are the point. See our landlord accounting software guide for the full landscape.

Who should choose which

• New landlord with your first rental: Baselane. Open the free account, turn on rent collection, and your bookkeeping is 80% done from day one. It also keeps you honest about separating rental finances from personal money.
• Self-manager with 2–10 units who hates admin: Baselane. Consolidation is the whole pitch, and it compounds as you add doors.
• Landlord with a CPA and existing bookkeeping stack: Relay. Free, flexible banking; your QuickBooks/Xero workflow doesn't change.
• Landlord who needs per-property accounts for an LLC structure: Relay's unlimited sub-accounts map perfectly to entity-per-property setups.
• Investor who also borrows: Baselane's lending products keep banking and financing in one relationship.
• Flipper or short-term operator: Relay — you're a general business, and the integrations matter more than rent collection.

The verdict

Baselane is the better pick for most landlords because it's the only free bank that also does the landlord jobs — rent collection and per-unit bookkeeping — that you'd otherwise pay separate subscriptions for. For a self-managing landlord, it's the rare free product that replaces paid ones.

Relay is the better pick if you want pure, flexible banking and already have your rent-collection and bookkeeping tools sorted. Unlimited free sub-accounts with real integrations is a genuinely great deal; it just isn't a landlord product.

The pragmatic answer for a growing portfolio is both: Baselane as the operating core (rent in, expenses out, books done), Relay sub-accounts for deposits and reserves. Both are free, so the combo costs nothing and covers everything.

Open a free Baselane account — no monthly fees, rent collection and landlord bookkeeping included.

Compare more landlord software

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