Best MTD Software for Landlords 2026

From April 2026, if your total rental and self-employed income is over GBP 50,000, you need MTD-compatible software that can actually file quarterly to HMRC, not just keep records. With 3 properties and about GBP 55k rent, you are in that first wave.

What "MTD-compatible" really means

For MTD for ITSA you need software that can:

Keep digital records of income and expenses.

Submit quarterly updates and an end-of-year declaration direct to HMRC.

Be on HMRC's recognised software list for MTD for ITSA, not just for VAT or old-style Self Assessment.

As of early 2026, the position is roughly:

Hammock: confirmed by HMRC as compatible for MTD ITSA, and the first landlord-specific platform on that list.

FreeAgent: confirmed MTD ITSA-ready and explicitly marketed as suitable for landlords.

Xero and QuickBooks: widely used, building and testing MTD ITSA features, but you must check the exact plan and whether your accountant will handle filings from their side.

GoSimpleTax: cloud self-assessment tool developing specific MTD ITSA software for sole traders and landlords, used today for online SA filing and positioned as MTD ready.

Landlord Studio: landlord software that is MTD-"ready" in the sense of digital records and integration, typically paired with Xero or another accounting back end to handle the actual submission.

If you want one system that records everything and also sends the quarterly updates itself, Hammock and FreeAgent are the clearest "all-in-one" options in this list for pure property income.

Feature comparison for landlords

High-level fit

Property-specific features

Hammock: built around rental property: multiple properties, units and bank accounts, with per-property income, expense and profit views. Tracks mortgage payments and separates interest from capital for Section 24 purposes, helping you calculate the finance cost tax credit rather than full deduction. Automates rent matching against bank feeds and flags arrears. Designed to produce MTD-compliant digital records and send the quarterly and annual submissions from the same system.

GoSimpleTax: focused on tax return completion: you enter totals for rental income and expenses per property, including interest, repairs, insurance, and other categories. Handles property pages and automatically applies the Section 24 restriction and credit at tax calculation stage, rather than showing property P&Ls as a live dashboard. Not a day-to-day property management tool: no rent chasing, no repairs workflow, limited ongoing bookkeeping.

Landlord Studio: property-first design with multiple properties and unit-level tracking, recurring rent schedules, occupancy and expenses. Automates expense categorisation and supports mortgage interest tracking; can produce per-property P&Ls to hand to your accountant or feed into Xero. The MTD angle is mostly "keep fully digital records, then integrate with Xero / MTD tool" rather than filing directly today.

QuickBooks Self-Employed: tracks income and expenses with categories suitable for landlords if set up correctly, but there is no out-of-the-box "property" object; you or your accountant must use classes, tags or other workarounds for per-property P&Ls. Can manage multiple income streams in one place (employment, sole trade, property), which helps if you are both a contractor and a landlord.

Xero: full double-entry accounting, multi-tracking categories and the ability to set up tracking for each property or unit and produce per-property reports. No built-in property module, so you or your accountant must configure chart of accounts and tracking carefully. Very strong for portfolios that are already trading as companies or run other businesses alongside property.

FreeAgent: supports multiple properties under a "Landlords" configuration and can track property income and expenses, including finance costs. Like Xero, it is business accounting software first, so you will generally rely on your accountant to set up consistent property tracking and reporting.

Ease of use and practicalities

Easiest for a pure landlord who hates bookkeeping: Hammock or Landlord Studio, because the whole interface is framed around properties, tenants, rent and mortgages.

Easiest if you are already doing your own returns in a browser and are spreadsheet-comfortable: GoSimpleTax, because it matches the SA layout you already know and guides you through property pages.

Easiest if you already use a cloud accountant: Xero or FreeAgent, because your accountant likely knows these inside out and can do the MTD submissions while you use the bank feed and app to keep things tidy.

All of them offer bank feeds / Open Banking (quality varies), mobile apps to capture receipts, some level of receipt scanning (photo-to-transaction or add-ons), and accountant access.

What a 3-property, GBP 55k landlord should look for

With 3 properties bringing in about GBP 55k, you will be in scope for MTD from 6 April 2026, because your qualifying income is over GBP 50k. Here is what matters, in order:

Confirmed MTD ITSA filing, not just "MTD ready" marketing

Check that your chosen tool appears as compatible for MTD for ITSA on HMRC's list, or that your accountant will file via their own recognised software. Hammock and FreeAgent are explicitly in that category already for landlords.

Per-property tracking and Section 24 handling

You want to see P&L per property, with mortgage interest separated from capital and clearly labelled as "finance costs that create a basic rate tax credit" rather than a full deduction. Hammock and Landlord Studio give this clearly out of the box, while GoSimpleTax, Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent tend to handle Section 24 at the tax-calculation or account-setup level.

Bank feeds that match how you bank

If you run all three properties through one current account, pick a tool that supports that bank's feed reliably and lets you tag each transaction to the right property quickly. If you use separate accounts per property, a property-specific platform like Hammock that can map accounts to properties is much less painful.

How involved your accountant is

If your accountant is going to do quarterly submissions and the final declaration, Xero or FreeAgent may be ideal because they already live in those systems. If you want to do as much as possible yourself and hand over clean numbers once a year, Hammock plus a light-touch tax review, or GoSimpleTax alongside a well-kept spreadsheet, can keep costs down.

Price relative to your rent roll

At GBP 8-15/month, landlord-specific tools work out at GBP 96-180/year, which is a tiny percentage of a GBP 55k rent roll and can easily pay for itself in reduced accountant time or fewer missed costs. Paying GBP 24-34/month for FreeAgent or a full Xero plan is GBP 288-408/year, which is still reasonable if it also covers your other business activities.

If you had to pick a default path for "3 properties, GBP 55k, wants things simple", you would usually start with Hammock or FreeAgent (if you get it free via NatWest / RBS / Mettle), then only look at Xero / QuickBooks if you also run another business, and at GoSimpleTax as a low-cost filing layer if you are happy to keep your own detailed records separately.

What forums get wrong about MTD software

"Any cloud accounting app is fine, they are all MTD-ready." Reality: many tools are only MTD-ready for VAT, not for MTD for ITSA. If the software cannot talk to HMRC's MTD for Income Tax API, you cannot use it for quarterly rental submissions, even if it keeps digital records nicely.

"Just use Excel and bridging forever, it will be cheaper." Bridging tools will exist, but HMRC's direction of travel is towards fully digital end-to-end software, and you still need to keep digital records that line up with your quarterly updates. With three properties and GBP 55k income, the cost of proper software is small compared with the risk of mistakes and penalties.

"QuickBooks/Xero is overkill; free or GBP 5/month apps are all you need." For a landlord above the MTD threshold, you are running a business with a GBP 55k turnover. Under-spending on software then asking your accountant to sort a mess of bank PDFs and spreadsheets often results in higher accountancy bills than simply using a recognised tool with good bank feeds.

"FreeAgent is always free, so just use that." FreeAgent is only free if you hold the right type of business current account with NatWest, RBS or Mettle; otherwise you pay full subscription prices. Some landlords open a business account just for the "free" software without checking account fees or banking suitability for personal BTL income.

"Landlord apps are not 'proper' accounting, HMRC will not accept them." HMRC does not care whether your software is branded as "for landlords" or "for businesses". They care that it is MTD ITSA-compatible and records income and expenses digitally. Hammock being recognised as compatible specifically for landlords is a strong sign that dedicated landlord apps can absolutely be the core of your MTD setup.

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