If you manage rental properties, you've probably hit the same wall most landlords hit: spreadsheets stop scaling around three units, and full-blown property management platforms feel like overkill until you actually need tenant screening or online rent collection. Avail, owned by Realtor.com, has become a popular middle ground. KeyLoft takes a different approach — free, offline, and built for landlords who want a tool, not a platform.
This comparison is honest. Avail has real strengths, especially if you want online rent collection and tenant applications built in. KeyLoft wins on price, privacy, and simplicity. The right choice depends on how you actually run your rentals.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | KeyLoft | Avail |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free forever | Free tier + $7/unit/month (Unlimited Plus) |
| Works Offline | Yes, 100% | No, requires internet |
| Account Required | No | Yes, email signup |
| Best For | Solo landlords, 1–20 units, privacy-focused | Landlords wanting online rent collection & applications |
| Platform | iOS (iPhone & iPad) | Web + mobile apps |
| Key Features | Unit tracking, tenant records, rent ledger, lease storage, expenses | Online rent collection, tenant screening, lease templates, listings syndication |
| Data Privacy | Stored locally on device | Stored on Avail/Realtor.com servers |
Pricing
Pricing is where these tools diverge most sharply. Avail offers a free Unlimited tier that covers the basics — rent collection, maintenance tracking, lease templates — but the free version routes ACH payments slower (typically 7–10 business days) and charges fees for credit card payments. The Unlimited Plus tier at $7 per unit per month unlocks faster payments, custom lease clauses, waived ACH fees, and next-day rent deposits.
That $7/unit pricing scales linearly. If you own five units, you're looking at $35/month, or $420/year. Ten units: $840/year. It's reasonable per unit, but it adds up — and you're paying every month whether you collect rent online or not.
KeyLoft is free. No tiers, no per-unit fees, no upsells. You download it, you use it. Here's how the costs compare over time:
| Cost Over Time | KeyLoft | Avail (5 units, Plus) | Avail (10 units, Plus) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0 | $35 | $70 |
| 1 Year | $0 | $420 | $840 |
| 3 Years | $0 | $1,260 | $2,520 |
Worth saying plainly: Avail's free tier is genuinely useful if online rent collection matters to you. KeyLoft doesn't do online rent collection at all. That's not a missing feature — it's a deliberate scope decision. KeyLoft tracks what tenants paid; it doesn't move money.
Save money. Try KeyLoft free today. Download KeyLoft for Free — no account needed, works 100% offline.
Features
The feature gap reflects two different philosophies about what a landlord tool should do.
Avail does more. It's a full platform: tenant screening with credit and background checks, online rental applications, e-signed lease templates customized by state, listings syndicated to Realtor.com and Zillow, online rent collection with autopay, maintenance ticket workflows with photo uploads, and tenant portals. If you're filling vacancies frequently or want tenants to handle everything through an app, Avail has the tooling.
KeyLoft does less, on purpose. It handles unit tracking, tenant contact records, rent ledger entries, lease document storage, expense logging, and maintenance notes. No tenant portal, no online applications, no payment processing. The tradeoff: every feature loads instantly, nothing requires login, and there's no monthly bill.
For solo landlords with stable, long-term tenants, the Avail toolset is mostly overhead. You're not screening new applicants every month. You're not syndicating listings quarterly. You collect rent (often via Zelle, Venmo, or check), you log it, you track expenses for taxes, and you store the lease. KeyLoft is built for that workflow.
If you also run other side businesses, our sister apps cover adjacent ground: Stintly handles time tracking and freelance billing for self-employed work, and TrestleBook manages job costing if you do construction or contracting alongside your rentals. Same offline-first, no-account philosophy across the family.
Want to try KeyLoft for free? Download KeyLoft for Free — no subscription required.
Offline & Privacy
This is where KeyLoft's design choice pays off most clearly. Avail is a cloud platform. Your tenant data, lease documents, payment records, and contact info sit on Avail's servers, which are operated by Realtor.com's parent company (News Corp). That's not inherently bad — cloud sync enables features Avail offers — but it's worth understanding what you're trading.
With Avail:
- You need internet to access your data
- Tenant SSNs, bank info, and lease details sit on third-party servers
- Your data is governed by Avail's privacy policy and terms, which can change
- If Realtor.com pivots the product, your workflow pivots with it
With KeyLoft:
- Everything works on the airplane, at a vacant property with no WiFi, in a basement showing a unit
- Tenant data stays on your iPhone or iPad — encrypted by iOS, controlled by you
- No account means no breach surface — there's no KeyLoft database with your tenants in it
- iCloud backup is opt-in and uses your personal Apple account
For landlords who care about not having tenant Social Security numbers sitting in a corporate database, this matters. For landlords doing showings in rural areas or basements with no signal, the offline part matters more than they realize until they need it.
Who Should Use Avail
Avail is the right call if:
- You want online rent collection with autopay and want tenants to handle it themselves
- You fill vacancies often and need tenant screening (credit/background checks)
- You want syndicated listings on Realtor.com and Zillow without paying separately
- You manage 10+ units and want lease e-signing, application workflows, and tenant portals
- You're comfortable with $7/unit/month and value an integrated platform over a tool
- Internet access is reliable everywhere you work
It's a legitimate product. If those features fit how you operate, Avail will earn its keep, especially for landlords actively growing their portfolios or running it as a primary business.
Who Should Use KeyLoft
KeyLoft is the right call if:
- You own 1–20 units and want a tool, not a platform
- Your tenants are stable — long leases, low turnover, predictable rent
- You collect rent outside the app (Zelle, Venmo, ACH, check, cash)
- You want every dollar of rent revenue, not 6–8% bleeding into software
- You don't want tenant data sitting on someone else's server
- You work in places with spotty internet — rural rentals, basements, attics, new construction
- You'd rather skip account signup, password resets, and email marketing
This is the sweet spot: experienced solo landlords, accidental landlords renting out a former home, small-portfolio investors, and side-business operators who treat rentals as one of several income streams. KeyLoft gets out of the way.
The Bottom Line
Avail and KeyLoft aren't really competing for the same landlord. Avail is competing with TurboTenant, RentRedi, and Buildium for landlords who want a full platform with online rent collection. KeyLoft is competing with spreadsheets, paper folders, and the Notes app for landlords who just want their rentals organized.
If you need online rent collection and tenant applications, use Avail's free tier. Skip the $7/unit upgrade until you actually feel the friction of slow ACH.
If you collect rent your own way and just need a clean place to track units, tenants, leases, and money — without monthly fees, without an account, without sending tenant data to a corporate server — KeyLoft was built for you.
The honest test: list the features you'd actually use in the next 90 days. If most are "track and store," KeyLoft wins on price and friction. If most are "collect, screen, syndicate," Avail earns its place.
Ready to switch? Download KeyLoft for Free — it takes 30 seconds and costs nothing.