If you landed here, you're probably weighing two very different ways to manage your rental properties. Avail is a well-known web platform backed by Realtor.com, with a deep feature set built around online workflows. KeyLoft is a free iOS app built for landlords who want something simple, private, and available the moment they tap the icon — no login, no Wi-Fi required.
Neither tool is objectively better. They serve different kinds of landlords. This comparison walks through what each does well, where each falls short, and which one fits your situation. We'll keep it honest: Avail has genuine strengths, and we'll name them.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | KeyLoft | Avail |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, forever | Free tier + $7/unit/month (Unlimited Plus) |
| Works Offline | Yes, 100% offline | No, requires internet |
| Account Required | No | Yes, email signup required |
| Best For | Solo landlords, 1–20 units, privacy-focused | Landlords who want online rent collection and tenant portals |
| Platform | iOS (iPhone, iPad) | Web browser, iOS, Android |
| Key Features | Unit tracking, rent logs, expenses, tenant notes, lease dates | Online rent collection, e-sign leases, applications, credit reports |
| Data Privacy | Stored on your device only | Stored on Avail/Realtor.com servers |
Pricing
Pricing is where the two products diverge most sharply. Avail offers a free tier called Unlimited, which covers the basics like listing syndication and online rent collection (with fees passed to tenants). Their paid tier, Unlimited Plus, is $7 per unit per month and unlocks features like next-day rent payments, custom lease agreements, and waived ACH fees.
KeyLoft is free. Not freemium, not free-for-one-unit, not free-for-30-days. There is no paid tier, no per-unit charge, and no upsell screen waiting after you tap a feature.
| Units Managed | KeyLoft | Avail Unlimited Plus |
|---|---|---|
| 5 units / month | $0 | $35 |
| 5 units / 1 year | $0 | $420 |
| 5 units / 3 years | $0 | $1,260 |
| 10 units / 1 year | $0 | $840 |
| 10 units / 3 years | $0 | $2,520 |
To be fair to Avail: their free tier is genuinely usable, and if you want their online rent collection and tenant portal features, you do get real value for the $7/unit. The math just adds up quickly as your portfolio grows.
Save money. Try KeyLoft free today. Download KeyLoft for Free — no account needed, works 100% offline.
Features
Where Avail shines: Avail is built around the online rental lifecycle. You can syndicate your vacant listing to Realtor.com, Zillow, and Trulia in a few clicks. Prospective tenants apply online, you pull credit and background reports, and you e-sign a lease through the platform. Once a tenant moves in, they pay rent through a tenant portal with autopay, and maintenance requests come in through the same system. For landlords who want to run the whole process online from a desktop, it's a coherent workflow.
Where KeyLoft shines: KeyLoft strips the job down to what most solo landlords actually do day-to-day — track units, log rent received, record expenses, note lease dates, and keep tenant contact info handy. It opens instantly, requires no login, and you can log a rent payment in three taps while you're standing in the driveway. There's no learning curve because there's nothing to learn.
KeyLoft doesn't try to be a tenant portal or an online application system. If you collect rent via Zelle, Venmo, check, or cash and just need a reliable record, KeyLoft handles that without making you set up bank verification, ACH routing, or tenant invitations.
If you also do contracting work on the side or run a small construction business alongside your rentals, TrestleBook uses the same simple, offline-first approach for job costing and contractor billing. And if you freelance or do consulting work in addition to landlording, Stintly handles time tracking and self-employment finance the same way.
Want to try KeyLoft for free? Download KeyLoft for Free — no subscription required.
Offline & Privacy
This is KeyLoft's biggest structural advantage, and it's not a minor one. Avail is a web-first platform. If you're at a rental in a basement with no signal, or your home Wi-Fi is down, or you're on a flight, Avail simply doesn't work. You can't pull up a tenant's lease date, can't log a repair you just paid for, can't look up which unit is behind on rent.
KeyLoft works the same whether you have five bars of LTE or zero. Every piece of data lives on your iPhone. There's no sync, no cloud round-trip, no "loading…" spinner waiting on a server.
Privacy follows the same logic. Avail stores your tenant data, your rent payment history, your bank connections, and your lease terms on servers owned by Realtor.com's parent company. That data is protected and reasonably handled, but it's still sitting on someone else's infrastructure, subject to their privacy policy, their data partnerships, and any future changes to their business model.
KeyLoft never sees your data because there's no KeyLoft server to send it to. Your tenants' phone numbers, your rent records, your expense notes — all of it stays on the device. If you trade in your phone, it goes with you in the encrypted iCloud backup or transfer. Nobody else ever has a copy.
For landlords managing properties for friends, family, or themselves, that matters. You don't need a third party knowing how much rent you collected last month or which units are vacant.
Who Should Use Avail
Avail genuinely fits some landlords better than KeyLoft does. You should pick Avail if:
- You want tenants to pay rent online via ACH or card, and you want the platform to handle the plumbing.
- You're frequently listing vacancies and want one-click syndication to Realtor.com, Zillow, and Trulia.
- You run background and credit checks on every applicant and want it integrated with applications.
- You prefer e-signing leases through a platform rather than using a PDF tool or in-person signing.
- You work primarily from a desktop computer and want a browser-based dashboard.
- You're comfortable paying $7/unit/month for the workflow integration.
If most of those describe you, Avail will probably feel like a better fit. They've built a real product, and the workflow integration is the value you're paying for.
Who Should Use KeyLoft
KeyLoft is the right pick if:
- You manage between 1 and 20 units and don't need a tenant portal.
- You collect rent through Zelle, Venmo, check, cash, or direct deposit and just need a reliable log.
- You want to open an app, see your portfolio, and log a payment in under 30 seconds.
- You don't want to create yet another account with yet another company.
- You value keeping tenant data on your own device.
- You sometimes work in basements, garages, rural properties, or other low-signal spots.
- You're not willing to pay per-unit fees that scale with your portfolio.
- You're a solo operator, a small family business, or someone managing inherited rentals.
KeyLoft isn't trying to replace a full property management company's software stack. It's trying to be the simplest possible tool for the landlord who wants to keep good records without paying a subscription or learning a platform.
The Bottom Line
Avail is a solid product if you want an online-first, workflow-heavy platform and you're willing to pay per unit for the integrations. Their free tier is real, and if your portfolio is small and you mostly need listing syndication and basic rent collection, you can get value without ever paying them a dollar.
KeyLoft wins on three fronts that matter to most solo landlords: it's actually free with no per-unit math, it works offline so it's always available, and your data never leaves your phone. It does less than Avail on purpose — no tenant portal, no online applications, no credit reports — and that's exactly why it's faster, simpler, and free.
If you've been paying Avail $7/unit/month and you mostly use it to log rent and track expenses, you're paying for features you don't use. Try KeyLoft for a month alongside your current setup and see if you miss anything. Most landlords don't.
Ready to switch? Download KeyLoft for Free — it takes 30 seconds and costs nothing.