August vs Latch: which fits your portfolio in 2026?
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A comprehensive comparison to help you choose the right property management platform for your property portfolio.
Choosing between August and Latch comes down to one question. Do you need a platform that handles compliance, rent and tax on a phone today, or a lettings automation tool that will find and sign your next tenant? For self-managing landlords in England, Wales and Scotland with one to fifteen tenancies who want HMRC-recognised MTD filing, automatic rent matching through a regulated open banking feed, and native apps for themselves and their tenants, August is the stronger fit. For landlords who spend most of their time letting rather than managing, and who want listings, viewings, referencing and e-signatures in one pipeline, Latch covers ground August does not. This guide compares both honestly, with every Latch fact verified against their own published pages on 25 September 2026.
Free for up to 2 tenancies, no credit card required.
The comparison at a glance
Latch facts verified against uselatch.co.uk on 25 September 2026. Latch is a newer entrant, so confirm current capabilities with the provider before deciding.
Native mobile apps
Full functionality desktop web platform
Purpose-built iOS and Android apps for Apple and Android phones
MTD for Income Tax
HMRC-recognised. Quarterly submissions built in, included on every paid plan
Rent reconciliation
Open banking feed with automatic payment matching through an FCA-regulated Plaid connection
Tenants pay in-app with no fees
Open banking regulation
Augur Technologies Limited, trading as August, is an agent of Plaid Financial Ltd, an authorised payment institution regulated by the FCA (FRN 804718)
August is shown on Plaid's website
Accounting depth
Income and expense tracking with a direct Xero integration on every plan, including free
Push rent invoices and expenses into Xero, pull Xero expenses back into August and assign them to properties
Landlord-triggered sync from the web app
Receipt scanning with August Intelligence
Mileage tracking at HMRC's approved 2026/27 rates, with postcode-to-postcode distance lookup
CSV and Excel exports, accountant-ready reports
UK compliance built in
Guided checklist covering gas safety, EICR, EPC, Right to Rent and deposit prescribed information, in plain English, with AI suggesting reminders from your documents
Nations covered
England and Wales: 35-task guided compliance journey
Scotland: separate 46-task journey built for Private Residential Tenancies, covering landlord registration, the Repairing Standard and PRT notice rules, on every plan including Free
Compliance checklist has flexibility to create new items for other nations requirements
Free tier
Free for up to 2 tenancies
Entry paid price
£8.99/mo (Growth)
Price at scale
£14.99/mo (Portfolio), £29.99/mo unlimited
Property insights
Auto-pulls valuations, council tax bands, EPC ratings and expiry dates
Tenant pipeline
Free native tenant app for rent payments, maintenance with photos, messaging and documents
Tenant messaging
Two-way in-app messaging with tenants, plus Group threads for shared houses and Broadcast to every tenant at once
Email/SMS fallback for tenants not on the app
Included on every plan including Free
Lettings pipeline
Not offered
e-signatures on 2026 roadmap
Multi-user and team access
Workspaces: invite members by email or join code, Admin and Member roles, and property groups to organise the portfolio.
Data portability on exit
CSV and Excel export of your data
AI assistance
August Intelligence on every plan including free: scans agreements, suggests reminders, answers questions on your own portfolio
Pricing: standard rates, promotions and VAT
August starts free for up to 2 tenancies and scales through paid plans from £8.99 to £29.99 per month for unlimited tenancies. Latch is free for up to 3 leases, with Pro at £20 per month covering 8 leases and Enterprise at £40 per month covering 50, each charging £1 per lease beyond the cap.
Two honest points before the table. First, Latch's free tier covers three leases against August's two, so a landlord with exactly three properties who does not need MTD filing or a mobile app gets more for nothing from Latch. That is a real advantage and worth saying plainly. Second, the free tiers are not like for like. Latch's excludes its AI assistant, caps you at 20 documents and 5 reports a month, and does not include bank reconciliation, whereas August Intelligence is included from the free tier.
Tenancies
August
Latch
1 to 2
Free
Free
3
£8.99 (Growth)
Free
8
£14.99 (Portfolio)
£20 (Pro)
15
£14.99 (Portfolio)
£27 (Pro plus 7 extra leases)
25
£29.99 (Portfolio+)
£40 (Enterprise)
Standard monthly rates published on each provider's website as of 28 August 2026. Latch's per-plan prices are as stated on its pricing page. Confirm current rates with Latch directly. Full August pricing is on our pricing page.
Above roughly eight tenancies, August costs less. Below three, Latch's free tier goes further. Between the two, it depends entirely on whether you need MTD filing this tax year.
Where Latch genuinely wins
A comparison you can trust has to say where the other product is better, so here it is plainly.
Lettings pipeline
Latch handles the part of the job August does not touch. Listing creation, viewing bookings, tenant pre-screening, referencing through an integration and digital tenancy agreements all sit inside one workflow.
August begins once a tenancy is in place. If you are re-letting several properties a year and currently stitch together a portal and a referencing provider, Latch consolidates that and August does not yet offer this.
Multi-user access
Latch includes 2 users on Pro, 5 on Enterprise and 50 on Commercial, with team permissions built for letting agents running several landlord books. August now offers Workspaces in beta, with members invited by email or join code, Admin and Member roles and property groups. If you are an agent managing other people's portfolios at scale, Latch is set up for that today.
If a partner, an assistant or a colleague needs their own login right now, check where August has got to before you decide.
Where August wins
Making Tax Digital, today rather than soon
MTD for Income Tax went live in April 2026 for landlords with qualifying income above £50,000, and the threshold drops to £30,000 in April 2027. August is HMRC-recognised for MTD for Income Tax, with quarterly submissions built into the platform on every paid plan.
Latch keeps MTD-ready digital records, but its own MTD page is marked "Coming soon" and its own comparison page describes direct quarterly submission to HMRC as on the roadmap. If you are mandated this tax year, that is the difference between filing inside your software and filing somewhere else.
Rent that reconciles itself
August matches incoming rent to the right tenancy automatically through an open banking connection, and tenants can pay in-app with no fees. August is an agent of Plaid, an authorised payment institution regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 804718). Plaid provides regulated account information services through August as its agent. Latch says it connects to banks through Plaid on its subprocessor list. However, on Latch's own pricing page, bank reconciliation is marked "Coming soon" on Pro, Enterprise and Commercial, and is not included on the free tier. Automatic matching is the whole point of a rent feed, so this is worth checking on a trial.
Mobile, done properly
August ships purpose-built native iOS and Android apps with full feature parity, because most self-managing landlords run their portfolio from a phone rather than a desk. Latch is a web platform: its own site currently shows "Coming Soon" against both the App Store and Google Play. Its site is responsive and works on a phone browser, which is a reasonable substitute for desk work, but there is no app to install, no push notifications and nothing to hand a tenant.
Compliance that guides rather than reminds
Both products track compliance certificates and send expiry alerts, and Latch does this well. August goes further with a guided checklist that explains what each requirement is, why it applies and what to do next, covering gas safety, EICR, EPC, Right to Rent and deposit prescribed information in plain English, with August Intelligence suggesting reminders straight from your uploaded documents. August also auto-pulls valuations, council tax bands and EPC ratings so the record fills itself in.
Accounting handover. August integrates directly with Xero on every plan, so rent invoices and expenses reach your accountant's ledger without re-keying.
AI on every plan, including free
August Intelligence is included from the free tier. It scans tenancy agreements, suggests reminders and answers questions about your own portfolio. Latch's assistant, Matt, is built to take actions rather than just answer, which is a genuinely different and interesting approach, but it is not available on the free tier and weekly usage is capped by plan.
Scotland, properly
Latch offers a Scottish tenancy agreement template. August offers a full compliance journey for Scottish landlords: 46 guided tasks across landlord, property and tenancy level, written for the Private Residential Tenancy regime rather than adapted from English rules. That means registration on the Scottish Landlord Register, the Repairing Standard, deposit lodgement within 30 working days and Notice to Leave periods, each with plain-English steps and reminders. If your portfolio is north of the border, start with our Scottish landlord guide.
Switching: the three questions that matter
How hard is migration?
With August you add your properties and tenancies, connect your bank, and open banking backfills rent history so the current tax year arrives with you. Most landlords are set up in under five minutes. If you are coming from Latch, export your data to CSV first.
Am I locked in?
No, in either direction. August exports your data to CSV and Excel whenever you want it, and Latch offers CSV import and export. Choosing either does not trap you.
Can I trust the smaller product?
Both of us are smaller than the incumbents, so judge us on the same evidence. August is used by more than 3,000 UK landlords and tenants, is HMRC-recognised for MTD for Income Tax, and runs its rent feed through an FCA-regulated Plaid connection as an agent of Plaid Financial Ltd. USELATCH LTD was incorporated in February 2026. Neither of us should ask you to take our word for it. Start free with both and judge them on your own portfolio before paying anything.
The verdict
Choose August if you self-manage between one and fifteen tenancies in England, Wales or Scotland, you are mandated for Making Tax Digital this tax year or next, you want rent matched automatically through a regulated open banking feed, and you want native apps for yourself and your tenants. Choose Latch if your work is mostly letting rather than managing or if you have exactly three properties or no MTD obligation.
August is not the right tool for landlords who need a full lettings pipeline. Latch serves those landlords better today. If you are mandated for MTD and want to file inside your software this year or want automated rent tracking, August is the safer choice on the evidence available at the time of writing.
Cross-shopping the lighter bookkeeping tools as well? See how August compares with Coho or August compares with Landlord Studio. If deep accounting is the deciding factor, our comparison of August and Hammock covers the other finance-first option. And if you are evaluating a broader range of tools, our guide to the best property management software for UK landlords covers the leading options side by side.
Start for free. Free for up to 2 tenancies, no credit card required.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between August and Latch?
August is a mobile-first and web platform for self-managing landlords in England and Wales, combining guided compliance, open banking rent matching, a free tenant app, AI on every plan and HMRC-recognised MTD filing, with a free tier for up to 2 tenancies. Latch, at uselatch.co.uk, is a web-based AI-first platform covering the full lettings pipeline from listing through referencing to e-signature, with a free tier for up to 3 leases. Facts verified 28 August 2026.
Does Latch have a mobile app?
Not at the time of writing. Latch's own website shows "Coming Soon" against both the App Store and Google Play, and no Latch landlord app is listed on either UK store. Its web platform is responsive and works in a phone browser. August offers native iOS and Android apps for landlords and a separate free native app for tenants.
Is Latch HMRC-recognised for Making Tax Digital?
Not at the time of writing, as far as we can establish. Latch's own MTD feature page is marked "Coming soon" and its own comparison page describes direct quarterly submission to HMRC as on the roadmap. It does keep MTD-ready digital records. August is HMRC-recognised for MTD for Income Tax with submissions built in on every paid plan. Check HMRC's software finder on GOV.UK for the current position on any provider, and note that the finder now lists products still in development alongside those available today.
Does Latch have open banking and automatic rent reconciliation?
Latch lists Plaid as a sub-processor for UK open banking connectivity, so bank linking is available. Automatic bank reconciliation is a separate matter. On Latch's own pricing page it is marked "Coming soon" on the Pro, Enterprise and Commercial plans and is not included on the free tier. August matches incoming rent to the right tenancy automatically through its open banking feed, operating as an agent of Plaid Financial Ltd, an authorised payment institution regulated by the FCA (FRN 804718).
How does August's pricing compare to Latch's?
August is free for up to 2 tenancies, with paid plans from £8.99 to £29.99 per month for unlimited tenancies. Latch is free for up to 3 leases, with Pro at £20 per month for 8 leases and Enterprise at £40 per month for 50, plus £1 per lease beyond each cap. Latch's free tier is more generous below three properties. Above roughly eight, August costs less. Prices verified 28 August 2026; confirm current rates with each provider.
Which is better for finding and signing new tenants?
Latch. It offers listing creation, viewing bookings, tenant pre-screening, referencing through an integration and e-signatures in one pipeline. August does not offer a lettings pipeline and begins once a tenancy is in place, so landlords who re-let frequently are better served by Latch on this specific job.
Does August integrate with Xero?
Yes. August connects to one Xero organisation from Finances in the web app, on every plan including free. You push rent invoices and property expenses into Xero, and pull expenses recorded in Xero back into August against the right property, so nothing is keyed twice. The sync runs when you trigger it rather than on a schedule, and you can disconnect at any time. August stays your property system of record; Xero stays your accounting system.
Does August work for Scottish landlords?
Yes. August has a dedicated compliance journey for Scotland, built for Private Residential Tenancies and separate from the England and Wales checklist. It covers landlord registration, the Repairing Standard, deposit rules, safety certificates and PRT notice requirements, and is included on every plan. Our Scottish landlord guide explains the obligations in full.
About this comparison: August publishes this page and we have a commercial interest in you choosing August. To keep it useful, we verify every Latch fact against their published pricing and plans and say plainly where they win. Competitor facts last verified 1 September 2026. Last reviewed 25 September 2026.
