August vs Landlord Vision: which fits your portfolio in 2026?
vs
August vs NRLA Portfolio: a comprehensive comparison to help you choose the right property management platform for your property portfolio.
Choosing between August and NRLA Portfolio comes down to one question: do you want the most capable standalone software, or software that comes bundled with membership of the UK's largest landlord association? August is a standalone platform with Open Banking rent tracking, guided compliance, Making Tax Digital on every paid plan, an AI assistant and a free tenant app, from free to £29.99 per month with no membership required. NRLA Portfolio is included with NRLA membership, PortfolioPlus adds Open Banking finance tools for £5 per month, and the membership itself brings a legal advice line, tenancy documents and lobbying representation no standalone app can offer. Many landlords sensibly do both: the NRLA for advice and representation, August for the software. This guide compares both honestly, with every NRLA fact verified against their published pricing and plans on 17 July 2026.
Free for up to 2 tenancies, no credit card required.
The comparison at a glance
Competitor facts verified 17 July 2026. NRLA Portfolio requires NRLA membership; effective monthly totals below annualise the membership fee. NRLA's own pages have shown inconsistent PortfolioPlus pricing, so confirm current rates with the NRLA before deciding.
UK compliance built in (England and Wales)
Guided checklist covering gas safety, EICR, EPC, Right to Rent, deposit prescribed information, with plain-English guidance
AI suggests reminders from your documents
MTD for Income Tax
HMRC-recognised
Quarterly submissions built in on every paid plan
Rent tracking
Open banking feed with automatic payment matching through an FCA-regulated Plaid connection
Tenants pay in-app with no fees
Free tier and entry price
Free for up to 2 tenancies
Paid plans £8.99 to £29.99/mo
Price at scale
£14.99/mo (Portfolio) rising to
£29.99/mo unlimited
Learning curve
Set up in under 5 minutes
Built for non-accountants
Mobile
Purpose-built native iOS and Android apps with full parity
Web platform in addition
Tenant experience
Free native tenant app, including in-app rent payments, maintenance with photos, in-platform communications, secure documents
Accounting depth
Core income and expense tracking
CSV and Excel exports, accountant-ready reports
AI assistance
August Intelligence on every plan, including free
Property insights
Auto-pulls valuations, council tax bands, EPC ratings and expiry dates
Multi-user and team access
On the 2026 roadmap, not yet shipped
Data portability on exit
CSV and Excel export of your data
Pricing: membership changes the maths
August's pricing stands alone: free for up to 2 tenancies, then £8.99 per month for up to 5 (Growth), £14.99 for up to 20 (Portfolio) and £29.99 for unlimited tenancies (Portfolio+), billed monthly or annually with a 30-day trial and a 14-day money-back guarantee. NRLA's pricing runs through membership, around £125 per year for an individual landlord (verify current rates on nrla.org.uk): Portfolio is included with membership, PortfolioPlus adds the Open Banking finance features for £5 per month with a 30-day trial, and PortfolioPro adds £11 per month for landlords who want their MTD submissions handled; you only ever pay one upgrade price.
Two honest caveats before the table. First, for an existing NRLA member the marginal cost of PortfolioPlus is £5 per month, which nothing on the market undercuts, and at 21 or more tenancies a member's £15.42 effective total also undercuts August's Portfolio+ at £29.99. Second, NRLA's own pages have shown different PortfolioPlus prices in different places, so confirm the current rate with the NRLA before buying.
Tenancies
August
NRLA (effective monthly, membership annualised
1 to 2
Free
£10.42 (Portfolio) to £15.42 (with Plus)
3 to 5
£8.99 (Growth)
£15.42 (with Plus)
6 to 20
£14.99 (Portfolio)
£15.42 (with Plus)
21+
£29.99 (unlimited)
£15.42 (with Plus); £21.42 with Pro for MTD submissions
Standard rates published on each provider's website as of 17 July 2026, excluding promotional offers. For an existing NRLA member, the marginal software cost is £0 (Portfolio) or £5 per month (Plus). Full August pricing is on our pricing page.
Where NRLA genuinely wins
A comparison you can trust has to say where the other product is better, so here it is plainly.
The membership bundle
No standalone software, August included, can hand you a legal advice line when a tenancy goes wrong. NRLA membership brings advice, tenancy document templates, training, lobbying representation and member discounts, with more than 85,000 members by its own count, and Portfolio comes included in that membership. For a full assessment of what membership offers, see our guide to the best landlord associations for UK landlords.
Marginal cost for existing members
If you want the NRLA anyway, and many landlords should for the advice line alone, PortfolioPlus at £5 per month is the cheapest regulated open-banking finance tool available to you, full stop. Above 20 tenancies, a member's effective total also undercuts August's top tier on subscription price.
Team task assignment today
Where August wins
Compliance that guides rather than reminds
NRLA Portfolio tracks certificates, expiry dates and tasks, and sits on the compliance pedigree of the UK's largest landlord association. August's checklist guides you through what needs doing and why for England and Wales, reflecting the Renters' Rights Act 2025, with August Intelligence reading your documents and suggesting the reminders you have not set, with alerts by push, SMS and email.
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. NRLA Portfolio is web-based and designed to work on mobile, with no native app advertised at the time of writing.
A tenant app tenants actually use
August includes a free native tenant app for paying rent in-app with no fees, reporting maintenance with photos and accessing documents securely. NRLA offers a tenant web portal for payments, maintenance and documents, with no tenant app advertised.
Filing included, not tiered
Every paid August plan includes HMRC-recognised Making Tax Digital submissions from £8.99 per month. NRLA's route is tiered: PortfolioPlus produces an indicative SA105 summary, and submissions are marketed through the PortfolioPro upgrade at £11 per month with NRLA's tax filing partner, taking a member's effective total to around £21.42 per month.
AI on every plan
August Intelligence is included from the free tier. It scans tenancy agreements, suggests reminders and answers questions about your own portfolio. NRLA's join page describes an AI-powered reminder system, but no assistant-style AI is positioned.
Making Tax Digital: both are ready
MTD for Income Tax went live in April 2026 for landlords with qualifying income above £50,000. August is HMRC-recognised for MTD for Income Tax, with quarterly submissions built into every paid plan. NRLA's position deserves precision. PortfolioPlus keeps digital records through its Open Banking feed and produces an instant SA105 summary that NRLA itself describes as an indication to share with your accountant rather than a submission. Quarterly and annual MTD submissions are marketed through the PortfolioPro upgrade at £11 per month, delivered with NRLA's tax filing partner; and at the time of writing NRLA's own FAQ also states that Portfolio does not currently offer an MTD solution and that one is planned. Confirm the current position with the NRLA before relying on it for your filings. For the full market picture including bridging tools, see our guide to the best MTD software for landlords, and our Making Tax Digital hub explains the deadlines and thresholds in full.
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. Smart contract scanning reads your tenancy agreements and does the data entry. Most landlords are set up in under five minutes.
Am I locked in?
Not with August. No membership prerequisite, monthly billing if you want it, cancel anytime, a 14-day money-back guarantee, and CSV and Excel export whenever you ask. One factual note for planning on the NRLA side: Portfolio data is retained for 12 months after membership ends and then deleted, so export anything you need if you let membership lapse.
Can I keep my NRLA membership and use August?
Yes, and it is a common combination. The NRLA for its advice line, documents and representation, and August as the day-to-day software. August works the same whether or not you are a member, and 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. You can start free and judge it on your own portfolio before paying anything.
The verdict
Choose August if you want the most capable software regardless of membership: automated Open Banking rent tracking from the free plan, guided England and Wales compliance, Making Tax Digital included on every paid plan rather than tiered, an AI assistant, native mobile apps and a tenant app your tenants will actually use, from £8.99 to £29.99 per month with no membership required. Choose NRLA Portfolio if membership is the draw. You want the advice line, documents and representation of the UK's largest landlord association with software included, with PortfolioPlus at £5 per month as the cheapest regulated open-banking add-on available to a member, or if your portfolio exceeds 20 tenancies and the member total's price advantage matters more than native apps and built-in MTD. And if you want both the association and the software, the two work perfectly well together.
Cross-shopping the other low-cost tools as well? See how August compares with Alphaletz. If a free tier is what you are really weighing, our comparison of August and Landlord Studio covers the other free-plan option in depth. 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 NRLA Portfolio?
August is standalone property management software for self-managing UK landlords, with Open Banking rent tracking, guided compliance, MTD on every paid plan, AI assistance and a free tenant app, from free to £29.99 per month. NRLA Portfolio is software included with NRLA membership (around £125 per year), with PortfolioPlus adding Open Banking finance tools for £5 per month and PortfolioPro adding MTD submissions for £11 per month. Facts verified 17 July 2026.
Is NRLA Portfolio cheaper than August?
For an existing NRLA member, yes at the margin: Portfolio is included with membership and PortfolioPlus costs £5 per month. For a landlord joining only for the software, the membership-inclusive totals of roughly £10.42 to £21.42 per month sit alongside August's £8.99 to £29.99, with August including more at each price point and NRLA's member total undercutting August above 20 tenancies. Rates verified 17 July 2026; confirm current rates with each provider.
Does NRLA Portfolio support Making Tax Digital?
Partially, through tiers. PortfolioPlus keeps digital records and produces an SA105 summary NRLA describes as indicative, and MTD submissions are marketed through the PortfolioPro upgrade with NRLA's tax filing partner, while NRLA's own FAQ states Portfolio does not currently offer an MTD solution; confirm the current position with the NRLA. August includes HMRC-recognised MTD submissions on every paid plan.
Does NRLA Portfolio have a mobile app or tenant app?
NRLA Portfolio is web-based and designed to work on mobile, with no native app advertised, and it offers a tenant web portal for payments, maintenance and documents. August has native iOS and Android apps and a free native tenant app.
Can I use August and keep my NRLA membership?
Yes, and it is a common combination: the NRLA for its advice line, documents and representation, and August as the day-to-day software. August has no membership requirement and works the same either way.
About this comparison: August publishes this page and we have a commercial interest in you choosing August. To keep it useful, we verify every NRLA fact against their published pricing and plans, flag where their own pages disagree with each other rather than exploiting it, and say plainly where they win.
