The best free MTD software for landlords (and what's free with a catch)

“Free MTD software” can describe three quite different offers: a permanent free tier, a subscription paid for through a qualifying bank account, or a trial that eventually asks for payment. A landlord comparing the headlines can therefore reach the right price for the wrong product.

This guide separates the ongoing free routes from limited trials and low-cost paid software. The useful question is not only whether the monthly price begins at zero, but which property, transaction, banking or filing condition brings that price to an end.

Clear Books offers the broadest published free route

Clear Books publishes a permanent free plan for sole traders and landlords with no transaction limit. It includes quarterly updates and the year-end MTD filing, and Clear Books says people with property and self-employment income need a separate business plan for each. Both can use a free plan. That makes it a materially different option from a bank-funded licence or a property-only free tier.

Its pricing and free-MTD pages both include the year-end MTD tax return. The paid plans add receipt scanning and email support rather than removing a transaction cap. The paid plan costs £5 plus VAT a month for each business, so upgrading both income sources costs £10 plus VAT a month.

Pandle keeps MTD submissions and usage on the free plan

Pandle’s free plan includes MTD Income Tax submissions, bank imports and no usage limits. The Pandle Pro plan, at £5 plus VAT a month, is mainly where automation appears: live bank feeds, receipt uploads, mileage tracking and projects for separating each property. A landlord can therefore start free, but a larger portfolio may find the Pro workflow easier to keep clean.

Sage Sole Trader offers a permanent free tier for modest activity

Sage offers this tier as a permanent plan rather than a trial, and it does not depend on a qualifying bank account. It includes five sales invoices and 25 automatically categorised transactions a month, while manual records are not capped. One income source can use the free plan. Someone with both a trade and rental income needs a separate business instance for each, with one on the paid plan. Property portfolios must use the same ownership percentage throughout.

FreeAgent can work well when your bank account already qualifies

FreeAgent’s free route depends on your bank account. A NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle business account can include FreeAgent without a separate subscription, although Mettle asks for at least one transaction a month. Without a qualifying account, FreeAgent is a paid product, with different direct prices for landlords and sole traders: £10 plus VAT a month for the landlord plan and £19 plus VAT a month for the sole trader plan, which are the regular prices before any introductory offer.

If you do not already use one of those banks, compare the whole banking relationship rather than treating the software as an isolated saving. Account fees, service, integrations and the effort of moving payments may matter more than the direct software subscription.

Landlord Studio is free for small portfolios, but the filing cost still matters

Landlord Studio’s GO plan is free for up to three properties, so it can cover a small portfolio without a monthly subscription. The plan still charges £5 for each MTD submission. Four quarterly updates therefore cost at least £20 across the year, with the tax return still to submit. The paid plan includes submissions, while both versions remain property-focused and do not cover a separate sole trade.

The untied app belongs in a different category. Its free access is a 30-day trial, and filing requires a paid plan. It may still suit someone with mixed income, but the trial should not be compared with a permanent free tier.

VitalTax is not free, but the low annual cost makes it worth comparing

VitalTax is not free, but its annual price and different way of working make it useful in the same comparison. It is bridging software: it doesn’t replace your spreadsheet, it sits on top of one and handles the submission to HMRC. Individual pricing was £30 plus VAT a year, billed annually, when checked on 12 September 2026, which puts it below many paid upgrades that follow once a free cap is exceeded. If you already keep tidy records in Excel and just need the submission layer, it can remain less expensive than moving the whole record-keeping process into a subscription platform.

Where the free options usually stop being enough

GOV.UK says free products are available for those with simple tax affairs, but there may be limits on how the product can be used, for example a limited number of transactions. Among the products here, a free subscription can now cover more than light record keeping. Clear Books publishes a mixed-income route, and Pandle includes free MTD submissions without a usage cap. The point where payment starts is more often automation, document capture, portfolio separation or support. Joint ownership, foreign property, former FHL records and a complete year-end return still need an explicit provider check because a zero price does not prove that every part of a return is supported.

Rather than read through this and try to match your own situation against several sets of small print, the selector asks about your properties and income directly, then shows which of these, if any, looks like a free fit. The full comparison shows the free-tier status and conditions for every product we track.

Before choosing a free route, check where the conditions start to matter