Updated October 25, 2026. Independent editorial; how we research.
Who this is for
An owner-operator of a few office, retail or light industrial buildings, roughly 20 to 50 tenant suites, keeping books in QuickBooks or similar, with a part-time building engineer. Totals assume 4 buildings and 30 suites.
Jobs the stack must cover
Leases, rent and CAM
Commercial lease terms, escalations, recoveries and rent collection.
Work orders and maintenance
Tenant requests and preventive maintenance with a history per building.
Lease visibility
Stacking plans, expirations and critical dates to share with brokers and lenders.
The stack at a glance
| Tier | Job | Tool | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start with | Leases, rent and CAM | 
STRATAFOLIO Essential | $210/mo |
| Add when | Work orders and maintenance | 
UpKeep Essential, 2 users | $48/mo |
| Add when | Lease visibility | 
StackPlanner Starter, billed annually | $99/mo |
| Skip until | Leases, rent and CAM | 
MRI Software | Pricing on request |
| Skip until | Lease visibility | 
VTS | Pricing on request |
| Lean total (Start with) | $210/mo | ||
| Fuller total (Start with + Add when) | $357/mo | ||
Start with
The essentials for day one. These make up the lean total.
STRATAFOLIO Essential
Built for commercial owners: lease tracking, rent, CAM and recoveries on top of QuickBooks. It requires QuickBooks, so it suits owners who already keep their books there. A one-time onboarding fee applies and is not published.
Alternatives: DoorLoop (handles CAM charges; $199/mo minimum on yearly billing); Yardi (Yardi Breeze commercial is $2 per unit per month with a $200 monthly minimum on an annual agreement)
Add when
Worth buying once the trigger applies. These, minus anything they replace, make up the fuller total.
UpKeep Essential, 2 users
Add when you have a building engineer or several vendors, and work orders live in texts and email.
Work orders and preventive maintenance schedules with an asset history per building. Premium ($55 per user per month) is the vendor's usual entry point for larger teams.
Alternatives: Limble CMMS (maintenance software, prices shown through a calculator); Building Engines (commercial operations platform, pricing on request)
StackPlanner Starter, billed annually
Add when brokers, lenders or partners keep asking for stacking plans and expiration schedules.
Visual stacking plans, expirations and critical dates for up to 5 properties and 3 users. It is a visibility tool, not accounting, and it launched in the US recently.
Alternatives: Prophia (AI lease data and abstraction, pricing on request)
Skip until
Tools newcomers are often sold too early, and what has to be true before they pay off. Not included in either total.
MRI Software
MRI and Yardi's commercial suites are the institutional standards, sold by quote with real implementation projects. A four-building owner rarely earns back the cost.
VTS
Leasing and asset management for large office and industrial portfolios; quote only and built for teams with dedicated leasing and asset managers.
Monthly cost
Assumptions: 4 buildings, 30 tenant suites; 2 maintenance users; Annual billing where it is offered and cheaper; Onboarding fees excluded; US prices before tax.
Totals are rebuilt from each line's published price whenever the site is published, and exclude tax, payment processing, onboarding fees and hardware. How we built these stacks.
Frequently Asked Questions
What software does a small commercial landlord need?
A system built for commercial leases, escalations and CAM recoveries. StrataFolio Essential is $210 a month billed annually at 30 suites, which is the whole lean stack at $210. DoorLoop and Yardi Breeze commercial are published alternatives with $199 and $200 monthly minimums.
Can residential landlord software handle commercial leases?
Some can, but check CAM reconciliation, percentage rent and escalations before you commit. Tools built for single-family rentals often treat every lease as a fixed monthly rent, which is where commercial owners lose recoveries.
What does the fuller commercial landlord stack add?
Work order software for two users (UpKeep Essential, $48 a month) once a building engineer or several vendors are involved, and stacking plans for brokers and lenders (Stackplanner Starter, $99 a month billed annually). Together that is $357 a month.