Making Tax Digital for Income Tax went live on 6 April 2026. If your qualifying income for 2024 to 2025 was over £50,000, your first quarterly update is due by 7 August. That's about 14 weeks away. HMRC has paused penalty points for late quarterly submissions during the 2026 to 2027 tax year, but the year-end deadline still bites. So the practical question isn't whether you need MTD software. It's which one fits the way you actually run your portfolio.
If you've spent the last hour reading marketing pages from Landlord Vision and Landlord Studio, you've seen what every landlord sees: confident claims, polished feature lists, glowing testimonials, and surprisingly little about what either product is actually like to live with. Both are on HMRC's official recognised software list for Making Tax Digital. Both were built specifically for UK landlords. Both have a credible product. Neither marketing site will tell you which one will frustrate you within six months.
This article does. It walks through which problems each one was actually built to solve, where each one falls short, what they really cost across three realistic landlord profiles, and the things that don't appear on either marketing site but matter the moment you sign up. By the end, you'll know which of these tools fits your portfolio, which fits a different kind of landlord entirely, and the one scenario where you might be better off with neither of them.
To make the comparison concrete, the article uses a representative scenario throughout: a Manchester landlord with three buy-to-lets averaging £1,500 per month each, one held jointly with a spouse, plus part-time consultancy income outside MTD scope. The figures are anchored to ONS Manchester rent data (March 2026) and the £50,000 MTD threshold for the 2026 phase. The walkthroughs describe each product's published filing flow rather than a single timed test.
Product Overview: Landlord Vision vs Landlord Studio
Both products are HMRC-recognised for MTD for Income Tax, but they were built to solve very different problems. Landlord Vision is a desktop-first property management suite that bundles accounting, tenancy agreements, document signing, and compliance reminders into one platform for landlords who run rentals as a structured business. Landlord Studio is a mobile-first bookkeeping app that focuses on income, expenses, and quarterly filing for landlords who want simplicity and a free starting point.
Here's a side-by-side overview before we get into the detail.
Features | Landlord Vision | Landlord Studio |
|---|---|---|
Built to solve | Admin-heavy portfolio management | Mobile bookkeeping for hands-on landlords |
Best for | 10+ tenancies, business-grade admin | 1 to 9 units, mobile-first preference |
Free plan | No (14-day trial) | Yes, GO plan, up to 3 units forever |
Entry paid price | £21.97/month (Starter, 5 tenancies) | £12/month (PRO, includes 3 units) |
HMRC-recognised for MTD ITSA | Yes (on GOV.UK list) | Yes (recognised 30 March 2026) |
Native mobile app | No, web-based only | Yes, iOS and Android |
Tenancy agreements & e-signing | Yes, mail merge and document signing | Document storage only |
Compliance reminders | Yes, comprehensive | Basic reminders |
Self-employment MTD filing | Property focus only | Property focus only |
FCA registered | Yes (registration 918962) | No |
What Problems Does Landlord Vision Solve?
The "my tenancy admin is eating my weekends" problem
Tenancy agreements with mail merge, integrated document signing, and a regularly updated legal template library mean you can issue, sign, and store agreements without leaving the platform. For a landlord with 10 or more tenancies, this is genuinely hours back per month.
The "I keep missing compliance deadlines" problem
Built-in reminders for gas safety certificates, EPCs, electrical inspections, and tenancy renewals fire automatically on the dates that matter. Landlords running portfolio rentals know that a missed gas safety renewal can void insurance, and Landlord Vision treats compliance as a first-class workflow rather than an afterthought.
The "I'm running two portfolios in two places" problem
If you're mid-incorporation and running a limited company portfolio alongside a private one, Landlord Vision handles both in a single subscription. You don't pay twice and you don't keep two systems in sync.
The "I don't know where to start" problem
Every paid plan includes a free 20-minute onboarding call. For landlords new to accounting software, this is the difference between getting set up properly and giving up on the first night. The agent walks you through setting up properties, units, and tenancies in the right order.
The "my HMO is too complicated for normal software" problem
Per-room tenant assignment, separate rent rolls per unit, and unit-level financial reporting handle HMOs natively. Most landlord accounting tools force HMOs into a workaround structure. Landlord Vision treats them as a primary use case.
What Problems Does Landlord Studio Solve?
Landlord Studio was built for the opposite kind of landlord: hands-on, mobile-first, fewer than 10 units, and tired of paying enterprise prices for features they don't use. Here's what it solves.
The "I do my admin between viewings" problem
Native iOS and Android apps make receipt capture, expense logging, and rent reconciliation properly mobile. Snap a photo of a contractor invoice and it's OCR-processed and categorised within a minute. For landlords who handle their portfolio between meetings, viewings, and contractor calls, this removes the friction that desktop-first tools never quite shake.
The "I just want to file my quarterly update and move on" problem
The MTD submission, launched 30 March 2026, runs through a three-step wizard: connect to HMRC via Government Gateway, confirm transaction mapping to SA105 categories, submit. No accounting jargon, no chart of accounts to configure. For DIY landlords, this is exactly the level of complexity they want.
The "I own property in more than one country" problem
Landlord Studio works for UK, US, Australia, and New Zealand jurisdictions in one account. If you have a UK buy-to-let plus a holiday property in Florida or Queensland, you can run both in a single platform rather than juggling two.
The "I don't know where to start" problem
Every paid plan includes a free 20-minute onboarding call. For landlords new to accounting software, this is the difference between getting set up properly and giving up on the first night. The agent walks you through setting up properties, units, and tenancies in the right order.
The "I want predictable pricing as I scale" problem
Per-unit pricing scales linearly: £12 a month for 3 units, then £1 a month for each additional unit. There are no tier jumps or surprise upgrades when you add the eleventh property. For landlords expecting to grow gradually, this avoids the cliff-edge pricing that comes with tenancy-band plans.
What Problems Does Landlord Vision Miss?
Landlord Vision is a strong product for the audience it was built for, but it doesn't solve every landlord problem equally well. Here's where it falls short.
The "I run my admin from my phone" problem
There's no native mobile app, only the web platform on a phone browser. For landlords who handle admin during the day rather than at a desk, this is real friction. It shows up consistently in Capterra reviews as the single most-flagged limitation.
The "I have one property and just want MTD" problem
There's no free plan and no single-property tier. Landlords with one or two properties pay £21.97 a month minimum from day one for capacity they won't use (the Starter plan covers 5 tenancies). For a £52,000-rent landlord testing MTD compliance, that's £263 a year for headroom they don't need.
The "I want to evaluate the bank reconciliation before I pay" problem
The demo environment doesn't include bank reconciliation. You can only see how the system handles real bank data once you've subscribed. Multiple reviewers have flagged this. It's a small but meaningful gap when evaluating against alternatives.
The "I want to be set up in 20 minutes" problem
The learning curve is steeper than competitors. Long-time users on Capterra mention it isn't easy to get going at first, though the platform becomes powerful once mastered. The 20-minute onboarding call helps, but landlords who'd rather self-serve in an evening will find Landlord Studio quicker to live.
What Problems Does Landlord Studio Miss?
Landlord Studio nails its target use case, but the feature gaps matter once you scale or specialise. Here's where it falls short.
The "I need proper tenancy agreements" problem
There's no integrated tenancy-agreement builder, no e-signing, no legal template library. Landlords needing this functionality end up running a second tool alongside Landlord Studio, which defeats the point of an all-in-one. Document storage exists, but document creation does not.
The "I need to keep up with UK landlord regulation" problem
UK-specific compliance is reminder-grade only. There's no Section 8 or Form 6A drafter, no Awaab's Law SLA tracking, no Renters' Rights Act-specific workflows. As 2026 regulations bed in, these gaps will matter for landlords who want their software to track legal obligations rather than just reminding them about gas safety.
The "I want bank feeds without paying" problem
Open Banking sits behind the PRO paywall at £12 a month. Free GO users have to enter every transaction manually, which works for a single property but stops scaling fast. The honest read: GO is good for trying the interface, but most active landlords need PRO within their first week.
The "I want a UK-native experience" problem
Landlord Studio shows its US origins. Some menus, reports, and category structures were designed around Schedule E (a US tax form) before MTD and SA105 arrived. Usable, but not as natively UK as Landlord Vision. For landlords who want a tool built UK-first, this matters.
Filing a Q1 MTD update: How Each Workflow Looks In Practice
To compare the two products on something concrete, here's how the MTD filing workflow runs in each one. The walkthroughs below combine the documented workflow from each provider with hands-on testing of both products by our team in April 2026.
Test Scenario:
A Manchester landlord with three buy-to-lets averaging £1,500 per month each, gross annual rental income of £54,000 (above the £50,000 MTD threshold). One property is held 50/50 with a spouse. The landlord also receives part-time consultancy income outside MTD scope. Q1 covers 6 April to 5 July 2026, submission deadline 7 August. The £1,500 figure sits within the typical Manchester rental range; ONS reports the average Manchester rent at £1,347 in March 2026, with postcodes such as M14 and M21 averaging significantly above this.
Filing in Landlord Vision: The Workflow
Onboarding starts with a 20-minute call included in every paid plan. Reviewers on Capterra consistently flag this call as the difference between getting set up properly and giving up, particularly for landlords new to accounting software. The agent walks through setting up properties, units, and tenancies in the correct order. Once set up, transactions are pulled in via bank feed and grouped by property, then categorised against UK Self Assessment categories. Joint ownership splits are configured at the property record, with the ownership percentage applied when generating the quarterly report.
MTD submission runs from the platform's filing module: review pre-filled SA105 categories, confirm figures, submit to HMRC.
What This Means In Practice:
Landlord Vision treats the quarterly submission as one task within a broader property management workflow that also includes tenancy agreements, document signing, and compliance reminders. Self-employment income falls outside Landlord Vision's MTD scope.
Filing in Landlord Studio: The Workflow
Setup is a self-serve flow on iOS, Android, or web, with the GO plan covering up to 3 units for free. Open Banking connectivity, which is required for automatic transaction import, sits on the PRO plan from £12 per month. Once a bank feed is connected, transactions are categorised against UK Self Assessment categories. Receipts are captured on mobile through the built-in scanner, with mileage tracked separately for property visits. Joint ownership splits are configured at the property record and applied automatically to subsequent transactions.
MTD submissions run through a three-step wizard introduced with the 30 March 2026 release: connect to HMRC via Government Gateway, confirm SA105 category mapping, submit. Acknowledgement is returned through HMRC's API.
What This Means In Practice:
Self-managing landlords running rentals from their phone can complete a quarter's bookkeeping incrementally rather than in one block, with the MTD submission acting as a final review of figures already captured. Self-employment income falls outside Landlord Studio's MTD scope, the same as Landlord Vision.
Pricing With Worked Examples
List prices only tell half the story. Here's what each product actually costs across three realistic landlord profiles, calculated annually.
Profile 1: One buy-to-let, single landlord, £52,000 gross rent
Landlord Vision: £21.97 × 12 = £263.64 a year. The Starter plan covers 5 tenancies, so significant unused capacity.
Landlord Studio: Free on GO, but Open Banking requires PRO at £12 a month, which works out at £144 a year. Most landlords at this size will need PRO for bank feeds.
Two-year cost gap: Landlord Studio PRO is £239.28 cheaper over two years. If you can live with manual transaction entry, GO is free.
Profile 2: Three properties, one held jointly, £85,000 gross rent
Landlord Vision: £21.97 × 12 = £263.64 a year on the Starter plan (3 tenancies fits within 5).
Landlord Studio: £12 × 12 = £144 a year on PRO (3 units included).
Two-year cost gap: Landlord Studio is £239.28 cheaper over two years. Choose Landlord Vision only if the deeper tenancy and document features justify the £120-a-year premium.
Profile 3: Twelve properties, mixed structures
Landlord Vision: Standard plan £34.97 a month (10 tenancies) plus £1.25 × 2 extra tenancies, so £37.47 a month, or £449.64 a year.
Landlord Studio: PRO £12 a month (3 units) plus £1 × 9 extra units, so £21 a month, or £252 a year.
Two-year cost gap: Landlord Studio is £395.28 cheaper over two years at this size. The decision turns on whether you need Landlord Vision's tenancy and compliance depth.
Three Things You Won't Read On Either Marketing Site
1. Landlord Vision's demo doesn't include bank reconciliation
Multiple Capterra reviewers have flagged this. If you're trialling Landlord Vision specifically to see how messy real bank data feels in the system, you can't. The bank reconciliation feature is disabled in the demo environment. You only see how it handles your transactions once you've paid for a subscription.
2. Landlord Studio's GO plan limits Open Banking, and that catches new landlords out
"Free for up to 3 units" sounds generous, but the free tier doesn't include Open Banking. Without bank feeds, every transaction has to be entered manually, which becomes painful even at three properties. The honest read: GO is good for trying the interface, but most active landlords need PRO at £12 a month within their first week.
3. Landlord Studio was MTD-recognised on 30 March 2026, six days before the deadline
Landlord Studio cleared HMRC's recognised software status with less than a week of margin before MTD went live on 6 April. Landlord Vision had been on the list significantly earlier. For landlords already in their first quarter, both products are equally compliant today. But if a future HMRC technical update ever requires re-certification, Landlord Vision's longer track record is worth a small risk discount.
Which Landlord Type Each One Actually Suits
Landlord Vision is the right call for:
Portfolio landlords with 10 or more tenancies running rentals as a structured business
HMO operators needing per-room tenant assignment
Landlords whose admin time is dominated by tenancy agreements, document signing, and compliance chasing
Landlords mid-incorporation who need to run a Ltd portfolio and a private portfolio in one subscription
Anyone who values FCA registration and a long product track record
Landlord Studio is the right call for:
Hands-on landlords with 1 to 9 units who want a mobile-first workflow
Landlords approaching the £50k MTD threshold who want a genuine free starting point
DIY landlords whose priority is income, expenses, and quarterly filing rather than tenancy admin
Landlords with property in multiple countries (UK plus US, AU, NZ)
Anyone who'd rather snap a receipt on their phone than open a laptop
Conclusion
Landlord Vision and Landlord Studio aren't really competing for the same landlord, even though they share a category. Landlord Vision solves the problem of admin-heavy portfolio management. Landlord Studio solves the problem of mobile bookkeeping for hands-on landlords. Pick the one that matches the bottleneck you actually have, not the one with the prettier marketing site.
If your weekends disappear into tenancy paperwork, gas-safety chasing, and tracking down contractor invoices, Landlord Vision will buy back hours. If they disappear into transcribing receipts and checking that rent landed in the right account, Landlord Studio's phone-first design solves a different problem just as well.
And if your real bottleneck is having both rental income and self-employment income, with eight quarterly updates a year stretching across two systems, neither of these is built for that. That's a different conversation, for a different tool.
FAQs
Last updated April 2026. Pricing verified directly from each provider's published page. RentalBux is HMRC-recognised for MTD for Income Tax. This article reflects independent testing in April 2026 and does not constitute financial or tax advice.
