Bricky Bot vs Landlord Studio
Weighing up Bricky Bot vs Landlord Studio? They do different jobs. Landlord Studio is low-cost landlord software for the money side: rent tracking, bank feeds, receipts, reports and Making Tax Digital, on your phone or in the browser. Bricky Bot is an AI team that does the day’s lettings work, room by room, and waits for your ✅.
Luke AshtonFounder of Bricky Bot and Based Lettings · Updated The short answer
- Choose Landlord Studio if you want the books and the tax return sorted cheaply: HMRC-recognised MTD submissions, Open Banking bank feeds, receipt scanning, 15+ reports and a Xero sync, with a free plan for up to 3 units.
- Choose Bricky Bot if you let room by room and the time goes on the work itself: portal enquiries and viewings, WhatsApp groups, repairs, certificate renewals and landlord statements, with nothing sent until a person approves it.
- The honest line: Landlord Studio costs less and does accounting and MTD, which Bricky Bot doesn’t. Bricky Bot does the lettings work around the money, and you approve every step.
What Landlord Studio does well
Landlord Studio began as a tool its co-founder Charles Chan built to manage his own rental property, with co-founder Logan Ransley (about us). It is run by Landlord Studio Limited in New Zealand, with a UK company in London, and its UK site says it is “trusted by 80,000+ landlords and letting agents” (Landlord Studio UK). A few things stand out on its own pages:
- Making Tax Digital, recognised by HMRC. It says it is recognised for MTD for Income Tax, and you submit from inside the app, with the final declaration and separate submissions per owner for joint ownership (Making Tax Digital).
- Bookkeeping with less typing. Bank feeds that are “read-only and protected by Open Banking standards” and can pull in up to two years of transactions, Smart Scan receipts that fill in the expense for you, AI-assisted bookkeeping on Pro and up, and 15+ reports such as profit and loss and the rent ledger (rental accounting).
- Rent and compliance reminders. Rent due dates and payments logged, overdue rent flagged and reminders automated, plus recurring alerts for gas, electrical and EPC certificates and a per-tenancy checklist (find tenants, compliance).
- A tenant portal on every plan. Tenants raise maintenance requests through it, with low, medium or high priority, and you can send email and SMS from templates (maintenance).
- Cheap to start. A free MTD Go plan for 1 to 3 units, paid plans from £12 a month on annual billing, and a 14-day trial with no card (pricing).
Two things worth knowing if you’re in the UK: its help centre marks online rent collection (through Stripe or Dwolla) as “available in the US only” (rent collection), and tenant screening as “USA Only” (tenant screening). In the UK, rent is tracked, not collected.
Side by side
Landlord Studio facts are from Landlord Studio’s own UK website and help centre, checked 16 October 2026. “Not stated” means we couldn’t find it there.
| Landlord Studio | Bricky Bot | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Property management and accounting software for landlords, with HMRC-recognised MTD | An AI lettings team of eight specialists, working in a full property CRM |
| Built for | Independent landlords, property investors and property managers, “one unit or 50+” | HMO landlords, co-living and rent-to-rent operators, and letting agents |
| Who does the day-to-day work | You, in the app, prompted by its reminders and alerts | The AI team drafts and does it; a person approves anything that goes out |
| HMOs and rooms | Whole property, individual units or a mix; reports per unit | Built running HMOs: a record and tenancy per room, the licence and every certificate tracked per house |
| Enquiries and viewings | AI listing text; “collect leads, filter enquiries”; viewing booking not stated | Syncs every SpareRoom and OpenRent thread, drafts replies, books viewings, tracks each lead to a signed tenancy |
| Talking to tenants | Tenant portal; email and SMS templates; communication history | Runs the WhatsApp groups you already have, each linked to its house, lead or contractor record |
| Repairs | Tenants raise requests in the portal, with a priority | Logs the job with photos, suggests a known fix, drafts the booking to the contractor who covers that house for your ✅ |
| Compliance | Recurring alerts for gas, EICR and EPC; per-tenancy checklist | Tracks every certificate on every property, opens each renewal inside its lead time, suggests the dates from the certificate PDF for you to confirm |
| Rent and money | Rent tracked and overdue flagged; Open Banking bank feeds; receipts; 15+ reports; Xero sync (Pro and up); online rent collection US only | Never holds or moves money. Matches each line of your bank statements to rent, a cost or a payout; spots late and short rent; drafts landlord statements. Not accounting or MTD software |
| Making Tax Digital | HMRC-recognised for MTD for Income Tax; submit from the app | No |
| Referencing | Tenant screening US only; UK custom screening questions on listings | Orders referencing through your own OpenRent account; only a person pays |
| Signing | E-signatures for tenants, guarantors and joint landlords | Fills the tenancy from the records, follows every signature, files the signed PDF |
| Where it runs | Cloud, in the browser, plus iPhone and Android apps | Your own Mac or Mac mini; your team uses any browser or phone, and tenants use WhatsApp |
| AI | AI-assisted bookkeeping (Pro and up), AI rental statement import (Pro Plus), AI listing text | The whole team is AI, on the AI plan you already have (for example ChatGPT); you pay your provider directly |
| Price | Plus VAT: MTD Go free (1–3 units, £5 per MTD submission); Pro £15 a month (£12 annually); Pro Plus £30 (£24 annually); 3 units included, then £1.20 per unit; 14-day trial | See pricing on brickybot.com |
A worked example, by our own arithmetic from Landlord Studio’s published prices: an HMO landlord with 20 rooms, each set up as a unit, on Pro billed monthly would pay £15 + 17 × £1.20 = £35.40 a month plus VAT.
The real difference: keeping the books vs doing the work
Take the first week of the month in a six-bed HMO. In Landlord Studio, the bank feed brings in the rent, you match it, overdue rent is flagged and a reminder goes out, and the receipts you snap go into the right category for your MTD update. Meanwhile, room 4’s tenant has given notice. The rest is yours: write the advert, post it, answer the enquiries, book viewings, reference the new tenant and set up the next tenancy, and keep up with the house WhatsApp group.
With Bricky Bot, the team matches the bank lines to each tenant’s month and flags the one who’s short, and any chase it drafts waits for you. The notice is logged against room 4, the Listings Manager builds the advert from the house record for your own SpareRoom and OpenRent accounts, and the Enquiry Manager answers the enquiries, books viewings and follows each lead to a signed tenancy. You approve each step with a ✅, in the app or straight from WhatsApp.
The honest difference runs the other way too: Landlord Studio does your bookkeeping and files MTD with HMRC, and Bricky Bot doesn’t. If tax is the job you dread, Landlord Studio is the cheaper fix.
Who does which job
- Landlord Studio: bank feeds, receipts and bookkeeping, reports, Making Tax Digital, rent reminders, a tenant portal and mobile apps.
- Bricky Bot: adverts, portal enquiries and viewings, tenancies, shared-house WhatsApp groups, repairs with your own contractors, certificate renewals, rent matching and landlord statements, all prepared for a person to approve.
- Both, in different ways: knowing who has paid, and keeping gas, electrical and EPC certificates in date.
Who each is for
- Landlord Studio suits independent landlords and small portfolio investors who mostly let whole properties, want MTD and the books handled cheaply, and are happy to do the lettings work themselves (Landlord Studio UK).
- Bricky Bot suits HMO landlords, co-living and rent-to-rent operators and letting agents who let room by room and want the day’s work taken off their plate, while keeping the final say on everything that goes out. For the money side on its own, see what to look for in landlord software.
Using both, or switching
A landlord who’s happy with Landlord Studio for MTD doesn’t have to switch: Landlord Studio can keep the books and file with HMRC while Bricky Bot does enquiries, WhatsApp, repairs, renewals and statements. Bricky Bot doesn’t connect to Landlord Studio, so each runs in its own account. If you’re moving the lettings side into Bricky Bot, we move your houses, rooms, tenants and landlords, certificates and their dates, and files across. Migration is included, and you can export everything from Bricky Bot in open formats too.
If HMOs are most of what you run, see how Bricky Bot works as HMO management software. Comparing other accounting-led tools? Read Bricky Bot vs Landlord Vision or Bricky Bot vs PaTMa, or Bricky Bot vs COHO for HMO software, or Bricky Bot vs August for another low-cost landlord app with MTD, or Bricky Bot vs Hammock for MTD software priced per property. Need a rent increase notice? Our free section 13 notice template fills in Form 4A for you.
Questions people ask
What is the main difference between Landlord Studio and Bricky Bot?
Landlord Studio is property management and accounting software for landlords: rent tracking, bank feeds, receipts, reports and Making Tax Digital submissions, which you run from the app or the browser. Bricky Bot is an AI lettings team: specialist bots answer room enquiries, book viewings, run WhatsApp groups, chase repairs and renewals, and prepare every message for a person to approve. Landlord Studio keeps the books; Bricky Bot does the lettings work.
How much is Landlord Studio a month?
MTD Go is free for 1 to 3 units, with £5 per MTD submission. Pro is £15 a month plus VAT billed monthly, or £12 a month billed annually; Pro Plus is £30 a month plus VAT billed monthly, or £24 billed annually. Paid plans include 3 units, then £1.20 plus VAT for each extra unit, and there is a 14-day free trial of Pro with no card (checked 16 October 2026). Bricky Bot’s prices are on brickybot.com/#pricing.
Is Landlord Studio MTD compliant?
Yes. Its Making Tax Digital page says Landlord Studio is recognised by HMRC for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, and that you can submit to HMRC from inside it, including the final declaration and separate submissions per owner (checked 16 October 2026).
Does Landlord Studio work for HMOs?
Its UK site says it is purpose built for HMO management: you can manage a whole property, individual units or a mix, and get reports for each unit. It doesn’t talk about rooms as such, so in an HMO each room would be set up as a unit. Bricky Bot keeps a record and a tenancy per room, with the licence and every certificate tracked per house.
Can Landlord Studio collect rent or reference tenants in the UK?
Not according to its own help centre: online rent collection (through Stripe or Dwolla) is marked “available in the US only”, and tenant screening is titled “USA Only”. In the UK it tracks rent due and paid, flags overdue rent and sends reminders on Pro and up. Bricky Bot doesn’t collect rent either; it matches your bank statement lines to each tenant’s month, and orders referencing through your own OpenRent account.
Does Bricky Bot do Making Tax Digital or my accounts?
No. Bricky Bot matches rent and costs, reads invoices and receipts, and prepares landlord statements, but it isn’t accounting or MTD software and doesn’t connect to Xero. If MTD and the books are what you need, Landlord Studio does them; some landlords will want both.
Does Bricky Bot message tenants on its own?
Only the automatic replies you switch on, such as the out-of-hours holding reply. Every other message, advert, booking or payment the team prepares waits for a person’s approval, in the app or straight from WhatsApp.
See the team do the work
A short demo of Bricky handling real lettings work: enquiries, WhatsApp, repairs and approvals, with nothing sent until you say so.
Book a demoSources
- Landlord Studio UK home page (checked 16 October 2026)
- Landlord Studio UK pricing (checked 16 October 2026)
- Landlord Studio Making Tax Digital (checked 16 October 2026)
- Landlord Studio rental accounting (checked 16 October 2026)
- Landlord Studio landlord compliance (checked 16 October 2026)
- Landlord Studio property maintenance (checked 16 October 2026)
- Landlord Studio find tenants (checked 16 October 2026)
- Landlord Studio about us (checked 16 October 2026)
- Landlord Studio help: online rent collection (checked 16 October 2026)
- Landlord Studio help: tenant screening (USA only) (checked 16 October 2026)
Landlord Studio is a trademark of its owner. Bricky Bot isn’t affiliated with Landlord Studio. If anything here is out of date, email hello@brickybot.com and we’ll correct it.