Indlu vs PayProp: Why Small Landlords Are Switching

PayProp has been South Africa’s dominant rental payment platform for over a decade, and for good reason — it’s a reliable, well-established system trusted by thousands of rental agencies. But if you’re an individual landlord managing a handful of properties, PayProp might not be the best fit for you.

More and more small landlords are switching to Indlu, and the reasons come down to three things: pricing transparency, built-in tenant screening, and a platform designed for your scale.

PayProp: Built for Agencies

PayProp’s core strength is automated rental payment processing. It excels at collecting rent from tenants, deducting management fees, and distributing funds to property owners — all through compliant trust accounts. For a rental agency managing hundreds of properties across multiple owners, this is invaluable.

What PayProp does well:

Automated rent collection and distribution
Trust account compliance (essential for agencies)
Real-time payment tracking and notifications
Owner and tenant portals
Integration with accounting software like Xero and Sage

Where PayProp falls short for small landlords:

Opaque pricing — You can’t find pricing on their website. You need to request a demo and negotiate, which typically involves setup fees, monthly licence costs, and volume-based charges.
Agency-first design — The interface and workflows assume you’re an agency with a trust account, staff, and dozens of clients. Individual landlords have to work around features they’ll never use.
No tenant screening — PayProp doesn’t include credit checks or tenant vetting. You’ll need a separate TPN or TransUnion account, adding cost and complexity.
Setup friction — Getting started involves onboarding calls, account configuration, and often a waiting period. It’s not a “sign up and go” experience.

Indlu: Built for Individual Landlords

Indlu was designed specifically for South African landlords who manage their own properties — whether that’s one unit or twenty. Instead of stripping features out of an agency platform, Indlu was built from the ground up for your workflow.

What Indlu offers:

AI-powered tenant screening (TPN, TransUnion, Experian — all in one)
Automated POPIA consent forms
Rent invoicing and payment tracking with arrears alerts
Deposit management with interest calculation tracking
Rental Housing Act-compliant lease generation
Financial reporting with tax-ready SARS summaries
Portfolio dashboard with rental yield analytics

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Tenant Screening

PayProp: Not included. You need a separate account with TPN or another bureau. Each check is billed separately, and you manage consent forms yourself.
Indlu: Built in. AI aggregates data from TPN, TransUnion, and Experian into a single risk profile. POPIA consent forms are auto-generated and logged. No separate accounts needed.

Winner: Indlu — screening is included, not bolted on.

Rent Collection

PayProp: Industry-leading automated collection with trust account support. Ideal for agencies that need to distribute funds to multiple property owners.
Indlu: Automated invoicing and payment tracking with arrears alerts. Designed for landlords collecting rent directly.

Winner: PayProp for agencies managing trust accounts. Indlu for landlords collecting their own rent.

Compliance

PayProp: Strong on trust account compliance for agencies. Limited help with individual landlord obligations under the Rental Housing Act.
Indlu: Compliance dashboard covering the Rental Housing Act, POPIA, deposit rules, and required lease clauses. Built for landlord obligations, not agency regulations.

Winner: Indlu for individual landlord compliance.

Financial Reporting

PayProp: Transaction reports and payment histories. Works well with external accounting software.
Indlu: Built-in expense tracking, income summaries, and tax-ready reports for SARS. No external software needed for basic reporting.

Winner: PayProp for agency-level accounting. Indlu for landlord tax reporting.

Pricing

PayProp: Not publicly listed. Typically involves setup fees (often R2,000–R5,000+), monthly licence fees, and per-transaction or volume-based charges. Total monthly cost varies widely.
Indlu: Free tier available. Starter plan at R99/mo. Pro plan at R249/mo. No setup fees. No volume charges. No hidden costs.

Winner: Indlu — transparent, predictable, and significantly more affordable for small portfolios.

Ease of Getting Started

PayProp: Requires a demo, onboarding process, and account setup. Timeline can be days to weeks.
Indlu: Sign up, add your first property, and screen a tenant within minutes. Self-service onboarding.

Winner: Indlu.

When PayProp Is Still the Right Choice

Let’s be honest — PayProp is the better choice if:

You’re a rental agency managing properties on behalf of other owners
You need trust account management (a legal requirement for agencies)
You manage 50+ properties and need enterprise-grade payment distribution
You already have tenant screening handled through a separate provider and only need payment automation

PayProp’s infrastructure is battle-tested and built for that scale. Indlu isn’t trying to replace PayProp for agencies — it’s giving individual landlords a platform that’s actually designed for them.

How to Switch from PayProp to Indlu

If you’re currently on PayProp and want to switch, here’s what the migration looks like:

Export your data — Download tenant details, lease information, and payment histories from PayProp
Sign up for Indlu — Create your account and add your properties
Import your tenants — Add tenant details and lease terms into Indlu
Set up rent collection — Configure invoicing and payment tracking
Screen new tenants through Indlu — For any upcoming vacancies, use the built-in screening from day one
Notify tenants — Let tenants know about the new payment arrangements

The whole process typically takes less than an hour for a small portfolio. You can also run both platforms in parallel during a transition period if you prefer.

The Bottom Line

PayProp is excellent at what it does — but what it does is built for agencies. If you’re an individual landlord, you’re paying for complexity you don’t need while missing features you do (like tenant screening).

Indlu gives you screening, compliance, management, and reporting in one place for R99/mo. No setup fees, no volume charges, no demo required.

Switch to Indlu — no setup fees, no volume charges. Start free today.