Prism vs Baselane
Baselane answers a different question first: where should the money live? If you are willing to bank with them, the bundle is genuinely clean. If you are not — or your portfolio is more than rentals — the comparison changes.
The case for Baselane
Choose Baselane if you want banking, rent collection and bookkeeping in one place and moving accounts does not bother you. The core is free, tenants pay by ACH at no fee, and the bookkeeping tags itself along Schedule E lines.
The case for Prism
Choose Prism if you keep your existing banks — it reads them through Plaid rather than replacing them — or your portfolio runs past rentals into commercial buildings and businesses. The analysis runs deeper than tagging: break-even, total return, DSCR, partner-aware reports.
| At a glance | Prism | Baselane |
|---|---|---|
| Asset types covered | Rentals, commercial and operating businessesOne portfolio; typed fields per asset | Rental property |
| Landlord banking (checking, high-yield) | — | FDIC-insured through a partner bank |
| Rent collection | — | Tenant ACH free; cards 3.49%, tenant-paid |
| Tenant portal | — | |
| Works with the banks you already have | Plaid sync — keep your accounts | Built around Baselane accounts |
| Auto-categorization | Pro and upLearns from your corrections; rules included | Schedule E auto-tagging; custom rules on Smart |
| Operating businesses | Every plan | — |
| Performance metrics (DSCR, cap rate, CoC, break-even) | Pro and upComputed from transactions and loan terms | Cash-flow dashboards |
| Ownership & partner splits | Pro and upPercentages per asset, audit-logged | Shared access on Smart |
| Import history (CSV / bank files) | Guided wizard on every plan — Baselane exports recognized, tags mapped to categories, undo included | CSV with column mapping, desktop only |
| Price | $0 / $8.99 / $19.99 Free / Pro / Enterprise, per month | Core free · Smart $20/moSmart adds auto-tagging rules, receipt match, faster payouts |
| Open signup today | Private beta — request an invite |
Two different first questions
Baselane starts from the money: open landlord banking with them — FDIC-insured through a partner bank, high-yield, separate virtual accounts per property — collect rent into it, and the bookkeeping happens where the money already lives. It is a genuinely clean design, the core is free, and tenant ACH costs nothing. Prism starts from the portfolio: keep whatever banking you have — the credit union, the relationship bank your commercial lender wants to see deposits at — and it reads those accounts through Plaid and turns the activity into per-asset books and performance numbers.
That first question decides most of this comparison. If moving your accounts is fine, Baselane's bundle is hard to beat for rentals. If your banking is load-bearing — and for owners with commercial relationships it usually is — a tool that requires moving it starts a step behind.
Coverage
Baselane is rental property. A commercial building can hold a virtual account, but the model around it — rent collection, Schedule E tags, landlord workflows — is residential. Prism models residential property, commercial real estate and businesses as three first-class types, each with its own fields, in one portfolio.
Bookkeeping depth
Baselane auto-tags transactions into Schedule E categories, with custom auto-tagging rules on its $20/mo Smart plan. Prism's categorization is portfolio-shaped rather than tax-form-shaped: category packs matched to the asset types you own, rules you write, and a learning layer that picks up your corrections. Above the categories sits the part Baselane does not attempt — DSCR, cap rate, cash-on-cash, break-even and total return per asset, and exit modelling on Enterprise. Both are honest bookkeeping tools; only one is trying to be an analysis tool.
Ownership and partners
Baselane Smart adds shared access — other people in the account. Prism records ownership itself: percentages per asset with an immutable change history, role-scoped access per asset, and reporting that can respect the split. If partners are a login problem, either works; if they are an equity problem, that is this row.
Pricing
Baselane's core — banking, bookkeeping, rent collection — is free, with Smart at $20/mo for the automation layer. Prism is free up to 3 assets, with plans covering 25 and 250 assets at the live prices in the table above and on the pricing page. Priced as software against software, Baselane's free core wins — its economics ride on the banking. You are choosing a model as much as a price.
What switching involves
Nothing to unwind
Because Prism reads your existing accounts through Plaid, there is no bank migration in either direction — link the accounts and recent history syncs in.
Export the Baselane record, import what matters
Download your transaction history and upload it to the import wizard: properties match to assets, the tags you built map onto categories, and the older history comes in instead of staying behind in a file.
Keep collecting rent wherever it works
Prism does not collect rent. If Baselane rent collection is working for you, some owners keep it for exactly that and do the accounting here — the deposits sync in like any other transaction.
The short version
Choose Baselane if…
- You want the money and the books in one login, and switching banks is acceptable.
- Rent collection with free tenant ACH matters to you.
- Free core covers your needs: banking, bookkeeping, rent collection at $0.
- The portfolio is rentals and staying rentals.
Choose Prism if…
- Your banking is set — credit unions, relationship banks, commercial lenders — and moving it is a non-starter.
- The portfolio includes a commercial building or a business.
- You want analysis past tagging: break-even, DSCR, total return, exit modelling.
- Partners with real percentage splits, not just shared logins.
Can tenants pay rent through Prism?
Can one property have more than one bank account?
Can I sign up today?
More of them on the full FAQ.
One portfolio for everything you own
Rentals, commercial buildings and businesses, side by side — add an asset, link its accounts, and read the numbers.