Free tenant screening services
Vendor pages read live on 2026-09-04 · prices change without notice
Screening is never free; it is only ever moved. The useful question is not whether a platform charges you, but who the fee lands on and what you get for it.
- Best overall
- Applicant-paid screeningThe fee sits with the person being screened, which is also how most state fee rules assume it works.
- Best free
- Avail's Unlimited tier$0 per unit to the landlord, with screening charged to the applicant.
- Best for many units
- A per-report accountAt volume, $29–$49 a report bought directly beats a subscription bought for screening alone.
Who pays, on each model
| Model | Landlord cost | Who pays the report |
|---|---|---|
| Landlord-free platform | $0 | Applicant — $55 on TurboTenant's free plan, $45 upgraded |
| Landlord-free platform, per unit | $0 or $9/unit/mo | Applicant, via Avail's workflow |
| Direct report, applicant-paid | $0 | Applicant — SmartMove and RentPrep both offer tenant-pay |
| Direct report, landlord-paid | $29–$49 | You |
Prices read live on 2026-09-04 from each vendor's own pricing page; see the sources in the page source.
What a report actually costs at source
RentPrep publishes Credit Report Only at $29, Full Background Check at $29 with an FCRA-certified screener review, and a Complete Screening Package at $49, with income verification at $10 and income-and-employment at $15 as add-ons. TransUnion SmartMove publishes SmartCheck Premium at $49. That is the real floor: a platform charging your applicant $55 is charging a margin on a $29–$49 product.
Which is fine, if the workflow earns it
The margin buys application collection, identity checks and a lease that follows on. Just know that is what you are buying, and that a state fee cap may not care about the distinction.
Application fee rules constrain the "free" model
- Several states cap the application fee, and the cap can be below what a platform charges.
- Several require a receipt and an accounting of what the fee was spent on.
- A few require refunding the unused portion if you did not run the screening.
- Charging more than one adult applicant is normal; charging a household twice is not.
Set your fee from your own state's rule, not from the platform's default. The rental application template has the fee and income fields on the form where the applicant can see them.
The part that is never free
Whoever pays, a screening report is a consumer report and declining on it triggers the FCRA adverse action duty. No platform discharges that for you, and no fee model changes it. The steps are in the tenant screening guide.
Buying checklist
Check your state's application fee cap first. Decide who pays before you list, and say so in the listing. Compare the report's contents, not its price. Confirm tenant-pay is permitted where the property is. Have the adverse action notice drafted before the first decline.