FixQueue vs Innago: the honest comparison for small landlords
Let's get the awkward part out of the way: Innago is free for landlords and FixQueue starts at $9/mo. Innago is a genuinely good product with a fair business model — if free all-in-one software is what you want, close this tab and sign up. But “free and broad” and “paid and focused” solve different problems, and for maintenance specifically the differences are real. This is a fair comparison so you can pick the right tool.
Updated August 2026 · ~5 min read
TL;DR
- Pick Innago if you want rent collection, lease signing, screening, reporting, and maintenance in one place for $0/month — costs are covered by tenant-paid payment fees and applicant-paid screening (~$30–$35 per report).
- Pick FixQueue if maintenance is your actual pain and you want the deepest, lowest-friction version of that one workflow: QR-code intake with no tenant account, required photos, urgency triage, and email-link scheduling. From $9/month.
- Not sure? Innago is free forever and FixQueue has a 14-day free trial — run both for two weeks on one property and see which one your tenants actually use.
What each product actually is
Innago
Innago is free property management software for landlords of any size — no monthly fee, no setup fee, no per-unit charges, no contract. It covers online rent collection, digital lease signing, tenant screening (via TransUnion), maintenance management, tenant messaging, financial reporting, rental advertising, and mobile apps for both landlord and tenant. The model: tenants pay small processing fees on rent payments (around $2 per ACH payment and roughly 3% on cards — landlords can absorb these), and applicants pay for their own screening reports (approximately $30–$35). Maintenance-wise, tenants submit tickets through the Innago tenant portal or app, and landlords can track, message, and close them out. It's a capable module — but it's one feature among a dozen, and it requires tenants to have Innago accounts.
FixQueue
FixQueue is a single-purpose tool: tenant maintenance intake and appointment scheduling. Each property gets a QR code. Tenants scan it, submit a request with required photos and urgency in under a minute — no app, no tenant account. Requests land on a kanban board the landlord manages. When the landlord proposes an appointment, the tenant approves / declines / reschedules via a link in their email — also no account needed. Calendar view ties it all together. That's it. No accounting, no listings, no screening.
Pricing compared
There's no monthly-fee contest here — Innago wins that by definition. The honest comparison is who pays what, where:
| Cost | Innago | FixQueue |
|---|---|---|
| Landlord monthly fee | $0 — free for unlimited units | from $9/mo |
| Rent payment fees | Tenant-paid: ~$2 per ACH, ~3% on cards (landlord can absorb) | N/A — FixQueue doesn't process rent |
| Tenant screening | Applicant-paid, ~$30–$35 per report (TransUnion) | N/A — no screening |
| Setup / contract | No setup fee, no contract | No setup fee, cancel anytime |
| Free trial | Not needed — free forever | 14 days (card required) |
Innago's free-for-landlords model is confirmed on innago.com at the time of writing; per-transaction and screening fee amounts are approximate — check their site for current figures.
When to choose Innago
- ✓Your software budget is $0 and you want the most complete free platform available.
- ✓You want online rent collection with automatic late fees and payment tracking.
- ✓You sign leases digitally and run tenant screening on applicants.
- ✓Your tenants are comfortable creating an account and using a portal or app.
- ✓You're fine with maintenance being a capable-but-secondary module inside a bigger system.
When FixQueue is worth paying for over free
- ✓You have 1–20 units and maintenance chaos — not rent collection — is the problem you're solving.
- ✓Your tenants won't reliably adopt a portal — a QR sticker on the fridge with no login gets used; an app they have to install doesn't.
- ✓You want photos required on every request so you can triage before driving over.
- ✓You want appointment scheduling with tenant confirmation built into the workflow, not handled over text threads.
- ✓Rent already works through Zelle or direct deposit. (See our free-tools roundup.)
Feature-by-feature
| Feature | Innago | FixQueue |
|---|---|---|
| Tenant maintenance intake | ✓ (tenant portal / app, account required) | ✓ (QR code, no account) |
| Required photos on requests | Optional | ✓ (required) |
| Urgency tiers | ✓ | ✓ |
| Kanban-style tracking | Ticket list | ✓ (kanban board) |
| Appointment scheduling w/ tenant approval | Via messages | ✓ (email link, no account) |
| Calendar view | ✓ | ✓ |
| Activity-log notes per request | ✓ | ✓ |
| Printable QR signage | — | ✓ (customizable PDF) |
| Email alerts (SMS coming soon) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Online rent collection | ✓ (tenant-paid processing fees) | — |
| Digital lease signing | ✓ | — |
| Tenant screening | ✓ (applicant-paid, ~$30–$35) | — |
| Financial reporting | ✓ | — |
| Rental advertising / listings | ✓ | — |
| Tenant mobile app | ✓ (iOS + Android) | Not needed — QR + web |
| Landlord monthly cost | $0 | from $9/mo |
| Works without tenant accounts | — | ✓ |
| Setup time | ~1–2 hours (units, tenants, bank setup) | ~60 seconds |
| Cancel anytime | N/A (free) | Yes (in-app) |
What FixQueue deliberately doesn't do
We could chase Innago feature-for-feature and monetize with payment fees — and that's exactly the trap we avoid. A product funded by rent processing has to make rent collection the center of gravity; maintenance will always be a side module there. FixQueue charges from $9/mo precisely so the maintenance workflow can be the entire product: zero-friction intake, forced photo documentation, honest urgency triage, and scheduling that closes the loop. If you need rent collection, leases, or screening, Innago does those well for free — use it for that, and nothing stops you from running both.
Common questions
Innago is free. Why would anyone pay for FixQueue?+
Fair question — and if $0 is the deciding factor, use Innago; it's genuinely free for landlords with no unit limits. Landlords who pick FixQueue anyway do it for two reasons. First, focus: Innago's maintenance module is one feature among a dozen, while FixQueue's entire product is the maintenance workflow — required photos, urgency triage, kanban board, and appointment scheduling the tenant confirms from an email. Second, tenant friction: Innago tenants submit requests through a portal account or app; FixQueue tenants scan a QR code and submit in under a minute with no account at all. If your tenants won't reliably use a portal, the free tool that goes unused costs more than the $9 one that gets used.
How is Innago free — what's the catch?+
There's no hidden landlord fee. Innago makes money on tenant-paid transaction fees: tenants pay a small fee per ACH rent payment and a percentage on card payments (landlords can choose to absorb these), and rental applicants pay for their own screening reports (roughly $30–$35 for TransUnion credit, criminal, and eviction checks). That's a sensible model — just know the costs exist, they're simply shifted to tenants and applicants.
Does FixQueue do rent collection, leases, or screening like Innago?+
No. Innago legitimately covers more ground: online rent collection, digital lease signing, tenant screening, financial reporting, listings, and a tenant mobile app — all at no cost to the landlord. FixQueue does one thing: maintenance intake, triage, and scheduling. Plenty of landlords run both — Innago for rent and leases, FixQueue for the maintenance workflow — since neither locks your data in.
What if I outgrow FixQueue?+
You probably will at some point — and that's fine. FixQueue is built for the first 20 units. If you reach the point of wanting accounting, team workflows, and lease management in one platform, Innago (still free), DoorLoop, or Buildium are genuinely the right upgrade path. Migrating is straightforward since we don't hold your books.
Try FixQueue free for 14 days
Card required — no charge until day 15. 60-second setup. Cancel from inside the app any time.
Start free trial →After trial: from $9/month. Cancel any time.
Also comparing tools? FixQueue vs TenantCloud covers the budget all-in-one that recently retired its free tier, and FixQueue vs Buildium has the full feature breakdown for the most-searched comparison in this space.