Honest comparison
Looking for a Hemlane alternative in Washington?
The real question with Hemlane is not price, it is how much of the work you intend to do yourself. Hemlane is built to help you self-manage well. Palace is built so you do not have to.
What Hemlane is
Hemlane is a property management software platform sold in tiers, available across most of the US. The lower tiers give you tools — listings, applications, rent collection, maintenance tracking — and you operate them. Higher tiers add access to a network of local agents for the parts that need a person. It is genuinely good software, and the distinction that matters is that a platform is something you use, where a manager is someone you hand the job to.
We describe how Hemlane is structured, not what it charges — their pricing is theirs to change, and a figure quoted here would be out of date before long. For current pricing, go to Hemlane’s own site ↗.
Hemlane and Palace, side by side
| Hemlane | Palace Property Management | |
|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | Software you operate, with optional local agent support on higher tiers. | A licensed broker doing the work. There is no tier where the job comes back to you. |
| Fee structure | Subscription tiers, typically a base plus a per-unit charge. What you get changes with the tier. | $109 per unit, per month to manage. One management tier, no base fee, and the scope does not change with what you pay. Placement and renewal are separate flat one-offs, not upgrades. |
| Who serves notices | Depends on your tier — at lower tiers, you do. | We do. Prepared in the correct form and served on time, every time, inside the monthly management fee — not gated behind a higher tier. |
| Who holds your rent | Rent is collected into the manager’s account and paid out to you on their schedule. | Nobody. Your tenant pays you directly — rent never enters our company account, so it is never pooled, delayed or exposed. |
| Repair approval | Typically a spending threshold, below which repairs proceed without asking you. | Your approval on every repair, at any amount. No threshold, and no invoice you did not agree to. |
| Coverage | Operates across multiple states. | Washington only. One state’s rules, one market, one set of vendors we actually know. |
| Who you talk to | A support channel, with the person answering varying by ticket. | One of two named people who own the company. Hamid holds the broker license; Amir handles onboarding. |
| Listings and screening | Listing and application tools are core to the platform — you operate them. | You run the listing and the showing. We run the application and the screening for you, rather than handing you a tool to do it with. |
Choose Hemlane if
These are real, and we would rather you hear them from us than find out later.
- You want to self-manage and you want good tools to do it with. This is what Hemlane is for, and it is better at it than we would be — we do not sell software.
- You enjoy being close to your property and only want help with the parts that need a person on site.
- You own rentals in several states and want one platform across all of them.
- You want to advertise the unit and run the applications yourself, with software rather than a broker behind it.
Choose Palace if
Flat $109 per unit, per month, across Washington.
- You do not want to operate anything. The reason to hire a manager is to stop thinking about it, and a lower software tier does not achieve that.
- You want a management fee that does not change what it covers depending on which plan you are on.
- You want a licensed Washington broker accountable for the notices, not a tool that helps you send them.
- You want rent paid directly to you rather than through anyone else’s account.
Switching from Hemlane
Is Hemlane cheaper than Palace?
At the lower tiers, very possibly — but you are buying different things, so the comparison only means something once you decide how much of the work you plan to do. A software subscription plus your own evenings is not the same purchase as handing the job to a licensed broker. Compare the tier that actually does what you want done, and check their current pricing on their site rather than ours.
I already use Hemlane. Is switching a hassle?
Less than it feels. You keep whatever records you have, we request the lease, deposit ledger and tenant contact details, and we introduce your tenant to the new payment and maintenance channel. Most owners spend under an hour on it. The one thing worth checking is your notice period on any subscription you are mid-term on.
Do you offer a cheaper tier where I do more myself?
No, deliberately. Tiering a management service means selling some owners a version that leaves the important parts undone, and the parts owners cut first — notices, deadlines, documentation — are the ones that cost the most when they go wrong. There is one management tier and everyone gets all of it. Placement and renewal are priced separately, but that is not tiering: they are distinct pieces of work that only happen at turnover, and pricing them apart is what stops an owner with a settled five-year tenant subsidising one with constant churn. If you want to self-manage with good tools, software genuinely is the better purchase and we would rather say so.
Comparing us with someone else?
See the number for your property
Send us the address and the current rent. We'll tell you what Palace would charge, what you're paying now, and an honest view on whether switching is actually worth the effort.