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HomeZada has a free tier called Essentials, but if you've actually tried using it you've probably already discovered the catch: maintenance scheduling, repair tracking, project management, and home finances are all locked behind the $99/year Premium plan. The free Essentials tier gives you home inventory, document storage, a contact list, and 10 AI chats. That's it. If you signed up for HomeZada because you wanted reminders for HVAC servicing, a place to log roof repairs, or warranty expiration alerts, the free tier doesn't do any of those.
This page surveys five genuinely free alternatives that handle the maintenance-tracking work HomeZada gates behind a paywall. Mendlog is one of them — but if another tool is a better fit for your situation, you should use it. The goal here is accurate signal about what each option actually does for free.
HomeZada's published pricing page lists three tiers. The Essentials free tier gives you:
Premium ($99/year or $15.95/month) is where the actual home management features live: Home Maintenance (scheduling and reminders), Home Remodel Projects, Home Finances, and Reports & Dashboards. Deluxe ($189/year) adds support for up to 3 properties and a Home Marketing module.
If your goal is just to inventory your possessions for insurance purposes and store some PDFs, the free tier works. If you want to track repairs, get warranty alerts, log contractor visits, or build a maintenance history for an eventual sale, the free tier won't do any of that — and the price gap to Premium is $99/year, which is significantly more than several alternatives.
Mendlog is built specifically for the maintenance-tracking use case that HomeZada's free tier doesn't cover. The free tier supports 1 property and up to 10 maintenance records. Each record captures the title, category (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roof, appliance, etc.), service date, cost, contractor info, warranty expiry, and notes. The appliance tracker is also included on the free tier for data entry of appliance install dates, brands, and serial numbers.
What it does free: log up to 10 maintenance records with contractor info, service dates, and warranty expiry dates. Appliance data entry. One property.
What's behind the paywall: warranty expiration alerts and service reminders (Pro $19.99/year), unlimited records and properties, contractor history view, and PDF export of a maintenance history report (also Pro). Agent tier ($49.99/month) is for real estate agents who want branded reports for clients.
Best for: homeowners who want a structured maintenance log that pays off at the eventual sale. The free tier is enough for the first year or two; if you stay under 10 records, you never need to upgrade.
Notion's free personal plan supports unlimited pages and blocks. Several community-published "Home Maintenance Tracker" templates exist in the Notion Marketplace; the most popular ones are free and let you set up a database for appliances, repairs, and warranties without paying anything. You define your own columns and the structure flexes around whatever you actually need.
What it does free: unlimited custom databases, mobile apps, web access, attachments up to 5 MB per file. Free templates handle most homeowner use cases.
What's behind the paywall: file uploads larger than 5 MB (Plus plan, $10/month per user), version history beyond 7 days, more collaboration features.
Best for: spreadsheet/database-comfortable homeowners who want full control over the structure. Setup time is meaningful for non-power users. No automatic warranty alerts (you'd need to set reminders manually in your calendar or use Notion's built-in reminder feature).
Airtable's free plan supports up to 5 editors per workspace and 1,200 records per base. Community templates for "Home Maintenance Tracker" and "Home Inventory" are downloadable for free. Airtable is more spreadsheet-like than Notion and stronger for relational data (linking a repair record to the contractor who did the work).
What it does free: up to 1,200 records per base, multiple views (grid, kanban, calendar, gallery), automated workflows up to a monthly cap, mobile apps.
What's behind the paywall: more than 1,200 records per base (Team plan, $20/month per user), more automation runs, advanced view types, more attachment storage.
Best for: homeowners who want relational tracking (link contractors to jobs to warranties to appliances) and don't mind setting up the schema yourself. Calendar views are useful for spotting upcoming warranty expirations.
For pure maintenance reminders — change HVAC filter every 90 days, drain water heater annually, replace smoke detector batteries every 6 months — the simplest free option is the reminder app already on your phone. Set recurring tasks, attach notes with model numbers and contractor info, and the reminder pops up when it's time to act.
What it does free: recurring reminders with notifications. Free, fully offline-capable, never goes away as long as you have your phone.
What's missing: no structured historical record. No place to track costs. No contractor directory. No report to hand to a buyer at the eventual sale. Reminders fire and disappear unless you manually log completion notes.
Best for: homeowners whose only need is "remind me to do the thing." If you want a paper trail later, this is not enough on its own, but it pairs well with one of the structured options above.
Google Sheets is free with any Google account; Microsoft Excel has a free web version. A simple spreadsheet with columns for date, system, description, contractor, cost, and warranty expiry handles most of what HomeZada's $99/year Premium tier offers, with effectively zero setup cost.
What it does free: unlimited rows, simple formulas, mobile access via Google Sheets app or Excel mobile. Conditional formatting for warranty expiration highlighting. Easy to export as PDF when you sell.
What's missing: no automatic warranty alerts (you'd need to build a Google Apps Script trigger or use conditional formatting to visually flag expiring warranties). No mobile-first UX. No domain knowledge (you're inventing the structure yourself).
Best for: homeowners who already live in spreadsheets and don't want to install another app. A spreadsheet is also the easiest format to hand over to a real estate agent or buyer at the sale — most agents are comfortable opening a Sheet or Excel file.
Several home services companies (Thumbtack Home Care, Hippo Home Care, Lemonade Home, etc.) offer free home management features tied to their services or insurance products. The trade-off is usually that the "free" offering is a hook for their paid service or insurance product, and the record-keeping features may be limited or change as the company pivots. These can be useful supplementary tools, but they're not great as your primary maintenance log — the historical record could disappear if you leave the insurer or the company sunsets the feature (as Centriq did in 2025).
The right free option depends on what you'll actually use:
Free tiers can degrade silently. A few signals to look for so you don't get burned:
HomeZada's free tier is fine for home inventory and document storage. It is not useful for maintenance tracking, repair history, warranty alerts, or building a sale-ready record — all of those require Premium ($99/year) or higher. If those features are what you actually need, you have better options that don't cost anything: Mendlog's free tier for structured records, Notion or Airtable for DIY flexibility, native reminder apps for scheduled tasks, or a free spreadsheet. Pick the one that matches how you'll actually use it.
For a deeper head-to-head, see Mendlog vs HomeZada: Which Home Maintenance Tracker Fits Your Situation? and The Best Home Maintenance Apps in 2026.
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Mendlog's free tier handles 1 property and up to 10 maintenance records. Log repairs, contractors, and warranties as they happen — no credit card, no time limit on the free tier.
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