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Buying guide

Choosing self storage software as a small operator

9 min readUpdated

Most advice about self storage software for small operators is written for someone buying for forty sites. If you run one to five facilities your questions are different: what does it cost per facility, can I see the price without a sales call, can my part-time manager run it, and what happens to my tenants' records if I leave. This is a buying checklist for that operator: published pricing, the mistakes to avoid when buying self-storage software, the questions that matter on billing and collections, and how to get your data in and back out again.

Where Storage Facility Creator handles a step, we say how, and we say what it does not do. The checklist works whether or not you ever use it.

Start with the pricing page, not the demo

A vendor's pricing page tells you how they want to sell. A request-a-quote button means the price depends on how big they think you are, and a mandatory demo costs you an hour before you learn the number. For a small operation that is a sign you are not the customer they built for.

Check three things before you read a single feature: the price per facility per month, what counts as an add-on, and whether there is an onboarding, setup or migration fee. Then check the term: month to month means you can leave when the software stops earning its keep, and a 12-month agreement means you pay for a year to find out.

Storage Facility Creator publishes its price: $75 per facility per month, month to month, with unlimited users and no onboarding fee. The one add-on is a hosted public website with online rentals at $25 per facility per month. You sign up yourself, with no sales call, and book a demo only if you want one.

Write down what you do every month before you look at features

Feature lists are long on purpose. Stay grounded with a one-page list of what actually happens at your facility in a month: rent posts, a few people pay late, you send reminders, a unit or two gets overlocked, a tenant moves in, another moves out, and at month end you want to know what came in. Add the rare events: a lien, a rate change, a new employee.

Score each vendor against that page, not their brochure, and note which steps you do on paper or in a spreadsheet today; the software has to absorb those on day one or you will run two systems.

SFC is built around that loop. Rent posts to every tenant's ledger on the 1st automatically. The dashboard shows occupancy, scheduled monthly rent, how much is on autopay and who is past due. Move-in and move-out are guided flows that can prorate the rent, and the payments report downloads to CSV.

Mistakes when buying self-storage software

Each of these is easy to avoid once you know to look for it.

  • Paying per user. Per-seat pricing means the owner, the manager and the spouse who covers Saturdays each cost money, so people share logins and the audit trail becomes useless. Look for a per-facility price with unlimited users and a role for each person.
  • Buying on the demo instead of the trial. A demo shows the vendor's data on the vendor's screen. A trial you start yourself, with your own units and a handful of real tenants, shows whether your manager can run it on a Tuesday.
  • Ignoring the add-on column. Online rentals, a website, texting and payment processing are often extra. Add them up before comparing base prices, and ask what you can export before you sign, not after.
  • Signing a long contract for a discount. If the software is good you will stay anyway. If it is not, the discount is the most expensive thing you bought.
  • Assuming "works with your gate" means something specific. Ask which controller, what happens when a tenant is late, and who installs it. Often the answer is a list of codes, which is fine as long as you know that going in.

Questions to ask about billing and payments

Billing is where software earns its fee, so ask precise questions. Does rent post automatically on the day your lease says? Can a tenant pay by card without calling you, and put a card on file so rent collects itself? When that card declines, is it retried, and who is told? Can you take cash and checks and print a receipt without the card system involved? Whose merchant account is it: does the money land in your bank, or in the vendor's account with a payout later? Get the card processing rate in writing.

In SFC each facility connects its own Stripe account, so card payments pay out straight to you and card numbers never touch the software. Tenants can see their balance and pay by card in a self-service portal, save a card and switch autopay on, or pay from a secure link you text or email them, no login needed. Autopay collects once a month. Most declined cards are retried a few days later, and autopay switches off after repeated failures or when the card is expired or cancelled. Cash and check payments and printed receipts work without Stripe. Online payments are card only; there is no bank-draft option.

Collections, texting and your state's statute

Collections is where your rules and the law meet. Decide your grace period and late fee before you shop, write them in the lease, and check them against your state's self-storage statute, because several states cap late fees or set a minimum grace period. Then ask whether those numbers are settings you control per facility, whether late fees post automatically or by hand, and whether you can see at a glance who is behind and by how many days.

Texting has its own rules. Under US carrier requirements a tenant has to opt in, every message has to identify the sender and explain how to stop, and a STOP reply has to be honored. Ask whether the software records consent, what number the texts come from, and what happens at a monthly limit. Be wary of promises of unlimited texting.

Liens and auctions are set by state statute and differ a lot from state to state. The timeline, notice wording, delivery method, advertising and the sale itself are legal steps. Tracking dates is useful; preparing and delivering notices is a different thing, and most products for small operators do not do it. Read your statute before your first one.

In SFC, grace days and the late fee are per-facility settings, flat or percentage, and automatic late-fee posting is a separate switch that stays off until you turn it on. A Past due tab shows who is behind, days late and balance, and an owner or manager can overlock every unit that owes a balance in one action and print the overlocked units to walk the lot. Texts go from a verified toll-free number, only to tenants who have opted in, with your facility name and opt-out instructions on every message, and STOP and HELP replies are handled for you. Texting is included within a monthly fair-use allowance; each paid facility includes up to 5,000 emails a month, 500 during the trial. SFC does not prepare or send lien notices and does not run auctions, so those steps stay on your own checklist.

Users, roles and who can see what

At a two-person facility the owner, the manager and whoever covers the weekend all need a login, and shared passwords mean you never know who waived a fee. Ask whether users are unlimited, whether each person gets a role, whether sign-in can require a second factor, and whether changes are logged somewhere nobody can edit.

SFC includes unlimited users per facility. Each staff member gets an owner, manager, employee or viewer role per facility, enforced in the app and on the database. Two-factor authentication by emailed code is a per-user switch. Payments, ledger changes, move-ins, move-outs, overlocks and team changes are written to a per-facility audit log that cannot be edited. The app runs in any current browser on a phone, tablet or desktop with nothing to install; there is no native app. Support is by email and the in-app Report a Bug, not by phone.

Getting your data in, and getting it out

Switching cost is the real price of software. Ask how your tenant list gets in, how balances and history get in so you do not start every account at zero, and how you get everything back out when you leave. A vendor that answers the first two eagerly and the third vaguely is telling you something. Then ask whether the trial needs a card, how long it runs, and how you cancel.

In SFC, a CSV import wizard brings your tenant list in from a spreadsheet with column matching and duplicate detection, and you can set paid-through dates for many tenants at once. Enter past history lets you type in a tenant's past rent and payments with their real dates so the ledger starts out right, with undo. The trial starts when your account is approved, needs no card, and covers one facility; more facilities need a card-backed subscription. Your first month is free when you subscribe, the plan is month to month, and you cancel from inside the app and keep access to the end of the billing period. The payments report downloads to CSV. If you need other data back out, email support@storagefacilitycreator.com and ask before you sign up. QuickBooks Online is available on request, so ask us.

Questions operators ask

Do I have to sit through a sales call to learn the price?

Not with SFC. The price is published: $75 per facility per month, with the $25 website and online rentals add-on listed next to it. You sign up in the app yourself and book a demo only if you want one.

Does the trial need a credit card?

No. The trial starts once your account is approved, and covers one facility. You add a card when you subscribe, your first month is free, the plan is month to month, and you can cancel from inside the app.

Will it work with my gate?

SFC keeps a gate code on file for every tenant, can limit it to certain days, hours or dates, generates one at move-in and turns the code off in SFC at move-out. It does not talk to gate hardware; codes still go into your keypad as they do today.

Does the software handle lien notices and auctions?

No. The Past due tab shows how many days each tenant is behind, so you can see when a tenant passes the day count in your state's statute. Preparing and delivering notices, advertising the sale and running it are done outside the app, following your state's self-storage statute.

What happens to my tenants' card numbers?

They never touch SFC. Each facility connects its own Stripe account, saved cards live with Stripe, and card payments pay out to your bank.

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