Obligo: Features, Pricing and Integrations

Obligo sells deposit-free leasing built on a billing authorization. The resident authorizes charges on a payment method up to the deposit amount, and Obligo’s FAQ says it is neither insurance nor a surety bond. Bank letters of credit back the program: the FAQ names Wells Fargo, and a September 2026 post says HSBC joined as a provider.

Renters choose no deposit, a reduced deposit, installments, or a full cash deposit that earns up to 2 percent interest. Obligo says it is used in over a million homes.

In the deposit alternatives category it is the only vendor built on bill authorization, and the one with the widest set of named PMS integrations.

Who it fits

The record tags institutional multifamily, small multifamily and single-family rentals. Obligo names AppFolio and Buildium, so a manager with 80 or 300 doors meets it inside the system already in use. It also publishes single-family case studies: a 180-unit manager in El Paso on Buildium and a 1,700-unit manager in Tennessee and Oklahoma on Propertyware.

It fits an operator who wants no insurance product on the lease and wants to keep cash deposits for residents who prefer them. It also fits a manager who dislikes claims paperwork, since there is no claims step.

It fits less well for an owner who wants coverage above the deposit. Obligo charges only up to the deposit amount it replaced, so damage beyond that is the resident’s debt to you, as it would be with cash. An owner who wants a higher limit should read Rhino’s profile or LeaseLock’s.

Pricing

The renter pays a non-refundable service fee, a percentage of the deposit requirement set by the renter’s profile. It is usually paid up front for the first lease term of up to 12 months. Obligo says the program comes at no cost to the property.

Ask what the fee is at your typical deposit for a strong and a weak applicant, what renewal costs, and who funds the 2 percent interest on a full deposit. Ask whether the property chooses which of the four options to offer.

Integrations

The record lists Yardi, RealPage, Entrata, AppFolio, Buildium and MRI, from Obligo’s software-partner page. Yardi, AppFolio and Buildium are embedded, with Buildium’s in its marketplace.

Entrata is available by API with an embedded version coming, MRI runs through MRI’s partner program, and RealPage covers OneSite. Rent Manager, which an earlier version of our record listed, is no longer on the page.

Ask, for your system, whether the resident’s choice, the authorization and the move-out charge post to the ledger without a manual step. The AppFolio and Buildium integration pages list the other categories that connect to each.

Limitations and questions to ask

The payout first. Once you close the move-out record, Obligo starts an ACH payment for damage or missed rent, up to the authorized amount, with no claim to file.

The resident then repays Obligo in a lump sum or interest-free installments. Ask what happens to a charge the resident disputes, and who decides.

The guardrails second. Obligo’s FAQ says it screens a management company’s deposit-charge history before onboarding and can suspend a manager whose charge rate crosses a threshold. Ask what the threshold is and how it is measured.

The law third. Ask whether the authorization is treated as a deposit under your states’ statutes and what the resident’s addendum says. Ask what share of applicants qualifies for the no-deposit option, since declined applicants pay cash and the leasing team runs two tracks.

Alternatives

The closest product shape is Qira’s escrow-plus-alternative platform, which holds the cash deposit in escrow and offers zero-deposit and installment plans beside it. The Obligo alternatives page sorts the rest of the category by mechanism.

Head-to-head pages: Obligo and Rhino compared directly and Jetty against Obligo. The full vendor table for the category has every vendor.

AI visibility

The current edition’s numbers sit in the Live from the Index section below, read from the run files each month; the prompts and sources behind them are on the row page it links.