Stessa vs. Baselane: Which One Actually Replaces Your Spreadsheet

What each one actually is

Stessa is owned by Roofstock and is built on Yardi's data infrastructure. It's a rental-property accounting dashboard with a banking product bolted on. The workflow is optimized for connecting your checking and credit cards, then categorizing them against IRS Schedule E lines, to generate reports by year-end. The banking component is optional. Most of the appeal lives in the dashboard and the tax reports, although a lot of them are pay-walled.

Baselane runs the opposite way. It started as landlord-focused banking and was purpose-built for rentals. Your expenses are categorized somewhat automatically because every transaction flows through their system.

Banking

Baselane's banking suite is the most differentiated thing either product offers. You can open unlimited virtual checking and savings accounts to organize funds by property, with no monthly fees or minimums. Each property can have its own debit card, and you can issue virtual cards for specific purposes, e.g. one for the handyman, one for Home Depot, etc. Deposits are FDIC-insured up to $3M through Thread Bank, and savings accounts earn interest (up to 2.63% APY at the time of writing), but checking accounts don't.

Stessa's banking also exists through Thread, but it's a secondary feature. The Stessa Cash Management account offers tiered APYs that depend on your subscription level and balance. Most small landlords will keep an operating balance below this cutoff, so if it's APY you're after, might as well call it zero.

A second thing worth mentioning: Stessa used to require you to open a Thread account if you wanted rent collection. Now Stessa allows payments via Stripe, for a fee.

Bookkeeping

This is where Stessa earns its reputation. Connect your accounts, and Stessa imports transactions and attempts to auto-categorize them in accord with the Schedule E line items. It's not always accurate, but when it is it saves a lot of time. The dashboard rolls up income statements, net cash flow, cash-on-cash return, and NOI by property and portfolio, and the reports are exportable and generally clean, though by default cash flow includes capital expenditures, so a big one-time project like a roof replacement can make a property's operating performance look worse than it is. Note also that report access is gated: a paid subscription is required to unlock the full set.

Baselane's bookkeeping is closer to good than great. Most transactions originate inside Baselane's banking, so categorization is automated, although not always accurate. You can generate the same Schedule E, among other reports. Although Baselane's reports aren't as rich as the ones you get from Stessa.

For landlords just looking to ditch a spreadsheet and get a nice Schedule E, Stessa will give you a prettier audit trail.

Tax reports

This is the sharpest practical comparison.

Stessa's Tax Center generates a tax package at year-end that includes an income statement, cash flow report, Schedule E, and supporting documents that you can forward to your CPA.

Baselane generates the same Schedule E, and bundles it with a transaction ledger and uploaded receipts. It also auto-generates 1099-K forms and 1099-INTs for savings account interest. Stessa makes you handle 1099 generation yourself.

For most small landlords, the differences are small. Both will generate a Schedule E for your accountant, but if you self-file, Stessa's tax package is slightly more cohesive.

Mobile

Stessa has had iOS and Android apps for years. They're handy for scanning receipts (which can only be done on mobile) and reviewing the dashboard on the go, and you can categorize transactions and view reports too. But the app is a companion to the web platform, not a replacement, so setup tasks like connecting bank accounts and customizing dashboards still have to be done on the web.

Baselane launched an app in late 2025. It's also lacking features from the web product, and users complain about receipt capture being blurry, but it has a nice user interface and overall users seem to be enjoying using it.

Price

Both are free at the entry tier.

Stessa gives you unlimited properties, document storage, Schedule E reports, online rent collection, and a basic dashboard. To get faster ACH clearing (about 3 days instead of 5+), advanced reports, maintenance tracking, and lease e-signatures, you have to move up to Stessa's $144/year Manage tier ($15/month if billed monthly). Fast rent settlement on Stessa is better thought of as the paid feature, not rent collection itself.

Baselane has similar pricing. The free Core plan includes banking, bookkeeping, and rent collection. The $20/month plan billed annually (Baselane Smart) adds auto-receipt matching, two-day rent deposits (instead of five), and shared access for a bookkeeper or partner. Some things you have to pay for separately, like e-signatures, lease creation, and tenant screening.

For a landlord with less than ten doors that wants to collect rent reliably and produce a Schedule E without a monthly payment, Baselane's free tier wins if you're okay with setting up a bank account with them. If you don't need rent collection through software, Stessa's free tier wins.

Who should pick which

Pick Baselane if you want to collect rent through software and want to separate your rental finances into its own bank account.

Pick Stessa if you want the cleanest tax package and don't need to or want to move your banking. Keep your existing bank, connect it to Stessa, and let it categorize your transactions. Just know that you'll occasionally have to reconnect the feed, or manually add transactions when the system can't categorize them on its own. Stessa's free dashboard is well done, and the Tax Center dashboard also feels polished.

A third option: Rentlab

If Stessa's issues and Baselane's banking commitment both give you pause, consider Rentlab.

For landlords with 1 to 10 properties who want bookkeeping without banking commitment and tax reports, Rentlab fills the gap.