Rental Property Accounting Software Compared (2026): Stessa vs REI Hub vs Baselane
Spreadsheets work until they don't. The moment you own more than a couple of doors — or the first April rolls around and your accountant asks for a Schedule E breakdown per property — generic tools start costing you real money. QuickBooks wasn't built for rentals, and your personal banking app doesn't know what a mortgage escrow split is.
Three tools were built specifically for landlords: Stessa, REI Hub, and Baselane. They take different approaches, charge different prices, and fit different portfolios. Here's the honest comparison, with 2026 pricing verified against each company's own site.
The quick comparison
| Stessa | REI Hub | Baselane |
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| What it is | Property management + accounting platform (a Roofstock company) | Rental-focused accounting software (acquired by TurboTenant, Dec 2024) | Landlord banking with built-in bookkeeping |
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| Free tier | Yes — strong free plan | Limited free tier; 14-day trial | Yes — full Core plan is free |
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| Paid price | Manage $15/mo ($12 annual); Pro $35/mo ($28 annual) | $15–$80/mo monthly billing by unit count; $9–$48/mo billed annually | Smart plan $20/mo |
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| Bank feeds | Automated, unlimited, on free tier | Automated on paid plans | Automated (it IS your bank) |
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| Schedule E reports | Included on paid tiers (Pro adds CapEx tracking) | Built-in on every plan, no configuration | Schedule E categories + reports |
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| Double-entry accounting | No | Yes | No (bookkeeping, not accounting) |
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| Rent collection | Yes, free | No | Yes, free |
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| Best for | Landlords who want a free dashboard | Landlords who want real books | Landlords who want banking + books in one place |
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Stessa: the free starting point
Stessa is the product most landlords hear about first, and the reason is simple: the free Essentials tier is genuinely generous. Unlimited property tracking, automated bank feeds, manual expense tracking, smart receipt scanning (5 per month), mileage tracking, basic financial reports, full data export, and even free online rent collection with tenant autopay, late-fee automation, and a tenant ledger.
For a landlord with a few doors, the free tier covers the essentials — which is to say, it's where the plan name comes from. You can connect your accounts, categorize transactions, pull basic tax reports, and collect rent without paying anything.
Where it costs money: the Manage tier ($15/month, or $12/month billed annually) adds maintenance tracking, lease templates, and a Schedule E tax package. The Pro tier ($35/month, or $28/month billed annually) unlocks the advanced accounting features: advanced transaction tracking, unlimited receipt scanning, budgeting and pro-forma analysis, advanced reporting, and a tax package that includes Schedule E plus CapEx tracking. Pro also bumps the cash-management APY from 1.88% to 3.24%.
Strengths: best free tier in the category by a wide margin; combines accounting with rent collection, screening, and leasing tools so you're not stitching together three products; backed by Roofstock.
Weaknesses: it's not true double-entry accounting — think smart bookkeeping and reporting, not an accounting system an accountant can log into. The meaningful accounting features sit behind the Pro paywall. If your books are simple, that doesn't matter. If they're not, it does.
Rough annual cost: $0 to $420/year depending on tier.
REI Hub: real accounting for real portfolios
REI Hub is the specialist. It doesn't do rent collection or leasing — it does one thing: rental property accounting, properly. Double-entry bookkeeping with a chart of accounts preconfigured for rentals and pre-mapped to IRS Schedule E categories. Mortgage payments auto-split into principal, interest, and escrow. Rental-specific transaction templates for security deposits and owner contributions. Fixed-asset tracking with depreciation schedules. Mileage log that feeds straight into Schedule E. Full P&L, cash-flow statement, and balance sheet per property.
This is the tool you hand your accountant access to. At tax time, you pull a Schedule E report per property with no extra configuration. The mortgage-split automation alone saves a surprising amount of monthly fiddling.
Pricing: four tiers by unit count, every plan with full features:
- Up to 3 units: $15/month, or $9/month billed annually
- Up to 10 units: $25/month, or $15/month billed annually
- Up to 20 units: $45/month, or $27/month billed annually
- Unlimited units: $80/month, or $48/month billed annually
Note the annual billing discount is steep — roughly 40% off. There is a limited free tier, but it drops automatic transaction import and booking rules, which are the features that actually save time. The 14-day free trial lets you test the full product. One thing to know: REI Hub was acquired by TurboTenant in December 2024. It still sells as a standalone product, but it's now part of a landlord software company — worth knowing if you're also shopping property management platforms, since the ecosystem is converging.
Strengths: the only one of the three that's genuine accounting software; Schedule E is native, not bolted on; rental-specific from the ground up; scales cleanly to large portfolios at $48/month annual for unlimited units.
Weaknesses: no rent collection, no leasing, no banking — it's accounting, full stop. No usable free tier. Slight learning curve if you've never used double-entry accounting (though the preconfigured chart of accounts removes most of it).
Rough annual cost: $108 to $576/year on annual billing.
Baselane: your bank account that does the books
Baselane comes at the problem from the opposite direction. Instead of accounting software that connects to your bank, it's a bank — built for landlords — with bookkeeping layered on top. You open property-specific checking and savings accounts (unlimited, no monthly fees, no minimums), collect rent through it, and transactions auto-tag by property and Schedule E category as money moves.
The killer feature is structural: separate accounts per property with dedicated security-deposit accounts, opened in minutes online instead of a branch visit. Anyone who's tried to open five business checking accounts at a traditional bank knows the pain. Funds are held at partner banks with FDIC insurance up to $250,000.
Rent collection is built in: free ACH transfers when collected into your Baselane account, wire and card payments supported, partial payments, late-fee automation, and 2-day deposits on the paid tier. Bookkeeping generates rent rolls, ledgers, and tax-ready reports automatically.
Pricing: the Core plan is genuinely free — banking, bookkeeping, and rent collection with no monthly fee and no minimum balance. The Smart plan at $20/month adds advanced auto-tagging, auto-receipt matching, automated transfers, 2-day rent deposits, shared access (hand your CPA a login), and custom expense/income categories.
Strengths: free means free — you can run your entire rental banking stack at zero cost; banking and bookkeeping in one place eliminates reconciliation work entirely; dedicated deposit accounts solve a real compliance headache.
Weaknesses: bookkeeping, not accounting — no double-entry system, no depreciation schedules, no balance sheet. No native mobile app (web app only, as of 2026). Tenants pay 3.49% for card payments (ACH is free). It's newest at being a bank alternative, so if your accountant wants a general ledger, this isn't it.
Rough annual cost: $0 to $240/year.
Head to head on the things that matter
Accounting depth: REI Hub is the only true accounting system here. Stessa's Pro tier gets you advanced reporting and CapEx tracking; Baselane gives you tagged transactions and tax-ready reports. If your portfolio has depreciation schedules, cost segregations, or entity-level reporting, REI Hub wins outright.
Tax time: All three generate Schedule E-friendly reporting. REI Hub's is the most accountant-ready. Stessa's basic tax package is on the free tier, with Schedule E on Manage and CapEx on Pro. Baselane auto-tags to Schedule E categories and produces tax reports from the free tier.
Banking: Baselane is the only one that's a bank. If you follow the golden rule of rental bookkeeping — separate accounts, everything flows through them — Baselane removes an entire layer of reconciliation. With Stessa or REI Hub, you connect your existing bank accounts and import transactions.
Rent collection: Stessa and Baselane include it free; REI Hub doesn't do it at all. If you want one platform for money in and books, that's Stessa or Baselane.
Price at 5 doors: Stessa free ($0) or Pro ($336/year annual). REI Hub 10-unit plan ($180/year annual). Baselane free ($0) or Smart ($240/year). At 15 doors: Stessa Pro ($336), REI Hub 20-unit plan ($324/year annual), Baselane unchanged.
The recommendation matrix
1–2 doors: start free, pay for nothing
You don't need accounting software yet — you need discipline. Two free options cover everything:
- Stessa (free tier) if you want a property dashboard, automated bank feeds, and free rent collection in one place. Best if you're also collecting rent online and want screening tools later.
- Baselane (free Core plan) if you want to fix your banking first — property-specific accounts, dedicated security-deposit accounts, and auto-tagged bookkeeping at zero cost. Best if your current setup is "one personal checking account and hope."
Many 1–2-door landlords use both: Baselane for the bank accounts, Stessa for the dashboard and rent collection. Total cost: $0.
5–20 doors: buy the accounting
At this scale, bookkeeping errors and tax-prep hours start costing more than software. REI Hub on annual billing ($180/year for up to 10 units, $324/year for up to 20) is the clear pick: real double-entry books, mortgage splits automated, depreciation tracked, Schedule E per property at tax time. Pair it with Baselane's free banking for the account structure, and you have a professional-grade financial stack for under $350/year.
If you'd rather keep everything in one platform and don't need true accounting, Stessa Pro ($336/year annual) is the reasonable alternative — dashboard, books, rent collection, and leasing in one login.
Spreadsheet devotees: don't fix what isn't broken (yet)
If your spreadsheet system works and you actually maintain it, keep it. The honest trigger points for switching: you dread tax season, your accountant sighs when you send your files, or you've missed deductible expenses because a transaction slipped through. When that day comes:
- Add Baselane's free plan first — the banking structure (dedicated accounts, auto-tagging) improves your spreadsheets without replacing them.
- When categorization takes more than an hour a month, move to Stessa's free tier for automated feeds, or REI Hub if you want to graduate to real accounting.
One caution: a spreadsheet nobody updates is worse than any of these tools. The best bookkeeping system is the one that runs when you forget about it. Automated bank feeds and auto-categorization are worth more than any feature list.
The bottom line
All three are good products aimed at different landlords. Stessa is the best free start and the best all-in-one dashboard. REI Hub is the best accounting for growing portfolios. Baselane is the best banking foundation — free. Pick by portfolio size and by which problem hurts most: messy books (REI Hub), scattered accounts (Baselane), or no system at all (Stessa free). And whatever you choose, run it alongside a dedicated bank account per property — that's the step that makes everything else easy.