Stessa Review (2026): Costs, Fees and Who It’s For

Who Stessa suits, and who it doesn’t

Stessa started as accounting software for rental investors and has added rent collection, screening and leasing tools since. The bookkeeping is still the reason to use it.

It suits:

• Buy-and-hold landlords with 1 to 50 units who want every transaction sorted by property without paying for it.
• Owners who dread tax season. Manage adds Schedule E reporting for $12 a month on annual billing.
• Landlords who already use a different app for leasing and want something better for the books.

It’s a poorer fit if you sign a lot of leases (e-signatures are capped at one a month on Manage and seven on Pro), if you need true double-entry or trust accounting, or if a flaky bank connection would drive you up the wall. Reviewers mention that last one often.

How Stessa handles each landlord job

This section draws on Stessa’s pricing page, help center articles on rent collection and fees, and public reviews. Our account test hasn’t happened yet; the status note on this page shows its progress.

Listings and applications

Vacancy marketing is on every plan, including the free one. You create a listing for the unit and send applicants to apply online. Applications feed into the screening flow below.

Screening

Stessa now delivers RentPrep’s screening packages. Credit-only is $29, background-only is $29, and the complete package with credit, criminal, eviction and a human screener’s review is $49. Either you or the applicant can pay, except for the background-only package, which RentPrep lists as landlord-pay only. Pro adds priority screening.

The applicant authorizes the report, which is the consent the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires. If you deny someone based on it, send an adverse action notice.

Leases and e-signatures

This is Stessa’s weakest area for a landlord who turns units over often. On Essentials, state-specific leases cost $15 each and there’s no e-signature. Manage includes unlimited state leases and 60+ legal forms but only one e-signature a month. Pro allows seven e-signatures a month and adds Rocket Lawyer Pro. If you sign a lease, a renewal and an addendum in the same month on Manage, two of them go out another way.

Rent collection, payouts and late fees

Tenants pay online by bank transfer or card. Where the money lands changes the fee: $2 per ACH payment to an outside bank, $0 into a Stessa Cash Management account. Cards cost 3%. Manage and Pro add faster rent payouts. We couldn’t confirm automatic late fees from Stessa’s public pages, so if that matters to you, check the help center before you switch.

Maintenance

Every plan includes maintenance tracking. You log each repair and its cost against the property, so the expense sits next to the rest of that property’s books instead of in a separate list.

Books

This is the core. You connect your bank and credit card accounts, transactions flow in, and you assign each one to a property and a category. Stessa then reports income and expenses property by property. Essentials gives you basic reports and five receipt scans a month. Manage adds Schedule E. Pro adds advanced reports, budgeting and pro-forma tools, and unlimited portfolios, which matters if you hold properties in more than one LLC.

What Stessa costs in practice at 1, 5 and 20 units

The examples assume a $1,500 rent, one tenant per unit, monthly bank payments and annual billing on the paid plans.

Units	Free (Essentials)	Manage, annual	Pro, annual	Tenant ACH per year (outside bank / Stessa account)
1	$0	$144	$336	$24 / $0
5	$0	$144	$336	$120 / $0
20	$0	$144	$336	$480 / $0

One unit. The free plan costs $0. If rent goes to your outside bank, your tenant pays 12 x $2 = $24 a year. If you open a Stessa Cash Management account and take rent there, it’s $0. Manage at 12 x $12 = $144 a year is worth it mainly for Schedule E and state leases.

Five units. Still $0 on Essentials. Tenant ACH is 60 x $2 = $120 a year to an outside bank, $0 into Stessa’s account. On Manage, one e-signature a month starts to pinch if several leases renew in the same season.

Twenty units. The plans are flat, so Pro costs the same $336 a year (12 x $28) as it does at one unit. Billed monthly, it’s 12 x $35 = $420. Tenant ACH is 240 x $2 = $480 a year to an outside bank, or $0 into Stessa’s account. At this size the $480 is the bigger number, so where you bank matters more than which plan you pick.

Card payments. 3% of a $1,500 rent is $45.

Screening. Three applicants on the complete package is 3 x $49 = $147, paid by you or them. Add RentPrep’s income verification for $10 to $15 each if you want verified income.

Is Stessa worth it, plan by plan

Essentials (free). Yes, for almost any landlord with 1 to 20 units who doesn’t have a bookkeeping system today. Bank feeds and property-level reports for $0 beat a spreadsheet, and you can ignore the leasing tools if you use another app for those.

Manage ($12 a month billed annually). Worth it if you file Schedule E yourself or with a basic tax preparer, or if you sign more than a couple of state leases a year. At $15 a lease on the free plan, ten leases would cost $150, more than a year of Manage at $144. The one-e-signature-a-month cap is the catch.

Pro ($28 a month billed annually). Worth it if you hold properties in more than one LLC, since it’s the only plan with unlimited portfolios, or if you want budgeting and pro-forma tools for buying decisions. Phone support is included, though reviewers say support is slow even here.

How to pay less for Stessa

• Bill annually. Manage drops from $180 to $144 a year, saving $36. Pro drops from $420 to $336, saving $84.
• Take rent into a Stessa Cash Management account. That takes tenant ACH from $2 to $0, which is worth $480 a year to your tenants at 20 units.
• Let applicants pay for screening on the credit-only and complete packages.
• Stay on Essentials until you need more. Upgrade to Manage when Schedule E or extra state leases would save you money or time, not before.

Support and reliability, as reported

The most common complaint in public reviews is about bank feeds: transactions that disappear on their own, or connections that need refreshing too often. If your books rely on the feed, check it weekly rather than at tax time. Support is described as slow, including on Pro, which is the plan that adds phone support. Stessa doesn’t refund subscriptions, so try the free plan before you pay for a year.

Alternatives to consider

• Baselane is free, includes landlord bank accounts, and automates rent reminders and late fees.
• Rentec Direct at $25 a month has deeper accounting plus QuickBooks sync on Pro.
• TenantCloud starts at $15 a month billed annually and puts leasing and accounting in one app.
• Buildium is the step up to double-entry and trust accounting, at $62 a month.
• TurboTenant or Innago for leasing and rent, used alongside Stessa’s free books.