The short version: the headline question has a specific answer, and it is not the one the marketing implies. Stessa’s free tier cannot produce a Schedule E. The one output most landlords actually want from accounting software at tax time sits behind Stessa’s $15/month Manage plan. Baselane’s free Core plan includes Schedule E reports and an accountant tax package at $0. If “free accounting software” means “software that gets me to a filed tax return without paying,” Baselane wins that narrow contest outright.
That said, the two products are not really competing for the same job, and picking on price alone is how landlords end up with the wrong one. The distinction that matters is architectural.
Banking-integrated versus pure portfolio tracking
Every landlord finance tool sits somewhere on a spectrum between two designs.
Pure portfolio tracking connects to bank accounts you already have, reads the transactions, and tells you how the portfolio is performing. It never touches your money. Stessa is this. You keep banking wherever you bank, Stessa pulls the feed, and you get books, reports and property-level performance on top.
Banking-integrated means the software is the bank account. Money moves through it, which means categorization happens at the source rather than being inferred afterwards. Baselane is this. You open property-specific accounts inside Baselane, rent lands in them, and the bookkeeping is a byproduct of the money movement rather than a reconstruction of it.
The practical difference shows up in how wrong your books can get. Tracking software infers categories from transaction descriptions and rules; when a Home Depot charge covers materials for two properties, it guesses. Banking-integrated software knows which property account the money left, because you spent from that account. That is a real accuracy advantage, and it is the entire argument for putting your banking inside a landlord tool.
The cost of that advantage is switching. Moving your rental banking is a genuine migration — new account numbers for tenants and vendors, new autopay setups, a new institution holding your deposits. Portfolio tracking asks almost nothing of you by comparison.
What “free” actually buys you
| Feature | Stessa Essentials ($0) | Baselane Core ($0) |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule E report | No — requires Manage, $15/mo | Yes — included, with accountant tax package |
| Banking integration | Reads external accounts only | Unlimited property-specific accounts, no minimums or maintenance fees |
| Automated rent collection | Included | Included, with reminders and automatic late fees |
| Multi-property management | Unlimited properties, but 1 portfolio | Unlimited properties and entities |
| Reporting depth | Basic reports only | Net cash flow, NOI, rent roll, tenant ledger, consolidated ledger |
| Receipt scanning | 5 per month | Included (AI receipt matching is Smart-only) |
| eSignatures | None | Not a core feature |
| Interest on cash | Up to 1.88% APY | Up to 2.63% APY (savings balances only) |
| Transaction fees | None on the free plan | $2 ACH, 3.49% card on rent payments |
| Next tier up | Manage $15/mo ($12 annual) | Smart $20/mo, 30-day trial |
Read the last two rows together, because they explain the business models. Stessa’s free tier is free and gated. It withholds features — Schedule E, advanced reporting, portfolios, receipt volume — and charges you to unlock them. Baselane’s free tier is free and metered. It withholds almost nothing but prices the money movement, so the more rent you collect the more you pay, invisibly, per transaction.
Neither is more honest than the other. But a landlord comparing “$0 versus $0” is comparing two things that are not the same kind of free.
The Schedule E problem
Stessa markets itself, credibly, as free bookkeeping for rental owners. The free plan is genuinely capable: unlimited properties, automatic bank feeds, tenant screening, rent collection, real reports. It is not a crippled demo.
But the Schedule E report — IRS Form 1040’s supplemental income and loss schedule, the form rental income is actually reported on — first appears on the Manage plan at $15/month, or $12/month billed annually. That is $144 a year for the single artifact that most people install landlord accounting software to produce.
You can of course hand your accountant a transaction export from the free plan and let them build the schedule. Plenty of landlords do. But that is bookkeeping software that stops one step short of the finish line, and the marketing does not make that boundary obvious.
Baselane puts the accountant tax package and Schedule E reports in Core, at zero. If your decision is genuinely driven by cost, that is the fact that should drive it.
Stessa in depth: property performance analytics
Where Stessa earns its reputation is not bookkeeping — it is asking whether each property is actually any good.
The free plan gives you basic financial reporting and automatic valuation tracking. The paid tiers are where the analysis lives. Pro, at $35/month or $28 annually, adds advanced reports, advanced transaction tracking, budgeting and pro-forma modelling, unlimited receipt scanning, unlimited chart history, seven eSignatures a month, and unlimited portfolios.
That last item matters more than it sounds. Both the free and Manage plans cap you at one portfolio. If you hold properties across separate LLCs and want them segregated in your reporting rather than pooled, that separation is a Pro feature. Investors who have carefully structured entities for liability reasons are often surprised to find their software flattens the structure back into one bucket. If you are still deciding how to hold your properties, our comparison of LLC formation services for real estate investors covers the trade-offs before you commit.
The pro-forma and budgeting tools are the genuine differentiator against Baselane. Baselane tells you, accurately and in real time, what happened. Stessa Pro will help you model what happens next — which is the difference between bookkeeping and asset management. For an investor deciding whether to refinance, renovate or sell a property, that modelling is worth more than the fee.
Stessa also pays the highest interest of the two at scale. Its Pro APY tiers run 1.34% below $10,000, 2.01% to $50,000, 2.35% to $100,000, 2.69% to $250,000, and 3.24% above $250,000 — above anything Baselane offers. The catch is obvious: you need a quarter of a million dollars sitting idle to reach the top tier, and if you have that, the yield on it is probably not why you chose your accounting software.
Baselane in depth: the banking, and what the fees really cost
Baselane Core gives you unlimited property-specific accounts with no monthly maintenance fee, no minimum balance and no inactivity penalty. For a landlord who has been told for years to keep one bank account per property and has been quietly paying maintenance fees to do it, that alone is the pitch.
One structural detail to be clear about: Baselane is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. That is a normal fintech arrangement and the deposits are insured, but it is not the same as holding an account at a chartered bank, and it is worth knowing which entity actually holds your rent.
The fee that decides whether Baselane is cheap
Free software with metered rails is only free if you use the cheap rail. Baselane charges $2 per ACH rent payment — which can be absorbed by you or passed to the tenant, and is waived on Baselane-to-Baselane deposits — and 3.49% on debit and credit card payments.
| Monthly rent | Cost via ACH | Cost via card (3.49%) | Annual difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1,500 | $2.00 | $52.35 | $604 |
| $2,000 | $2.00 | $69.80 | $814 |
| $3,000 | $2.00 | $104.70 | $1,232 |
On a single $2,000 unit, letting a tenant pay by card instead of ACH costs $814 a year — more than five times the annual price of Stessa’s Manage plan. Whoever absorbs that fee, it dwarfs every subscription difference on this page. Configure ACH as the default and treat card payments as an exception, not a convenience.
Two further costs worth budgeting: wires are $15 unless your combined balance exceeds $50,000, and split rent payments start at $30 a month.
The deposit speed upsell
Standard rent deposits land in five business days. Two-day deposits are a Baselane Smart feature at $20/month. So $240 a year buys you three business days of cash-flow timing, twelve times a year. For a landlord with a thin reserve and a mortgage due on the first, that may be worth it. For most, it is not — and it is worth recognising the upsell for what it is rather than assuming faster is standard.
The APY detail in the small print
Baselane advertises up to 2.63% APY, tiered by balance: 1.30% below $10,000, 2.03% from $10,000, 2.39% from $25,000, and 2.63% at $50,000 and above. Baselane states these rates were accurate as of 10 December 2025, so confirm the current figure before relying on it.
The detail worth catching: your combined checking and savings balances determine which tier you land in, but only money held in savings actually earns interest. A landlord holding $60,000 spread across property checking accounts qualifies for the 2.63% tier and earns nothing on it, because none of it sits in savings. Move the reserve deliberately.
Before you pick either one
Accounting software is downstream of how you hold the properties. If your rentals sit in your personal name, the bookkeeping question is smaller than the liability question — start with our LLC formation comparison and our breakdown of what registered agent services actually cost in year two, where the renewal pricing is the part that catches people out. Our full recommended tools hub covers the rest of the stack.
Verdict, split by what you actually are
There is no winner here, only a correct match. Four cases cover almost everyone.
You want free books and a tax form, and nothing else
Baselane Core. It is the only genuinely free path to a Schedule E between these two. Set ACH as the rent default so the metered side of the model stays cheap, and you will pay nothing for software.
You bank where you bank and are not moving
Stessa. If switching your rental banking is a non-starter — you have a lending relationship, a business line, or simply no appetite for re-papering every tenant’s autopay — then banking-integrated software is not available to you regardless of its merits. Stessa reads your existing accounts and asks nothing of you. Budget $144 a year for Manage if you want the Schedule E without an accountant assembling it.
You are analysing, not just recording
Stessa Pro, $28/month annually. Budgeting, pro-forma modelling, advanced transaction tracking and unlimited portfolios are the tools for deciding whether to hold, refinance or sell. Baselane has no equivalent. If you hold across multiple LLCs and need reporting that respects those boundaries, Pro is the only option on this page that does.
You are drowning in per-property bookkeeping
Baselane, and it is not close. The single highest-leverage thing a small landlord can do for their books is stop commingling, and unlimited fee-free property-specific accounts make that free instead of expensive. The bookkeeping accuracy that follows from money moving through the right account beats any amount of after-the-fact categorization.
Can you use both?
Yes, and some investors do — Baselane as the banking and rent rails, Stessa reading those accounts for portfolio analytics on top. It is duplicative and you will reconcile two systems, but if you want Baselane’s account structure and Stessa’s pro-forma tools, nothing prevents it. Run it for one tax year before deciding it is permanent.
Sign-up pages: Stessa pricing · Baselane sign-up
Frequently asked questions
Is Stessa really free?
Stessa Essentials is genuinely $0 with unlimited properties, automatic bank feeds, rent collection and tenant screening. But it caps you at five receipt scans a month and one portfolio, offers basic reporting only, and does not include the Schedule E report — that requires the Manage plan at $15/month, or $12/month billed annually.
Does Baselane cost anything?
Baselane Core is $0/month with no minimum balance or maintenance fees, and includes Schedule E reports. The cost is in transactions: $2 per ACH rent payment, 3.49% on card payments, $15 wires below a $50,000 combined balance, and $30+/month for split rent payments. Baselane Smart is $20/month.
Which is better for taxes, Stessa or Baselane?
Baselane, if cost matters. Its free Core plan includes an accountant tax package with Schedule E reports. Stessa gates Schedule E behind its $15/month Manage plan. Stessa Pro adds deeper reporting and budgeting that Baselane does not match, but for producing the tax schedule itself Baselane does it at no charge.
Can Stessa replace my bank account?
No. Stessa is portfolio tracking software — it connects to accounts you already hold and reads the transactions, but money does not move through it. Baselane is the opposite: it provides the accounts themselves, through Thread Bank, so categorization happens at the point of payment rather than being inferred afterwards.
How much does Baselane’s 3.49% card fee actually cost?
On $2,000 monthly rent, a card payment costs $69.80 against $2.00 by ACH — a difference of about $814 a year for one unit. On $3,000 rent it is roughly $1,232 a year. Set ACH as the default rent payment method and treat card payments as an exception.
What APY do Stessa and Baselane pay?
Stessa’s free tier pays up to 1.88%, and Pro reaches 3.24% on balances above $250,000. Baselane pays up to 2.63%, tiered from 1.30% below $10,000. Note that Baselane sets your tier on combined checking and savings balances but only pays interest on savings, so cash sitting in property checking accounts raises your tier without earning.
Sources and verification
All prices, plan limits and fees were read from the vendors’ own pricing pages on 19 August 2026: Stessa pricing and Baselane pricing. Baselane’s APY tiers and the Thread Bank disclosure were read from baselane.com, where the rates render from a client-side variable; Baselane states those figures were accurate as of 10 December 2025.
Software pricing changes without notice and both companies have revised tiers before. Verify the current price on the vendor’s own page before subscribing, and treat every figure here as accurate on the date given. We re-verify this comparison quarterly.
Disclaimer: The Housing Signal is an independent educational publisher. We are not a mortgage broker, lender, accountant, or licensed financial advisor, and nothing here is personalized financial or tax advice. Software pricing, plan limits, transaction fees and interest rates change frequently, and the figures above may not reflect your own circumstances or the vendors’ most recent revision. Figures cited are accurate as of the dates given and will change. Consult a licensed professional before making a decision.