Stessa Review 2026 — Best Free Accounting Software for Landlords
Why Stessa exists — the property accounting gap
General accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks) treats a landlord’s rental properties as flat revenue lines. Stessa models properties as first-class objects: every income and expense attaches to a specific property, generating per-property P&L automatically. This is the feature gap that built Stessa’s user base.
For a landlord with 3 rental properties, the difference is meaningful: Stessa shows you which property is profitable, which is underwater, and which has maintenance costs eating the margin — without manual tagging in a generic chart of accounts.
What Stessa does well
Per-property income tracking: Rent payments, late fees, and other income attach to the property. The dashboard shows occupancy, rent collected, and income yield per unit.
Schedule E pre-population (US): Stessa categorises expenses to the correct Schedule E lines — mortgage interest, taxes, insurance, repairs, depreciation. The year-end tax package gives your accountant pre-sorted numbers.
Bank feed integration: Plaid-based US bank feed imports transactions automatically. Auto-categorisation is property-aware — transactions can be routed to the correct property based on rules.
Free for 1-8 properties: The core product is free. Stessa Pro ($15-20/mo) adds cash flow forecasting, premium tax reports, and document storage. Most landlords with 5 or fewer properties get full value from the free tier.
Pricing (verified 2026-05-19)
| Plan | Price | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Per-property tracking, bank feed, basic reports |
| Stessa Pro | $15-20/mo | Advanced reporting, tax package, priority support |
Verify at stessa.com — Stessa was acquired by Roofstock in 2021; pricing and features may evolve.
Don't use this for: landlords with 10+ properties, commercial real estate, mixed-use portfolios, or UK property investors
Stessa’s chart of accounts cannot cleanly model mixed-use (residential and commercial) properties. Depreciation-recapture journal entries for property sales require manual accounting that Stessa does not support natively. Landlords with 10+ properties or commercial real estate typically run QuickBooks Online Plus with Stessa as a tenant-tracking supplement — the Class-per-property pattern in QBO handles the accounting complexity Stessa cannot. UK landlords should note Stessa is a US product — no UK bank feeds, no UK tax form support.
Bottom line
Stessa earns its 7.6/10 for being the best-in-class free accounting solution for US residential landlords with 1-8 properties. The score is constrained by the US-only focus, the mixed-use limitations, and the ceiling that appears at scale. For its target user, it is difficult to beat at $0.
General information only — not tax advice. Verify pricing at stessa.com. Last tested 2026-05-19.