Stessa vs Baselane
Vendor pages read live on 2026-10-18. Rates are variable and prices change without notice.
Most landlord software starts with listings and applications. These two start with the money: a bank account per property, books that fill themselves in, and a tax report at the end of the year. Both run their accounts through the same partner bank, so the choice is about what each one gives away free and what it charges for.
- Best free tier
- Baselane CoreSchedule E reports and an accountant tax package at $0; Stessa puts its Schedule E report on the paid Manage plan.
- Best yield under $50k
- BaselaneIts published savings base rates start at 1.20% under $10,000; Stessa's free and Manage tiers start at 0.57%.
- Best for leasing too
- StessaListings, RentPrep screening with a human reviewer, and state lease templates sit inside the same app.
The ledger, line by line
| Line | Stessa | Baselane |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Essentials — $0, unlimited properties | Core — $0 |
| Paid plan | Manage $12/mo annual ($15 monthly); Pro $28/mo annual ($35 monthly) | Smart $20/mo on an annual plan, 30-day trial |
| Schedule E report | Manage and Pro | Core (free) and Smart |
| Receipt scanning | 5 a month on Essentials and Manage; unlimited on Pro | Auto-receipt matching and storage on Smart |
| Savings rate, under $10k | 0.57% APY (Essentials/Manage); 1.44% (Pro) | 1.20% base, +0.35% bonus if rent is collected into Baselane |
| Top published rate | 2.02% (non-Pro) / 3.49% (Pro), only at $250,000+ | 2.29% base +0.36% at $25,000–$49,999; $50k+ rate not shown in the page source |
| Debit card | 1.10% cash back on purchases | Physical and virtual Visa debit cards, spend controls |
| Rent deposits | Accelerated payments on Manage and Pro | 5 business days standard; 2 on Smart |
| Tenant ACH fee | No-fee ACH option for landlords | $2, waived when rent lands in a Baselane account |
| Lease templates | $15 each on Essentials; unlimited on Manage and Pro | Not on the pricing page |
Read live on 2026-10-18 from stessa.com/pricing, stessa.com/banking, baselane.com/pricing, baselane.com/landlord-banking-apy. Stessa's rate disclosure is dated 09/17/2026; Baselane's page did not render its top-tier rate.
Same bank behind both, different interest rules
Both companies say plainly that they are not banks: the accounts are held at Thread Bank, Member FDIC, and both spread deposits through a sweep program to reach a larger insured total. Stessa states up to $3M per entity. What differs is how the interest is worked out.
Stessa sets the rate from your plan and from the previous month's ending balance across your accounts. A landlord on the free plan holding $8,000 of reserves earns 0.57% APY; the same balance on Pro earns 1.44%. The headline 3.49% only applies to Pro accounts holding $250,000 or more.
Baselane counts checking and savings together to set your tier but pays interest only on the savings balance. Under $10,000 its base rate is 1.20%, and it adds 0.35% if you collected rent through Baselane the month before. Keep reserves in savings, not checking, or they earn nothing.
Do the arithmetic before chasing a rate
On $8,000 of reserves, the gap between 0.57% and 1.55% is about $78 a year. Stessa Pro costs $336 a year on annual billing. The upgrade only pays for itself through its tools, never through interest at that balance.
Bookkeeping: what the free plan actually gives you
The question that matters at tax time is whether the free tier produces a Schedule E your preparer can use. Baselane's Core plan lists an accountant tax package and Schedule E reports at $0, along with property-level income and expense tracking. Stessa's Essentials plan gives basic financial reports and a basic tax package; the Schedule E report starts on Manage.
The paid tiers part ways too. Baselane Smart is about automation: AI tagging into 120+ categories, rules, receipt matching, balance sheets and cost segregation. Stessa Pro is about analysis: budgeting and pro-forma, advanced reports, project expense tracking and unlimited receipt scanning. Whichever you use, the categories should match the ones in our landlord tax deductions guide, and depreciation still needs its own schedule. The depreciation calculator gives you the annual figure to check against either app.
Rent collection and the fee your tenant sees
Baselane charges $2 per ACH rent payment. You can absorb it, pass it to the tenant, or make it disappear by having rent land in a Baselane account. Card payments carry a 3.49% charge to the tenant. Standard deposits take five business days; Smart cuts that to two.
Stessa describes a no-fee ACH option for landlords and accepts cards. It does not publish a card rate on the pages we read, so check that before you send tenants the link. Both apps record each payment against the right property. Keep your own rent ledger anyway, and a rent receipt for any tenant who pays outside the app.
Where Stessa reaches further: leasing
Stessa syndicates vacancy listings to Zillow's sites and builds RentPrep screening into the app: Credit Report Only $29, Full Background Check $29, Complete Screening Package $49, with income verification add-ons. RentPrep's own page still says its reports are “now delivered by Stessa”. Baselane has its own screening, priced in Baselane vs Avail; the human-review angle is covered in SmartMove vs RentPrep.
Choosing
If you mainly need clean books and somewhere to park reserves, start on Baselane Core. If you fill vacancies often and want listing, screening and lease in one place, start on Stessa Essentials. Either way, run one month of rent and one month of expenses through it before you move every property over. Then check the result against your cash flow numbers.