Rental property reporting and accounting software helps landlords to keep track of income and expenses, monitor the financial performance of rental property, maximize potential profits by identifying opportunities, and simplify tax preparation.

In this article, we’ll look at Stessa—a Roofstock company—and Rental Hero, including the pros and cons of each software, to help you decide which is the better choice for your rental property business.

Key takeaways

• Stessa is free rental property accounting software recognized by industry experts, such as Investopedia and Landlord Gurus.
• Rental property owners can generate financial reports with Stessa, including income and cash-flow statements, tenant rent ledgers, and real estate balance sheets.
• Rental Hero requires an annual subscription to automatically track income and expenses and generate a profit-and-loss statement.

How Stessa and Rental Hero work

Stessa and Rental Hero both provide accounting software solutions specifically built for rental property owners and real estate investors. However, there are key differences between them.

Rental property financial management software from Stessa is free. 

Stessa also offers online mortgage quotes directly from lenders, landlord insurance quotes and policies from a tech-enabled national insurance provider, and free access to the Stessa Tax Center. In addition, the company provides optional premium services for a fee, such as rent analysis and market research.

Stessa is rated among the best accounting software for rental property in 2022. Investopedia recognizes Stessa for offering the best value for rental property owners, while Landlord Gurus recognizes Stessa for providing the best overall reporting and accounting tools for landlords.

After signing up for a free account with Stessa, landlords can sync banking and mortgage accounts to automatically track and categorize income and expenses and monitor the financial performance of an unlimited number of properties and portfolios. 

Stessa users can generate free financial reports, such as income statements, cash-flow reports, capital expense statements, real estate balance sheets, and tenant rent ledgers.

Rental Hero costs $9.95 a month, billed at $119 per year, after a 30-day free trial period.

Rental Hero may be a good choice for rental property owners looking for basic accounting software to automatically keep track of income and expenses via linked bank and credit card accounts. 

The Rental Hero software can generate a profit-and-loss statement, including detailed transaction information, but does not offer other key financial reports, such as real estate balance sheets and tenant rent ledgers. 

Stessa overview

Stessa is a free software for rental property financial management, designed by and for real estate investors. 

Software from Stessa is used by tens of thousands of real estate investors and property managers to track over 250,000 rental properties with a combined asset value of over $60 billion.

In 2021, Stessa was acquired by Roofstock, a leading online platform that real estate investors use to complete more than $5 billion in single-family rental (SFR) transactions in less than 6 years. 

Feature summary

• Sign up for a free account online, enter basic property information, and link banking and mortgage accounts.
• Automatically track property income and expenses, mortgage balances, property values, and owner’s equity.
• Monitor the financial performance of an unlimited number of SFRs, multifamily properties, and short-term vacation rentals at the property and portfolio levels, and an unlimited number of tenants.
• Monitor key financial metrics in real time, including occupancy, net operating income, cash flow, asset return, outstanding mortgage debt, and total portfolio value.
• Collect rent online with free ACH transfers (other payment options coming soon) and a recurring payment option for tenants, as well as the ability to collect late fees
• Get automated real estate balance sheet updates to assets and liabilities—including property values and mortgage and bank account balances—to report owner’s equity.
• Generate financial reports, including income and cash-flow statements, capital expense reports, real estate balance sheets, and rent rolls to gain real-time performance insights.
• Collaborate with business partners, family members, and lenders by granting different levels of account access to each user.
• Use iOS and Android apps to scan, upload, and track expenses on the go.
• Use secure, online document storage for all important real estate documents, such as income and expense receipts, tenant lease agreements, property closing statements, and insurance policies and riders.
• Export tax-ready financials and claim free resources from the Stessa Tax Center, such as a free tax package and a TurboTax discount exclusively for members of the Stessa Community.

Pros

Stessa is recognized as providing the best value to rental property owners and for offering the best overall accounting and financial tracking software. Landlords and property managers can generate key financial reports, including income statements, cash-flow reports, capital expense statements, real estate balance sheets, and tenant rent rolls.

Stessa also makes it easy for tenants to pay on time, and automate key tasks like deposits, receipts, and accounting.

Stessa brings more value to investors by offering additional services, such as online mortgage and insurance quotes from trusted third parties, the Stessa Tax Center, and optional premium services for market research and rent analysis.

Cons

Stessa provides a complete accounting solution for real estate investors and adds value with additional products and services. 

But, there are some property management features the software does not currently provide, such as property marketing, tenant screening, online lease signing, and maintenance request processing.

Rental Hero overview

For $199 a year, Rental Hero provides many—but not all—of the features and benefits that Stessa provides for free. The company was founded in 2017 by the team behind Realtyzam, a website that provides online accounting software for real estate agents.

Rental property accounting software from Rental Hero is designed to help rental property owners easily track income and expenses for an unlimited number of rental properties and tenants, including single-family homes, multi-unit properties, short-term and vacation rentals, and storage units.

Rental Hero has been used to track over $630 million of rental property expenses and growing, according to the company’s website.

Fee structure

Rental Hero costs $9.95 a month, billed annually at $119. 

The company offers a free 30-day trial period with no credit card required. After 30 days, a user can enter a credit card number to pay for an annual subscription to Rental Hero or allow the account to go inactive. 

There are no set-up or cancellation fees, and, if a user decides to stop using Rental Hero, data can be downloaded whenever a user wants.

Feature summary

• Custom-built for rental owners to track income and expenses and do accounting
• Works with single-family homes, duplexes, multi-unit properties, short-term rentals (STRs), Airbnbs, and storage units
• Accommodates unlimited properties, units, tenants, reminders, document storage, notes, and bank linking
• Supports properties in different limited liability companies (LLCs) and other companies
• Tracks income and expenses on a per-property and per-unit basis
• Texts and emails reminders to tenants and owners
• Generates separate profit-and-loss reports for each property or unit
• Links to thousands of banks and credit cards to upload transactions to Rental Hero and autocategorize each morning
• Offers an option for manually entering transactions into Rental Hero
• Scans, uploads, and stores receipts from a computer, tablet, or phone with an iPhone or Android mobile app
• Provides bank-level security to protect  personal information and business data 

Pros

Rental Hero is an intuitive, easy-to-use, basic online accounting software that is custom-built for rentals and rental property owners. The software works with computers, tablets, and mobile phones.

It works with an unlimited number of companies, tenants, and properties, including SFRs, multifamily properties, and short-term and vacation rentals. Income and expense transactions are automatically uploaded from linked bank and credit card accounts each morning and autocategorized, eliminating the need to manually enter data in most cases. 

Cons

While there may be a lot of things to like about Rental Hero, there are also a couple of significant drawbacks:

1. Price: An annual subscription to Rental Hero costs $119 a year, after a 30-day free trial period. 
2. Reports: Rental Hero is not a complete accounting system. Although it can generate profit-and-loss reports, other key reports, such as real estate balance sheets, cash-flow statements, capital expense reports, and tenant rent ledgers, are not available.

How to decide: Stessa or Rental Hero?

Stessa and Rental Hero provide software solutions for rental property owners, but there are some significant differences between them, such as price and features.

Rental Hero offers fewer features than Stessa does, and at a much higher cost. While Stessa is free, Rental Hero is priced at $9.95 a month, billed at $199 per year, after a 30-day free trial. 

When it comes to financial reporting, Rental Hero users are limited to profit-and-loss reports. Stessa users can generate numerous financial reports throughout the month and at the end of the year, including income and cash-flow statements, capital expense reports, real estate balance sheets, and tenant rent ledgers.