Between tracking expenses, chasing late rent payments, and staying on top of maintenance requests, many landlords find themselves spending 15-20 hours per week on administrative tasks that could be automated.

Stessa and TenantCloud both promise to solve these headaches, but their approaches and costs differ significantly. While Stessa focuses heavily on financial tracking and tax optimization, TenantCloud emphasizes end-to-end property management features.

This detailed comparison breaks down exactly how these platforms stack up for different types of landlords:

• See which features come free vs. paid (including hidden costs)
• Compare core functions like rent collection, maintenance tracking, and financial reporting
• Learn which platform better suits your portfolio size and management style
• Understand key differences in ease of use and setup time

How Stessa and TenantCloud work

Stessa and TenantCloud provide cloud-based reporting, accounting, and property management software solutions to real estate investors and property managers. Both companies were featured in the Best Accounting Software for Landlords report from Landlord Gurus, a website that provides advice on important issues faced by landlords and property managers.

Stessa is ranked as the #1 overall reporting and accounting software by Landlord Gurus, based on key ranking criteria, including expense tracking, reporting, tax preparation, bank integration, and cost.

Stessa offers a robust free plan and is suitable for both beginning and experienced real estate investors to track an unlimited number of SFRs, multifamily, and short-term rental properties.

While Stessa focuses on providing the best accounting and reporting tools for landlords, TenantCloud offers a full suite of property management tools, including online listings, tenant screening and rent collection, and maintenance request management. 

TenantCloud came in seventh place on Landlord Guru’s list, although the company did tie with Stessa for reporting functionality. 

Stessa overview

Stessa offers a robust free plan and is suitable for both beginning and experienced real estate investors to track an unlimited number of SFRs, multifamily, and short-term rental properties.

Stessa is ranked as the #1 overall reporting and accounting software by Landlord Gurus, based on key ranking criteria, including expense tracking, reporting, tax preparation, bank integration, and cost.

The company was launched in 2016 by real estate investors who wanted to provide the investment community with the most powerful tools at the lowest possible cost. Today, Stessa is used by over 200,000 rental property owners with a combined total of over $60 billion.

Stessa was acquired by Roofstock, a leading online marketplace for buying and selling SFRs. In addition to being rated #1 by Landlord Gurus, Investopedia also says Stessa offers the best value for accounting software for rental properties.

Feature summary

• Automated income and expense tracking: Organize and categorize transactions automatically from connected bank, lender, credit card, and property management accounts with no extra fee or add-on required. 
• Financial reporting: Generate income statements, net cash flow reports, balance sheets (with the paid Stessa Pro plan), and more, all within the platform.
• Real-time performance metrics: Get 24/7 visibility into your portfolio’s performance with no third-party software required.
• Property management integration: Connect to some property management software platforms for a complete portfolio summary.
• Online rent collection: Automate your rent collection process, including payment reminders and late fees, reducing the likelihood of missed or late payments.
• Advertise vacancies: Publish a vacancy for rent and syndicate your listing out to a variety of websites for maximum exposure to high quality tenants.
• Rental applications: Manage tenant applications efficiently and effectively by streamlining the process of publishing vacancies and collecting and reviewing applications.
• Landlord banking: Open FDIC-insured bank accounts and enjoy a more efficient way to manage your property-related finances. You can earn more than 10x the national average interest rate on every dollar deposited.*
• Tenant screening: Use a proprietary approach with RentPrep for comprehensive tenant checks, including a full credit report, background check, and more. Landlords can also add screening for income verification or of judgment and liens, increasing the odds of selecting reliable tenants.
• Unlimited properties: Add as many single-family homes, short-term vacation rentals, or multifamily units as you like.
• Tax center: Tax time is a cinch thanks to the Stessa Tax Package feature. It helps aggregate your transactions and sends you personalized tax reports via email with digital copies of all of your receipts packaged into a single ZIP file.
• eSigning (partnered with DocuSign): With the Stessa Pro plan, you can upload up to five documents monthly, mark them for electronic signatures, and send them to tenants, vendors, and partners.
• Smart receipt scanning: Add expense receipts to your transactions ledger quickly and accurately via mobile scans and email forwarding, reducing the risk of losing or misplacing vital receipts.

Pros and cons of Stessa

After signing up for a free account, entering a rental property address, and linking bank and mortgage accounts, rental property financial performance automatically appears on the comprehensive online dashboard.

Income and expense transactions are synced and recorded, mortgage balances are reduced each time a payment is made, property asset values are updated in real time, and accrued depreciation is automatically booked on the real estate balance sheet.

Financial reports, such as income statements, cash flow reports, and capital expenses, can be generated entirely within Stessa, so there’s no need to subscribe to a third-party service like QuickBooks.

The main drawback with Stessa is that online maintenance requests and a tenant portal are not currently provided within the platform. 

Pricing

The Stessa Essentials plan lets landlords use its primary features at no cost. Users can create as many properties and bank accounts as needed, generate unlimited financial reports, and export their transaction data to Excel as often as they like.

For access to more sophisticated features, Stessa’s tiered pricing structure offers a variety of features for different budgets and needs:

You can always start with the Essentials plan and upgrade to a paid plan as your portfolio expands and your needs evolve.

TenantCloud overview

Real estate investors and property managers looking for affordable, full-featured property management software may wish to give TenantCloud a closer look. The software provides tools for listing vacant rentals, screening tenants, and collecting rent online.

TenantCloud was founded in 2014 with the mission of making life easier for landlords. According to the company’s website, more than 2 million landlords and tenants in all 50 states and 40 countries around the world are using TenantCloud.

According to Landlord Gurus, a company that provides advice to landlords and property managers, TenantCloud was ranked as the seventh best reporting and accounting tool for landlords. When creating the list, Landlord Gurus considered key criteria such as expense tracking, reporting, tax preparation, and cost.

Fee structure

TenantCloud offers 3 different pricing plans that currently range from $18 to $60 a month, plus a custom pricing plan designed for investors and property managers with large-sized portfolios. All plans include an unlimited number of properties and units and an unlimited number of online rental listings.

The company also offers a free trial if you want to test the tool before committing to a paid plan.

Starter

The Starter plan is designed for investors looking for basic features. Features include:

• Listings
• Scheduling
• Applicants
• Screenings
• Rent payments
• Maintenance requests

Growth

The Growth plan is a good option for landlords with larger portfolios. It costs $32 a month and currently includes everything in the Starter plan, plus:

• Lease builder
• Landlord forms
• Lead tracking for CRM
• Property message board

Pro

TenantCloud recommends the Pro plan for property managers and owners. The Pro plan costs $55 a month and currently includes everything in the Starter and Growth plans, plus:

• Tax reports
• Vendor network access
• Quickbooks Online sync
• Google Calendar sync
• Management fees

TenantCloud software features

• Automatic listing syndication with online listing websites, including Apartments.com, Trulia, and Zillow
• Ability to create a custom listing website with landlord information, photos of vacant units, and a customized rental application
• Rental applications online with a customized application template and screening questions
• Tenant screening from TransUnion with 3 packages to choose from
• Ability to upload a lease agreement or customize one using the agreement template and request eSignatures from tenants
• Landlord form templates for tenant lease agreements, owner agreements, state-specific documents, and notices to tenants
• Ability to send and receive payments online using a debit card, credit card, and ACH
• Auto pay for tenants to set up recurring monthly payments and enable automatic late fees
• Ability to receive maintenance requests online, including videos and pictures from tenants for needed repairs; assign the job to a service professional; and track time and materials
• Accounting to store, sort, retrieve, and summarize financial data, including property transactions and balances, and ability to download files in Excel, CSV, PDF, QuickBooks, and Numbers formats
• Syncing with QuickBooks online for income and expense transactions and financial statement preparation.
• Reporting features, including profit and loss, general income and expenses, deposits summary, property owner statement, amortization and depreciation tracker, tax preparation report, and 1099 tax forms

Pros and cons of TenantCloud

TenantCloud is a relatively inexpensive solution for owners and managers looking for a full suite of property management tools online. The company offers features such as online listings for vacant property, online tenant screening and rent collection, and maintenance request coordination. 

However, some investors may find the reporting and financial tracking tools from TenantCloud to be somewhat limited. 

As Landlord Gurus noted in its report of the best accounting software for landlords, TenantCloud scored lower than Stessa in key categories, including bank integration, tax preparation, cost, and expense tracking.

TenantCloud subscribers can improve reporting and financial reporting by syncing with QuickBooks Online for an extra monthly fee. Small business pricing plans for QuickBooks Online currently range from $30 a month to $200 a month, with 50% off for the first 3 months (as of February 2024).

Stessa vs. TenantCloud: Which is right for you?

Both Stessa and TenantCloud provide accounting and management software for rental property owners and managers. 

Investors looking for a tool with robust free features, as well as affordable plans with more advanced features, may find Stessa to be the ideal choice. 

On the other hand, TenantCloud may be a good match for investors looking for a full suite of property management solutions all in one place. The company offers different levels of pricing plans and features, although TenantCloud isn’t ranked nearly as high as Stessa for reporting and accounting tools for rental property.

Go here to get started with Stessa for free.

*Stessa is not a bank. Stessa is a financial technology company.Terms and conditions, features and pricing are subject to change. This article, and the Stessa Blog in general, is intended for informational and educational purposes only, and is not investment, tax, financial planning, financial, legal, or real estate advice.