Stessa vs Avail vs Baselane: 3-way landlord ops comparison

• Stessa — rental accounting + bookkeeping. Connect your bank, transactions auto-categorize, Schedule E builds itself. Free tier covers unlimited properties. Stessa Pro (~$12/mo) adds advanced reporting + document organization.
• Avail — DIY landlord ops: listings (syndicated to Realtor.com / Zillow / Apartments.com), online rental applications, TransUnion-powered tenant screening, state-specific lease templates, ACH rent collection. Free Unlimited tier; Unlimited Plus is ~$7/unit/month.
• Baselane — banking + bookkeeping + rent collection. FDIC-insured business checking per property (Thread Bank / Blue Ridge Bank partners), auto-categorized expenses synced with your bank feed, Schedule E reports, ACH rent collection — all in one platform. Free banking + bookkeeping tier; advanced features ~$22/mo (as of 2026).

This is the closest match. Both do bookkeeping; the difference is whose bank feed.

• Stessa connects your existing bank account(s) — you keep banking wherever you already are (a credit union, your current business checking, etc.). Transactions auto-categorize into rental-property buckets. Strong reporting + multi-property dashboards.
• Baselane bundles a dedicated FDIC-insured business checking account per property. Because Baselane IS the bank, categorization is tighter and reconciliation is automatic. You'd be moving your rental banking to Baselane.

If you have rentals across multiple LLCs or already have business banking set up the way you like, Stessa is the less disruptive choice. If you're starting fresh or willing to switch banks, Baselane's integrated approach is genuinely faster + simpler.

Both collect rent via ACH for free. The difference is what surrounds the rent collection.

• Avail bundles rent collection with the leasing workflow (listings + applications + screening + lease). If you're placing tenants and managing the full lease lifecycle, Avail is more complete.
• Baselane bundles rent collection with banking + bookkeeping. The rent lands in your Baselane account and is auto-categorized for accounting. If you don't need leasing tools (e.g. you have long-term tenants already in place), Baselane is more focused.

For new landlords filling units, Avail wins. For established landlords focused on bookkeeping + banking, Baselane wins.

• Stessa free — unlimited properties, bank-feed sync, basic Schedule E reports, document storage. Genuinely usable forever.
• Avail free ("Unlimited") — unlimited listings, applications, lease signing, ACH rent collection. Tenants pay for screening (~$30-55).
• Baselane free — FDIC-insured business checking, ACH rent collection, basic bookkeeping. Their banking partner pays them via interchange + interest spread, so the "free" is real.

All three have legitimately useful free tiers. The decision isn't price — it's which features you need.

For most landlords, here's how the stacks shake out:

• Stessa + Avail — Stessa handles accounting, Avail handles leasing + rent collection. Most common pairing. Tradeoff: rent payment data lives in Avail but accounting categorization happens in Stessa, so there's some friction reconciling.
• Just Baselane — one platform for banking + bookkeeping + rent collection. Simplest stack. Tradeoff: no leasing / screening / applications, so you'd still need Avail or a separate screening tool when filling units.
• Stessa + Avail + Baselane — full coverage if you want best-in-class for each, but three logins.
• Baselane + Avail — Baselane for banking/bookkeeping, Avail for leasing. Avoids Stessa entirely.

Upstream of all three. TrueCap is the pre-purchase underwriting calculator — cap rate, DSCR, cash flow, 10-year projection, deal score. You use TrueCap to decide whether to buy a property; then you use Stessa / Avail / Baselane to operate it.

The full investor stack (cheapest version): TrueCap free (underwriting) + Stessa free OR Baselane free (accounting/banking) + Avail free (leasing). $0/month for the basics.