Prices checked September 28, 2026
Baselane and Stessa both start at $0 and both claim to do your rental books. They get there from opposite ends. Baselane wants to be the bank your rent lands in. Stessa wants to sit on top of the bank you already have. SealedFolio, the company publishing this page, sells a third option, and it is listed honestly in every table below.
SealedFolio's short answer on Baselane vs Stessa: pick Baselane if you are happy to move rent into a Baselane Checking account. Baselane Core is $0 a month, includes Schedule E reports, and ACH rent into Baselane Checking has no fee. Rent sent to an outside bank costs $2 per payment, and card rent costs the tenant 3.49%. Pick Stessa if you want to keep your current bank. Stessa Essentials is $0 with bank feeds, rent collection, tenant screening and maintenance tracking, but the Schedule E report starts on Stessa Manage at $12 a month billed annually. Pick SealedFolio if you want neither cloud: SealedFolio Pro is $19 a month and SealedFolio Portfolio is $39 a month, both with a 30-day money-back guarantee, and the books stay in an encrypted vault on your Mac or Windows PC. SealedFolio does not collect rent.
Baselane and Stessa figures come from the official Baselane pricing page and Stessa pricing page, both read on September 28, 2026. SealedFolio figures come from SealedFolio brand facts. Vendors change plans, so confirm before you move a portfolio.
Baselane, Stessa and SealedFolio each start from a different job. Start with the job, then look at the price.
Banking first
Baselane gives landlords checking accounts per property, debit cards, ACH and card rent collection, bookkeeping and Schedule E reports on its free Core plan. Smart is $20 a month on an annual plan.
Honest catch: the free rent collection assumes your rent lands in Baselane Checking.
Tracking first
Stessa syncs the bank accounts you already have, sorts transactions into rental categories, and adds rent collection, tenant screening and maintenance on the free Essentials plan. Every plan allows unlimited properties.
Honest catch: the Schedule E report is on Manage, not on the free plan.
Local, no cloud
SealedFolio is a Mac and Windows app that keeps the ledger, rent roll, Schedule E, T776 and portfolio analytics in an encrypted vault on your own computer. $19 a month on Pro, $39 on Portfolio.
Honest catch: SealedFolio has no banking, no rent collection, no free tier and no phone app.
Baselane and Stessa both advertise $0. The table shows where each one actually charges you, and what SealedFolio charges instead.
| Cost item | Baselane | Stessa | SealedFolio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Core, $0 a month | Essentials, $0 a month | No free plan. 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Paid plans | Smart, $20 a month on an annual plan, 30-day trial | Manage, $12 a month annual or $15 monthly. Pro, $28 a month annual or $35 monthly | Pro, $19 a month or $179 a year, up to 3 properties. Portfolio, $39 a month or $297 a year, unlimited |
| Schedule E report | Included on Core | Starts on Manage | Included on Pro and Portfolio |
| ACH rent payment | $0 into Baselane Checking. $2 into an outside bank, landlord pays or passes it to the tenant | Not listed on the Stessa pricing page | No rent collection, so no fee |
| Card rent payment | 3.49%, paid by the tenant | Not listed on the Stessa pricing page | No rent collection, so no fee |
| Tenant screening | Sold separately, from $24.99 | Included on Essentials | Not offered |
| Other listed charges | Rent reporting $5 a month. Outbound wire $15, waived at $50,000 combined balance. Mailed check $2 | eSignatures: 1 a month on Manage, 7 a month on Pro | None per transaction |
| Interest on balances | Tiered APY by total balance, same on Core and Smart | Cash Management up to 2.02% APY on Essentials and Manage, up to 3.49% on Pro | No banking product |
Sources read September 28, 2026: Baselane pricing and fee schedule, Stessa plans and features, SealedFolio product facts. Stessa does not publish its rent collection fees on its pricing page, so check them in your Stessa account before you compare.
Baselane and Stessa pricing is easiest to judge on a real portfolio, so take five units at $2,000 rent each, paid monthly by ACH, using the Baselane and Stessa pricing pages read on September 28, 2026.
On price alone, Baselane wins this example if you move your banking, and Stessa wins if you do not need the Schedule E report from the software. SealedFolio costs more than either free plan. What SealedFolio charges for is local storage, T776 for Canadian rentals and deeper portfolio analysis, not a cheaper Schedule E.
Baselane leads on banking, Stessa leads on landlord operations, and SealedFolio leads on local storage and tax output. SealedFolio loses every row about moving money or managing tenants.
| Landlord task | Baselane | Stessa | SealedFolio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keep your current bank | Possible, but outside-bank ACH rent costs $2 | Yes, bank feeds connect to it | Yes, Plaid import or CSV, OFX and QIF file import on Portfolio |
| Bank accounts per property | Yes, with debit cards | Cash Management accounts | No banking |
| Online rent collection | Yes, ACH and card on Core | Yes, on Essentials | No |
| Faster rent deposits | 2-day deposits on Smart only | Not listed | Not applicable |
| Tenant screening | Paid add-on | Included on Essentials | No |
| Maintenance requests and tracking | Not listed on the pricing page | Included on Essentials | No |
| Lease eSignatures | Not listed on the pricing page | 1 a month on Manage, 7 on Pro | Lease and notice templates |
| Schedule E report | Core | Manage and Pro | Pro and Portfolio |
| T776 for Canadian rentals | No | No | Yes |
| Balance sheet report | Smart only | Not listed on the pricing page | Yes |
| CapEx tracking | Not listed on the pricing page | Pro | Portfolio |
| Multiple portfolios or entities | Separate accounts per property or entity | 1 portfolio on Essentials and Manage, unlimited on Pro | Per-property and per-entity reports |
| Phone app | Yes | Yes, iOS and Android | No, Mac and Windows desktop only |
| Where your data lives | Baselane's cloud | Stessa's cloud | Encrypted vault on your computer |
Sources read September 28, 2026: Baselane Core and Smart feature lists, Stessa Essentials, Manage and Pro feature table, SealedFolio brand facts. "Not listed" means the vendor's pricing page does not show the feature, not that it cannot exist elsewhere in the product.
SealedFolio's read of Baselane is that it is strong at one thing: giving each rental its own account and card so the money is split before the bookkeeping starts. The trade-offs show up in the fee schedule and in user reviews, and SealedFolio lists them here because a Baselane vs Stessa decision usually turns on them.
For a landlord comparing Baselane against SealedFolio rather than Stessa, SealedFolio's SealedFolio vs Baselane breakdown covers how the two can run side by side.
SealedFolio's read of Stessa is that the free Essentials plan is generous: unlimited properties, bank feeds, rent collection, tenant screening, maintenance requests and a basic tax package, according to the Stessa pricing page. SealedFolio sees three catches a Stessa comparison page tends to skip.
Roofstock, a marketplace for buying and selling rental homes, bought Stessa from JLL in March 2021, according to JLL's announcement of the deal, so your Stessa rent roll and ledger sit with a real estate marketplace. SealedFolio's SealedFolio vs Stessa comparison covers that data question and how to export a Stessa history.
Baselane and Stessa are both reasonable free choices. The deciding question is whether you will move your banking. SealedFolio is the pick only if the cloud itself is the problem.
Ready to try the local option? SealedFolio plans and refund terms are on the pricing page. Want Baselane, Stessa and SealedFolio covered at full length, including CPA handoff and Windows support? Read SealedFolio's three-way Baselane, Stessa and SealedFolio comparison, or the 2026 ranking of seven landlord tools.
Moving between Baselane and Stessa is mostly a banking decision. Going from Stessa to Baselane means opening Baselane accounts and pointing tenants at new payment details. Going from Baselane to Stessa means connecting your remaining accounts to Stessa's bank feeds. Either way, run both for one full month and check that the income and expense totals match before you close anything.
SealedFolio can take either history without retyping. Export transactions as CSV from Baselane or Stessa and bring them in with file import on the SealedFolio Portfolio plan, which also accepts OFX and QIF. Keep rent collection wherever it already works. Before you file, run the numbers through SealedFolio's free Schedule E calculator as a cross-check on whichever tool produced the report.
Baselane and Stessa answers below use the vendors' pricing pages as read on September 28, 2026, and SealedFolio's own published plans.
Baselane is better than Stessa if you want landlord bank accounts, per-property debit cards and a free Schedule E report, and you are willing to move rent into Baselane Checking. Stessa is better than Baselane if you want to keep your current bank, get tenant screening and maintenance tracking free on Essentials, and can pay $12 a month billed annually for its Schedule E report. SealedFolio is a third option for landlords who want neither cloud: it keeps the books in an encrypted vault on a Mac or Windows PC from $19 a month with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Baselane Core costs $0 a month, and Schedule E reports, bookkeeping and ACH or card rent collection are included. The costs sit in payments and add-ons: $2 per ACH rent payment that lands in an outside bank account, which the landlord can cover or pass to the tenant, 3.49% on debit or credit card rent paid by the tenant, tenant screening sold separately from $24.99, and $5 a month for rent reporting. Baselane Smart is $20 a month on an annual plan and adds 2-day rent deposits and balance sheet reports. SealedFolio, by contrast, charges a flat $19 or $39 a month and takes no cut of rent because it does not collect rent.
Stessa Essentials is free. Stessa Manage is $12 a month billed annually or $15 month to month and adds the Schedule E report. Stessa Pro is $28 a month billed annually or $35 month to month and adds advanced reports, CapEx tracking and unlimited portfolios. Every Stessa plan allows unlimited properties, and the iOS and Android apps come with the account. By comparison, SealedFolio Pro is $19 a month and SealedFolio Portfolio is $39 a month, with no free tier.
Reviews of Baselane banking praise per-property virtual accounts, interest on balances and helpful support. A review roundup on checkthat.ai quotes both sides. The recurring complaints are slow ACH rent deposits, with one reviewer quoting 4 to 7 days, and accounts frozen for suspicious activity without a clear reason. Baselane now sells 2-day rent deposits as part of the $20 a month Smart plan. SealedFolio has no banking product, so deposit timing is never a SealedFolio issue.
You do not have to switch banks to use Baselane, but the free ACH rent collection only applies when rent lands in a Baselane Checking account. Rent sent to an outside bank costs $2 per payment. Stessa connects to the bank accounts you already have, so nothing moves. SealedFolio also leaves your banking alone and brings transactions in by CSV, OFX or QIF file import on the Portfolio plan or optional Plaid import on either plan.
Baselane is usually better for multiple LLCs because you can open separate bank accounts per property or entity, which splits the money as well as the reports. Stessa Essentials and Manage allow one portfolio, and unlimited portfolios need Stessa Pro at $28 a month billed annually. SealedFolio separates entities inside its local vault and runs every report per property or per entity.
Baselane is the closest alternative to Stessa for a landlord who wants banking and rent collection in one login with a free Schedule E report. If the reason for leaving Stessa is that your portfolio data sits in a vendor's cloud, SealedFolio is the alternative that keeps the rent roll, ledger, Schedule E and T776 in an encrypted vault on your own Mac or Windows PC, from $19 a month with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Neither Baselane nor Stessa produces a T776, the Canadian Statement of Real Estate Rentals, and Baselane's banking and rent collection are built for US accounts. SealedFolio generates both Schedule E and T776 reports on its Pro and Portfolio plans, which makes it the one tool on this page that covers a Canadian rental.
SealedFolio keeps your ledger, rent roll, Schedule E, T776 and portfolio analytics in an encrypted vault on your Mac or Windows PC. Keep your bank and your rent collection where they are.
Buy SealedFolioSealedFolio Pro is $19 per month for up to three properties. SealedFolio Portfolio is $39 per month for unlimited properties. Every SealedFolio plan is paid at checkout and includes a 30-day money-back guarantee.