The short answer: if you self-manage a few rentals, start with Stessa Essentials (free). If you want your rent money, your bank accounts, and your books in one place, choose Baselane Core (free). If you want proper double-entry books built for rentals, choose REI Hub (free up to 3 units, then from $9 per month). If you want rent collection, screening, and accounting in a single small-landlord app, choose Landlord Studio (free up to 3 units, then from $12 per month). Only choose QuickBooks Online if you already run a general business on it or your accountant requires it — for pure rental books it costs far more and fits worse.
Affiliate disclosure. We do not have affiliate partnerships with any of these vendors yet, so every link in this article is a plain link to the vendor’s own site — nobody pays us for clicks or signups, and payments would not change what we recommend anyway. If we add affiliate programs later, this article will be updated to say so. How we handle this site-wide is on our /disclosure/ page.
Prices below are US list prices researched on 2026-11-02 from vendor pricing pages, cross-checked against current third-party pricing trackers. Vendors in this category run frequent introductory discounts, so budget on the list price and treat any promotion as temporary.
What landlords need that other small businesses do not
A generic small business asks its accounting software one question: how much money did we make? A landlord asks a different question for every property: how much did this property make, after its mortgage, its repairs, and its vacancy? A single portfolio profit figure hides a losing property behind a winning one, and it is useless at tax time, when rental income is reported property by property.
That changes what the software must be good at, in four ways.
First, everything is organised by property and unit, not by customer. Rent is not a sale to a client; it is recurring income attached to a door. Expenses — a plumber’s visit, a roof repair, property tax — belong to a specific property. A tool that forces you to recreate that structure with tags or classes is fighting you; a landlord tool has it as the default view.
Second, rent collection is part of the books, not a separate chore. When a tenant pays, the payment should land in the right property’s ledger automatically, with late fees applied by rule. If collection lives in one app and accounting in another, you reconcile by hand every month, which is exactly the job the software was supposed to remove.
Third, the tax output is the product. For a US landlord, the year ends in a Schedule E: income and expenses per property, in the IRS’s categories. A tool that produces that report directly saves a weekend of re-sorting. A tool that exports a generic profit and loss leaves the hardest step to you or your accountant.
Fourth, the pricing model matters more than the headline price. Landlord tools price four ways: flat tiers regardless of unit count, per-unit charges, free tiers with paid upgrades, and quote-based pricing for managers. A flat $12 per month is cheap at 30 units and fine at 3; a per-unit charge is invisible at 3 units and punishing at 50. Work out your cost at the portfolio size you expect in two years, not the one you have today.
That is the fundamental trade in this category: property-first structure and tax-ready output, versus the flexibility of a general ledger. Every pick below is a different answer to that trade. If you want the underlying mechanics of how these ledgers work before choosing, our explainer on how accounting software works covers the engine underneath, and our guide to how much accounting software costs breaks down where the money goes across the wider market.
The five picks, product by product
Stessa — best free starting point for landlords
Stessa began as rental-property accounting and still shows it: the free Essentials plan costs $0 and includes unlimited properties, automatic bank feeds, basic financial reports, online rent collection, vacancy marketing, and tenant screening. Paid tiers researched on 2026-11-02 are Manage at $12 per month billed annually ($15 monthly), which adds the Schedule E report, legal forms, and faster rent payouts, and Pro at $28 per month billed annually ($35 monthly), which adds advanced reports, budgeting, and unlimited receipt scanning.
The key fact about Stessa is the split between the free and paid tiers. The free tier is genuinely useful bookkeeping — unlimited properties is rare at $0 — but the tax artifact most landlords buy the software for, the Schedule E report, lives on Manage. So budget Stessa as a $0 tool for tracking and a $12-per-month tool for tax season. That is still far cheaper than any general accounting system, and the flat price does not rise as you add properties.
Stessa’s limits follow its focus. It is the strongest free accounting tool in this guide and only an adequate leasing tool: listing syndication, tenant messaging, and maintenance workflows are thinner than on platforms built for property operations first. And note that Stessa uses single-entry tracking rather than a full double-entry ledger, which is simpler for a landlord without an accounting background but gives an accountant less depth on complex portfolios with multiple entities.
Best for: self-managing landlords who want to organise rental finances at no cost and are willing to pay $12 per month when tax season arrives.
Baselane — best for banking, rent collection, and books in one place
Baselane takes a different approach: the bank account is the bookkeeping system. The Core plan costs $0 and includes unlimited property-specific checking and savings accounts (one per property, if you like), bookkeeping with Schedule E categorisation, rent collection, and a tenant portal. The Smart plan costs $20 per month on an annual plan and adds AI auto-tagging across real-estate-specific categories, balance-sheet reporting, receipt matching, shared access, and faster 2-day rent deposits.
The appeal is separation without effort. Keeping each property’s money in its own account means the books almost write themselves: rent arrives in the property’s account, expenses leave it, and the ledger follows the money. Baselane is a financial technology company, not a bank — banking services are provided by Thread Bank — but for the landlord the practical effect is the same: no monthly account fees and no minimum balances on Core.
The cost to watch is payment fees, not subscription fees. ACH rent payments cost about $2 each (waived when rent is deposited into a Baselane account, depending on the route), and tenants pay 3.49% on card payments. If your tenants mostly pay by card, those fees add up faster than any subscription would. And if you do not want your banking and your bookkeeping bundled with one provider, Baselane’s all-in-one design is a drawback rather than a feature.
Best for: landlords who want one home for rental banking, rent collection, and tax-ready books, and whose tenants pay mainly by bank transfer.
REI Hub — best for proper double-entry rental books
REI Hub is the pick for landlords who want real accounting, not just tracking. It runs property-based double-entry bookkeeping with automatic transaction import, bank feeds, loan and fixed-asset tracking, mortgage splits, and one-click tax packets — and unlike Stessa, its free plan includes Schedule E and tax reports, covering up to 3 units for minimal transaction volumes. Paid Professional plans start at $9 per month billed annually ($15 monthly) for up to 3 units, rising to $15 per month for up to 10 units, $27 for up to 20, and $48 for unlimited units (monthly billing costs more at each tier).
That per-unit pricing is the honest trade. At 3 units REI Hub is the cheapest serious ledger in this guide; at 20 units it costs $27 per month, still well under QuickBooks Plus, but the bill does grow with the portfolio while Stessa’s and Baselane’s flat tiers do not. What you get for it is depth: a balance sheet, depreciation schedules, and a ledger an accountant can work in directly, rather than a single-entry tracker they have to rebuild from.
REI Hub’s limits are operational, not accounting. It does not collect rent, manage leases, run a tenant portal, or handle maintenance requests — it is a bookkeeping tool, not a property-management platform. Pair it with a separate rent-collection tool if you need one, or choose Landlord Studio below if you want both jobs in one app.
Best for: landlords and investors who want a genuine double-entry ledger designed for rentals, including short-term rentals, and who care more about tax-ready depth than about tenant-facing features.
Landlord Studio — best small-portfolio all-in-one
Landlord Studio is built accounting-first for self-managing landlords, but wraps the books in the operational features the pure accounting tools skip: rent collection, listings, tenant screening, maintenance tracking, and document storage in one app. The GO plan is free for up to 3 units with income and expense tracking and basic reports. PRO starts at $12 per month billed annually ($15 monthly), including the first 3 units with about $1.20 per additional unit per month, and adds bank feeds and advanced reports including Schedule E. PRO Plus is $28 per month billed annually ($35 monthly) with more users and storage.
The 3-unit free tier is the decision point. If you own three or fewer units, GO is a complete small-landlord system at $0. The moment you add a fourth unit, you are on PRO and paying per unit from there — predictable, but a portfolio of 20 units costs noticeably more than on Stessa’s or Baselane’s flat tiers. Count units, not buildings: a unit is a rentable space, so a house converted into rooms counts several times.
Landlord Studio’s strength is that nothing else is needed for a small portfolio: the tenant applies, signs, pays, and reports a repair in the same place the rent is recorded. Its weakness is the same per-unit maths — it is the most expensive pick here at scale, and larger portfolios with a property manager should look at manager-grade platforms instead.
Best for: self-managing landlords with up to a handful of units who want rent collection, screening, and accounting in a single app.
QuickBooks Online — only if your accountant or your other business requires it
QuickBooks Online is the general ledger most accountants know, and that familiarity is its whole case for landlords. US list prices researched on 2026-11-02 are Simple Start at $38 per month, Essentials at $85, Plus at $140, and Advanced at $340, after Intuit’s August 2026 price rises. A new-customer offer of 50% off for three months or a 30-day trial is typical; budget on the list price.
For rental books specifically, the honest assessment is harsh. QuickBooks has no native Schedule E report and no property-first structure. Approximating per-property books requires classes, and class tracking that can carry a real portfolio needs the Plus plan at $140 per month — roughly ten times Stessa Manage or Baselane Smart. Simple Start at $38 gives you a single-user general ledger with no bill management and no meaningful per-property view.
So when does QuickBooks win? When the rental activity sits inside a broader business already run on QuickBooks, when your accountant works in QuickBooks daily and charges less for books they do not have to translate, or when the portfolio has grown into multiple entities and trust accounting that landlord apps cannot handle. In those cases the $140 Plus price buys compatibility, not features. For a standalone landlord with a handful of doors, it buys overhead.
Best for: landlords whose accountant insists on QuickBooks, or whose rentals sit inside a larger business already running on it.
Side-by-side comparison
All prices are US dollars per month at list price, researched 2026-11-02. Annual-billing rates are shown where they differ from monthly billing.
| Stessa | Baselane | REI Hub | Landlord Studio | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes — Essentials, unlimited properties | Yes — Core, unlimited accounts | Yes — up to 3 units | Yes — GO, up to 3 units | No (trial / $0 tier with tight limits) |
| Entry paid plan | $12 (Manage, annual) | $20 (Smart, annual) | $9 (Professional, annual, up to 3 units) | $12 (PRO, annual, incl. 3 units) | $38 (Simple Start) |
| Realistic landlord tier | $12 (Manage, for Schedule E) | $0–20 | $9–27 by unit count | $12, plus ≈$1.20 per extra unit | $140 (Plus, for class tracking) |
| Pricing model | Flat, unlimited properties | Flat, no per-unit charge | Per unit count | Per unit above 3 included | Flat per company, by tier |
| Double-entry ledger | No — single-entry tracking | Bookkeeping with Schedule E categories | Yes, property-based | Yes, full accounting | Yes, general ledger |
| Schedule E report | On Manage ($12) and above | On Core (free) and Smart | On free and paid plans | On PRO ($12) and above | No native report |
| Rent collection | Yes | Yes, with banking | No | Yes | Invoicing, not rent-specific |
| Property bank accounts | Yes, via banking add-on | Yes — unlimited, one per property | No | No | No |
| Tenant screening / listings | Basic | Screening add-on | No | Yes | No |
| Best for | Free start, unlimited properties | Banking + books in one | Real rental double-entry | Small-portfolio all-in-one | Accountant compatibility |
Two rows decide most purchases. First, where the Schedule E report lives: free on Baselane and REI Hub, $12 per month on Stessa and Landlord Studio, absent on QuickBooks. If tax season is your main pain, that row alone narrows the field. Second, the pricing model: flat tiers (Stessa, Baselane) stay cheap as you grow, per-unit pricing (REI Hub, Landlord Studio) grows with you, and QuickBooks Plus starts at a price no landlord tool reaches.
How to choose, in five minutes
- Do you own 1–3 units and want to spend nothing? Stessa Essentials if you care most about tracking and investor-style reports; Baselane Core if you also want separate bank accounts per property and rent collection in the same place.
- Is tax season your main anxiety? REI Hub or Baselane — both put the Schedule E report on the free plan. Stessa costs $12 per month for the same report, which is still cheap, but do not assume the free tier includes it.
- Do you want a ledger your accountant will take seriously? REI Hub. It is the only purpose-built landlord tool here with full double-entry depth, and its free plan covers a small portfolio.
- Do you want one app for tenants and books? Landlord Studio, provided you have 3 or fewer units free — or accept the per-unit price as you grow past that.
- Does your accountant already run your books in QuickBooks? Ask them what they charge to work from a landlord tool’s exports before you pay $140 per month for Plus. If the answer is “we rebuild it anyway,” QuickBooks earns its price; if they happily take a Schedule E packet, it does not.
Verdict
- Best overall for landlords: Stessa (Essentials free, Manage $12 per month billed annually). The most proven free start in the category, with unlimited properties and a cheap, flat upgrade when tax season needs the Schedule E report.
- Best for banking plus books: Baselane (Core free, Smart $20 per month). Unlimited property-specific bank accounts with bookkeeping and rent collection attached — the strongest all-in-one financial home, as long as your tenants pay by bank transfer rather than card.
- Best for serious books: REI Hub (free up to 3 units, Professional from $9 per month billed annually). The only pick with a real double-entry ledger designed for rentals and a Schedule E report on the free plan.
- Best small-portfolio all-in-one: Landlord Studio (GO free up to 3 units, PRO from $12 per month billed annually). Rent, screening, maintenance, and accounting in one app — just count units, not buildings, before you commit.
- Best only by necessity: QuickBooks Online (Plus $140 per month). Buy it for accountant compatibility or a broader business, not for rental books alone.
The principle underneath all five picks is the one we started with: a landlord’s accounting problem is not a generic ledger problem, it is a per-property problem — which door earned what, which door cost what, and what the tax form says about each one. Stessa optimises the starting price. Baselane optimises the money flow. REI Hub optimises the ledger. Landlord Studio optimises the single app. QuickBooks optimises compatibility. Pick the optimisation that matches the friction you actually feel every month — usually the gap between rent day and tax day — and the software will pay for itself in hours before it pays for itself in fees.
If you are still weighing free against paid across the wider market, our guide to free accounting software for small businesses covers the general-purpose free options, and our look at simple accounting software for small businesses covers the easiest general ledgers for owners who do not need landlord-specific features.