Stessa vs. STR Expense Tracker for short-term rentals
Stessa is a capable, free rental-finance platform, and for a lot of landlords it is the obvious pick. This comparison is about the two places the two tools genuinely diverge: how your data gets in, and whether the software understands a short-term rental payout.
Quick comparison
Stessa fits when
You want free, you are happy linking your bank and card accounts for automatic bookkeeping, and your portfolio is a mix of long-term and short-term rentals.
This fits when
You would rather not connect a bank at all, and your rentals are short-term, so the Airbnb and Vrbo payout breakdown is the part you want handled precisely.
The honest starting point: Stessa is free
It is worth saying plainly, because it is the first thing that matters. Stessa has a free tier, and STR Expense Tracker does not — it is $48 a month after a 14-day trial. If price is the deciding factor and the two differences below do not move you, Stessa's free tier is hard to argue with, and you should use it.
The rest of this page is about whether those two differences move you.
Difference one: how your data gets in
Stessa's automated bookkeeping works by connecting your bank and credit card accounts, so transactions flow in on their own. That is genuinely convenient, and for many owners it is the whole appeal.
STR Expense Tracker takes the opposite stance on purpose. There is no bank login and no third-party banking connection, so there is nothing to revoke and no credentials for anyone to hold. Bank and card data enters by CSV upload, which you review before anything saves. That is more deliberate on your part, and for some owners the point is precisely that no outside tool holds a live line into their accounts.
Difference two: does it understand a short-term rental payout?
General rental-finance tools are built for the buy-and-hold world first: rent in, mortgage and repairs out. An Airbnb or Vrbo payout does not fit that shape. It is a gross booking amount, a cleaning fee, taxes collected on a guest's behalf, and a platform fee, netted into one deposit.
A generalist tool records the deposit. STR Expense Tracker is built around the breakdown: it itemizes the cleaning fee and platform fee, and it tracks the lodging tax you collect while keeping it out of income, because that money is remitted to the taxing authority rather than earned. If your rentals are short-term, that handling is the difference between a number that is roughly right and one that is actually right.
Side by side
| The job | Stessa | STR Expense Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free tier, with paid upgrades | From $48/month14-day trial, no card |
| How data comes in | Connect bank and card accounts for automatic sync | CSV upload, reviewed before it saves |
| Bank connection | Central to the automated bookkeeping | None, by design — nothing to link or revoke |
| Built primarily for | Rental investors broadly, long-term and short-term | Short-term rentals specifically |
| Airbnb & Vrbo payout | Recorded as the deposit that lands | Itemized: gross, cleaning fee, platform fee, net |
| Lodging tax collected | Categorized like any other transaction | Tracked but excluded from income as a pass-through |
| Duplicate payouts on re-import | Depends on how the sync matches | Payouts already on file are skipped, not doubled |
| Leaving with your data | Report and export options | Full CSV export anytime, even after an account lapses |
If the two rows that read None, by design and Itemized are the ones you care about, that is the case for paying. If they are not, Stessa being free wins, and that is a perfectly good outcome.
Questions owners ask
Is Stessa free?
Yes. Stessa has a free tier, and that is a real reason to choose it. STR Expense Tracker is paid, from $48 a month, with a 14-day trial that takes no credit card. What you pay for is short-term-rental-specific handling and a tool with no bank connection to manage.
Why would I pay when Stessa is free?
Two reasons, and neither applies to everyone. First, there is no bank connection here, nothing to link and no account access to hand over, which some owners prefer. Second, it is built around the Airbnb and Vrbo payout, itemizing the cleaning fee, platform fee, and collected lodging tax rather than recording a single net deposit. If neither matters to you, a free tier is hard to argue with.
Does it connect to my bank the way Stessa does?
No, and that is deliberate. There is no bank login and no third-party banking connection, so there is nothing to revoke and no credentials for us to hold. Bank and card data enters by CSV upload, which you review before anything saves.
Is this tax advice?
No. This is a record-keeping tool, not an accounting or tax service, and nothing in it is advice. It organizes what you earned and spent per rental so your accountant or tax preparer has clean records to work from. Decisions about what is deductible are theirs and yours.
Built for the Airbnb payout, with no bank to link
See what each short-term rental really earns. Start free for 14 days, no credit card, no account connection.