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STRStack

Comparison

Clearing vs Patriot Software

Pricing, pros and cons, and buyer-fit side-by-side. Pick the one that matches your operation — or see why neither should.

Accounting & Tax

Clearing

Trust accounting and bookkeeping built for short-term rental managers

Solid Option

Specialist bookkeeping for STR managers who actually need trust accounting

From $25 • No free trial

Full review →Is it worth it?

Accounting & Tax

Patriot Software

Affordable small-business accounting that handles rental books

Solid Option

Solid budget ledger, but not built for rental operations

From $20/mo • Free trial

Full review →Is it worth it?
Visit Clearing →Visit Patriot Software →
✓Editorial verdict

Which Should You Pick: Clearing or Patriot Software?

Pick Clearing if you manage 10+ STR units and need trust accounting, owner statements, and multi-OTA reconciliation that integrates with your PMS. Pick Patriot if you run a rental as one of several small-business income streams and want a flat $20/mo general ledger with invoicing, contractors, and an optional payroll add-on.

Editorial perspective from the Clearing side; factual claims about Patriot Software are drawn from its review.

Pricing Side-by-Side

Clearing

Full pricing →

From $25 • No free trial

Up to 5 listings

$25/mo

  • Bookkeeping baseline
  • PMS, Stripe, and Airbnb data ingestion
Try Clearing

11-20 listings

$9.25 per unit/mo

  • Bookkeeping baseline
  • Per-unit pricing kicks in
Try Clearing

100+ listings

$8.50 per unit/mo

  • Bookkeeping baseline at lowest published per-unit rate
  • Suitable for portfolios at scale
Try Clearing

Trust accounting add-on

$2.50 per unit/mo + $199-$499 setup

  • Virtual bank accounts to segregate rental funds
  • ACH disbursement to homeowners
Try Clearing

Patriot Software

Full pricing →

From $20/mo • Free trial

What each tool does well — and where it falls short

What Clearing does well

  • Broad PMS and payment-processor integration coverage

    The integrations page lists Hostaway, Guesty, Hospitable, Lodgify, OwnerRez, Stripe, and others — unusually wide for a bookkeeping-layer product, which reduces lock-in if you switch PMSes.

  • Trust accounting is the headline feature, not a bolt-on

    The homepage title is 'Trust accounting for Property Managers' and the platform supports virtual bank accounts to keep owner funds segregated — a compliance step generalist tools push back to the operator.

  • Vendor case studies cite quantified time savings

    Named customers on the customer-story page report cuts like 'up to 70%' fewer month-end hours across 300+ properties and one operator saving 50+ hours monthly.

What Patriot Software does well

  • Flat $20/mo with no per-listing fees keeps costs predictable at any portfolio size

    Unlike STR-specific tools that charge per listing, Patriot's accounting plan is a single flat rate. For operators who only need bookkeeping, total cost stays at $20 whether you have 1 or 50 properties.

  • Users consistently rate support quality and interface simplicity highly

    Software Advice reviewers describe the platform as easy to use with quick, efficient, and friendly support — accessible for property owners without accounting backgrounds.

  • Stripe integration enables credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay collection

    Property owners can accept guest payments through modern channels without setting up a separate merchant account, streamlining rent and booking fee collection.

Where Clearing falls short

  • Plan tier pricing requires a sales call

    Both Pro and Ultimate plans show 'Talk with Sales' on the pricing page, and a third-party directory notes a demo is required before purchase. Apples-to-apples comparison requires booking a call.

  • Trust accounting is priced separately from the bookkeeping base

    It's $2.50 per unit per month plus a one-time implementation fee scaling from $199 to $499 by portfolio size — meaningful budget for a 50-listing operator.

  • Very limited independent review signal

    shorttermrentalsoftware.com lists '0 reviews currently listed' and Capterra/G2 don't surface a populated page, so buyers lean heavily on vendor-published case studies.

Where Patriot Software falls short

  • No purpose-built STR functionality — everything rental-specific is manual

    As iGMS notes, Patriot can be used for rental accounting but requires manual workarounds for channel management, guest communication, and dynamic pricing that dedicated platforms handle natively.

  • Customer support is unavailable on weekends and outside business hours

    STR operations often involve weekend guest issues and time-sensitive booking problems. Software Advice reviewers flag that questions arising over the weekend must wait until Monday.

  • Reporting capabilities fall short for complex multi-property portfolios

    Capterra reviewers note limited reporting options. Operators needing occupancy analytics, revenue management dashboards, or multi-property performance comparisons will find the platform insufficient.

Which Should You Pick

Pick Clearing if

Property managers running 10-300+ short-term rental units who need automated trust accounting, owner statements, and reconciliation across multiple OTAs and PMSes.

Skip Clearing if

You're a single-listing host, you need a PMS replacement (Clearing layers on top of one), or you require self-serve plan-tier pricing without a sales call.

Pick Patriot Software if

Small property owners needing basic accounting who already use general business software and want an affordable, easy-to-learn ledger.

Skip Patriot Software if

You need channel management, guest communication, automated pricing, or any rental-specific workflow — Patriot handles none of these.

Where Clearing and Patriot Software actually differ

  • Clearing is STR-specialized bookkeeping and trust accounting with 30+ named integrations including 15+ PMSs (Hostaway, Guesty, Hospitable, Lodgify, OwnerRez) plus Stripe and QuickBooks Online; Patriot is general-purpose small-business accounting with just 5 partner integrations and zero PMS or OTA connectivity.
  • Clearing scales by listing count — $25/mo floor up to 5, $9.25/unit at 11–20, $8.50/unit at 100+, with a $2.50/unit trust-accounting add-on plus $199–$499 setup; Patriot is $20/mo flat regardless of property count.
  • Clearing offers virtual bank accounts to segregate owner funds, ACH disbursement to homeowners, and automated owner statements; Patriot has no owner-statement, trust-accounting, or per-property reporting features.
  • Patriot offers a 30-day free trial plus a 50% discount on the first 3 months and includes Stripe payments and an optional payroll add-on with tax filing; Clearing has no free trial, no payroll product, and no payment processing of its own.
  • Clearing publishes named customer outcomes including operators with 300+ properties and one cutting month-end work by up to 70%; Patriot reviewers consistently flag reporting as too thin for multi-property analysis and weekend support gaps.

Common objections

Patriot is $20/mo flat while Clearing scales per unit — isn't Patriot cheaper at any size?
On the line item, yes. But Patriot has no PMS or OTA integrations, no owner statements, and no trust accounting, so every reservation, payout, and per-owner split is manual. Past 3–4 STR units that re-entry burden swamps the price difference. Clearing's per-unit fee buys automated reconciliation across OTAs and a real owner-statement workflow that Patriot simply doesn't ship.
I only have 1–2 rentals as a side business. Is Clearing overkill?
Honestly, yes. Clearing's $25/mo floor isn't much more than Patriot's $20, but the trust accounting and multi-OTA reconciliation that justify Clearing don't matter at 1–2 units you self-manage. If your rental sits alongside other income streams and you want unified books with invoicing and payroll, Patriot is the better fit at that scale.
Can I run Patriot for books and Clearing for trust accounting together?
Not really — they overlap on the bookkeeping ledger itself, so running both would mean reconciling between two general ledgers without an integration between them. The more typical stack is a real PMS (Hostaway, Guesty, Hospitable, OwnerRez, etc.) plus Clearing for trust accounting and reconciliation, with QuickBooks Online underneath. Patriot fits a different buyer — small businesses where the rental is a side line, not the main operation.

Keep Digging

Clearing

Specialist bookkeeping for STR managers who actually need trust accounting

Full Clearing review →Is it worth it?

Patriot Software

Solid budget ledger, but not built for rental operations

Full Patriot Software review →Is it worth it?