Accounting & Tax
Hostfully Bookkeeper
Accounting and financial reporting built into Hostfully's property management platform
Solid Option
Solid accounting layer if you're already on Hostfully's PMS
From $129 • No free trial
Comparison
Hostfully Bookkeeper vs Stessa
Pricing, pros and cons, and buyer-fit side-by-side. Pick the one that matches your operation — or see why neither should.
Accounting & Tax
Stessa
Financial tracking and tax optimization for real estate investors
Best for Small Hosts
Free accounting tool for solo real estate investors
From $0/mo • No free trial
✓Editorial verdict
Which Should You Pick: Hostfully Bookkeeper or Stessa?
Pick Hostfully Bookkeeper if you manage short-term rentals and want accounting integrated directly with your PMS, channel connections, and guest operations. Pick Stessa if you're a real estate investor who needs free, self-service financial tracking with tax-ready reports and doesn't need property management software.
Editorial perspective from the Hostfully Bookkeeper side; factual claims about Stessa are drawn from its review.
Pricing Side-by-Side
Hostfully Bookkeeper
Full pricing →From $129 • No free trial
Starter
$129/mo
~$117/mo billed annually (~9% discount)
Up to 4 listings
- Extended Data Report with flexible owner/property columns
- Automated CSV and HTML report exports
- Clearing integration for trust accounting
- QuickBooks Online connector
- 120+ integrations included
Pro
$229/mo
Annual billing discount available
Up to 11 listings
- Everything in Starter
- Enhanced owner statement customization
- Zapier and API workflows for custom accounting exports
- Multi-user access with role permissions
Pro Plus
$285/mo
Annual billing discount available
Up to 19 listings
- Everything in Pro
- Advanced reporting with per-property tax holding rules
- Priority customer support
Premium
Custom quote
20+ listings
- Everything in Pro Plus
- Dedicated account management
- Custom onboarding and training sessions
- Volume-based pricing negotiation
Stessa
Full pricing →From $0/mo • No free trial
Essentials
$0/mo
Unlimited
- Unlimited properties
- Basic financial reports
- Bank feeds
- Online rent collection
Manage
$12/mo (annual) or $15/mo (monthly)
Unlimited
- Everything in Essentials
- Advanced reporting
Pro
$28/mo (annual) or $35/mo (monthly)
Unlimited
- Everything in Manage
- High-yield cash balances (3.98% APY)
- FDIC coverage up to $3M
What each tool does well — and where it falls short
What Hostfully Bookkeeper does well
120+ integrations included in all plans with specialized accounting partners
All Hostfully packages include access to 120+ integrations, including Clearing for AI-powered trust accounting and QuickBooks Online for automated bookkeeping workflows.
Industry-leading flexible reporting via Extended Data Report
Any data collected from listing sites, OTAs, or direct booking sites can be placed into custom columns, enabling calculations for owner fees, per-property exceptions, and tax holdings with CSV or HTML export.
Consistently praised customer support and onboarding
Reviewers describe onboarding as smooth with helpful training sessions. The team is described as attentive, quick to resolve issues, and consistently improving the platform according to Capterra reviews.
What Stessa does well
Comprehensive financial tracking with tax optimization
Stessa automatically categorizes transactions and generates tax-friendly reports, making tax preparation straightforward for real estate investors.
Free plan with unlimited properties
The Essentials plan offers significant value with unlimited property tracking, basic financial reports, and rent collection at no cost.
Integrated banking with competitive yields
Pro plan includes high-yield cash balances (3.98% APY) with FDIC coverage up to $3M, directly connected to property accounting.
Where Hostfully Bookkeeper falls short
Requires full PMS subscription — no standalone accounting option
There is no way to purchase Hostfully's accounting features separately. The minimum entry point is the $129/mo Starter plan, which may be excessive for operators who only need bookkeeping.
Reported performance issues with slow page loads
Multiple reviewers report certain features taking 5-10 seconds to load, with navigation requiring multiple steps and lacking mobile optimization.
Limited customization and mobile app restrictions
Users report limited flexibility in customizing guidebook layouts and the inability to edit existing templates from the mobile app, with a learning curve for advanced automation setup.
Where Stessa falls short
Persistent technical issues with bank connections
Users report recurring problems with bank account verification and transaction syncing that customer support cannot permanently resolve.
Limited functionality for complex operations
The software lacks recurring bill/income features and detailed account tracking needed for sophisticated real estate portfolios.
Poor customer support responsiveness
Users on free plans experience slow email-only support, with reported resolution timeframes extending to months for simple issues.
Which Should You Pick
Pick Hostfully Bookkeeper if
Property managers running 4-20+ short-term rental listings who need centralized booking management with integrated accounting workflows through Clearing and QuickBooks Online.
Skip Hostfully Bookkeeper if
You need standalone accounting software only, or you manage fewer than 4 properties where the $129/month base cost exceeds per-listing value.
Pick Stessa if
Individual real estate investors seeking comprehensive financial tracking and tax preparation with unlimited properties on a budget.
Skip Stessa if
You run multi-entity portfolios requiring complex accounting, need dedicated tenant mobile apps, or require robust third-party integrations.
Where Hostfully Bookkeeper and Stessa actually differ
- Hostfully Bookkeeper is embedded in a full PMS with channel management across Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com; Stessa is standalone accounting software with no PMS, channel management, or OTA integrations.
- Hostfully starts at $15/property/mo on Growth (1–50 listings), before a platform fee whose amount Hostfully does not publish for 1–50 listings with tiered pricing; Stessa offers a free Essentials plan with unlimited properties and paid tiers at $12–$35/mo.
- Hostfully's Extended Data Reports pull booking data directly from connected OTAs and direct booking sites; Stessa relies on bank feed connections for transaction import, which users report as unreliable.
- Hostfully integrates natively with Clearing for trust accounting automation and QuickBooks Online; Stessa has no PMS integrations and no public API, limiting it to bank-feed-driven workflows.
- Stessa's Pro plan includes integrated banking at 3.98% APY with up to $3M FDIC coverage; Hostfully offers no banking products.
Common objections
- Stessa is free with unlimited properties — why pay $15/property/mo for Hostfully's accounting?
- Because Hostfully's accounting is purpose-built for STR operators managing guest bookings across channels. It pulls financial data directly from Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com reservations, generates owner statements, and feeds into Clearing or QuickBooks automatically. Stessa requires you to reconcile bank feeds manually with no booking-level detail. If you're running an active STR operation, Hostfully's data fidelity justifies the cost.
- I already use Stessa for tracking — can I add Hostfully just for the PMS and keep Stessa for accounting?
- You can, but you'd be duplicating effort. Hostfully's accounting layer captures the same financial data at the booking level with richer detail than Stessa's bank feeds provide. Most operators who adopt Hostfully's PMS find the built-in reporting sufficient and drop their standalone accounting tool.
- Stessa supports unlimited properties on the free plan. Hostfully caps listings per tier — isn't that a disadvantage?
- It is if you're purely tracking finances. Hostfully's plan limits (Growth 1–50; Pro 1–199) are for the full PMS — accounting is just one piece. But Stessa's unlimited properties come with no PMS features, no channel connections, and no booking-level financial data. You're comparing a free ledger to an integrated operations platform.
Keep Digging
Hostfully Bookkeeper
Solid accounting layer if you're already on Hostfully's PMS