Stessa vs Clearing

Where Stessa and Clearing actually differ

• •Stessa is free on its Essentials plan with unlimited properties, scaling to $12/mo (Manage) or $28/mo (Pro) on annual billing; Clearing starts at $25/mo for up to 5 listings, scales to $9.25/unit at 11–20 and $8.50/unit at 100+, plus a $2.50/unit trust-accounting add-on with a $199–$499 implementation fee.
• •Clearing integrates with 15+ PMSs (Hostaway, Guesty, Hospitable, Lodgify, OwnerRez) plus Stripe and QuickBooks Online — 30+ named integrations total; Stessa has zero PMS or OTA integrations, no public API, no Zapier, and depends entirely on bank feed aggregation.
• •Clearing offers virtual bank accounts to segregate owner funds, ACH disbursement to homeowners, and automated owner statements as headline features; Stessa has no trust accounting, no owner statements, and limited multi-entity support.
• •Stessa Pro includes integrated banking at 3.98% APY with up to $3M FDIC coverage; Clearing has no banking product or high-yield cash account.
• •Stessa auto-categorizes transactions for real estate and produces Schedule E-ready tax reports for individual investors; Clearing reconciles reservation-level data from your PMS and pushes to QuickBooks Online (Ultimate plan) but is built around PMC bookkeeping, not landlord tax filing.

Common objections

Clearing has actual PMS integrations and trust accounting — isn't Stessa just outclassed?

Only if you're a property manager handling other people's money. Clearing is built for PMCs running 10+ units across multiple owners, where trust accounting and owner statements are real compliance pain. If you're a self-managing investor with a handful of buy-and-hold rentals, Stessa's free plan with unlimited properties and Schedule E categorization covers what you actually need — Clearing's per-unit pricing and add-ons would be paying for capabilities you don't use.

I have 5 STR units I self-manage. Should I move from Stessa to Clearing?

Probably not yet. At 5 units you'd hit Clearing's $25/mo floor and you don't need trust accounting if you're not managing for outside owners. Stessa's free Essentials plan handles the bookkeeping and tax reports honestly. The switch makes sense once you cross into managing for other owners, multi-OTA reconciliation eats real time, or your state requires segregated trust accounts.

Stessa's bank feeds are unreliable — does that alone justify switching to Clearing?

It's a fair concern and one we acknowledge in our own cons. Clearing largely sidesteps it by pulling reservation and transaction data through PMS and payment-processor integrations rather than Plaid-style bank aggregation. But that only helps if you have a PMS to integrate with. For investors without a PMS, switching to Clearing doesn't solve the bank-feed problem — you'd still need bank connections — and the per-unit pricing isn't justified by feed reliability alone.