Apartments.com Rental Manager vs Stessa
Stessa scores 7.0/10 vs 6.5/10. Best for: Real estate investors with 1-50 rental properties who want free income/expense tracking and tax-ready Schedule E reports, not full property management.
Stessa scores higher overall at 7.0/10 vs 6.5/10. Buy Stessa if you are a real estate investor who cares about financial tracking and tax-ready reports. The free tier with bank feeds and Schedule E reports is genuinely useful. A basic tenant portal now exists at resident.stessa.com, but Stessa is still primarily a financial tracking tool. Skip if you need full property management with deep tenant features.
Apartments.com Rental Manager 
Stessa Rank
#26 of 31
Rank
#21 of 31
Features
10/17
Features
12/17
Starting at
$0/mo
Starting at
$0/mo
User reviews
4.2/5 (50)
User reviews
4.5/5 (450)
What they cost
| Apartments.com Rental Manager | Stessa | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting at | Free /mo | Free /mo |
| Free trial | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Number of plans | 3 | 3 |
What the pricing really means
At first glance, Stessa looks cheaper at $0/month vs $0/month. But sticker price is only part of the story. Look at what is included on the base plan, how many users you get, and whether you need add-ons to get the features you actually need. The $99/month plan that requires $200 in add-ons is actually more expensive than the $250/month plan that includes everything.
Where Apartments.com Rental Manager wins
- Free listing syndication across the Apartments.com network reaches millions of renters
- Core features like screening, rent collection, and applications are free
- Backed by CoStar Group, giving it long-term stability and investment
- Inherited Cozy's user-friendly approach to small landlord management
Where Stessa wins
- Free tier includes unlimited properties and automatic bank feeds. An investor with 30 doors can track income and expenses at $0/mo
- Schedule E tax reports generate automatically. Your CPA gets exactly what they need at filing time without you building a spreadsheet
- Dashboard is built for investors, not property managers. You see net cash flow, cap rates, and returns per property at a glance
- Cash management account pays 3.98% APY on idle funds. If you hold $20K in reserves, that is roughly $800/year in passive interest
Where Apartments.com Rental Manager falls short
- No built-in accounting or financial tracking beyond basic expense logging
- Website can be glitchy, especially during peak application processing
- Maintenance tracking lacks advanced features like recurring tasks and priority levels
- Limited feature depth compared to dedicated property management platforms
Where Stessa falls short
- Bank feed imports occasionally drop or miscategorize transactions. Plan to review and recategorize 5-10% of entries manually each month
- Tenant portal (resident.stessa.com) is new and basic compared to dedicated PM tools. Tenants can pay rent and submit requests, but the feature set is still maturing
- Free plan locks you to one portfolio with basic reports only. The $28/mo Pro plan is needed for multi-portfolio tracking
- Support response times vary wildly. Some tickets get answered in hours, others sit for days with no reply
Who is each product built for?
Apartments.com Rental Manager
Target: 1-50 units
Apartments.com Rental Manager is best for small landlords who value listing exposure above all else. Being part of the largest rental listing network in the US is a genuine competitive advantage for filling vacancies quickly. However, the management tools are relatively basic — there is no real accounting, and the platform works better as a listing and screening tool than a full property management solution.
Stessa
Target: 1-50 units
Buy Stessa if you are a real estate investor who cares about financial tracking and tax-ready reports. The free tier with bank feeds and Schedule E reports is genuinely useful. A basic tenant portal now exists at resident.stessa.com, but Stessa is still primarily a financial tracking tool. Skip if you need full property management with deep tenant features.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Apartments.com Rental Manager | Stessa |
|---|---|---|
| Tenant Management | ||
| Tenant screening | ||
| Online rent collection | ||
| Lease management | ||
| Tenant portal | ||
| E-signatures | ||
| Property Operations | ||
| Maintenance requests | ||
| Owner portal | ||
| Property inspections | ||
| Vendor management | ||
| Vacancy advertising | ||
| Finance & Reporting | ||
| Accounting/bookkeeping | ||
| Bank account management | ||
| Insurance tracking | ||
| Reporting/analytics | ||
| Platform | ||
| Document storage | ||
| Mobile app | ||
| API access | ||
Common questions
Stessa scores 7.0/10 vs Apartments.com Rental Manager's 6.5/10 in our ranking. Stessa is the better pick for 1-50 units. Apartments.com Rental Manager is better if you need small landlords who want free listing exposure on the largest rental marketplace in the us.
Apartments.com Rental Manager starts at $0/month. Stessa starts at $0/month. Watch for add-on costs — the base price often does not include all features. Pricing last verified 2026-03-01.
Apartments.com Rental Manager: Free tier available. Stessa: Free tier available. Always test with your actual workflow before committing to an annual plan.
Apartments.com Rental Manager covers 10 of 17 features we track. Stessa covers 12 of 17. Stessa has broader feature coverage, but more features does not always mean better — pick the tool that covers what your business actually needs.
No, Apartments.com Rental Manager does not have a mobile app. Stessa does have one.
Yes. The main effort is migrating your data (customer lists, job history, invoices). Plan for 1-2 weeks of overlap where you run both. Most property management tools can import CSV data. Ask both vendors about migration support before you sign.
The bottom line
Pick Apartments.com Rental Manager if...
Small landlords who want free listing exposure on the largest rental marketplace in the US
Pick Stessa if...
Real estate investors with 1-50 rental properties who want free income/expense tracking and tax-ready Schedule E reports, not full property management