Comparison

RE:Writeoff vs Stessa

Stessa is the biggest name in rental property accounting software, now owned by Roofstock. It tracks income, expenses, and helps with tax prep. RE:Writeoff does something completely different: it tracks your property management hours for REPS qualification and STR tax deductions. These tools are more complementary than competitive, and many investors will benefit from using both.

Different tools for different problems

This is an important distinction: Stessa tracks your money (income and expenses). RE:Writeoff tracks your time (property management hours). Both matter for taxes, but they solve different problems.

Stessa answers:

“How much rental income did I earn?”
“What expenses can I deduct?”
“What does my Schedule E look like?”

RE:Writeoff answers:

“Am I hitting 750 hours for REPS?”
“What property management activities did I do?”
“Can I prove my hours in an audit?”

Quick facts

RE:Writeoff

Free tier + Pro at $9/mo
30-day free trial, no credit card
Hour tracking, AI classification, evidence linking
Email auto-scan for activity detection

Stessa

Free tier (generous), Stessa Pro available
Income/expense tracking, dashboards
Tax prep, lease drafting, tenant screening
Owned by Roofstock

Feature comparison

Feature	RE:Writeoff	Stessa
Hour tracking	Yes (core feature)	No
REPS documentation	Yes (750-hour tracking)	No
Email auto-scan	Yes	No
AI activity classification	Yes	No
Evidence linking	Yes	No
Income/expense tracking	No	Yes (core feature)
Property dashboards	No	Yes
Tenant screening	No	Yes
Rent collection	No	Yes
Schedule E tax prep	No	Yes
Audit-ready hour reports	Yes	No
Free tier	Yes	Yes (generous)

Where Stessa wins

Stessa is excellent at what it does, and it does a lot:

Free accounting. Stessa's free tier is remarkably generous for property accounting. Income tracking, expense categorization, and financial dashboards at no cost.
Bigger company. Owned by Roofstock, Stessa has significant backing and resources. It's a mature, well-funded platform.
Full landlording suite. Lease drafting, tenant screening, rent collection, and Schedule E tax preparation. Stessa covers the financial side of landlording end-to-end.
Property dashboards. Visual dashboards showing cash flow, net operating income, and portfolio performance across all your properties.

Where RE:Writeoff wins

RE:Writeoff solves the problem Stessa doesn't touch:

Hour tracking. Stessa has no hour tracking at all. If you need to document 750+ hours for REPS or 100+ hours for STR deductions, Stessa can't help.
Activity documentation. RE:Writeoff creates a contemporaneous log of property management activities, the kind the IRS requires for REPS claims.
Email scanning. Automatically finds property management activities in your email, something neither Stessa nor any other property accounting tool offers.
Audit evidence. Every activity links to source documentation. If the IRS questions your hours, you have the receipts.

The real answer: use both

Stessa and RE:Writeoff aren't really competitors. They solve different problems for the same person. A serious real estate investor needs to track both money and time:

Stessa for income, expenses, and financial reporting
RE:Writeoff for hour tracking, REPS documentation, and audit-ready activity logs

Together, they give you complete tax documentation: the financial records Stessa provides plus the hour-by-hour activity log RE:Writeoff creates. Your CPA will thank you.

This comparison is based on publicly available information as of April 2026. Competitor pricing and features may change. RE:Writeoff provides activity tracking tools, not tax advice. Consult a qualified tax professional before making decisions based on this information.

Try RE:Writeoff free

Already using Stessa for accounting? Add RE:Writeoff for the hour tracking side. 30-day free trial, no credit card required.

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