Stessa is a free cloud tool owned by Roofstock. SealedFolio is a private, local-first desktop app. Here's how they compare on the things that actually matter.
Roofstock is a real estate marketplace. When your portfolio tracker is owned by a marketplace, your data becomes a business asset, not just your records.
Stessa has progressively moved features that were once free into paid tiers. The "free forever" promise has eroded over time as investor priorities shifted.
Every property address, mortgage balance, rent amount, and expense you enter is stored on Roofstock's cloud. Their privacy policy permits using aggregated data for their business.
| Feature |
SealedFolio
|
S
Stessa
|
|---|---|---|
| Privacy & Data Ownership | ||
| Data stored on your device (not cloud) | ||
| Local encrypted vault | ||
| No data monetization or analysis | ||
| Offline core workflows | ||
| Independently owned (not VC/marketplace) | ||
| Reports & Analytics | ||
| Schedule E (US) tax report | ||
| T776 Canadian tax report | ||
| Income statement + balance sheet | Basic | |
| General ledger + cash flow reports | ||
| Rent roll report | ||
| CapEx reports | ||
| What-if scenario analysis | ||
| Portfolio Features | ||
| Mortgage comparison tool (up to 3 scenarios) | ||
| Legal form templates | ||
| Maintenance tracking + work orders | ||
| AI document scanning (local, no cloud) | ||
| Online rent collection | ||
| Bank account syncing | ||
| Free tier available | ||
Stessa was a solid free tool before Roofstock acquired it. But the acquisition created a fundamental conflict of interest: your portfolio data now sits inside a company whose business model is built around real estate transactions. They have both access to your data and a financial incentive to use it.
SealedFolio is the better choice if you have a growing portfolio, care about where your financial data lives, or need deeper reporting. You give up automatic bank syncing and online rent collection, but you gain complete data sovereignty, 13+ report types, mortgage analysis tools, and a feature set that grows with your portfolio.
If you're just starting out and want a zero-cost way to track a single property, Stessa's free tier is fine. But once your portfolio grows, or once data privacy becomes a concern, SealedFolio is the upgrade worth making.
Moving off Stessa is straightforward, because your data is just numbers and documents, not a system you are locked into. Most investors switch in an afternoon.
Want to sanity-check a property while you migrate? Use the free cap rate, rental ROI, and Schedule E calculators.
Join the waitlist. Import your data from Stessa in minutes with our CSV migration tool.
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