Stekkies vs Hesra: pricing, alerts and auto-apply compared

Hesra and Stekkies at a glance

Sources: Hesra rental alerts, how Stekkies works and Stekkies’ own overview of its service.

What do the plans cost?

Hesra

• Bronze: free. 100 matching email alerts. One-time allowance for your account. No AI applications. Apply to rentals yourself.
• Silver: €9 per month. Unlimited matching email alerts. Keep up with new rentals. 10 AI applications. Lifetime total, not a monthly allowance.
• Gold: €15 per month. Unlimited matching email alerts. Keep up with new rentals. Unlimited AI applications. No per-application fees.

Paid prices include VAT. Silver’s lifetime allowance counts successfully submitted AI applications. See Hesra’s plans.

Stekkies

Stekkies’ published subscription prices are €29.95 for one month, €39.90 for two months (€19.95 per month) or €49.95 for three months (€16.65 per month). Totals are calculated from the advertised monthly rates. There is no free plan.

The subscription renews automatically. Stekkies says it sends a reminder before renewal and that you can stop renewal from your profile; for the length and price of a renewal, check Stekkies’ current plan page. Its 14-day money-back guarantee lets you request a refund from your profile within the first 14 days, paid within 6–10 working days.

By default, Stekkies only sends listings from free websites. If you opt in to listings from paid websites, responding to them can require a separate subscription to that website.

Who applies for you?

Stekkies finds matching listings and refers you directly to the landlord or letting agent. You respond to each match yourself. It offers a dynamic application letter template that you can edit and copy before responding, and you can mark homes as applied or visited to keep track of your search.

With Hesra, you can enable automatic applications for a saved search on Silver or Gold. Hesra uses your applicant profile and relevant uploaded documents to attempt applications for new exact matches. Some portals cannot be completed automatically, and applications that need information show what to provide before you retry.

Whichever service you use, prepare your information with the rental application document checklist and see our rental application letter templates.

Search criteria and extras

Stekkies lets you search by city, neighbourhoods drawn on a map, a radius around a place, or travel time by walking, cycling, driving or public transport. You can add a minimum and maximum price, minimum bedrooms, floor area, furnishing and nice-to-haves such as a balcony or garden. It also covers rooms, and it does not search social housing.

A Stekkies subscription can include a search buddy, such as a partner or housemate, who receives the same matches at no extra cost.

Hesra matches on city or town and maximum rent when set. Other property details, such as bedrooms, furnishing and household requirements, need your review. To weigh up travel times before you choose a city, try the commute finder.

Stekkies says it does not offer rental agent services. Neither does Hesra. If you want a person to handle viewings and negotiation, compare the agent services in Hesra vs Rentbird and Hesra vs RentSlam.

Which one fits the way you search?

• Choose Hesra if you want to start with free email alerts or use a monthly paid plan to have AI attempt applications from your saved profile.
• Consider Stekkies if you want app notifications, detailed filters such as travel time or bedrooms, a shared search with a partner or housemate, and plan to respond to each listing yourself.

Not sure what you can afford? Use the rent budget calculator and compare median advertised rents by city.