AirDNA vs. Mashvisor: Who Wins STR Market Research?
The tool you use to estimate revenue sets your offer price, your loan size, and your cash-on-cash return (yearly profit divided by the cash you put in). Every number after it depends on that first estimate.
AirDNA is a short-term rental data platform that tracks Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com every day. Mashvisor is a real estate investing tool that also covers Airbnb. AirDNA wins short-term rentals. Mashvisor wins in 1 case: When you can't decide if a house should be an Airbnb or a long-term rental.
If you've run the same address through 2 calculators and gotten 2 different numbers, the data behind each calculator is the first thing to compare. We work heavily with AirDNA, and this comparison shows where each tool gets its data, what it lets you do, and what it costs.
AirDNA: The Short-Term Rental Specialist
AirDNA does 1 job: Short-term rental data. It collects listing, calendar, rate, and review data every day, plus data from managers and hosts who connect their listings. It says it tracks 15M+ active listings across 120,000+ markets worldwide.
AirDNA matches the same home across platforms, so a house listed on Airbnb and Vrbo counts once. It also leaves blocked nights out of the occupancy math, so a host who closes the calendar doesn't make a market look emptier than it is.
Its revenue calculator, Rentalizer, works for any address in the world. It averages how similar rentals within 10 miles performed, scores how consistent those listings are as Low, Medium, or High, and lets you swap in your own set of up to 100 listings. Paid plans add a financial calculator for net operating income and cap rate, plus Rentalizer Agent, which checks zoning, permit, and HOA (homeowners association) rules for US addresses. Our guide to finding the zoning rules for any short-term rental shows how to check them yourself.
After you buy, its pricing tool Adapt sets nightly rates for $20 per listing per month, with a 30-day trial. It syncs rates to Airbnb, Hostaway, Guesty, Uplisting, and Hospitable.
Its calculator stops at net operating income and cap rate, so you work out cash-on-cash return yourself.
Mashvisor: The Real Estate Generalist
Mashvisor helps you buy any rental property, short-term or long-term. It estimates income for a property as a short-term rental and as a long-term rental side by side, then calculates cash flow, cap rate (yearly income divided by the purchase price), and cash-on-cash return. Its data comes from the MLS (the database agents use to list homes), Zillow, Rentometer, Airbnb.com, and the Census Bureau, and it says it covers 95% of US markets.
Property Finder searches up to 5 locations at once and lists homes for sale with the returns already calculated. Every paid plan includes short-term rental rules for 500+ cities, and higher plans add heatmaps and side-by-side property comparison. It also sells property management software, starting at $11 a month.
Mashvisor's methodology page says it only counts properties with 1 to 4 bedrooms. That page dates to 2017, so confirm the limit still applies before you use Mashvisor on a 6-bedroom cabin. Its source list also names Airbnb.com but not Vrbo or Booking.com, while AirDNA tracks all 3.
The Real Difference
AirDNA tells you how a short-term rental performs. Mashvisor tells you whether a property is a good buy, as a short-term rental or a long-term rental. AirDNA goes deeper on the first, and Mashvisor covers more of the second.
Pick AirDNA if you plan to run the property as a short-term rental, you're looking outside the US, or you want to keep using the data after you buy for benchmarking and pricing. Pick Mashvisor if you're deciding whether a house should be an Airbnb or a long-term rental, and you want cash-on-cash return on the same screen.
[PLACEHOLDER, Host Camp Take: 2 to 3 sentences from Rob or Kai on how we use AirDNA and where its numbers have matched or missed real revenue. Needs real input before publishing.]
Neither tool tells you if the deal works for you. Both hand you a revenue number in seconds, and your mortgage payment doesn't care about either number. Our breakdown of the real costs of running an Airbnb lists what to add, and Does It Pencil runs the numbers before you make an offer.
What It Costs
Prices below are US prices as of October 12, 2026, and they can differ by country.
AirDNA's entry plan costs $0 and includes a limited calculator and limited market insights. Its Market Research plan, the first tier where you can build your own set of similar listings, is 34amonthbilledannually(400 a year), or $125 a month if you pay monthly. Mashvisor's Lite plan is $49.99 a month billed annually, but rental comparisons start at Standard, $74.99 a month billed annually. Mashvisor's Airbnb calculator also costs $0 to try, with no credit card.
At the tier where each tool gives you similar-listing data, that's about $400 a year for AirDNA against about $900 a year for Mashvisor. Both let you cancel anytime and keep access through the period you paid for. Mashvisor says it does not offer refunds.
Disclosure: Host Camp has an affiliate partnership with AirDNA, so we may earn a commission if you sign up through our link.
If you're not sure which tool fits your plan, that's worth 20 minutes with our team before you pay for data you don't need.
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