Expense management software compared

Expense management software collects receipts from employees, checks each claim against company rules, routes it to an approver and pays the employee back. The nine products on this page each capture receipts, enforce expense policies with an approval step, and handle reimbursement. We read every price on the vendor's own website, checked each one a second time on a separate page load, and linked the pages we used from each product page. Prices depend on the visitor's location, so the figures here are the US dollar prices a US visitor sees.

Two kinds of vendor

The nine products fall into two groups, and the group tells you how you will pay. Expensify, Zoho Expense, Fyle and Rydoo sell expense software for a fee per user. You pick a plan, count the people who file expenses and multiply.

The other five come from spend management platforms that also issue corporate cards. Ramp, Brex, Navan, Payhawk and Spendesk all use expenses as part of a wider product. Their expense tools are often free or cheap, because the vendor expects to earn money from card spending, payments or other modules. That changes what you should ask a salesperson, since the useful number is the total across everything you turn on.

What the tax rules ask of a receipt

For US employers, most expense policy design starts with the IRS rules for accountable plans. Publication 463 says a reimbursement arrangement counts as an accountable plan when three conditions hold. The expenses must have a business connection, the employee must adequately account to the employer within a reasonable period, and the employee must return any excess reimbursement within a reasonable period.

The publication gives time limits that are treated as reasonable. An employee who accounts for expenses within 60 days of paying them meets the second rule, and one who returns an excess within 120 days meets the third. The same publication describes adequate accounting as a record of each expense, made at or near the time it occurred, with documentary evidence such as receipts. Its sample weekly travel expense record tells employees to attach receipted bills for all lodging and any other expense of $75 or more.

Software helps with each of these rules in a practical way. A report that cannot be submitted without a receipt supports the documentary evidence requirement. A deadline reminder at day 45 helps staff stay inside the 60-day window. A report that lists which advances are still open helps an accountant chase excess amounts before day 120. The rules themselves are not written for software, so the settings are your choice, and you should confirm them with your tax adviser.

Mileage has its own rate. The IRS set the 2026 business standard mileage rate at 72.5 cents a mile for January 1 to June 30, and 76 cents a mile from July 1 to December 31, according to its standard mileage rates page. A tool that stores one rate per year will pay the wrong amount for trips in one of the two halves. Check that the product lets you enter a rate with a start date.

Receipts: capture and enforcement

Every product here reads a receipt photo and fills in fields. The difference is what happens when the receipt is missing. Spendesk says its rule sets can block spending until receipts are submitted, and Payhawk says it automates receipt chasing after each transaction. Navan says card spend needs no chasing, and Ramp lists auto-receipt collection and matching on its Free plan.

Plan limits matter on the cheaper tiers. Zoho Expense allows 20 receipt scans per user each month on its free plan, 200 on Standard and 1,000 on Premium. Expensify's Collect plan lists unlimited SmartScans, while its receipt requirement rules need the Control plan. Brex puts advanced receipt data extraction on Premium rather than on its free Essentials plan.

Policies and approvals

The split between simple and multi-step approval shows up in pricing. Fyle's Growth plan allows single-stage approvals only, while multi-stage approvals start on Business at $14.99. Rydoo gives Essentials a single approval flow and adds up to two levels on Pro. Brex includes multi-level approval chains on its free Essentials plan and keeps multiple customizable policies for Premium.

Expensify keeps most rules behind Control. Its help center says the receipt requirement and the flag-above-amount rule need that plan, and that a flagged expense must be reviewed by the approver before approval. On Collect only a few rules, such as required fields, are available. Zoho Expense follows a similar pattern, with multiple expense policies on Standard and advanced approval management on Premium.

Ask any vendor how it handles an approver who is on leave. Payhawk says out-of-office approvals keep items moving, and the others do not state this on the pages we read.

Reimbursement

Paying staff back is where a few products differ sharply. Expensify lists next-day ACH reimbursement on Collect, and Zoho Expense puts ACH payments and direct bank reimbursements on Standard. Fyle limits ACH reimbursements to its Business plan and to the US. Ramp lists weekly batched reimbursements on its Free plan, and Navan says it pays through payroll or directly to a bank account.

If you reimburse in another country, read the fine print. Rydoo lists reimbursements among its payment options, though the pages we read give few details on how it pays them. Payhawk says payouts can go to personal bank accounts by payroll integration or direct transfer. We did not verify international payout fees for any of the nine.

How the prices compare

The table below uses a team of 20 people who all file expenses. These are list prices before tax and before any add-on, and each uses the cheapest plan that includes the capabilities in this category.

Product	Plan	Monthly cost for 20 users	Billing
Zoho Expense	Standard	$60	Annual, $80 monthly
Expensify	Collect	$100	Monthly
Brex	Essentials	$0	Free plan
Ramp	Free	$0	Free plan
Navan	Business	$225	15 paying users at $15
Rydoo	Essentials	$180	Annual, $240 monthly
Fyle	Growth	$239.80	Annual
Payhawk	Cards & Expenses	From $449	Monthly
Spendesk	Foundations	Quote only	Quote

The free plans have limits that change the picture. Ramp's Free plan leaves out AI expense reviews, and its Plus plan costs $15 a user plus a platform fee based on team size, for which the pricing page gives no amount. Brex Essentials leaves out multiple customizable expense policies. Zoho Expense Standard costs $4 a user on monthly billing and $3 on annual billing, and a team that wants advanced approvals would pay $5 or $6 on Premium.

Expensify's Control plan shows how much conditions can move a price. The rate is $9 per active member on an annual term when at least half of settled US spending goes on the Expensify Card. It is $18 on an annual term without the card and $36 with no commitment. For the same 20 active members that is $180, $360 or $720 a month.

Who is counted as a user

Per-user pricing hides a definition. Fyle bills active users, meaning anyone who creates an expense or has a card with a transaction in the month. Expensify Control bills active members, who create, submit, approve, reimburse or export reports. Navan counts expensing users, who submit a transaction. Zoho Expense charges users who create expenses or reports.

Payhawk and Spendesk avoid the question. Payhawk includes unlimited employee seats, and Spendesk says it charges no active user fees. For a company where many staff file one claim a quarter, a seat-based plan can cost less than a platform fee, and for a company where everyone files weekly the reverse may hold.

Security statements

Zoho Expense states ISO 27001 and SOC Type 2 certification, and Rydoo lists SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 for its expense product. Ramp lists SOC 2 and ISO 27001 on its trust center. Spendesk states ISO 27001:2022 certification and shows a SOC 2 Type 2 badge. Brex states SOC 2 Type II and PCI-DSS, Expensify states PCI-DSS Level 1 and SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type II compliance, and Fyle states SOC 2 Type II compliance dated August 2022.

Payhawk's security page names ISO 27001 and SOC compliance for its cloud providers, not for Payhawk itself, and we left its SOC 2 field blank. We found no security statement for Navan on the pages we read. A vendor statement is not an audit report, so ask for the report itself during procurement.

Products we left out

Several well-known names did not make the list. Pleo publishes prices only in pounds on the page we read, so no US dollar figure could be checked. Emburse Professional shows no price and its page did not name reimbursement among its features. SAP Concur and Divvy had no usable pricing page. Expensify's own pricing page did not return its plan table to our reader, so we took its prices from two Expensify help and blog pages instead.

What to test during a trial

• Photograph a crumpled receipt and a hotel folio, and check the amount, date and tax fields it fills in.
• Submit an expense above your receipt threshold without a receipt and see whether the product stops it, flags it or lets it through.
• Create a two-level approval chain and file a claim while the first approver is marked absent.
• Enter a trip taken in March and one taken in August, then compare the mileage rate used for each against the IRS dates above.
• Approve a claim and time how long the money takes to reach a test bank account, then ask what a payout to a bank abroad costs.