Softwr

Accounting · head to head

Adyen vs Airbase

Adyen logo

Adyen

Accounting

The payments platform built for growth

From
$0.13/per-transaction
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Airbase logo

Airbase

Accounting

Spend management combining corporate cards, bill payment and expense claims, now part of Paylocity

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Adyen there is a minimum monthly invoice, set by industry and business model and only disclosed through the sales team, so small volumes are not economic; Airbase card issuing and bill payment are built around United States entities and United States bank accounts, so a group with subsidiaries abroad keeps running local card and payment processes alongside and does not get the single ledger of spend that justified the purchase.
  • They diverge on capability: Adyen covers Payment processing, Airbase covers Corporate cards.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Adyen and Airbase actually diverge.

Attributes where Adyen and Airbase differ
AttributeAdyenAirbase
Starting price$0.13/per-transaction$29/month
Pricing modelusage-basedsubscription
PlatformsWeb, Api, PosWeb, Ios, Android
Founded20062017

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Adyen

  • Payment processing
  • Risk management
  • Unified commerce
  • Issuing
  • Platform payments
  • SAP
  • Salesforce
  • Oracle

Only in Airbase

  • Corporate cards
  • Virtual cards per vendor
  • Bill payment
  • Expense reimbursement
  • Unified approval policy
  • Purchase intake and procurement
  • Automated coding
  • Receipt collection

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Adyen

  • Card acquiring with interchange plus pricing for larger merchantsnot Airbase
  • Accepting local payment methods across multiple countriesnot Airbase
  • Settling in several currencies through linked bank accountsnot Airbase
  • Unified online and in-person paymentsnot Airbase

Airbase

  • A company that has outgrown one shared company card and needs per person and per subscription cards with real limitsnot Adyen
  • A finance team where supplier invoices arrive in an inbox and approval is whoever replies, with no record afterwardsnot Adyen
  • A controller trying to close the month without rebuilding card and expense coding from statements every timenot Adyen
  • An organisation that wants spend approved before it is committed rather than discovered when the invoice arrivesnot Adyen

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Adyen

  • There is a minimum monthly invoice, set by industry and business model and only disclosed through the sales team, so small volumes are not economic
  • Published fees are indicative rather than a rate card, with real pricing negotiated
  • Interchange++ means the card cost varies per transaction rather than being a single predictable percentage
  • Alternative payment methods carry their own rates on top, such as 3.3 percent plus $0.10 for American Express in North America

Airbase

  • Card issuing and bill payment are built around United States entities and United States bank accounts, so a group with subsidiaries abroad keeps running local card and payment processes alongside and does not get the single ledger of spend that justified the purchase.
  • The value depends on nearly all spend flowing through the platform, which makes partial adoption almost worthless and means the rollout is a change management exercise across every budget holder rather than a finance department deployment.
  • Paylocity's acquisition in 2024 reorients the roadmap towards a human capital management suite, so expense reimbursement is likely to be well served while procurement and the more finance specific features compete for attention with payroll and HR priorities.
  • Pricing combines a platform fee with tiering on features and users, and part of the economics rests on interchange rebates from card spend, so a company that puts most of its spend on transfers rather than cards pays the fee without earning the offset.
  • The general ledger sync is a mapping you own, so a chart of accounts change, a new department dimension or a ledger migration means reworking the coding rules, and a bad mapping quietly posts correct approvals to the wrong accounts.

Pricing, plan by plan

Adyen

$0.13/per-transaction
  • Transaction-Based Pricing$undefined/mo
    • Fixed $0.13 USD per transaction
    • Variable fee determined by payment method
    • No setup fees

Airbase

$29/month
  • StandardFree
    • Corporate cards
    • Expense reports
    • Bill pay
  • Premium$10/month
    • Advanced approvals
    • NetSuite sync
    • Procurement
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Custom workflows
    • API access
    • Dedicated support

Which should you pick?

Choose Adyen if

  • You need payment processing.
  • You work on Web, Api, Pos.
  • You also want risk management.
Adyen review

Choose Airbase if

  • You need corporate cards.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want virtual cards per vendor.
Airbase review

Questions people ask

Is Adyen or Airbase better?
Neither clearly leads. Adyen starts at $0.13/per-transaction and Airbase at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Adyen or Airbase?
Adyen starts at $0.13/per-transaction and Airbase at $29/month.
Does Adyen or Airbase run on more platforms?
Adyen runs on Web, Api, Pos. Airbase runs on Web, Ios, Android.
What is Adyen best used for?
Adyen is most often used for card acquiring with interchange plus pricing for larger merchants, accepting local payment methods across multiple countries, settling in several currencies through linked bank accounts, unified online and in-person payments. Of those, card acquiring with interchange plus pricing for larger merchants and accepting local payment methods across multiple countries are not what Airbase is typically brought in for.
What can Adyen do that Airbase cannot?
Adyen covers Payment processing, Risk management, Unified commerce, Issuing. Airbase covers Corporate cards, Virtual cards per vendor, Bill payment, Expense reimbursement.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Adyen: How much does Adyen charge per transaction?

Adyen charges a fixed $0.13 USD per transaction plus a variable fee based on the payment method used. Credit cards typically cost $0.13 + 0.60% + interchange, while digital wallets and BNPL options cost between $0.13 + 0.99% to $0.13 + 4.99%+, depending on the specific method and region.

Source
Airbase: Does it work for companies outside the United States?

Partially. Some international spend and reimbursement is supported, but card issuing and the payment rails are strongest for United States entities. Confirm coverage for each country you operate in before assuming it replaces local processes.

Adyen: Does Adyen have monthly subscription or setup fees?

No, Adyen has no setup fees or monthly recurring charges. You pay only for each transaction processed. The transaction fee structure remains the same regardless of transaction volume or business size.

Source
Airbase: Does Airbase replace our accounting system?

No. It manages spend and pushes coded transactions into the ledger. QuickBooks, NetSuite or whatever else you use stays.

Adyen: What's Adyen's Interchange++ pricing option?

Adyen offers an Interchange++ transparent pricing model that passes interchange and scheme fees directly to merchants instead of bundling them into a percentage rate. This allows visibility into exact costs for each payment method.

Source
Airbase: What changed after the Paylocity acquisition?

Ownership and roadmap direction. The product continues, now positioned alongside Paylocity's payroll and HR products. If procurement is your main reason to buy, ask directly about investment in that module.

Adyen: Can I process payments in multiple currencies with Adyen?

Yes, Adyen supports 100+ payment methods across multiple currencies. You can link multiple bank accounts in different currencies to avoid currency conversion fees on international transactions.

Source
Airbase: How is it priced?

A platform subscription with tiers, plus usage and user dimensions, partly offset by rebates on card spend. Because the rebate depends on card volume, model your own mix of card versus transfer spend before accepting a payback figure.

Airbase: Can we use it for accounts payable only?

You can, but the approval consistency argument weakens considerably. Most of the reported benefit comes from cards, bills and reimbursements sharing one policy and one coding process.

Airbase: Will our auditors accept the approval records?

The per transaction record of approver, receipt and coding is generally what auditors want to see for spend testing. Agree the sampling approach with them early, particularly around any spend that still happens outside the platform.

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