Softwr

Accounting · head to head

Airbase vs Basware

Airbase logo

Airbase

Accounting

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

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Basware logo

Basware

Accounting

Invoice automation and e-invoicing compliance across a large number of national mandates

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Basware the e-invoicing compliance breadth that justifies the price is worthless to a company operating in a single country, where cheaper AP automation tools will do the same work.
  • They diverge on capability: Airbase covers Corporate cards, Basware covers Invoice capture.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Airbase and Basware actually diverge.

Attributes where Airbase and Basware differ
AttributeAirbaseBasware
Starting price$29/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
Founded2017Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), platforms (Web, Ios, Android), 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 Airbase

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

Only in Basware

  • Invoice capture
  • Matching
  • Approval workflow
  • E-invoicing compliance
  • Supplier network
  • Payment execution
  • Spend analytics
  • ERP integration

What people use each for

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

Airbase

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

Basware

  • A multinational needing compliant electronic invoicing across Italy, Poland, France and Mexico without building each mandate itselfnot Airbase
  • A shared service centre processing hundreds of thousands of invoices a year that needs touchless processing rates measured and improvednot Airbase
  • A group standardising accounts payable across subsidiaries running different ERP systemsnot Airbase
  • A finance function trying to capture early payment discounts that are currently lost to slow approval cyclesnot Airbase

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Basware

  • The e-invoicing compliance breadth that justifies the price is worthless to a company operating in a single country, where cheaper AP automation tools will do the same work.
  • Implementation is a substantial integration project involving ERP connectors, supplier onboarding and country-by-country compliance configuration, and it is priced and timed accordingly.
  • The user interface is dated next to newer accounts payable products, and approvers outside finance find it unintuitive, which slows the very cycle times the system is bought to improve.
  • Supplier onboarding onto the network is the hidden effort: the touchless processing rate depends on how many suppliers actually send electronic invoices, and that is a change management programme, not a software setting.
  • Growth by acquisition, including Glantus, has left overlapping analytics capability and integration work still in progress, so buyers should check which components share a data model today.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Basware

On request
  • Basware$undefined/year
    • Invoice automation, matching and approval
    • E-invoicing compliance across national mandates
    • Supplier network connectivity

Which should you pick?

Choose Airbase if

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

Choose Basware if

  • You need invoice capture.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want matching.
Basware review

Questions people ask

Is Airbase or Basware better?
Neither clearly leads. Airbase starts at $29/month and Basware at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Airbase or Basware?
Airbase starts at $29/month and Basware at On request.
Does Airbase or Basware run on more platforms?
Airbase runs on Web, Ios, Android. Basware runs on Web, iOS, Android.
What is Airbase best used for?
Airbase is most often used for a company that has outgrown one shared company card and needs per person and per subscription cards with real limits, a finance team where supplier invoices arrive in an inbox and approval is whoever replies, with no record afterwards, a controller trying to close the month without rebuilding card and expense coding from statements every time, an organisation that wants spend approved before it is committed rather than discovered when the invoice arrives. Of those, a company that has outgrown one shared company card and needs per person and per subscription cards with real limits and a finance team where supplier invoices arrive in an inbox and approval is whoever replies, with no record afterwards are not what Basware is typically brought in for.
What can Airbase do that Basware cannot?
Airbase covers Corporate cards, Virtual cards per vendor, Bill payment, Expense reimbursement. Basware covers Invoice capture, Matching, Approval workflow, E-invoicing compliance.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Basware: Should we buy Basware if we only operate in one country?

Probably not. Its main advantage is multi-country e-invoicing compliance. In a single jurisdiction, cheaper AP automation gives you the same result.

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.

Basware: Does it handle mandatory e-invoicing regimes?

Yes, and that is the core reason to choose it. It covers a wide set of national mandates as a service rather than an integration project you run yourself.

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.

Basware: What drives the price?

Invoice volume, number of countries and modules. It is quoted, and implementation with ERP connectors and supplier onboarding is separate.

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.

Basware: What determines the return?

The share of invoices arriving electronically. Touchless rates depend on supplier adoption, so budget for a supplier onboarding programme, not just the software.

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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