Is Airbase or Creem better?

Neither clearly leads. Airbase starts at $29/month and Creem at $3.9/percent, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Airbase or Creem?

Airbase starts at $29/month and Creem at $3.9/percent.

Does Airbase or Creem run on more platforms?

Airbase runs on Web, Ios, Android. Creem 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 Creem is typically brought in for.

What can Airbase do that Creem cannot?

Airbase covers Corporate cards, Virtual cards per vendor, Bill payment, Expense reimbursement. Creem covers Global payments processing, Automated tax compliance, Subscription billing, Revenue distribution.

Accounting · head to head

Airbase vs Creem

Airbase

Accounting

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

From: $29/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

Creem

Accounting

All-in-one payment and compliance platform for software companies

From: $3.9/percent
Rated: -

Full review Website

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.; Creem per-transaction fee model scales with volume, potentially expensive for high-frequency transactions
They diverge on capability: Airbase covers Corporate cards, Creem covers Global payments processing.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Airbase and Creem actually diverge.

Attributes where Airbase and Creem differ
Attribute	Airbase	Creem
Starting price	$29/month	$3.9/percent
Pricing model	subscription	Per-transaction flat rate
Founded	2017	Unknown

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 Creem

Global payments processing
Automated tax compliance
Subscription billing
Revenue distribution
Digital product support
Fraud protection
AI business assistant
Affiliate platform

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 Creem
A finance team where supplier invoices arrive in an inbox and approval is whoever replies, with no record afterwardsnot Creem
A controller trying to close the month without rebuilding card and expense coding from statements every timenot Creem
An organisation that wants spend approved before it is committed rather than discovered when the invoice arrivesnot Creem

Creem

SaaS subscription billing and managementnot Airbase
Digital product distribution with license keysnot Airbase
Global payment processing across 100+ countriesnot Airbase
Revenue sharing among co-founders and affiliatesnot Airbase
Automated tax compliance for international salesnot 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.

Creem

Per-transaction fee model scales with volume, potentially expensive for high-frequency transactions
Limited to software and digital product companies, not suitable for physical goods
AI business assistant availability and capabilities not fully detailed
Requires using Creem as Merchant of Record, limiting white-label options
Mobile app only available in beta for iOS and Android

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

Creem

$3.9/percent

StandardFree
- 3.9% + $0.40 per transaction
- No setup fees
- No monthly fees

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 Creem if

You need global payments processing.
You work on Web, iOS, Android.
You also want automated tax compliance.

Creem review

Questions people ask

Is Airbase or Creem better?: Neither clearly leads. Airbase starts at $29/month and Creem at $3.9/percent, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Airbase or Creem?: Airbase starts at $29/month and Creem at $3.9/percent.
Does Airbase or Creem run on more platforms?: Airbase runs on Web, Ios, Android. Creem 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 Creem is typically brought in for.
What can Airbase do that Creem cannot?: Airbase covers Corporate cards, Virtual cards per vendor, Bill payment, Expense reimbursement. Creem covers Global payments processing, Automated tax compliance, Subscription billing, Revenue distribution.

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.

Creem: What are Creem's transaction fees compared to competitors?

Creem charges a flat 3.9% plus 40 cents per successful transaction with no additional setup, monthly, or hidden fees. For a $5,000 transaction volume, Creem estimates $235 in fees compared to Lemon Squeezy at $565 ($400 + $165).

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.

Creem: Does Creem handle international tax compliance?

Yes. Creem automatically handles VAT, GST, and sales tax filing and remittance as a Merchant of Record across 50+ countries, eliminating manual tax compliance work.

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.

Creem: Can I use Creem for subscription billing?

Yes. Creem provides subscription management with billing, dunning, and a customer portal. Revenue splits are included for distributing earnings to co-founders and affiliates.

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.

Airbase vs Creem

Airbase

Creem

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Airbase

Only in Creem

What people use each for

Airbase

Creem

Where each one falls short

Airbase

Creem

Pricing, plan by plan

Airbase

Creem

Which should you pick?

Choose Airbase if

Choose Creem if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Airbase

More on Creem

Keep looking

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