Softwr

Accounting · head to head

Airbase vs Expensify

Airbase logo

Airbase

Accounting

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

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Expensify logo

Expensify

Accounting

Expense management for receipts, bills & more

From
$5/month
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.; Expensify minimal offline expense entry capabilities hamper use in areas with unstable internet
  • They diverge on capability: Airbase covers Virtual cards per vendor, Expensify covers SmartScan receipts.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Airbase and Expensify actually diverge.

Attributes where Airbase and Expensify differ
AttributeAirbaseExpensify
Starting price$29/month$5/month
Pricing modelsubscriptionUnknown
Founded20172008

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

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

Only in Expensify

  • SmartScan receipts
  • Expense reports
  • Reimbursements
  • Travel booking
  • Mileage tracking
  • Multi-currency
  • Real-time syncing
  • QuickBooks

Both cover

  • Corporate cards

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

Expensify

  • Expense reportingnot Airbase
  • Receipt managementnot Airbase
  • Travel expensesnot Airbase
  • Corporate card managementnot Airbase
  • Reimbursementsnot 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.

Expensify

  • Minimal offline expense entry capabilities hamper use in areas with unstable internet
  • OCR receipt data extraction requires manual review and correction for accuracy
  • Per-user pricing model increases costs for larger organizations

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

Expensify

$5/month

No published plan breakdown. See the Expensify review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Airbase if

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

Choose Expensify if

  • You need smartscan receipts.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want expense reports.
Expensify review

Questions people ask

Is Airbase or Expensify better?
Neither clearly leads. Airbase starts at $29/month and Expensify at $5/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Airbase or Expensify?
Airbase starts at $29/month and Expensify at $5/month.
Does Airbase or Expensify run on more platforms?
Airbase runs on Web, Ios, Android. Expensify 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 Expensify is typically brought in for.
What can Airbase do that Expensify cannot?
Airbase covers Virtual cards per vendor, Bill payment, Expense reimbursement, Unified approval policy. Expensify covers SmartScan receipts, Expense reports, Reimbursements, Travel booking. Both handle Corporate cards.

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.

Expensify: How does Expensify capture receipts?

Expensify uses SmartScan technology with OCR to automatically extract data from receipt images, reducing manual data entry. Users can photograph receipts with their phone to quickly create expense entries.

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.

Expensify: What reimbursement methods does Expensify support?

Expensify supports ACH reimbursement via direct deposit after setting up a direct deposit account. Next-day reimbursement is available, or standard processing takes 3-5 business days.

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.

Expensify: How does Expensify offline mode work?

Expensify has limited offline capabilities. Users can capture receipts offline, but data syncs when internet connectivity is restored. Full functionality requires online access.

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.

Share

Related pages

More on Airbase

More on Expensify

Keep looking

Other head to heads