Softwr

Accounting · head to head

Airbase vs Socure

Airbase logo

Airbase

Accounting

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

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Socure logo

Socure

Cybersecurity

Predictive identity verification and fraud scoring for the US market

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.; Socure coverage and accuracy depend on US consumer data density, so international expansion means adding a second, document-based vendor rather than scaling the same contract.
  • They diverge on capability: Airbase covers Corporate cards, Socure covers ID+ identity verification.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Airbase and Socure actually diverge.

Attributes where Airbase and Socure differ
AttributeAirbaseSocure
Starting price$29/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
CategoryAccountingCybersecurity
Founded2017Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), platforms (Web, Ios, Android), user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Socure

  • ID+ identity verification
  • Synthetic identity detection
  • Document verification
  • Watchlist screening
  • Consortium signals
  • Reason codes
  • Account intelligence

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

Socure

  • A US lender losing money to synthetic identities that pass document verification and thin-file credit checksnot Airbase
  • A credit union that wants to open accounts without asking applicants to photograph a driving licencenot Airbase
  • A government benefits programme needing identity assurance for applicants without in-person enrolmentnot Airbase
  • A fintech that needs auditable reason codes for every decline to support adverse action noticesnot 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.

Socure

  • Coverage and accuracy depend on US consumer data density, so international expansion means adding a second, document-based vendor rather than scaling the same contract.
  • Data-only verification performs worst on thin-file populations, and young, recently arrived or credit-invisible applicants are declined at higher rates, which creates a fair lending exposure a bank must monitor.
  • Pricing is per decision with an annual commitment and is not published, so the cost of a traffic spike or a bot attack on your signup flow lands on your bill.
  • Modules for verification, fraud and compliance are licensed separately, so the shortlist price rarely matches the final contract once screening and document fallback are added.
  • A probabilistic score is harder to defend to an examiner than a documented identification procedure, so US institutions still have to map the score to explicit Customer Identification Programme controls themselves.

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

Socure

On request
  • Socure ID+$undefined/year
    • Priced per identity decision with annual commitment
    • Modules for verification, fraud and compliance priced separately
    • US data coverage strongest, international more limited

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 Socure if

  • You need id+ identity verification.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want synthetic identity detection.
Socure review

Questions people ask

Is Airbase or Socure better?
Neither clearly leads. Airbase starts at $29/month and Socure at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Airbase or Socure?
Airbase starts at $29/month and Socure at On request.
Does Airbase or Socure run on more platforms?
Airbase runs on Web, Ios, Android. Socure 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 Socure is typically brought in for.
What can Airbase do that Socure cannot?
Airbase covers Corporate cards, Virtual cards per vendor, Bill payment, Expense reimbursement. Socure covers ID+ identity verification, Synthetic identity detection, Document verification, Watchlist screening.

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.

Socure: Does Socure work outside the United States?

International coverage exists but the data depth that makes the US product accurate is not replicated everywhere. Most global buyers pair it with a document vendor.

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.

Socure: Can it verify without a document photo?

Yes, that is the core proposition. Document verification is available as a step-up when the data-only score is inconclusive.

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.

Socure: Is pricing published?

No. It is quoted per decision against an annual volume commitment.

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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