Softwr

Accounting · head to head

Airbase vs Stigg

Airbase logo

Airbase

Accounting

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

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Stigg logo

Stigg

Accounting

Usage runtime platform for credits and entitlements

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Stigg has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • 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.; Stigg free tier limited to 10,000 entities and 5M events per month
  • They diverge on capability: Airbase covers Corporate cards, Stigg covers Real-time credit enforcement.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Airbase and Stigg actually diverge.

Attributes where Airbase and Stigg differ
AttributeAirbaseStigg
Starting price$29/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionFreemium with usage-based and custom tiers
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb, Cloud, BYOC, BYODB, API
Founded2017Unknown

Identical on both: 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 Stigg

  • Real-time credit enforcement
  • Financial-grade credits
  • High-scale metering
  • Budget governance
  • Flexible deployment
  • Billing platform integration
  • Data warehouse integration
  • CRM 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 Stigg
  • A finance team where supplier invoices arrive in an inbox and approval is whoever replies, with no record afterwardsnot Stigg
  • A controller trying to close the month without rebuilding card and expense coding from statements every timenot Stigg
  • An organisation that wants spend approved before it is committed rather than discovered when the invoice arrivesnot Stigg

Stigg

  • Managing token and credit usage for AI productsnot Airbase
  • Enforcing spending caps and budget controlsnot Airbase
  • Implementing prepaid credit systems with expirynot Airbase
  • Real-time entitlement verification for feature accessnot Airbase
  • Scaling billing infrastructure for high-volume eventsnot 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.

Stigg

  • Free tier limited to 10,000 entities and 5M events per month
  • Pro plan pricing ($399/month) may be high for early-stage companies
  • Scale and BYOC plans require custom contracts and sales engagement
  • Primarily targets AI and high-scale use cases, not all business models
  • Requires integration with separate billing platform (Stripe, Zuora, etc.)

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

Stigg

Free
  • Build (Free Forever)Free
    • 10,000 managed entities per month
    • 5M usage events per month
    • 1K events per second rate limit
  • Pro$399/month
    • 10,000 entities included (graduated pricing to 100K)
    • 25M usage events included (to 500M with graduated rates)
    • 10K events per second (upgradeable to 100K)
  • Scale$null/custom
    • Custom entity and event volumes
    • 50K events per second (upgradeable to 100K)
    • RBAC and SSO (SAML)
  • BYOC$40000/year
    • Deploy in customer VPC
    • Unlimited entities and events
    • No event billing

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 Stigg if

  • You need real-time credit enforcement.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Cloud, BYOC, BYODB, API.
  • You also want financial-grade credits.
Stigg review

Questions people ask

Is Airbase or Stigg better?
Neither clearly leads. Airbase starts at $29/month and Stigg at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Airbase or Stigg?
Stigg has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $29/month for Airbase and Free for Stigg.
Does Airbase or Stigg run on more platforms?
Airbase runs on Web, Ios, Android. Stigg runs on Web, Cloud, BYOC, BYODB, API.
Can I use Stigg for free?
Yes. Stigg has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Airbase starts at $29/month.
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 Stigg is typically brought in for.
What can Airbase do that Stigg cannot?
Airbase covers Corporate cards, Virtual cards per vendor, Bill payment, Expense reimbursement. Stigg covers Real-time credit enforcement, Financial-grade credits, High-scale metering, Budget governance.

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.

Stigg: How quickly does Stigg check entitlements?

Stigg makes entitlement checks in under 10 milliseconds, enabling real-time enforcement of spending decisions before token consumption.

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.

Stigg: Can I use Stigg with my existing billing platform?

Yes, Stigg integrates with major billing platforms including Stripe, Zuora, Chargebee, Metronome, and Orb to manage entitlements and credits.

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.

Stigg: What deployment options does Stigg offer?

Stigg offers cloud API, BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud) for VPC deployment, and BYODB options for customers who want to manage their own database.

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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