Accounting · head to head
Airwallex vs Ottimate
Airwallex
Accounting
Multi currency business accounts, international payments and card issuing from a licensed payments firm rather than a bank
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Ottimate
Accounting
Invoice capture and accounts payable automation trained on food and beverage distributor formats
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Airwallex has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Airwallex airwallex is a licensed payments firm rather than a bank, so balances sit in safeguarding accounts at partner banks and are not covered by deposit guarantee schemes, which means a treasury policy that requires insured deposits cannot hold operating cash there.; Ottimate nothing is published about price, and quotes are structured by location and invoice volume, so a group with a few high-volume sites and one with many low-volume sites can receive very different numbers for the same total spend
- They diverge on capability: Airwallex covers Multi currency balances, Ottimate covers Line-item invoice capture.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Airwallex and Ottimate actually diverge.
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 Airwallex
- Multi currency balances
- Local receiving accounts
- Foreign exchange conversion
- International payouts
- Card issuing
- Expense management
- Bill pay
- Payments gateway
Only in Ottimate
- Line-item invoice capture
- GL coding
- Approval routing
- Supplier payments
- Price change alerts
- Purchase order matching
- Digital invoice retrieval
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Airwallex
- An exporter invoicing customers in United States dollars and euros who wants to be paid into local details rather than receive wires with correspondent deductionsnot Ottimate
- An agency or software company paying contractors across several countries every month and losing money on bank foreign exchange spreadsnot Ottimate
- An e-commerce seller collecting on multiple marketplaces in different currencies who wants to hold rather than convert on every settlementnot Ottimate
- A startup that needs virtual cards with per subscription limits and cannot get a workable card programme from its local banknot Ottimate
Ottimate
- A 40 site restaurant group whose bookkeepers key distributor invoices line by line to track food costnot Airwallex
- An operator that wants to know within a week when a supplier raises the price of an item outside the contracted schedulenot Airwallex
- A hotel group standardising accounts payable approvals across properties that each have their own general manager sign-off rulesnot Airwallex
- A finance team migrating from paper invoice files that needs digital retrieval from supplier portals rather than chasing branches for copiesnot Airwallex
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Airwallex
- Airwallex is a licensed payments firm rather than a bank, so balances sit in safeguarding accounts at partner banks and are not covered by deposit guarantee schemes, which means a treasury policy that requires insured deposits cannot hold operating cash there.
- Available currencies, local account details, card programmes and product features differ by the entity you contract with, so a feature demonstrated to a customer in Australia or Singapore may simply not exist for the same company registered in another country.
- Onboarding is subject to compliance review and whole categories of business are declined or later offboarded, and because the account may hold operating cash, a compliance freeze during a review is a business interruption rather than an inconvenience.
- Foreign exchange is quoted as interbank plus a markup, which is cheaper than a high street bank but is still a spread that widens on less liquid pairs and on smaller amounts, so the saving assumed in the business case should be checked against the pairs you actually trade.
- Support is largely ticket and chat based with account management reserved for larger customers, so when a payment is stuck the resolution path is a queue rather than a named person, which is a poor fit for time critical settlement.
Ottimate
- Nothing is published about price, and quotes are structured by location and invoice volume, so a group with a few high-volume sites and one with many low-volume sites can receive very different numbers for the same total spend
- The line-item extraction advantage is trained on food and beverage distributor formats, so accuracy on long-tail suppliers, service invoices and one-off vendors falls back to general OCR and needs human review
- It is an accounts payable layer, not an inventory or recipe costing system, so operators still need Restaurant365 or an equivalent for true plate costing and the value depends on that integration behaving
- The company has rebranded once already from Plate IQ, and much of the third party comparison material still uses the old name or wrongly attributes it to AvidXchange, which makes independent due diligence unusually hard
- Payment execution through the platform introduces a dependency on Ottimate for supplier relationships, and moving away later means re-establishing payment details with every vendor rather than simply exporting data
Pricing, plan by plan
Airwallex
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Airwallex review.
Ottimate
On request- Ottimate$undefined/year
- Quoted by location count and invoice volume
- Payment rails may carry separate transaction charges
- Implementation and accounting system integration scoped separately
Which should you pick?
Choose Airwallex if
- You need multi currency balances.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want local receiving accounts.
Choose Ottimate if
- You need line-item invoice capture.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want gl coding.
Questions people ask
- Is Airwallex or Ottimate better?
- Neither clearly leads. Airwallex starts at Free and Ottimate at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Airwallex or Ottimate?
- Airwallex has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Airwallex and On request for Ottimate.
- Does Airwallex or Ottimate run on more platforms?
- Airwallex runs on Web. Ottimate runs on Web, iOS, Android.
- Can I use Airwallex for free?
- Yes. Airwallex has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Ottimate starts at On request.
- What is Airwallex best used for?
- Airwallex is most often used for an exporter invoicing customers in united states dollars and euros who wants to be paid into local details rather than receive wires with correspondent deductions, an agency or software company paying contractors across several countries every month and losing money on bank foreign exchange spreads, an e-commerce seller collecting on multiple marketplaces in different currencies who wants to hold rather than convert on every settlement, a startup that needs virtual cards with per subscription limits and cannot get a workable card programme from its local bank. Of those, an exporter invoicing customers in united states dollars and euros who wants to be paid into local details rather than receive wires with correspondent deductions and an agency or software company paying contractors across several countries every month and losing money on bank foreign exchange spreads are not what Ottimate is typically brought in for.
- What can Airwallex do that Ottimate cannot?
- Airwallex covers Multi currency balances, Local receiving accounts, Foreign exchange conversion, International payouts. Ottimate covers Line-item invoice capture, GL coding, Approval routing, Supplier payments.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Airwallex: Is Airwallex a bank?
No. It holds payment institution, electronic money or equivalent licences in the markets it serves. Funds are safeguarded at partner banks rather than being deposits, and deposit insurance schemes do not apply.
Ottimate: Is Ottimate owned by AvidXchange?
No. Ottimate is the rebranded Plate IQ and operates as an independent venture-backed company. AvidXchange is a competitor, not the parent.
Airwallex: Can it replace my business bank account?
For many operating flows it can, but consider what you lose: no deposit protection, no lending relationship, no cash or cheque handling, and some counterparties and government bodies still expect a conventional bank account. Most users run it alongside a bank rather than instead of one.
Ottimate: What was it called before?
Plate IQ. The company kept the same product and renamed it Ottimate.
Airwallex: Which countries can open an account?
It serves entities registered in a defined list of markets across Asia Pacific, Europe, the United Kingdom, the Middle East and North America, and the list changes. Check for your specific country of incorporation, because the answer determines both eligibility and feature set.
Ottimate: Does it work outside restaurants?
It will process any invoice, but the line-item extraction accuracy that justifies the price is tuned to food and beverage distributors. Other industries should test carefully before committing.
Airwallex: Does it connect to my accounting software?
It integrates with the mainstream cloud ledgers so transactions feed through rather than being imported by hand. Confirm the integration covers all the currencies you hold, since multi currency handling in the ledger is a separate question.
Ottimate: Does it replace Restaurant365?
No. It handles invoice capture, approval and payment. Recipe costing and restaurant-specific inventory stay in Restaurant365 or an equivalent.
Airwallex: How does the foreign exchange rate compare with a bank?
Materially better than a typical business bank's retail rate on major pairs, because it is quoted as interbank plus a stated markup. The gap narrows on thin currency pairs and small amounts, so test with your real volumes.
Airwallex: Are the cards accepted everywhere?
They are issued on the major networks and behave like ordinary company cards for most spend. Some merchants, particularly for deposits and car hire, treat prepaid style issuance differently, so do not assume parity with a bank credit card.
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