Accounting · head to head
Basware vs Medius Expense
Basware
Accounting
Invoice automation and e-invoicing compliance across a large number of national mandates
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Medius Expense
Accounting
Expense management, formerly Expensya, now the expense module of the Medius spend platform
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Basware the e-invoicing compliance breadth that justifies the price is worthless to a company operating in a single country, where cheaper AP automation tools will do the same work.; Medius Expense the Expensya name is being retired, so contracts, logins and support articles change identity mid-relationship and internal documentation has to be rewritten.
- They diverge on capability: Basware covers Invoice capture, Medius Expense covers Receipt OCR.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Basware and Medius Expense actually diverge.
| Attribute | Basware | Medius Expense |
|---|
Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), 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 Basware
- Invoice capture
- Matching
- Approval workflow
- E-invoicing compliance
- Supplier network
- Payment execution
- Spend analytics
- ERP integration
Only in Medius Expense
- Receipt OCR
- Mileage and per diem
- VAT recovery
- Card reconciliation
- Approval workflows
- AP suite integration
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Basware
- A multinational needing compliant electronic invoicing across Italy, Poland, France and Mexico without building each mandate itselfnot Medius Expense
- A shared service centre processing hundreds of thousands of invoices a year that needs touchless processing rates measured and improvednot Medius Expense
- A group standardising accounts payable across subsidiaries running different ERP systemsnot Medius Expense
- A finance function trying to capture early payment discounts that are currently lost to slow approval cyclesnot Medius Expense
Medius Expense
- A French or Spanish employer needing VAT-compliant receipt capture in local formats and languagesnot Basware
- A company already running Medius for supplier invoices that wants employee spend on the same platformnot Basware
- A finance team with heavy mileage claims needing statutory rates applied without spreadsheetsnot Basware
- A group consolidating several country expense tools into one European platformnot Basware
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Basware
- The e-invoicing compliance breadth that justifies the price is worthless to a company operating in a single country, where cheaper AP automation tools will do the same work.
- Implementation is a substantial integration project involving ERP connectors, supplier onboarding and country-by-country compliance configuration, and it is priced and timed accordingly.
- The user interface is dated next to newer accounts payable products, and approvers outside finance find it unintuitive, which slows the very cycle times the system is bought to improve.
- Supplier onboarding onto the network is the hidden effort: the touchless processing rate depends on how many suppliers actually send electronic invoices, and that is a change management programme, not a software setting.
- Growth by acquisition, including Glantus, has left overlapping analytics capability and integration work still in progress, so buyers should check which components share a data model today.
Medius Expense
- The Expensya name is being retired, so contracts, logins and support articles change identity mid-relationship and internal documentation has to be rewritten.
- It is now a module inside an accounts payable suite, so expense-specific roadmap items compete with supplier invoice work for engineering time.
- Pricing is not published and is discounted against bundling with Medius AP, which makes standalone expense quotes less competitive than they look.
- Strength is concentrated in Europe and the Maghreb; North American and Asian tax and mileage handling are thinner than the European coverage.
- It does not issue cards, so real-time spend controls are absent and it relies on card feed reconciliation after the fact.
Pricing, plan by plan
Basware
On request- Basware$undefined/year
- Invoice automation, matching and approval
- E-invoicing compliance across national mandates
- Supplier network connectivity
Medius Expense
On request- Medius Expense$undefined/year
- Per-user subscription, quoted not published
- Tiering by feature set and entity count
- Implementation and OCR configuration fees
Which should you pick?
Choose Basware if
- You need invoice capture.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want matching.
Choose Medius Expense if
- You need receipt ocr.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want mileage and per diem.
Questions people ask
- Is Basware or Medius Expense better?
- Neither clearly leads. Basware starts at On request and Medius Expense at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Basware or Medius Expense?
- Basware starts at On request and Medius Expense at On request.
- Does Basware or Medius Expense run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- What is Basware best used for?
- Basware is most often used for a multinational needing compliant electronic invoicing across italy, poland, france and mexico without building each mandate itself, a shared service centre processing hundreds of thousands of invoices a year that needs touchless processing rates measured and improved, a group standardising accounts payable across subsidiaries running different erp systems, a finance function trying to capture early payment discounts that are currently lost to slow approval cycles. Of those, a multinational needing compliant electronic invoicing across italy, poland, france and mexico without building each mandate itself and a shared service centre processing hundreds of thousands of invoices a year that needs touchless processing rates measured and improved are not what Medius Expense is typically brought in for.
- What can Basware do that Medius Expense cannot?
- Basware covers Invoice capture, Matching, Approval workflow, E-invoicing compliance. Medius Expense covers Receipt OCR, Mileage and per diem, VAT recovery, Card reconciliation.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Basware: Should we buy Basware if we only operate in one country?
Probably not. Its main advantage is multi-country e-invoicing compliance. In a single jurisdiction, cheaper AP automation gives you the same result.
Medius Expense: Is Expensya still available?
Under that name, no. The product continues as Medius Expense, with the branding cutover on 30 September 2026 and no change to features or data.
Basware: Does it handle mandatory e-invoicing regimes?
Yes, and that is the core reason to choose it. It covers a wide set of national mandates as a service rather than an integration project you run yourself.
Medius Expense: Do I have to buy Medius AP as well?
No, but the commercial terms improve materially if you do, which is worth testing during negotiation.
Basware: What drives the price?
Invoice volume, number of countries and modules. It is quoted, and implementation with ERP connectors and supplier onboarding is separate.
Medius Expense: Does it issue corporate cards?
No. It reconciles existing card feeds rather than issuing its own cards.
Basware: What determines the return?
The share of invoices arriving electronically. Touchless rates depend on supplier adoption, so budget for a supplier onboarding programme, not just the software.
Related pages
More on Medius Expense
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