Accounting & Finance · head to head
Brex vs BlackLine
Brex
Accounting & Finance
The financial stack for growing businesses
- From
- $29/month
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Brex the free Essentials tier is limited to two legal entities; BlackLine listed on UK G-Cloud 13 at £1,150 to £2,160 per user per year for the public sector, with no free trial offered, per BlackLine's Finance Operations Management Solution pricing document
- They diverge on capability: Brex covers Corporate cards, BlackLine covers Account reconciliation.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Brex and BlackLine actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price ($29/month), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting & Finance).
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 Brex
- Corporate cards
- Business accounts
- Expense management
- Bill pay
- Travel
- QuickBooks
- Xero
- SOC 2
Only in BlackLine
- Account reconciliation
- Journal entries
- Task management
- Variance analysis
- Financial close
- SAP
- Oracle
- SOC 1/2
Both cover
- NetSuite
- Web support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Brex
- Corporate cards with spend controls for startupsnot BlackLine
- Expense management and reimbursementsnot BlackLine
- Travel booking inside the spend platformnot BlackLine
- Bill pay and accounting system syncnot BlackLine
- Multi-entity spend management on the paid tiersnot BlackLine
BlackLine
- Financial closenot Brex
- Reconciliationnot Brex
- Continuous accountingnot Brex
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Brex
- The free Essentials tier is limited to two legal entities
- Premium is $12 per user per month, so cost scales with headcount using the card
- Enterprise and Smart Card pricing is not published
- Eligibility criteria are not stated anywhere on the pricing page, which matters for a product that extends credit
BlackLine
- Listed on UK G-Cloud 13 at £1,150 to £2,160 per user per year for the public sector, with no free trial offered, per BlackLine's Finance Operations Management Solution pricing document
Pricing, plan by plan
Brex
$29/month- EssentialsFree
- Corporate cards
- Expense management
- Bill pay
- Premium$12/month
- Advanced controls
- Custom approvals
- Travel booking
BlackLine
$29/month- EnterpriseFree
- Custom pricing
- Account reconciliation
- Task management
Which should you pick?
Choose Brex if
- You need corporate cards.
- You work on Web, Ios, Android.
- You also want business accounts.
Questions people ask
- Is Brex or BlackLine better?
- Neither clearly leads. Brex starts at $29/month and BlackLine at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Brex or BlackLine?
- Brex starts at $29/month and BlackLine at $29/month.
- Does Brex or BlackLine run on more platforms?
- Brex runs on Web, Ios, Android. BlackLine runs on Web.
- What is Brex best used for?
- Brex is most often used for corporate cards with spend controls for startups, expense management and reimbursements, travel booking inside the spend platform, bill pay and accounting system sync. Of those, corporate cards with spend controls for startups and expense management and reimbursements are not what BlackLine is typically brought in for.
- What can Brex do that BlackLine cannot?
- Brex covers Corporate cards, Business accounts, Expense management, Bill pay. BlackLine covers Account reconciliation, Journal entries, Task management, Variance analysis. Both handle NetSuite, Web support.