Softwr

Travel · head to head

Center vs Egencia

Center logo

Center

Travel

Card-first travel and expense management with real-time transaction visibility

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Egencia logo

Egencia

Travel

Corporate online booking and travel management from Amex GBT for mid-market and enterprise programmes

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Center the product is built around its own card, so employees still using a legacy bank corporate card get the ordinary receipt-chasing experience and the real-time promise does not apply to them.; Egencia pricing is per transaction and offline touches cost several times an online booking, so a programme with many complex multi-leg itineraries pays far more than the headline online fee suggests.
  • They diverge on capability: Center covers Center corporate card, Egencia covers Policy and approval engine.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Center and Egencia actually diverge.

Attributes where Center and Egencia differ
AttributeCenterEgencia

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), platforms (Web, iOS, Android), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Travel).

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 Center

  • Center corporate card
  • Real-time expense capture
  • Travel booking
  • Insights for Travel
  • Policy automation
  • ERP sync

Only in Egencia

  • Policy and approval engine
  • Negotiated rate loading
  • Traveller tracking
  • Agent support
  • Concur Expense integration
  • AI booking assistant

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Center

  • A US mid-market finance team that wants committed travel spend visible before the month closesnot Egencia
  • A company replacing a bank corporate card plus a separate expense tool with one suppliernot Egencia
  • A business that wants hotel spend booked directly by staff still captured in travel reportingnot Egencia
  • A NetSuite or Sage Intacct user wanting coded expenses posted without manual re-keyingnot Egencia

Egencia

  • A company of several hundred travellers wanting negotiated hotel rates without paying for a high-touch TMCnot Center
  • A finance team standardising on SAP Concur that wants booking data pre-populating expense reportsnot Center
  • A multi-country employer needing consolidated duty of care reporting on where staff are travellingnot Center
  • An organisation moving off a regional TMC and wanting one supplier across Europe and North Americanot Center

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Center

  • The product is built around its own card, so employees still using a legacy bank corporate card get the ordinary receipt-chasing experience and the real-time promise does not apply to them.
  • Travel booking depends on Spotnana, meaning content, service levels and roadmap for a core part of the product sit with a third party Center does not control.
  • It is a United States product, and multi-entity companies with European or Asian subsidiaries will need a separate card and expense stack for those entities.
  • Interchange on card spend is a significant part of how the vendor earns, which is why the software price looks low; a company that keeps most spend on an existing card programme is a poor fit commercially.
  • It is a smaller supplier than Brex, Ramp or SAP Concur, so integration coverage outside the main US accounting systems is thinner and custom connectors are often the answer.

Egencia

  • Pricing is per transaction and offline touches cost several times an online booking, so a programme with many complex multi-leg itineraries pays far more than the headline online fee suggests.
  • It is now a service tier inside Amex GBT rather than an independent supplier, so a competitive process that shortlists both Egencia and Amex GBT is not really two bids.
  • Regional content and service quality are uneven, and companies with travellers in smaller markets often find local fares and hotels missing from the tool and end up going offline.
  • Implementation to load negotiated rates and configure policy typically runs months, and rate loading errors surface as travellers seeing the wrong prices rather than as a clean failure.
  • Because the platform underwent a relaunch on new architecture, customers migrating from the older Egencia stack have faced feature parity gaps and retraining during the transition.

Pricing, plan by plan

Center

On request
  • Center Expense and Travel$undefined/year
    • Usage-based, with no licence, deployment or support fee published
    • Flat per-booking travel fee including unlimited changes
    • Card interchange forms part of the vendor revenue

Egencia

On request
  • Egencia$undefined/year
    • Per-transaction booking fees, online and offline rates differ
    • Optional annual platform or management fee
    • Implementation and rate loading charges

Which should you pick?

Choose Center if

  • You need center corporate card.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want real-time expense capture.
Center review

Choose Egencia if

  • You need policy and approval engine.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want negotiated rate loading.
Egencia review

Questions people ask

Is Center or Egencia better?
Neither clearly leads. Center starts at On request and Egencia at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Center or Egencia?
Center starts at On request and Egencia at On request.
Does Center or Egencia run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Center best used for?
Center is most often used for a us mid-market finance team that wants committed travel spend visible before the month closes, a company replacing a bank corporate card plus a separate expense tool with one supplier, a business that wants hotel spend booked directly by staff still captured in travel reporting, a netsuite or sage intacct user wanting coded expenses posted without manual re-keying. Of those, a us mid-market finance team that wants committed travel spend visible before the month closes and a company replacing a bank corporate card plus a separate expense tool with one supplier are not what Egencia is typically brought in for.
What can Center do that Egencia cannot?
Center covers Center corporate card, Real-time expense capture, Travel booking, Insights for Travel. Egencia covers Policy and approval engine, Negotiated rate loading, Traveller tracking, Agent support.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Center: Do we have to use the Center card?

Effectively yes for the core benefit. Center can ingest other card feeds, but real-time capture, controls and the pricing model all assume its own card.

Egencia: Is Egencia still sold under its own name?

Yes. Amex GBT bought it in 2021 and kept the brand, relaunching it in 2026 with a conversational AI assistant and a Concur Expense integration.

Center: Who provides the travel booking?

Spotnana provides the underlying Travel-as-a-Service platform; Center provides the interface, policy layer and reporting.

Egencia: How is it different from Amex GBT itself?

Egencia is the more self-service, lower-touch tier of the same company, aimed at mid-market programmes; Amex GBT proper is the high-touch enterprise service.

Center: Is there a per-user licence fee?

Center markets usage-based pricing with no licence, deployment or support fees; the economics rest on card interchange and booking fees.

Egencia: Does it replace an expense system?

No. It books travel and feeds data to expense tools such as SAP Concur; you still need an expense product.

Share

Related pages

More on Center

More on Egencia

Keep looking

Other head to heads