Accounting · head to head
Circula vs Extend
Circula
Accounting
Expense, travel and employee benefit management for German speaking finance teams
- From
- €15/month
- Rated
- -
Extend
Payroll
Virtual card issuing and spend controls layered onto existing business credit cards
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Extend has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Circula the module pricing stacks: expenses at fifteen euro per licence plus ninety nine euro for cards plus a hundred and forty nine euro for accounts payable means a fifty person company pays well over a thousand euro a month before add ons.; Extend it depends on an existing business credit card relationship, so a company without a qualifying Amex, Visa or Mastercard business card cannot use it as a standalone card issuer.
- They diverge on capability: Circula covers German per diem engine, Extend covers Virtual card issuing.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Circula and Extend actually diverge.
Identical on both: platforms (Web, iOS, Android), user rating (Not yet rated).
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 Circula
- German per diem engine
- Receipt capture and OCR
- Corporate credit cards
- Employee benefits
- Accounts payable
- Mileage and travel
- DATEV and ERP export
Only in Extend
- Virtual card issuing
- Per-card spend controls
- Receipt auto-matching
- ERP integrations
- API access
Both cover
- Approval workflows
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Circula
- A German company that must apply statutory per diem rates and meal deductions correctly to avoid payroll tax exposurenot Extend
- A finance team wanting card spend, expense claims and benefits in one DATEV exportnot Extend
- An employer offering the tax free monthly benefit allowance and needing auditable records of itnot Extend
- A mid sized business replacing spreadsheet mileage claims with rule enforced distance calculationsnot Extend
Extend
- A small business wanting free vendor-level virtual card controls without opening a new card programmenot Circula
- A company with an existing Amex or bank business card wanting tighter per-vendor spend limitsnot Circula
- A finance team wanting predictable per-user pricing rather than a private quote for spend managementnot Circula
- A larger business wanting API-driven automated card issuance tied to its existing card relationshipnot Circula
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Circula
- The module pricing stacks: expenses at fifteen euro per licence plus ninety nine euro for cards plus a hundred and forty nine euro for accounts payable means a fifty person company pays well over a thousand euro a month before add ons.
- A minimum of ten licences excludes small teams, and the flexible licensing model for occasional claimants makes monthly cost harder to forecast than a flat per seat price.
- Strength is in German tax rules, so companies with significant operations outside the DACH region gain little from the feature that justifies the price.
- The accounts payable module includes only a hundred invoices per month, so invoice heavy businesses face metered overage on top of the platform fee.
- Card issuing carries a per card transaction ceiling and depends on partner issuing, so high value procurement spend can hit limits that a bank issued corporate card would not.
Extend
- It depends on an existing business credit card relationship, so a company without a qualifying Amex, Visa or Mastercard business card cannot use it as a standalone card issuer.
- The free Starter plan is capped at five users and 100 cards a month, which small but growing teams will outgrow quickly and need to upgrade past.
- The Pro plan enforces a ten-user minimum, so a company with only two or three people who need virtual cards pays for unused seats.
- Rewards, credit terms and dispute resolution still run through the underlying card issuer, so Extend cannot improve or change those terms; it only adds a control layer on top.
- Deeper ERP integrations such as NetSuite and Dynamics 365 are reserved for the custom-quoted Enterprise tier, so companies needing them lose the pricing transparency of the published Starter and Pro plans.
Pricing, plan by plan
Circula
€15/month- Employee and Travel Expenses$15/month
- Per licence, billed annually
- Minimum 10 licences
- OCR receipt capture
- Credit Cards$99/month
- Platform fee, unlimited cards
- Per card spend limits
- Transaction limit of EUR 750,000 per card
- Accounts Payable$149/month
- Platform fee
- Includes 100 invoices per month
- Supplier invoice capture and approval
- Benefits$1/month
- Per licence
- Tax free benefit allowances
- Mobility and meal benefits
Extend
Free- StarterFree
- Up to 5 users and 10 guests
- Up to 100 virtual cards per month
- One expense category
- Pro$11.99/month
- 10 user minimum
- Up to 500 virtual cards per month
- Custom approval workflows and QuickBooks Online integration
- Enterprise$undefined/month
- Unlimited users and virtual cards
- API access for automated card issuance
- NetSuite and Dynamics 365 integration, dedicated account manager
Which should you pick?
Choose Circula if
- You need german per diem engine.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want receipt capture and ocr.
Choose Extend if
- You need virtual card issuing.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want per-card spend controls.
Questions people ask
- Is Circula or Extend better?
- Neither clearly leads. Circula starts at €15/month and Extend at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Circula or Extend?
- Extend has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at €15/month for Circula and Free for Extend.
- Does Circula or Extend run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use Extend for free?
- Yes. Extend has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Circula starts at €15/month.
- What is Circula best used for?
- Circula is most often used for a german company that must apply statutory per diem rates and meal deductions correctly to avoid payroll tax exposure, a finance team wanting card spend, expense claims and benefits in one datev export, an employer offering the tax free monthly benefit allowance and needing auditable records of it, a mid sized business replacing spreadsheet mileage claims with rule enforced distance calculations. Of those, a german company that must apply statutory per diem rates and meal deductions correctly to avoid payroll tax exposure and a finance team wanting card spend, expense claims and benefits in one datev export are not what Extend is typically brought in for.
- What can Circula do that Extend cannot?
- Circula covers German per diem engine, Receipt capture and OCR, Corporate credit cards, Employee benefits. Extend covers Virtual card issuing, Per-card spend controls, Receipt auto-matching, ERP integrations. Both handle Approval workflows.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Circula: Does Circula calculate German per diems automatically?
Yes, by destination country and trip duration, including meal and accommodation deductions, which is the main reason DACH finance teams buy it.
Extend: Does Extend replace our business credit card?
No, it issues virtual cards against an existing American Express, Visa or Mastercard business credit line rather than opening a new card programme.
Circula: What does it actually cost for fifty employees?
Roughly seven hundred and fifty euro a month for expense licences alone at the fifteen euro rate, before the ninety nine euro card platform fee and any accounts payable module.
Extend: Is there really a free plan?
Yes, the Starter plan is free for up to five users, ten guests and 100 virtual cards a month.
Circula: Is there a minimum commitment?
Yes. A minimum of ten licences and annual billing on the published rates.
Extend: What does Pro cost?
11.99 dollars per user per month billed annually, or 12 dollars monthly, with a ten-user minimum.
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