Accounting · head to head
Circula vs Medius Expense
Circula
Accounting
Expense, travel and employee benefit management for German speaking finance teams
- From
- €15/month
- 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: 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.; 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: Circula covers German per diem engine, Medius Expense covers Receipt OCR.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Circula and Medius Expense actually diverge.
| Attribute | Circula | Medius Expense |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | €15/month | On request |
| Pricing model | Per user per month | quote |
Identical on both: 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 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 Medius Expense
- Receipt OCR
- Mileage and per diem
- VAT recovery
- Card reconciliation
- AP suite integration
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 Medius Expense
- A finance team wanting card spend, expense claims and benefits in one DATEV exportnot Medius Expense
- An employer offering the tax free monthly benefit allowance and needing auditable records of itnot Medius Expense
- A mid sized business replacing spreadsheet mileage claims with rule enforced distance calculationsnot Medius Expense
Medius Expense
- A French or Spanish employer needing VAT-compliant receipt capture in local formats and languagesnot Circula
- A company already running Medius for supplier invoices that wants employee spend on the same platformnot Circula
- A finance team with heavy mileage claims needing statutory rates applied without spreadsheetsnot Circula
- A group consolidating several country expense tools into one European platformnot 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.
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
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$1/month
- Per licence
- Tax free benefit allowances
- Mobility and meal benefits
Medius Expense
On request- Medius Expense$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 Circula if
- You need german per diem engine.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want receipt capture and ocr.
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 Circula or Medius Expense better?
- Neither clearly leads. Circula starts at €15/month and Medius Expense at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Circula or Medius Expense?
- Circula starts at €15/month and Medius Expense at On request.
- Does Circula 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 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 Medius Expense is typically brought in for.
- What can Circula do that Medius Expense cannot?
- Circula covers German per diem engine, Receipt capture and OCR, Corporate credit cards, Employee benefits. Medius Expense covers Receipt OCR, Mileage and per diem, VAT recovery, Card reconciliation. 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.
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.
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.
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.
Circula: Is there a minimum commitment?
Yes. A minimum of ten licences and annual billing on the published rates.
Medius Expense: Does it issue corporate cards?
No. It reconciles existing card feeds rather than issuing its own cards.
Related pages
More on Medius Expense
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