Is Circula or OnPay better?

Neither clearly leads. Circula starts at €15/month and OnPay at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Circula or OnPay?

Circula starts at €15/month and OnPay at On request.

Does Circula or OnPay run on more platforms?

Circula runs on Web, iOS, Android. OnPay runs on Web.

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 OnPay is typically brought in for.

What can Circula do that OnPay cannot?

Circula covers German per diem engine, Receipt capture and OCR, Corporate credit cards, Employee benefits. OnPay covers Single plan, Tax filing and payment, Vertical payroll support, Benefits brokerage.

Accounting · head to head

Circula vs OnPay

Circula

Accounting

Expense, travel and employee benefit management for German speaking finance teams

From: €15/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

OnPay

Payroll

Single-plan United States payroll with unlimited pay runs and support for awkward tax situations other providers avoid

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

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.; OnPay onPay operates only in the United States, so the first international hire means a second payroll vendor and a separate compliance model.
They diverge on capability: Circula covers German per diem engine, OnPay covers Single plan.
Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Circula and OnPay actually diverge.

Attributes where Circula and OnPay differ
Attribute	Circula	OnPay
Starting price	€15/month	On request
Pricing model	Per user per month	quote
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android	Web
Category	Accounting	Payroll

Identical on both: free tier (No), 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
Approval workflows

Only in OnPay

Single plan
Tax filing and payment
Vertical payroll support
Benefits brokerage
Workers compensation
Contractor payments
Basic HR tools
Accounting integrations

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 OnPay
A finance team wanting card spend, expense claims and benefits in one DATEV exportnot OnPay
An employer offering the tax free monthly benefit allowance and needing auditable records of itnot OnPay
A mid sized business replacing spreadsheet mileage claims with rule enforced distance calculationsnot OnPay

OnPay

A farm running agricultural payroll that needs Form 943 rather than the standard quarterly filingnot Circula
A church or nonprofit with clergy compensation rules that mainstream providers decline to handlenot Circula
A restaurant group needing tip credit and minimum wage make-up calculated correctly each pay periodnot Circula
A small business that wants one price for payroll rather than a tiered plan it has to keep upgradingnot 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.

OnPay

OnPay operates only in the United States, so the first international hire means a second payroll vendor and a separate compliance model.
There is no native mobile application, only a responsive web interface, which employers with field or shift-based staff notice immediately.
The HR functionality is administrative and does not replace an HRIS, so performance, learning and any real workflow automation need another product.
Time and attendance is handled through integrations rather than natively, meaning hours arrive from a third-party system that has to be reconciled when it disagrees with payroll.
Reporting is functional but limited, and companies that want cost analysis by department, project or location generally export to a spreadsheet rather than build it in the product.

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

OnPay

On request

OnPay$undefined/month
- One published plan combining a flat monthly base fee with a per person charge
- No feature tiers, upgrades or add-on modules
- Unlimited pay runs and multi-state filing included

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.

Circula review

Choose OnPay if

You need single plan.
You also want tax filing and payment.

OnPay review

Questions people ask

Is Circula or OnPay better?: Neither clearly leads. Circula starts at €15/month and OnPay at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Circula or OnPay?: Circula starts at €15/month and OnPay at On request.
Does Circula or OnPay run on more platforms?: Circula runs on Web, iOS, Android. OnPay runs on Web.
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 OnPay is typically brought in for.
What can Circula do that OnPay cannot?: Circula covers German per diem engine, Receipt capture and OCR, Corporate credit cards, Employee benefits. OnPay covers Single plan, Tax filing and payment, Vertical payroll support, Benefits brokerage.

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.

OnPay: How is OnPay priced?

As a single published plan with a flat monthly base fee plus a charge per person paid, with no feature tiers. Contractors are charged at the same per person rate as employees.

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.

OnPay: Does it handle payroll outside the United States?

No. It is US-only, in all fifty states, including multi-state filing at no extra cost.

Circula: Is there a minimum commitment?

Yes. A minimum of ten licences and annual billing on the published rates.

OnPay: Why do farms and churches use it?

It supports Form 943 agricultural filing, clergy housing allowance and Social Security exemption rules, and 501(c)(3) nonprofit payroll, which several larger providers do not.

OnPay: Is there a mobile app?

No. Employers and employees use a responsive web interface, which is a genuine gap for shift-based workforces.

Circula vs OnPay

Circula

OnPay

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Circula

Only in OnPay

What people use each for

Circula

OnPay

Where each one falls short

Circula

OnPay

Pricing, plan by plan

Circula

OnPay

Which should you pick?

Choose Circula if

Choose OnPay if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Circula

More on OnPay

Keep looking

Other head to heads