Softwr

Accounting · head to head

Circula vs Zenefits

Circula logo

Circula

Accounting

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

From
€15/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Zenefits logo

Zenefits

Payroll

All-in-one HR platform for growing companies

From
$8/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

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.; Zenefits product discontinued by parent company TriNet
  • They diverge on capability: Circula covers German per diem engine, Zenefits covers HR Administration.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Circula and Zenefits actually diverge.

Attributes where Circula and Zenefits differ
AttributeCirculaZenefits
Starting price€15/month$8/month
Pricing modelPer user per monthsubscription
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb
CategoryAccountingPayroll
FoundedUnknown2013

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 Zenefits

  • HR Administration
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll
  • Time and Scheduling
  • Compliance
  • Performance Management
  • Slack
  • Google Workspace

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

Zenefits

No use cases recorded yet. See the Zenefits review.

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.

Zenefits

  • Product discontinued by parent company TriNet
  • Remaining customers forced to migrate to more expensive TriNet products

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

Zenefits

$8/month
  • Essentials$8/month
    • HR Administration
    • Time Off Tracking
    • Scheduling
  • Growth$16/month
    • All Essentials features
    • Compensation Management
    • Performance Management

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 Zenefits if

  • You need hr administration.
  • You also want benefits management.
Zenefits review

Questions people ask

Is Circula or Zenefits better?
Neither clearly leads. Circula starts at €15/month and Zenefits at $8/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Circula or Zenefits?
Circula starts at €15/month and Zenefits at $8/month.
Does Circula or Zenefits run on more platforms?
Circula runs on Web, iOS, Android. Zenefits 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 Zenefits is typically brought in for.
What can Circula do that Zenefits cannot?
Circula covers German per diem engine, Receipt capture and OCR, Corporate credit cards, Employee benefits. Zenefits covers HR Administration, Benefits Management, Payroll, Time and Scheduling.

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.

Zenefits: Is Zenefits still available as a standalone product?

No. Zenefits was discontinued as a standalone product after TriNet's acquisition in 2022. Existing customers are being migrated to TriNet HR Plus (ASO) or TriNet PEO at higher costs.

Source
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.

Zenefits: What were Zenefits' main features before discontinuation?

Zenefits provided HR, benefits management, payroll as optional add-on, time and attendance tracking, and compliance tools for small to mid-sized businesses with 10-200 employees.

Source
Circula: Is there a minimum commitment?

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

Share

Related pages

More on Circula

More on Zenefits

Keep looking

Other head to heads