Accounting · head to head
Cledara vs Medius Expense
Cledara
Accounting
Software subscription management with a virtual card per application, priced from £100 a month
- From
- £100/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: Cledara control only extends to subscriptions paid on a Cledara card, so anything billed by invoice, bank transfer or a legacy company card is invisible to the system and undermines the inventory it promises.; 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: Cledara covers Virtual card per subscription, Medius Expense covers Receipt OCR.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cledara and Medius Expense actually diverge.
| Attribute | Cledara | Medius Expense |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | £100/month | On request |
| Pricing model | Per month by number of applications | quote |
| Platforms | Web | Web, iOS, Android |
Identical on both: free tier (No), 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 Cledara
- Virtual card per subscription
- Cancel by card
- Application inventory
- Approval workflow
- Invoice collection
- Accounting export
- Spend optimisation module
- IT management and compliance modules
Only in Medius Expense
- Receipt OCR
- Mileage and per diem
- VAT recovery
- Card reconciliation
- Approval workflows
- AP suite integration
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Cledara
- A finance team that cannot say what software the company pays for because everything is on three people's company cardsnot Medius Expense
- A company that keeps paying for tools nobody uses and cannot get the vendor to process a cancellationnot Medius Expense
- A startup wanting approval on new software purchases before the first charge rather than at the auditnot Medius Expense
- A finance function that spends days each month chasing SaaS invoices for the accountantnot Medius Expense
Medius Expense
- A French or Spanish employer needing VAT-compliant receipt capture in local formats and languagesnot Cledara
- A company already running Medius for supplier invoices that wants employee spend on the same platformnot Cledara
- A finance team with heavy mileage claims needing statutory rates applied without spreadsheetsnot Cledara
- A group consolidating several country expense tools into one European platformnot Cledara
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Cledara
- Control only extends to subscriptions paid on a Cledara card, so anything billed by invoice, bank transfer or a legacy company card is invisible to the system and undermines the inventory it promises.
- Tier limits are set by number of applications rather than headcount, and twenty applications on the Basic plan is fewer than most companies of fifty actually run, so buyers often land on a higher tier than the entry price suggests.
- The modules that turn it from a payment layer into a management platform, spend optimisation, IT management and compliance, are each priced at £150 to £200 a month, comparable to the base plan itself.
- Usage data is inferred from payment and integration signals rather than deep application telemetry, so its judgement of whether a tool is underused is weaker than a discovery product built on single sign-on and API usage.
- It is a card issuer as well as a software vendor, which adds financial counterparty considerations and means a change in its banking arrangements would affect how the company pays every one of its suppliers.
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
Cledara
£100/month- Basic$100/month
- Up to 20 software applications
- Virtual card per subscription
- Application inventory and approvals
- Premium$undefined/month
- Up to 75 software applications
- Typically 51 to 150 staff
- 1% cashback in the first year, capped at the subscription cost
- Pro$undefined/month
- For organisations above roughly 150 staff
- Scoped individually
- 1% cashback in the first year, capped at plan cost
- Add-on modules$200/month
- Spend Optimization £200 a month or £1,500 a year
- IT Management £150 a month or £1,500 a year
- Software Compliance £150 a month or £1,500 a year
Medius Expense
On request- Medius Expense$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 Medius Expense if
- You need receipt ocr.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want mileage and per diem.
Questions people ask
- Is Cledara or Medius Expense better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cledara starts at £100/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, Cledara or Medius Expense?
- Cledara starts at £100/month and Medius Expense at On request.
- Does Cledara or Medius Expense run on more platforms?
- Cledara runs on Web. Medius Expense runs on Web, iOS, Android.
- What is Cledara best used for?
- Cledara is most often used for a finance team that cannot say what software the company pays for because everything is on three people's company cards, a company that keeps paying for tools nobody uses and cannot get the vendor to process a cancellation, a startup wanting approval on new software purchases before the first charge rather than at the audit, a finance function that spends days each month chasing saas invoices for the accountant. Of those, a finance team that cannot say what software the company pays for because everything is on three people's company cards and a company that keeps paying for tools nobody uses and cannot get the vendor to process a cancellation are not what Medius Expense is typically brought in for.
- What can Cledara do that Medius Expense cannot?
- Cledara covers Virtual card per subscription, Cancel by card, Application inventory, Approval workflow. Medius Expense covers Receipt OCR, Mileage and per diem, VAT recovery, Card reconciliation.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Cledara: What does it cost?
Basic is £100 a month for up to 20 applications, with Premium covering up to 75 and Pro above that. Add-on modules are £150 to £200 a month each, and annual payment saves 16%.
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.
Cledara: Does it find software we did not tell it about?
Only what passes through its cards or connected integrations. Subscriptions paid by invoice or another card stay hidden, which is the main limitation of the model.
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.
Cledara: How does cancelling work?
You cancel the virtual card for that subscription, which stops the payment. It does not remove your contractual obligation, so check notice periods.
Medius Expense: Does it issue corporate cards?
No. It reconciles existing card feeds rather than issuing its own cards.
Cledara: Is the application limit by users or by tools?
By tools. Twenty on Basic, seventy-five on Premium. Count your actual subscriptions before assuming the entry price applies to you.
Related pages
More on Medius Expense
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