Softwr

Accounting · head to head

Cledara vs Workiva

Cledara logo

Cledara

Accounting

Software subscription management with a virtual card per application, priced from £100 a month

From
£100/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Workiva logo

Workiva

Accounting

Connected reporting platform for SEC filings, iXBRL tagging, SOX and sustainability disclosure

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

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.; Workiva pricing is quoted per solution and per user and is not published, and because moving a filing cycle off the platform carries deadline risk, renewal negotiations favour the vendor heavily.
  • They diverge on capability: Cledara covers Virtual card per subscription, Workiva covers Linked data.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cledara and Workiva actually diverge.

Attributes where Cledara and Workiva differ
AttributeCledaraWorkiva
Starting price£100/monthOn request
Pricing modelPer month by number of applicationsquote

Identical on both: free tier (No), platforms (Web), 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 Workiva

  • Linked data
  • Inline XBRL tagging
  • SEC filing
  • SOX and controls
  • Sustainability reporting
  • Audit trail
  • Collaboration
  • Data connectors

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 Workiva
  • A company that keeps paying for tools nobody uses and cannot get the vendor to process a cancellationnot Workiva
  • A startup wanting approval on new software purchases before the first charge rather than at the auditnot Workiva
  • A finance function that spends days each month chasing SaaS invoices for the accountantnot Workiva

Workiva

  • A newly public company facing its first 10-K where the tie-out process in Word and Excel is not survivable at the deadlinenot Cledara
  • A European group preparing CSRD sustainability disclosure that must be assurance-ready rather than a marketing documentnot Cledara
  • A finance team whose auditors keep raising review points about version control and unsupported changes in the reporting packnot Cledara
  • A group with several statutory filers that wants one set of numbers feeding many jurisdictional reportsnot 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.

Workiva

  • Pricing is quoted per solution and per user and is not published, and because moving a filing cycle off the platform carries deadline risk, renewal negotiations favour the vendor heavily.
  • Cost is difficult to justify for smaller filers whose reporting burden is a single 10-K a year, where an outsourced financial printer is cheaper.
  • Getting the initial linked-data structure right is a substantial project, and companies that rush the first cycle end up with links that break and a manual tie-out anyway.
  • The spreadsheet interface is deliberately not Excel and finance teams accustomed to Excel keyboard behaviour and modelling features find it slower for anything analytical.
  • ESG and sustainability modules were added later than the financial reporting core and buyers report them as less mature, so a company buying primarily for CSRD is buying the newer and weaker half of the product.

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

Workiva

On request
  • Workiva Platform$undefined/year
    • Linked data across documents and spreadsheets
    • SEC and ESEF filing with iXBRL tagging
    • SOX, internal audit and statutory reporting modules

Which should you pick?

Choose Cledara if

  • You need virtual card per subscription.
  • You also want cancel by card.
Cledara review

Choose Workiva if

  • You need linked data.
  • You also want inline xbrl tagging.
Workiva review

Questions people ask

Is Cledara or Workiva better?
Neither clearly leads. Cledara starts at £100/month and Workiva at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cledara or Workiva?
Cledara starts at £100/month and Workiva at On request.
Does Cledara or Workiva run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
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 Workiva is typically brought in for.
What can Cledara do that Workiva cannot?
Cledara covers Virtual card per subscription, Cancel by card, Application inventory, Approval workflow. Workiva covers Linked data, Inline XBRL tagging, SEC filing, SOX and controls.

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%.

Workiva: Does Workiva do the XBRL tagging for me?

The platform provides tagging tools and validation, and Workiva offers services, but the tagging judgement remains the filer's responsibility.

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.

Workiva: Is it only for US SEC filers?

No. It supports European ESEF filings, statutory reporting in several jurisdictions and sustainability frameworks such as CSRD and ISSB.

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.

Workiva: What does it cost?

Not published. Expect tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year depending on solutions and user count.

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.

Workiva: Can it replace our consolidation system?

No. It reports on consolidated numbers and connects to ERP and consolidation tools, but it does not perform the consolidation.

Share

Related pages

More on Cledara

More on Workiva

Keep looking

Other head to heads