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Travel · head to head

Egencia vs Mesh Payments

Egencia logo

Egencia

Travel

Corporate online booking and travel management from Amex GBT for mid-market and enterprise programmes

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Mesh Payments logo

Mesh Payments

Accounting

Virtual card and spend management platform aimed at SaaS and travel spend

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Mesh Payments has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Egencia pricing is per transaction and offline touches cost several times an online booking, so a programme with many complex multi-leg itineraries pays far more than the headline online fee suggests.; Mesh Payments cashback only applies above a monthly spend threshold published at around fifty thousand dollars, so smaller programmes pay the per user fee and never see the rebate that justifies it.
  • They diverge on capability: Egencia covers Policy and approval engine, Mesh Payments covers Per vendor virtual cards.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Egencia and Mesh Payments actually diverge.

Attributes where Egencia and Mesh Payments differ
AttributeEgenciaMesh Payments
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotePer user per month
Free tierNoYes
CategoryTravelAccounting

Identical on both: platforms (Web, iOS, Android), 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 Egencia

  • Policy and approval engine
  • Negotiated rate loading
  • Traveller tracking
  • Agent support
  • Concur Expense integration
  • AI booking assistant

Only in Mesh Payments

  • Per vendor virtual cards
  • Physical and virtual employee cards
  • Subscription and renewal tracking
  • Receipt capture and matching
  • Approval workflows
  • Travel spend controls
  • Accounting sync
  • Cashback programme

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Egencia

  • A company of several hundred travellers wanting negotiated hotel rates without paying for a high-touch TMCnot Mesh Payments
  • A finance team standardising on SAP Concur that wants booking data pre-populating expense reportsnot Mesh Payments
  • A multi-country employer needing consolidated duty of care reporting on where staff are travellingnot Mesh Payments
  • An organisation moving off a regional TMC and wanting one supplier across Europe and North Americanot Mesh Payments

Mesh Payments

  • A software company trying to stop shadow SaaS renewals by giving every vendor its own capped cardnot Egencia
  • A finance team that wants receipts matched at the point of spend rather than chased at month endnot Egencia
  • A business issuing single use cards for contractor and agency payments with hard limitsnot Egencia
  • A team funding trip specific spend with a card that expires when the trip endsnot Egencia

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Egencia

  • Pricing is per transaction and offline touches cost several times an online booking, so a programme with many complex multi-leg itineraries pays far more than the headline online fee suggests.
  • It is now a service tier inside Amex GBT rather than an independent supplier, so a competitive process that shortlists both Egencia and Amex GBT is not really two bids.
  • Regional content and service quality are uneven, and companies with travellers in smaller markets often find local fares and hotels missing from the tool and end up going offline.
  • Implementation to load negotiated rates and configure policy typically runs months, and rate loading errors surface as travellers seeing the wrong prices rather than as a clean failure.
  • Because the platform underwent a relaunch on new architecture, customers migrating from the older Egencia stack have faced feature parity gaps and retraining during the transition.

Mesh Payments

  • Cashback only applies above a monthly spend threshold published at around fifty thousand dollars, so smaller programmes pay the per user fee and never see the rebate that justifies it.
  • Revenue depends on interchange, which means Mesh has a structural interest in card spend running through its rails and less incentive to support bank transfer or direct debit payment methods that many suppliers prefer.
  • Card issuing is limited to the entities and countries Mesh's issuing partners support, so groups with subsidiaries outside that footprint must run a second card programme and lose the single view they bought Mesh for.
  • The free Pro tier caps at three users, which is below the size at which spend control actually becomes a problem, so it functions as a trial rather than a usable plan.
  • It is a spend and card tool rather than an accounts payable system, so invoice heavy businesses still need a separate AP platform and end up reconciling two sources of supplier spend.

Pricing, plan by plan

Egencia

On request
  • Egencia$undefined/year
    • Per-transaction booking fees, online and offline rates differ
    • Optional annual platform or management fee
    • Implementation and rate loading charges

Mesh Payments

Free
  • ProFree
    • Up to 3 users
    • Virtual and physical cards
    • Receipt capture
  • Premium$13/month
    • Unlimited users
    • Approval workflows
    • Subscription management
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Multi entity support
    • SSO and advanced controls
    • Custom approval hierarchies

Which should you pick?

Choose Egencia if

  • You need policy and approval engine.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want negotiated rate loading.
Egencia review

Choose Mesh Payments if

  • You need per vendor virtual cards.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want physical and virtual employee cards.
Mesh Payments review

Questions people ask

Is Egencia or Mesh Payments better?
Neither clearly leads. Egencia starts at On request and Mesh Payments at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Egencia or Mesh Payments?
Mesh Payments has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Egencia and Free for Mesh Payments.
Does Egencia or Mesh Payments run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Mesh Payments for free?
Yes. Mesh Payments has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Egencia starts at On request.
What is Egencia best used for?
Egencia is most often used for a company of several hundred travellers wanting negotiated hotel rates without paying for a high-touch tmc, a finance team standardising on sap concur that wants booking data pre-populating expense reports, a multi-country employer needing consolidated duty of care reporting on where staff are travelling, an organisation moving off a regional tmc and wanting one supplier across europe and north america. Of those, a company of several hundred travellers wanting negotiated hotel rates without paying for a high-touch tmc and a finance team standardising on sap concur that wants booking data pre-populating expense reports are not what Mesh Payments is typically brought in for.
What can Egencia do that Mesh Payments cannot?
Egencia covers Policy and approval engine, Negotiated rate loading, Traveller tracking, Agent support. Mesh Payments covers Per vendor virtual cards, Physical and virtual employee cards, Subscription and renewal tracking, Receipt capture and matching.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Egencia: Is Egencia still sold under its own name?

Yes. Amex GBT bought it in 2021 and kept the brand, relaunching it in 2026 with a conversational AI assistant and a Concur Expense integration.

Mesh Payments: Is the free plan really free?

Yes for up to three users, with cards and receipt capture included. Beyond three users you move to the paid tier.

Egencia: How is it different from Amex GBT itself?

Egencia is the more self-service, lower-touch tier of the same company, aimed at mid-market programmes; Amex GBT proper is the high-touch enterprise service.

Mesh Payments: How does Mesh make money on a thirteen dollar plan?

Interchange on card spend. The subscription is a minority of revenue, which is why the cashback programme has a monthly spend threshold attached.

Egencia: Does it replace an expense system?

No. It books travel and feeds data to expense tools such as SAP Concur; you still need an expense product.

Mesh Payments: Can Mesh replace our accounts payable process?

Not fully. It controls card spend well but invoice capture, supplier onboarding and payment runs are better served by a dedicated AP tool.

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