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Travel · head to head

Egencia vs Zcal

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
Zcal logo

Zcal

Scheduling

Scheduling with an unusually large free tier and heavy branding control

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Zcal 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.; Zcal zcal branding stays on the free booking page, so the tier that is otherwise generous is not usable as a customer facing page for a business that cares how it looks.
  • They diverge on capability: Egencia covers Policy and approval engine, Zcal covers Unlimited booking links.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Egencia and Zcal actually diverge.

Attributes where Egencia and Zcal differ
AttributeEgenciaZcal
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotePer user per month
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb
CategoryTravelScheduling

Identical on both: 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 Zcal

  • Unlimited booking links
  • Branded booking pages
  • Meeting polls
  • Group events
  • Round robin and collective
  • SMS reminders
  • Paid bookings

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 Zcal
  • A finance team standardising on SAP Concur that wants booking data pre-populating expense reportsnot Zcal
  • A multi-country employer needing consolidated duty of care reporting on where staff are travellingnot Zcal
  • An organisation moving off a regional TMC and wanting one supplier across Europe and North Americanot Zcal

Zcal

  • A consultant who runs several different meeting types and refuses to pay a subscription for the privilege of having more than one booking linknot Egencia
  • A coach or recruiter who wants a branded page with a welcome video and intake questions before the call happensnot Egencia
  • A small team that needs round robin distribution of inbound calls without buying a full sales engagement platformnot Egencia
  • Anyone taking payment at the point of booking, where the Stripe connection removes an invoicing step afterwardsnot 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.

Zcal

  • Zcal branding stays on the free booking page, so the tier that is otherwise generous is not usable as a customer facing page for a business that cares how it looks.
  • Paid tier prices are not stated plainly in the product documentation and third party sources disagree on the figure, so the paid step up has to be confirmed on the vendor pricing page before budgeting for a team.
  • SMS reminders are credit metered on paid tiers, so a high volume booker can exhaust the allowance and be pushed up a tier by message count rather than by needing any feature.
  • The integration list is short next to established competitors, and there is no deep native CRM object writing, so a sales team that wants bookings to create and update CRM records will need automation glue.
  • It is a small vendor in a category dominated by much larger companies, which is fine for a personal booking link and a real consideration if booking is a core business process you cannot afford to migrate off in a hurry.

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

Zcal

Free
  • Free ForeverFree
    • Unlimited booking links
    • Unlimited connected calendar accounts
    • Meeting polls and group events
  • Pro$undefined/month
    • Per user per month, priced on the vendor pricing page
    • Team creation and team pages
    • Round robin and collective events
  • Business$undefined/month
    • Per user per month, priced on the vendor pricing page
    • Everything in Pro
    • Custom domain and custom sending email domain

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 Zcal if

  • You need unlimited booking links.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want branded booking pages.
Zcal review

Questions people ask

Is Egencia or Zcal better?
Neither clearly leads. Egencia starts at On request and Zcal at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Egencia or Zcal?
Zcal has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Egencia and Free for Zcal.
Does Egencia or Zcal run on more platforms?
Egencia runs on Web, iOS, Android. Zcal runs on Web.
Can I use Zcal for free?
Yes. Zcal 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 Zcal is typically brought in for.
What can Egencia do that Zcal cannot?
Egencia covers Policy and approval engine, Negotiated rate loading, Traveller tracking, Agent support. Zcal covers Unlimited booking links, Branded booking pages, Meeting polls, Group events.

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.

Zcal: Is the free plan actually usable?

Yes. Unlimited booking links and unlimited calendar connections, which is more than most competitors allow, but Zcal branding stays on the page.

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.

Zcal: What do you pay for?

Team features, round robin and collective events, branding removal, custom fonts, SMS reminders and custom domains.

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.

Zcal: Can I take payment for bookings?

Yes, through the Stripe connection at the point of booking.

Zcal: Does it do round robin?

Yes, on the paid tiers. Round robin and collective events are not on the free plan.

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