Accounting · head to head
Medius Expense vs Zoho Expense
Medius Expense
Accounting
Expense management, formerly Expensya, now the expense module of the Medius spend platform
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Zoho Expense
Accounting
Expense reporting and travel management at three dollars per user per month
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Zoho Expense has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: 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.; Zoho Expense aI receipt scans are metered per user per month rather than unlimited, so heavy claimants exhaust the allowance and either scan manually or push the organisation to a higher tier.
- They diverge on capability: Medius Expense covers Mileage and per diem, Zoho Expense covers Corporate card reconciliation.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Medius Expense and Zoho Expense actually diverge.
| Attribute | Medius Expense | Zoho Expense |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | On request | Free |
| Pricing model | quote | Per user per month |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
Identical on both: platforms (Web, iOS, Android), 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 Medius Expense
- Mileage and per diem
- VAT recovery
- Card reconciliation
- AP suite integration
Only in Zoho Expense
- Corporate card reconciliation
- Per diem and mileage
- Travel requests and booking
- Policy engine
- Multi currency and multi entity
- Accounting integration
Both cover
- Receipt OCR
- Approval workflows
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Medius Expense
- A French or Spanish employer needing VAT-compliant receipt capture in local formats and languagesnot Zoho Expense
- A company already running Medius for supplier invoices that wants employee spend on the same platformnot Zoho Expense
- A finance team with heavy mileage claims needing statutory rates applied without spreadsheetsnot Zoho Expense
- A group consolidating several country expense tools into one European platformnot Zoho Expense
Zoho Expense
- A mid market company replacing spreadsheet expense claims without a five figure annual software budgetnot Medius Expense
- An existing Zoho One customer extending the suite so expense data lands in Zoho Books without integration worknot Medius Expense
- A business with staff travelling across several currencies that needs automatic exchange rate handling on claimsnot Medius Expense
- A services firm rebilling project expenses to clients and needing them coded to projects at the point of claimnot Medius Expense
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
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.
Zoho Expense
- AI receipt scans are metered per user per month rather than unlimited, so heavy claimants exhaust the allowance and either scan manually or push the organisation to a higher tier.
- Zoho Expense does not issue cards, so policy enforcement is retrospective and out of policy spend is caught after the money has left rather than declined at the terminal.
- Additional users who create expenses are billed at the monthly rate rather than the annual rate, which makes a large population of occasional claimants more expensive than the headline three dollars implies.
- Support quality is the recurring complaint across Zoho products, and at three dollars a seat there is no commercial room for the account management that mid market finance teams expect at renewal or during an audit.
- Deep configuration such as complex approval matrices and custom fields is workable but fiddly, and there is no meaningful professional services organisation to hand implementation to.
Pricing, plan by plan
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
Zoho Expense
Free- FreeFree
- Up to 3 users
- Receipt capture with limited AI scans
- Basic expense reports
- Standard$3/month
- Billed annually, minimum 3 users
- Corporate card reconciliation
- Approval workflows
- Premium$5/month
- Billed annually
- Travel requests and self booking
- Advanced approvals and policy rules
Which should you pick?
Choose Medius Expense if
- You need mileage and per diem.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want vat recovery.
Choose Zoho Expense if
- You need corporate card reconciliation.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want per diem and mileage.
Questions people ask
- Is Medius Expense or Zoho Expense better?
- Neither clearly leads. Medius Expense starts at On request and Zoho Expense at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Medius Expense or Zoho Expense?
- Zoho Expense has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Medius Expense and Free for Zoho Expense.
- Does Medius Expense or Zoho Expense run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use Zoho Expense for free?
- Yes. Zoho Expense has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Medius Expense starts at On request.
- What is Medius Expense best used for?
- Medius Expense is most often used for a french or spanish employer needing vat-compliant receipt capture in local formats and languages, a company already running medius for supplier invoices that wants employee spend on the same platform, a finance team with heavy mileage claims needing statutory rates applied without spreadsheets, a group consolidating several country expense tools into one european platform. Of those, a french or spanish employer needing vat-compliant receipt capture in local formats and languages and a company already running medius for supplier invoices that wants employee spend on the same platform are not what Zoho Expense is typically brought in for.
- What can Medius Expense do that Zoho Expense cannot?
- Medius Expense covers Mileage and per diem, VAT recovery, Card reconciliation, AP suite integration. Zoho Expense covers Corporate card reconciliation, Per diem and mileage, Travel requests and booking, Policy engine. Both handle Receipt OCR, Approval workflows.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
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.
Zoho Expense: Is the free plan usable in production?
Only for three users. Beyond that you move to Standard, which has a three user minimum anyway.
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.
Zoho Expense: Does Zoho Expense issue corporate cards?
No. It reconciles card feeds but does not issue cards, so you need a card programme elsewhere if you want spend blocked before it happens.
Medius Expense: Does it issue corporate cards?
No. It reconciles existing card feeds rather than issuing its own cards.
Zoho Expense: What is the real cost for a hundred users?
Around three thousand six hundred dollars a year on Standard annual billing, plus higher monthly rates for any additional occasional claimants beyond your licensed count.
Related pages
More on Medius Expense
More on Zoho Expense
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