Accounting · head to head
Medius vs Spendesk

Medius
Accounting
Accounts payable automation and supplier payments for mid-market finance teams, Marlin Equity owned
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Medius the sourcing, contract and procurement modules are considerably less developed than the AP core, so buying Medius as a full source-to-pay suite means accepting weak upstream tooling.; Spendesk no publicly available pricing, requires custom quote
- They diverge on capability: Medius covers Invoice capture and coding, Spendesk covers Company cards.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Medius and Spendesk actually diverge.
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 Medius
- Invoice capture and coding
- Matching and exception handling
- Fraud and anomaly detection
- Supplier payments
- Approval workflow
- ERP integration
Only in Spendesk
- Company cards
- Expense management
- Invoice payments
- Budget management
- Spend analytics
- Xero
- Sage
- NetSuite
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Medius
- A mid-market finance team where most spend arrives as an invoice with no purchase order to match againstnot Spendesk
- A group with several legal entities on different ERPs that wants one AP process across all of themnot Spendesk
- Reducing invoice fraud exposure with automated detection of supplier bank detail changesnot Spendesk
- Replacing a scanning bureau and a shared AP inbox with automated capture and exception-based reviewnot Spendesk
Spendesk
- Expense managementnot Medius
- Spend controlnot Medius
- Finance automationnot Medius
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Medius
- The sourcing, contract and procurement modules are considerably less developed than the AP core, so buying Medius as a full source-to-pay suite means accepting weak upstream tooling.
- Pricing is quote-only and driven by invoice volume, so a business with many low-value invoices pays disproportionately relative to the spend being controlled.
- Payments are billed on transaction volume separately from the AP subscription, which is easy to omit from a cost comparison against a licence-only AP tool.
- Private equity ownership since 2017 has produced an acquisition-driven product line, so payments and adjacent capability come from bought-in technology rather than the original platform.
- ERP integration depth varies sharply by system, and organisations on less common or heavily customised ERPs face integration work that lengthens the implementation.
Spendesk
- No publicly available pricing, requires custom quote
- Strong European presence but limited in some non-EU markets
- High implementation costs due to extensive integration requirements
Pricing, plan by plan
Medius
On request- Medius AP Automation$undefined/year
- Two packaged AP automation tiers
- Priced by invoice volume and entity count
- Sourcing, contracts and procurement modules sold separately
Spendesk
$29/month- EssentialsFree
- Virtual cards
- Expense tracking
- Approvals
Which should you pick?
Choose Medius if
- You need invoice capture and coding.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want matching and exception handling.
Choose Spendesk if
- You need company cards.
- You work on Web, Mobile iOS, Mobile Android.
- You also want expense management.
Questions people ask
- Is Medius or Spendesk better?
- Neither clearly leads. Medius starts at On request and Spendesk at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Medius or Spendesk?
- Medius starts at On request and Spendesk at $29/month.
- Does Medius or Spendesk run on more platforms?
- Medius runs on Web, iOS, Android. Spendesk runs on Web, Mobile iOS, Mobile Android.
- What is Medius best used for?
- Medius is most often used for a mid-market finance team where most spend arrives as an invoice with no purchase order to match against, a group with several legal entities on different erps that wants one ap process across all of them, reducing invoice fraud exposure with automated detection of supplier bank detail changes, replacing a scanning bureau and a shared ap inbox with automated capture and exception-based review. Of those, a mid-market finance team where most spend arrives as an invoice with no purchase order to match against and a group with several legal entities on different erps that wants one ap process across all of them are not what Spendesk is typically brought in for.
- What can Medius do that Spendesk cannot?
- Medius covers Invoice capture and coding, Matching and exception handling, Fraud and anomaly detection, Supplier payments. Spendesk covers Company cards, Expense management, Invoice payments, Budget management.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Medius: Is Medius a procurement suite or an AP tool?
Primarily an AP automation platform with procurement modules attached. If sourcing is your main requirement, look elsewhere.
Spendesk: What is included in Spendesk's platform?
Spendesk combines corporate cards, a mobile receipts app, approval workflows, automated reconciliation, accounts payable, procurement, and spend controls into one platform.
SourceMedius: Who owns Medius?
Marlin Equity Partners, which acquired it in 2017 and has funded several bolt-on acquisitions since.
Spendesk: How does Spendesk handle expense receipts?
Spendesk captures receipts via mobile photo upload with OCR technology, automatically matching receipts to transactions and generating automated expense reports with 98% of expense receipts collected on time.
SourceMedius: How is it priced?
By quote, driven by invoice volume and entity count, with payments billed separately on transaction volume.
Spendesk: What integrations does Spendesk offer?
Spendesk integrates with accounting software including Sage, Xero, NetSuite, and SAP, plus HR systems and tools like Slack for comprehensive spend management.
SourceMedius: Does it replace our ERP?
No. It sits alongside the ERP and posts approved invoices into it.
Spendesk: Is Spendesk profitable?
Yes. Spendesk became the first spend management platform to reach profitability in 2025, processing over £10 billion in spend across 35+ countries.
SourceSpendesk: What is Spendesk's valuation?
Spendesk is a unicorn company with a valuation of $1.5 billion, with 2025 revenue of $52 million ARR.
SourceSpendesk: How much time can Spendesk save on bookkeeping?
Organizations using Spendesk save an average of 4 days per month on bookkeeping, equivalent to over 380 hours per year returned to the business.
SourceRelated pages
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