Accounting · head to head
Ottimate vs Spendbase
Ottimate
Accounting
Invoice capture and accounts payable automation trained on food and beverage distributor formats
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Spendbase
Accounting
SaaS and cloud spend management that charges a share of the savings it finds rather than a licence
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Spendbase has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Ottimate nothing is published about price, and quotes are structured by location and invoice volume, so a group with a few high-volume sites and one with many low-volume sites can receive very different numbers for the same total spend; Spendbase charging a share of savings gives the vendor an interest in defining savings generously, and the customer cannot verify a counterfactual price it never saw.
- They diverge on capability: Ottimate covers Line-item invoice capture, Spendbase covers Subscription visibility.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Ottimate and Spendbase actually diverge.
Identical on both: 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 Ottimate
- Line-item invoice capture
- GL coding
- Approval routing
- Supplier payments
- Price change alerts
- Purchase order matching
- Digital invoice retrieval
Only in Spendbase
- Subscription visibility
- Discount marketplace
- Virtual cards
- Cashback
- Renewal management
- Savings-share billing
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Ottimate
- A 40 site restaurant group whose bookkeepers key distributor invoices line by line to track food costnot Spendbase
- An operator that wants to know within a week when a supplier raises the price of an item outside the contracted schedulenot Spendbase
- A hotel group standardising accounts payable approvals across properties that each have their own general manager sign-off rulesnot Spendbase
- A finance team migrating from paper invoice files that needs digital retrieval from supplier portals rather than chasing branches for copiesnot Spendbase
Spendbase
- A startup with no procurement function that wants renewal dates and subscription owners in one placenot Ottimate
- A company with heavy Azure or cloud spend that can use pre-negotiated credit allocationsnot Ottimate
- Issuing virtual cards per subscription so a forgotten trial cannot renew silentlynot Ottimate
- A finance lead who wants software cost reduction without hiring anyone to do itnot Ottimate
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Ottimate
- Nothing is published about price, and quotes are structured by location and invoice volume, so a group with a few high-volume sites and one with many low-volume sites can receive very different numbers for the same total spend
- The line-item extraction advantage is trained on food and beverage distributor formats, so accuracy on long-tail suppliers, service invoices and one-off vendors falls back to general OCR and needs human review
- It is an accounts payable layer, not an inventory or recipe costing system, so operators still need Restaurant365 or an equivalent for true plate costing and the value depends on that integration behaving
- The company has rebranded once already from Plate IQ, and much of the third party comparison material still uses the old name or wrongly attributes it to AvidXchange, which makes independent due diligence unusually hard
- Payment execution through the platform introduces a dependency on Ottimate for supplier relationships, and moving away later means re-establishing payment details with every vendor rather than simply exporting data
Spendbase
- Charging a share of savings gives the vendor an interest in defining savings generously, and the customer cannot verify a counterfactual price it never saw.
- The savings share is reported at around 25 percent but is not published on the pricing page, so the actual commercial terms only appear in a contract.
- Spendbase is both a banking provider and your software negotiator, so a company using both concentrates operating cash and vendor relationships in one small, young company.
- Banking is delivered through partners rather than held directly, meaning deposit protection and service continuity depend on those partners rather than on Spendbase.
- It is scoped for startups and small companies, so organisations needing approval workflows, purchase orders or ERP integration will find it thin against a real procurement platform.
Pricing, plan by plan
Ottimate
On request- Ottimate$undefined/year
- Quoted by location count and invoice volume
- Payment rails may carry separate transaction charges
- Implementation and accounting system integration scoped separately
Spendbase
Free- Digital bankingFree
- No monthly fee per user
- Up to 100 virtual cards
- EUR and GBP account details
- Spend management$undefined/year
- Everything in the free tier
- Reported share of roughly 25 percent of savings achieved
- 200 percent return guarantee against a deposit
Which should you pick?
Choose Ottimate if
- You need line-item invoice capture.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want gl coding.
Choose Spendbase if
- You need subscription visibility.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want discount marketplace.
Questions people ask
- Is Ottimate or Spendbase better?
- Neither clearly leads. Ottimate starts at On request and Spendbase at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Ottimate or Spendbase?
- Spendbase has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Ottimate and Free for Spendbase.
- Does Ottimate or Spendbase run on more platforms?
- Ottimate runs on Web, iOS, Android. Spendbase runs on Web.
- Can I use Spendbase for free?
- Yes. Spendbase has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Ottimate starts at On request.
- What is Ottimate best used for?
- Ottimate is most often used for a 40 site restaurant group whose bookkeepers key distributor invoices line by line to track food cost, an operator that wants to know within a week when a supplier raises the price of an item outside the contracted schedule, a hotel group standardising accounts payable approvals across properties that each have their own general manager sign-off rules, a finance team migrating from paper invoice files that needs digital retrieval from supplier portals rather than chasing branches for copies. Of those, a 40 site restaurant group whose bookkeepers key distributor invoices line by line to track food cost and an operator that wants to know within a week when a supplier raises the price of an item outside the contracted schedule are not what Spendbase is typically brought in for.
- What can Ottimate do that Spendbase cannot?
- Ottimate covers Line-item invoice capture, GL coding, Approval routing, Supplier payments. Spendbase covers Subscription visibility, Discount marketplace, Virtual cards, Cashback.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Ottimate: Is Ottimate owned by AvidXchange?
No. Ottimate is the rebranded Plate IQ and operates as an independent venture-backed company. AvidXchange is a competitor, not the parent.
Spendbase: Is Spendbase free?
The card and banking tier is genuinely free with no per-user fee. The spend management service is paid from a share of the savings it finds, reported at around 25 percent.
Ottimate: What was it called before?
Plate IQ. The company kept the same product and renamed it Ottimate.
Spendbase: How is a saving calculated?
The methodology is not published. Agree the baseline, the measurement period and what counts as a saving in writing before signing.
Ottimate: Does it work outside restaurants?
It will process any invoice, but the line-item extraction accuracy that justifies the price is tuned to food and beverage distributors. Other industries should test carefully before committing.
Spendbase: Does Spendbase hold my money?
Banking is provided through regulated partners including Moorwand in the UK and EEA and Sutton Bank in the US, with Mastercard issuing the cards.
Ottimate: Does it replace Restaurant365?
No. It handles invoice capture, approval and payment. Recipe costing and restaurant-specific inventory stay in Restaurant365 or an equivalent.
Spendbase: Is it suitable for an enterprise?
No. There are no purchase orders, approval hierarchies or ERP integration; it is built for startups.
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