Accounting · head to head
Airbase vs Pennylane

Airbase
Accounting
Spend management combining corporate cards, bill payment and expense claims, now part of Paylocity
- From
- $29/month
- Rated
- -

Pennylane
Accounting
French tool combining business finances, accounting and a pro account in one platform
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Airbase card issuing and bill payment are built around United States entities and United States bank accounts, so a group with subsidiaries abroad keeps running local card and payment processes alongside and does not get the single ledger of spend that justified the purchase.; Pennylane no pricing is displayed on the homepage or linked pricing page; visitors are directed only to a Demarrer maintenant (Start now) signup flow with no published EUR figure
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Airbase and Pennylane 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 Airbase
- Corporate cards
- Virtual cards per vendor
- Bill payment
- Expense reimbursement
- Unified approval policy
- Purchase intake and procurement
- Automated coding
- Receipt collection
Only in Pennylane
Nothing recorded that Airbase does not also cover.
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Airbase
- A company that has outgrown one shared company card and needs per person and per subscription cards with real limitsnot Pennylane
- A finance team where supplier invoices arrive in an inbox and approval is whoever replies, with no record afterwardsnot Pennylane
- A controller trying to close the month without rebuilding card and expense coding from statements every timenot Pennylane
- An organisation that wants spend approved before it is committed rather than discovered when the invoice arrivesnot Pennylane
Pennylane
- Automated invoicing with payment reminders and collectionsnot Airbase
- Real-time cash flow visibility and financial forecastingnot Airbase
- Employee expense management with card controls and workflowsnot Airbase
- Automated supplier invoice payment processingnot Airbase
- Mandatory e-invoicing compliance (France September 2026)not Airbase
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Airbase
- Card issuing and bill payment are built around United States entities and United States bank accounts, so a group with subsidiaries abroad keeps running local card and payment processes alongside and does not get the single ledger of spend that justified the purchase.
- The value depends on nearly all spend flowing through the platform, which makes partial adoption almost worthless and means the rollout is a change management exercise across every budget holder rather than a finance department deployment.
- Paylocity's acquisition in 2024 reorients the roadmap towards a human capital management suite, so expense reimbursement is likely to be well served while procurement and the more finance specific features compete for attention with payroll and HR priorities.
- Pricing combines a platform fee with tiering on features and users, and part of the economics rests on interchange rebates from card spend, so a company that puts most of its spend on transfers rather than cards pays the fee without earning the offset.
- The general ledger sync is a mapping you own, so a chart of accounts change, a new department dimension or a ledger migration means reworking the coding rules, and a bad mapping quietly posts correct approvals to the wrong accounts.
Pennylane
- No pricing is displayed on the homepage or linked pricing page; visitors are directed only to a Demarrer maintenant (Start now) signup flow with no published EUR figure
- The product bundles accounting, invoicing and a business bank account together, so buyers cannot subscribe to only one function
Pricing, plan by plan
Airbase
$29/month- StandardFree
- Corporate cards
- Expense reports
- Bill pay
- Premium$10/month
- Advanced approvals
- NetSuite sync
- Procurement
- Enterprise$undefined/month
- Custom workflows
- API access
- Dedicated support
Pennylane
On requestNo published plan breakdown. See the Pennylane review.
Which should you pick?
Choose Airbase if
- You need corporate cards.
- You work on Web, Ios, Android.
- You also want virtual cards per vendor.
Choose Pennylane if
Nothing in the data separates Pennylane from Airbase on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.
Questions people ask
- Is Airbase or Pennylane better?
- Neither clearly leads. Airbase starts at $29/month and Pennylane at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Airbase or Pennylane?
- Airbase starts at $29/month and Pennylane at On request.
- Does Airbase or Pennylane run on more platforms?
- Airbase runs on Web, Ios, Android. Pennylane runs on Web.
- What is Airbase best used for?
- Airbase is most often used for a company that has outgrown one shared company card and needs per person and per subscription cards with real limits, a finance team where supplier invoices arrive in an inbox and approval is whoever replies, with no record afterwards, a controller trying to close the month without rebuilding card and expense coding from statements every time, an organisation that wants spend approved before it is committed rather than discovered when the invoice arrives. Of those, a company that has outgrown one shared company card and needs per person and per subscription cards with real limits and a finance team where supplier invoices arrive in an inbox and approval is whoever replies, with no record afterwards are not what Pennylane is typically brought in for.
- What can Airbase do that Pennylane cannot?
- Airbase covers Corporate cards, Virtual cards per vendor, Bill payment, Expense reimbursement.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Airbase: Does it work for companies outside the United States?
Partially. Some international spend and reimbursement is supported, but card issuing and the payment rails are strongest for United States entities. Confirm coverage for each country you operate in before assuming it replaces local processes.
Pennylane: What financial processes does Pennylane help automate?
Pennylane streamlines multiple financial functions including invoice creation, expense management, payment collection, and receipt documentation. The platform centralizes data from facturation, purchasing, treasury, and accounting in one unified system.
SourceAirbase: Does Airbase replace our accounting system?
No. It manages spend and pushes coded transactions into the ledger. QuickBooks, NetSuite or whatever else you use stays.
Pennylane: Can Pennylane help with corporate spending control?
Yes. Pennylane provides corporate cards for employees with built-in spending controls and authorization workflows, allowing businesses to manage team expenses while maintaining visibility and approval requirements.
SourceAirbase: What changed after the Paylocity acquisition?
Ownership and roadmap direction. The product continues, now positioned alongside Paylocity's payroll and HR products. If procurement is your main reason to buy, ask directly about investment in that module.
Pennylane: Does Pennylane provide real-time financial visibility?
Yes. Pennylane's unified dashboard provides live transaction visibility and real-time cash flow monitoring across the entire business, helping teams access financial data instantly.
SourceAirbase: How is it priced?
A platform subscription with tiers, plus usage and user dimensions, partly offset by rebates on card spend. Because the rebate depends on card volume, model your own mix of card versus transfer spend before accepting a payback figure.
Airbase: Can we use it for accounts payable only?
You can, but the approval consistency argument weakens considerably. Most of the reported benefit comes from cards, bills and reimbursements sharing one policy and one coding process.
Airbase: Will our auditors accept the approval records?
The per transaction record of approver, receipt and coding is generally what auditors want to see for spend testing. Agree the sampling approach with them early, particularly around any spend that still happens outside the platform.
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