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Accounting · head to head

SAP Concur vs Zoho Expense

SAP Concur logo

SAP Concur

Accounting

Enterprise travel booking, expense claims and supplier invoice processing sold as separate modules

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Zoho Expense logo

Zoho Expense

Accounting

Expense reporting and travel management at three dollars per user per month

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Zoho Expense has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: SAP Concur implementation is done through SAP or a partner and commonly costs a substantial multiple of the first year subscription, because the value sits entirely in the configured policy, approval hierarchy and ledger mapping rather than in the software as shipped.; 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: SAP Concur covers Expense capture, Zoho Expense covers Receipt OCR.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which SAP Concur and Zoho Expense actually diverge.

Attributes where SAP Concur and Zoho Expense differ
AttributeSAP ConcurZoho Expense
Starting price$29/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer user per month
Free tierNoYes
Founded1993Unknown

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 SAP Concur

  • Expense capture
  • Corporate card feeds
  • Approval routing
  • Travel booking
  • Travel agency integration
  • Duty of care
  • Invoice capture
  • Purchase request

Only in Zoho Expense

  • Receipt OCR
  • Corporate card reconciliation
  • Per diem and mileage
  • Approval workflows
  • Travel requests and booking
  • Multi currency and multi entity
  • Accounting integration

Both cover

  • Policy engine

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

SAP Concur

  • A multinational with thousands of travellers where an audit committee has asked for evidence that travel policy is actually enforcednot Zoho Expense
  • An organisation replacing spreadsheet expense claims and email approvals that cannot survive an external auditnot Zoho Expense
  • A finance team trying to eliminate duplicate claims by matching corporate card feeds against submitted receiptsnot Zoho Expense
  • A shared service centre processing high volumes of supplier invoices that needs capture and approval routing before postingnot Zoho Expense

Zoho Expense

  • A mid market company replacing spreadsheet expense claims without a five figure annual software budgetnot SAP Concur
  • An existing Zoho One customer extending the suite so expense data lands in Zoho Books without integration worknot SAP Concur
  • A business with staff travelling across several currencies that needs automatic exchange rate handling on claimsnot SAP Concur
  • A services firm rebilling project expenses to clients and needing them coded to projects at the point of claimnot SAP Concur

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

SAP Concur

  • Implementation is done through SAP or a partner and commonly costs a substantial multiple of the first year subscription, because the value sits entirely in the configured policy, approval hierarchy and ledger mapping rather than in the software as shipped.
  • Pricing is driven by transaction volume, expense reports and invoices processed, rather than by seats, so a business with seasonal travel or a growth year sees the bill move in ways headcount based budgeting does not predict.
  • The configuration that makes it valuable is also what makes it rigid, and organisations frequently find that changing an approval chain or adding a cost centre dimension requires a partner change order rather than an administrator's afternoon.
  • Contracts are typically multi year with limited exit, so an organisation that concludes after twelve months that a lighter expense tool would have been enough is still paying for the heavier one for the remainder of the term.
  • The three modules are licensed separately and the strongest case for the product depends on having travel, expense and card feeds together, so buying expense alone gives you a costly receipt system without the control loop that justifies the price.

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

SAP Concur

$29/month
  • Professional$8/month
    • Expense reporting
    • Receipt capture
    • Approvals
  • Premium$12/month
    • Travel booking
    • Invoice management
    • Analytics

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 SAP Concur if

  • You need expense capture.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want corporate card feeds.
SAP Concur review

Choose Zoho Expense if

  • You need receipt ocr.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want corporate card reconciliation.
Zoho Expense review

Questions people ask

Is SAP Concur or Zoho Expense better?
Neither clearly leads. SAP Concur starts at $29/month and Zoho Expense at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, SAP Concur or Zoho Expense?
Zoho Expense has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $29/month for SAP Concur and Free for Zoho Expense.
Does SAP Concur or Zoho Expense run on more platforms?
SAP Concur runs on Web, Ios, Android. Zoho Expense runs on Web, iOS, Android.
Can I use Zoho Expense for free?
Yes. Zoho Expense has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. SAP Concur starts at $29/month.
What is SAP Concur best used for?
SAP Concur is most often used for a multinational with thousands of travellers where an audit committee has asked for evidence that travel policy is actually enforced, an organisation replacing spreadsheet expense claims and email approvals that cannot survive an external audit, a finance team trying to eliminate duplicate claims by matching corporate card feeds against submitted receipts, a shared service centre processing high volumes of supplier invoices that needs capture and approval routing before posting. Of those, a multinational with thousands of travellers where an audit committee has asked for evidence that travel policy is actually enforced and an organisation replacing spreadsheet expense claims and email approvals that cannot survive an external audit are not what Zoho Expense is typically brought in for.
What can SAP Concur do that Zoho Expense cannot?
SAP Concur covers Expense capture, Corporate card feeds, Approval routing, Travel booking. Zoho Expense covers Receipt OCR, Corporate card reconciliation, Per diem and mileage, Approval workflows. Both handle Policy engine.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

SAP Concur: Do we need SAP ERP to use Concur?

No. It integrates with SAP systems particularly well but it is regularly deployed alongside Oracle, NetSuite, Workday and other ledgers. The integration work is a line item in the implementation either way.

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.

SAP Concur: Is it worth it for a company of a hundred people?

Usually not. Below a few hundred travellers the implementation cost and the contract commitment are hard to justify against lighter expense tools. The case turns on policy enforcement and audit, not on receipt scanning.

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.

SAP Concur: How is it priced?

Broadly on the volume of expense reports and invoices processed, with the modules licensed separately. Because pricing is quoted rather than published, get the volume assumptions written into the contract and check what happens when you exceed them.

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.

SAP Concur: Can it handle multiple countries and currencies?

Yes, that is one of its stronger areas, including per country tax treatment and VAT reclaim identification. Confirm coverage for your specific countries during the sales process rather than assuming global means every jurisdiction.

SAP Concur: How long does implementation take?

Plan in months, not weeks, for anything beyond a single entity with simple approvals. Multi entity rollouts with travel and invoice modules commonly run across a year in phases.

SAP Concur: What does the audit service actually do?

It has a team review a sample or all of your submitted claims against receipts and policy before approval, which some organisations use in place of internal reviewers. It is priced separately from the expense subscription.

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