Corporate spend management is crucial for businesses of all sizes. With budgets getting tighter, companies need tools to track expenses, manage payments, and gain visibility into spending. Ramp and Expensify are two popular spend management platforms promising to deliver control and insights. But which one is the better choice for your business?
This comprehensive guide examines Ramp and Expensify’s key features, pros and cons, and ideal user profiles to help you determine the right platform.
A Brief Comparison Table
| Feature | Ramp | Expensify |
| Virtual/Physical Cards | Yes – Ramp issues | Yes – Through commercial partners |
| Expense Software | Web/mobile app with basic features | Complete expense management suite |
| Receipt Scanning | Photo upload only | AI-powered OCR scanning |
| Bill Pay | Yes – Built-in bill payment | Limited bill pay |
| Reimbursements | Reimbursement as bill pay | Direct, integrated reimbursements |
| Reporting | Standard reports | Custom reporting and exports |
| Integrations | QuickBooks, Netsuite, Slack | Hundreds including NetSuite, SAP Concur, travel systems |
| Rewards | 1.5% cashback and lounge access | None |
| Ideal For | High-growth startups, Fintech, eCommerce | Companies with complex expenses and reporting needs |
Ultimately there is no “best” platform. Choose the spend management solution that aligns closest with your priorities and needs as a finance team. Both Ramp and Expensify can deliver immense value.
Overview Of Ramp And Expensify
Ramp and Expensify take different approaches to managing corporate spend, from cards to software. Here’s a quick rundown of each platform:
Ramp
Ramp positions itself as an all-in-one spend management platform. Key features include:
- Virtual and physical corporate cards – Make purchases and pay bills. Cards come with robust controls and spending rules.
- Real-time expense tracking – Sync card transactions automatically. Create and submit expense reports from receipts.
- Bill pay – Pay bills directly from Ramp with virtual cards. Autopay upcoming bills.
- Integrations – Connects to accounting systems like QuickBooks and Netsuite. Limited other integrations.
- Rewards – 1.5% cashback on purchases and extra perks like lounge access.
- Software – Web dashboard for oversight into transactions, expenses, and insights. Mobile app.
Ramp markets itself as a “finance automation platform” with cards, software, and bill pay unified.
Expensify
Expensify specializes in expense management software with optional corporate card integration. Main features:
- Expense management software – Mobile-first interface to submit expenses, create reports, get approvals, and reimburse.
- Receipt scanning – Scan receipts with mobile app. Extracts merchant, amount, and other data.
- Corporate cards – Optional Visa cards to track spending. Not issued by Expensify.
- Integrations – Connects with accounting systems, travel systems, and other business software.
- Mileage tracking – Tracks milage across trips for reimbursement.
- Reporting – Custom reports on spending data. Export to accounting software.
- Software – Web and mobile interface focused on reports, approvals, policies, and integrations.
Expensify specializes in smart software with integrated card capabilities.
Also Read: Differences Between Revel And Lightspeed.
Key Differences
The core differences between the platforms come down to:
- Focus – Ramp provides cards and integrates billing, while Expensify specializes in software.
- Card issuance – Ramp issues its own corporate cards; Expensify partners with banks.
- Integrations – Expensify connects with more external software than Ramp.
- Ideal users – Ramp suits high-spend Fintech while Expensify meets departmental needs.
Ramp Pros And Cons
Ramp is built specifically to consolidate spend channels for high-growth and mid-market companies. Here are the key advantages and limitations of Ramp’s approach.
Ramp Pros
- All-in-one platform – Get cards, automated software, bill pay, and insights in one place.
- Higher limits – Corporate card limits go up to $5 million for enterprise clients.
- Rewards – 1.5% cashback is higher than most corporate cards. Additional perks.
- Bill pay – Pay and automate bills directly through Ramp.
- Funding – Ability to request funds or set scheduled transfers.
- Support – Dedicated account manager and customer success team.
- Clean interface – Simple, focused interface with just the essentials.
Ramp Cons
- Limited integrations – Does not connect deeply with many external systems.
- Expense features – Lightweight expense features compared to dedicated software.
- Analytics – Provides insights but not robust analytics and custom reporting.
- Early stage – Founded in 2019, so a relatively new platform.
- Ideal users – Caters to Fintech, eCommerce, and high-spend startups more than other industries.
Ramp simplifies spend management for mid-market and enterprise, but the platform has limitations around customization and integrations compared to Expensify.
Also Read: Should You Choose Field Nation Or OnForce?
Expensify Pros And Cons
Expensify is designed for comprehensive expense management that integrates with your tech stack. Here are the highlights and drawbacks of Expensify.
Expensify Pros
- Expense management – Complete suite of expense features with automation.
- Integrations – Seamlessly connects expenses to accounting, payroll, travel systems, and more.
- Customization – Tailor fields, approvals, policies, and reporting.
- Smart scanning – AI scanning of receipts and automated data extraction.
- Mileage tracking – Easy mileage reimbursement integrated with expenses.
- Reporting – Powerful reporting on spend with ability to export data.
- Wide vertical use – Companies across industries from enterprise to small business use Expensify.
Expensify Cons
- No cards – Expensify does not issue its own cards, only integrates with commercial cards.
- Clunky interface – Busy interface with lots of features which can feel overwhelming.
- Setup required – More complex to customize fields, rules, policies, and integrations.
- Cost – More expensive with a 5 member team costing $25 per month.
- Limited bill pay – Lacks integrated bill payment capabilities.
- Ideal users – Caters to businesses wanting deep expense management, not consolidated payments.
Expensify has extensive capabilities around reporting and integrating expense data, but setup and customization takes more effort.
Ideal Use Cases
Ramp and Expensify each excel for different business use cases and company sizes.
When To Use Ramp
Ramp shines when:
- Your business wants to centralize spending across cards, billing, and payables in one platform.
- You have high monthly spending volumes requiring high limits.
- Your finance team needs a simple, easy-to-use interface.
- You want rewards, cashback, and perks on spending.
- Your company uses tools like Netsuite and QuickBooks.
- You are at Series A to Series D stage with sizable spend.
Ramp suits high-growth startups that want a streamlined spend platform with rewards. The product is simple by design.
When To Use Expensify
Expensify is most valuable when:
- You want comprehensive expense management and detailed reporting.
- Your team frequently incurs expenses across travel, meals, and other purchases.
- You have complex approval workflows and expense policies.
- You need to integrate spending data across many other systems.
- Your finance team regularly exports expenses into accounting software.
- You have a distributed team submitting expenses from multiple offices.
Expensify has the expense management features and customization larger businesses need when expenses are complex. Also watch the video!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The main differences are Ramp provides corporate cards and consolidated billing along with basic expense software, while Expensify specializes in customizable expense reporting software with options to integrate cards.
Ramp and Brex offer similar consolidated spend management platforms with corporate cards optimized for startups. The main differences:
Ramp offers higher limits for bigger growth-stage companies.
Ramp has higher card rewards at 1.5% cashback.
Brex provides net terms on purchases.
Brex has more funding and valuation as an earlier startup.
Ramp positions itself as a finance automation platform.
Top alternatives similar to Expensify include:
SAP Concur – Robust expense reporting features and integrations.
Pleo – Combines expenses, cards, invoices, and bill pay.
Rydoo – Expense management with travel booking.
Certify – Specializes in travel expense reports.
All provide rich expense management, smart scanning, and reporting.
Expensify is worth it for larger businesses whose teams submit high volumes of expenses across travel, purchases, and corporate spending. The advanced reporting, custom fields, and integrations make Expensify valuable for complex expense use cases.
But for early-stage startups who just need basic expense tracking, the high Expensify cost may not justify the product’s depth.
Also Read: Differences Between Concur Professional And Standard.
Which Should You Choose?
So which spend management platform is better for your business Ramp or Expensify? Here are some key questions to help you decide:
- Do you want consolidated cards, billing, and payments in one place, or deep specialized software for expenses?
- How complex are your expense workflows and reporting needs?
- What level of customization do you require?
- How important are integrations with accounting systems and other tools?
- Is comprehensive spend visibility or rewards a bigger priority?
- What stage startup or size business are you? Early Vs. mature company needs differ.
For most startups and high-growth companies optimizing spend, Ramp provides the end-to-end platform and rewards they need. The simplicity and consolidated experience is key.
Mature businesses with more complex needs lean towards Expensify for customizable expense management. But Expensify requires more heavy lifting to set up and integrate.