Ramp is a spend management startup that offers corporate credit cards, expense management, and accounts payable capabilities that help companies save time and money.
To help you evaluate spend management providers, this article reviews Ramp and the best Ramp competitors based on insights gathered from the Ramp website and G2 reviews.
Key highlights:
Control spend, boost efficiency, and earn up to 1.25% cashback with Rho.
Based in New York, Ramp is a fintech company initially launched in 2019 as a corporate card and expense management platform combo. It has since expanded its spend management product capabilities to include bill payments, procurement, and accounting integrations.
Ramp’s mission is to help build healthier businesses and does so through its platform that helps firms control business spend, save time, and automate busywork.
Ramp is a viable alternative for businesses with manual expense and payment processes or using outdated tools like Concur or Bill.com that cause problems like expense receipt submission and invoice payment delays.
However, it’s important to make note of the following:
Suppose you’re an e-commerce business using legacy financial services and technology providers like American Express, Concur, or Bill.com. Ramp is a viable alternative in that case, but other, more comprehensive finance solutions are available on the market.
We will cover them in more detail below.
While Ramp initially launched on the heels of Brex with a corporate credit card for startups, it has since expanded the capabilities of its spend management platform.
Here is a snapshot of Ramp’s offerings:
A few notes on Ramp Flex:
Ramp provides accounting and ERP integrations with Xero, Sage, NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, and more.
For these reasons and more, businesses like Native Strategies opt to select Rho over Ramp.
Some of Ramp’s basic features are free to use. However, many automation features are now paywalled behind Ramp Plus and Ramp Enterprise plans, including ERP integrations, purchase order management, and premium customer support.
As of this article’s publishing date, Ramp Plus is $12 per user per month (when billed yearly; $15 per month otherwise).
However, larger enterprise organizations must contact Ramp Sales for a more specific quote if they want important features like multi-entity support.
Based on the factors above, here is a list of the best Ramp competitors on the market.
Based in New York, Rho is a comprehensive finance automation platform that empowers startups, SMBs, and middle-market companies with tools to boost their bottom line and operate more efficiently.
In one platform, businesses can access corporate credit cards with spend controls, automated expense management and accounts payable, business banking, and treasury management – all without the fees Ramp requires to access similar features.
Rho integrates with QuickBooks Online, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and Sage Intacct. Rho also supports flat-file CSV exporting, so you can automatically tailor transaction categorization to your business needs.
Just like middle-market companies, Rho is a great fit for startups. Founders use Rho as a single solution for corporate cards, expense management, payments, banking, and treasury. Startup founders can effectively manage finances with a lean team, saving time and money.
As startups start to scale, more streamlined approvals, a robust expense management solution, and structured workflows become necessary.
This is where Rho shines - providing a comprehensive stack of financial tools that allow for unimpeded growth without needing platform changes.
"Rho's platform and unique credit underwriting model have transformed our finance operations. It's not just about having an integrated financial system; it's about doing more with less. With Rho, each of our finance team members can achieve the output of 10."—Sarah Green, a Senior Accounting Manager at Dr. Squatch
The Rho platform is free, though the Rho Prime Treasury capability does have a small annual management fee which depends on the amount invested, but caps out at 0.60% .
Did you know? Rho is also a popular finance platform among private equity-backed companies and CFOs thanks to our comprehensive spend management capabilities and multi-entity support. Contact Rho today to find out more.
Brex is a San Francisco-based company that began as a virtual reality startup in 2017 and is now offering an AI-powered spend management platform to challenge incumbents like American Express, SAP Concur, and Bill.com.
How does Brex compare to Rho and Ramp? Read our latest post comparing Ramp vs Brex vs Rho to learn more.
Following an initial launch as a virtual reality company, Brex pivoted to become a corporate card provider (powered by Mastercard), challenging American Express. Here are other services offered by Brex:
While it has attempted to move upmarket to enterprise-size businesses, Brex largely caters to venture-backed startups. In June of 2022, Brex announced it was leaving the small and medium-sized (SMB) market.
A Brex account also generally requires its customers to maintain a cash balance of at least $25,000 to maintain any credit limit.
The company offers three pricing levels: Essentials, Premium, and Enterprise.
As of this article’s publishing date, Brex Premium is $12 per user per month, but larger enterprise organizations must contact Brex Sales for a more specific quote if they would like to access more features and dedicated onboarding.
Several important features – like advanced ERP integrations that automate transaction reconciliation – are now under a paywall with Brex Essentials and Brex Premier. Brex customers must pay subscriptions for these modules.
Airbase is a spend management platform for small and midsize companies. It combines comprehensive accounts payable, a corporate card program, and employee expense reimbursements into one system.
Airbase automates accounting and operational workflows for a faster close, real-time reporting, and a consistent platform experience for all non-payroll spend. The company provides corporate cards, expense management, AP automation, & B2B payments.
Airbase has ERP integrations with NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and Xero. The company has additional integrations for bank and credit card platforms.
Airbase is an effective expense management system, but lacks the robust banking, AP, and treasury features of the other platforms, including Rho.
Airbase offers Standard, Premium, and Enterprise pricing levels with unclear pricing. You have to reach out to Airbase to request a specific quote.
Spendesk provides corporate cards and manages expenses, invoices, accounting automation, and budgeting. The company offers real-time reporting and several ERP integrations.
Businesses can issue corporate cards with built-in, adjustable spending controls. Customers can issue virtual or physical cards, and cards can be paused, updated, or canceled at any time. Managers can set up cards for single-use or recurring expenses, and track spending in real time.
The software captures receipts and automatically posts expenses to the correct GL accounts. The platform offers an automated process for spending approvals and invoice payments. Spendesk also provides integrations with QuickBooks, Xero, and NetSuite.
Spendesk was initially created to serve the SMB mid market, targeting customers with 50 to 1,000 employees. In particular, Spendesk focuses on mid market customers that need to manage business travel spending, subscription management, and invoice processing.
Spendesk requires you to book a sales call to get a specific quote for each of the company’s four pricing levels.
Navan is a popular travel management and expense platform alternative to SAP Concur, thanks to its strong, user-friendly UI, ability to adapt to your corporate card solution, and built-in travel booking capabilities.
Navan’s platform automates transactions processed with Visa and Mastercard or using a Navan corporate card or your corporate card.
Set up automated spending controls with the ability to change spending limits. Virtual cards can be integrated with each travel booking. The Navan Rewards program rewards employees for reducing travel costs.
Here are some additional benefits:
Navan offers accounting integrations with QuickBooks, NetSuite, Xero, and more.
Did you know that Rho and Navan work well together? Pair Rho’s corporate card, banking, AP automation, and treasury with Navan’s best-in-class expense management and travel booking platform. Learn more today.
Expense management, which includes corporate cards, is free for a company’s first 50 monthly active users. Navan requires you to book a sales call to get a specific quote for businesses with more than 50 monthly active users.
Precoro operates a cloud-based SaaS solution for optimizing the procurement process, allowing users to build predictable automated spending workflows. Users can gather and process spending requests, approve purchases, and store documents in an automated platform.
Precoro’s Supplier Onboarding is a dedicated portal where suppliers and AP teams can share data and communicate. Precoro customers can invite new vendors to the portal, collect data, and provide forms for vendors to complete before they are approved.
Users can customize document fields, set up criteria-based approval workflows, and determine users' roles to create a smooth process for AP processing and vendor management. Precoro offers integrations with Xero, NetSuite, and QuickBooks Online (for some data).
Precoro serves both SMB and Enterprise customers, and the company positions itself as primarily a vendor management/ procurement solution. However, users experience a number of frustrations that make vendor management difficult.
Precoro offers Small and Large pricing levels. Small pricing is for companies with up to 20 users for $39 per user per month. Precoro requires you to book a sales call to get a specific quote for Large pricing.
Pleo offers automated expense management. Users can manage company card expenses, employee reimbursements, mileage reimbursement tracking, subscriptions, and invoices using Pleo. Note that Pleo is not available in the US.
Pleo corporate cards allow users to set up approval workflows and spending limits by dollar amount or by vendor. The cards automatically capture receipts, and users can set up recurring payments. Managers can cancel cards at any time, and cardholders earn up to 1% cashback.
Pleo provides real-time reporting of expenses for manager review, and Pleo has integrations with QuickBooks, Sage, and Xero.
As mentioned above, Pleo is not available in the US market, and the company focuses on European mid-market businesses that need spend management automation.
Pleo has a free Starter level plan, while the Essential and Advanced plans charge monthly fees. All three plans allow up to three users. Pleo requires you to book a sales call to get a specific quote for more than three users.
Expensify provides expense management software allowing employees to track and submit expenses for processing. The platform automates expense approval and processes employee reimbursements. Expensify Card manages credit card transactions within the platform.
Expensify Card imports and provides expense tracking. The software generates an eReceipt for most card transactions, eliminating the need to scan receipts. Expensify performs real-time reviews of transactions and spending policies to detect fraudulent transactions.
Users earn up to 1% cashback on each transaction, and Expensify offers perks and discounts through 20+ partners. The platform integrates with several accounting software packages.
Small business owners with less complex needs may find Expensify to be a helpful solution. Larger companies that process more transactions and need more functionality will be frustrated with the platform. Expensify has more software performance issues than competitors such as Brex, Ramp, or Rho.
The price of Expensify depends on your plan and subscription type, number of users, and Expensify Card spend. The cost per user ranges from $0 per user per month to $36 per user per month, depending on your plan and the way you choose to pay.
The pricing structure of Expensify has been considered confusing and potentially too costly by some users, and grumblings about excessive promotions of additional products abound.
Following BILL’s announced acquisition of Divvy, BILL rebranded the Divvy credit card and expense management platform as BILL Spend & Expense. The company provides the BILL Divvy credit card, an AP automation solution, and accounts receivable software.
The company offers credit cards, expense management, vendor management, and AR automation. BILL provides check, ACH and other EFTs, and other payment options, including international payments.
BILL’s corporate pricing level provides integrations with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Pro/Premier, and Xero. The Enterprise pricing level integrates with QuickBooks Enterprise, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics, and other ERPs.
BILL can be expensive for organizations with significant payment volume. The BILL Spend and Expense has a complicated process for earning corporate card points and rewards.
BILL’s corporate pricing level is $79 per user per month, and BILL offers Enterprise (custom pricing) for more complex organizations. You must contact sales to receive a price quote.
There are additional fees for some ACH, check, and wire payments, which can quickly add up depending on your payment volume.
Mercury is a financial technology company providing basic banking products and services tailored to VC-backed startups. Mercury offers a few cash management solutions, including Mercury Vault and the option to invest in money market funds.
Mercury offers FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts, Mercury Vault, which offers up to $5M in FDIC deposit insurance, and a treasury solution that allows businesses to invest cash in money market funds with high-liquidity portfolios powered by Vanguard and Morgan Stanley.
Mercury provides some limited integrations with QuickBooks and other ERPs.
Mercury is great for startup businesses that are just getting started and want access to business banking services built into a technology platform with a good user experience.
As growth-stage startups scale, they may need additional capabilities like multi-entity support, AP automation, and other important financial operations features.
Mercury offers fee-free banking services except for local currency exchanges and charges some fees for the administration of investments.
SAP Concur is a travel & expense management platform companies use to manage travel booking and employee expenses. Concur Expense provides automated expense management with customized workflows, approvals, and reports. Concur ExpenseIt links in credit card activity.
SAP Concur includes integrations with banks and credit card companies. Users can upload and manage receipts for automated processing, and the platform can process currency conversions. The travel management tool can manage itineraries and book travel, along with expense management.
Managers can customize workflows and spending policies; the platform’s automation will follow the guidelines. Users can search for flights, car rentals, and hotel availability using ExpenseIt and review loyalty point balances.
Managers can also review real-time reports, storing all data and communications in one place. SAP Concur integrates with SAP’s ERP SAP S/4HANA, Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero, and other ERPs.
SAP Concur has been a de facto travel & expense platform for decades but has limited expense management capabilities. The interface seems old and difficult to navigate. Uploading receipts is time-consuming, and users need help to upload receipts in batches.
Concur Expense has limitations that make it difficult to process more card transactions as the company scales. Lastly, SAP Concur’s UX and expensive fees have led many companies to move to more modern solutions like Rho, which has the added benefit of having built-in AP, banking, and treasury.
You have to reach out to SAP Concur for specific pricing, but it can cost companies upwards of $10,000+ for annual usage. Learn how SAP Concur vs Rho compare.
Spend management software platforms helps finance teams automate many or all of the manual tasks that go into processing invoices via accounts payable and T&E employee spending.
The best spend management platform has the following qualities:
Most importantly, spend management software saves your team time, allowing them to focus on high-impact work.
Ramp is a useful spend management solution for businesses, but its fees and lack of key features may limit its utility for certain businesses.
This is why many businesses consider Rho. With its scalable platform, Rho offers an end-to-end solution encompassing corporate cards, expense management, AP automation, business banking, and treasury management under one roof.
This means startups and small- to medium-sized businesses do not have to juggle multiple services as they grow, saving time and streamlining operations.
To learn more about Rho, schedule time with a Rho payments expert today!
Competitive data was collected as of February 13, and is subject to change or update.