Top 8 Ramp competitors for spend management software in 2024

Ramp is a spend management software platform that helps companies issue corporate cards, automate accounting workflows, and pay vendors. Businesses can also use Ramp to monitor employee spend policies and reconcile expenses. 

But while Ramp can help businesses simplify their finances, a bevy of competing spend management platforms have entered the fray since it was founded five years ago. Amid all your options, how do you find the solution best fit for your company’s finance needs? Use this guide for the low-down on eight standout Ramp alternatives—so you can choose a lasting platform to manage costs and plan ahead.

What is spend management software?

Spend management software refers to the suite of SaaS products that help companies track employee expenses, monitor vendor transactions, and automate other accounting processes to make it easier to close the books and set accurate budgets. 

While not every spend management solution is created equal, the best platforms help control company spend by consolidating cards, expense reimbursements, and bill payments alongside payroll, giving companies full visibility into their financial standing. 

Keep in mind that since spend management platforms oversee different pillars of company finances, these solutions differ from conventional accounting software, which primarily helps bookkeepers record their company’s transactions. 

Benefits of spend management software

With the right spend management software, companies can: 

• Offload manual work: Managers can drain countless hours poring through receipts to reconcile charges. Spend management tools automate cumbersome manual work like flagging mismatched expense reports, blocking unauthorized transactions, and logging expenses to your general ledger. 
• Set customizable spend policies: These tools can bolster compliance by blocking or approving vendor transactions based on an employee’s role or other attributes.
• Build reports: The best spend management tools can turn your finance data into high-visibility reports that help team leaders budget and forecast. 
• Manage corporate cards: Spend management tools often come with corporate card offerings (sometimes with cashback rewards programs), allowing companies to give both physical and virtual cards to employees, with customizable spending limits and vendor controls tailored to their purchasing needs. 

Spend management software: The top 8 Ramp competitors

The best Ramp alternatives include:

• Rippling
• Brex
• BILL
• SAP Concur
• Navan
• Airbase
• Spendesk
• Mesh

Read below for more information on each system, including key features, customer reviews sourced from G2 and Capterra, and pricing. 

Rippling

Rippling is an all-in-one platform that unifies HR, IT, and Finance into a single system, paving the way for time-saving automations that help businesses manage their workforce. 

Rippling Spend consolidates all of your company’s finances—from payroll and benefits to corporate cards and expense management–giving you an up-to-date view of cash flow across your company and offering unprecedented control over spending patterns. 

While most spend systems only allow for basic employee-manager approval chains, with Rippling’s advanced policy engine, you can set hyper-custom policies based on the vendor, dollar amount, and expense category, helping you block out-of-policy expenses with ease. You can also tee up automated workflows that help you control spend, like triggering an alert when a department’s expenses sharply increase. 

Key features of Rippling Spend

• Create granular, role-based spending policies and approval chains
• Automate otherwise tedious expense management tasks like flagging duplicate or mismatched receipts and syncing transactions to your general ledger
• Issue, manage, and revoke corporate cards with customizable spend controls based on employee spending needs
• Automatically convert expenses into local currencies, simplifying international expense reimbursements
• Comprehensive analytics and reporting, providing real-time visibility into workforce data and spending trends (with role-based permissions dictating who can see what)

Why Rippling is a better option 

While there are plenty of reliable spend solutions, they’re often siloed from the rest of a company’s workforce management processes. Rippling, by contrast, uses employee data as the single source of truth to connect spend, IT, and HR into a cohesive, interoperable system that allows for more automations and less busywork. 

For example, Rippling can automatically assign and send a corporate card and pre-configured laptop to new employees once they sign an offer letter, using the employee data captured during onboarding to set limits and purchasing controls uniquely suited for their spending needs. And if an employee leaves or is terminated, Rippling can automatically lock both their card and device. 

In addition to more automations, Rippling’s unified hub of employee data gives companies vast control over their spend. Why? You can customize hyper-granular policies based on an employee’s role, department, and other attributes and authorize purchases based on vendor, type of transaction, and amount. 

What’s more, Rippling's global payroll and expense management features make it an ideal choice for businesses with international teams or those looking to expand globally. Whether paying international contractors or hiring a full-time employee in a new global market, Rippling can support you as you scale worldwide. 

What customers think about Rippling 

• G2: Rippling has a 4.8-star rating, with customers praising its ease of use, expansive features, and unwavering customer support.
• Capterra: Rippling boasts a 4.9-star rating, with reviewers highlighting its flexibility, one-click simplicity, and time-saving automations.

*These ratings apply to Rippling as a whole, including its HRIS and other products with which Rippling Spend integrates.

Pricing 

Rippling's pricing starts at $8 per user per month for the core platform, which includes essential HR and IT features. Additional modules, such as payroll, benefits, and expense management, can be added to create a customized plan tailored to your company's specific needs. 

Brex

Brex launched in 2017 and helps companies streamline their business spending with customizable expense policies, automated receipt capture, and accounting integrations. The AI-powered spend platform also offers corporate credit cards, travel booking shortcuts, and invoice scanning for vendor bills. 

Key features of Brex

• Physical and virtual credit cards with up to 7x back on spending
• Customizable spend policies with AI-assisted expense reviews 
• A travel and expense (T&E) management solution to help with booking and budgeting
• A business account with a 4.89% yield that can pair with corporate credit cards 

What customers think about Brex

• G2: A 4.7 star rating and praise for its credit card rewards program and user-friendly interface, though some customers ran into approval issues.
• Capterra: 4.5 stars, with appreciation for Brex’s simplified receipt-matching features and attentive customer support. 

Pricing 

Brex allows fledgling startups to open an account for free and has a premium offering that starts at $12 per user per month that’s designed for mid-sized companies. 

BILL

BILL Spend & Expense, formerly known as Divvy, is an expense management solution that  offers adjustable spend controls, automated expense categorization, and virtual credit cards, which mitigate fraud and help finance teams manage their budgets. 

Key features of BILL

• Spend controls that match different employee needs
• Automated expense management for faster reconciliation
• Virtual cards to protect businesses from fraud and overspending
• Mobile app for easy expense tracking and management on the go

What customers think about BILL

• G2: BILL has 4.5 stars, with customers appreciating its simple UI and mobile app features. 
• Capterra:. 4.7 stars for its customer service, budgeting features, and quick invoice-processing. 

Pricing

BILL Spend & Expense offers a free plan that includes access to its expense management software, physical and virtual cards, and a mobile app for all users. The company provides credit lines ranging from $500 to $5M, depending on the business's eligibility and needs.

SAP Concur

Concur's cloud-based expense management platform helps businesses control costs and monitor compliance. Concur has integrations across travel, invoice, and expense. It also syncs with accounting software like QuickBooks, NetSuite, and SAP’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. 

Key features of SAP Concur

• Automated expense capture with corporate cards, travel bookings, and receipts
• Accounts payable automations that reduce noncompliant spend and boost productivity
• Robust analytics and reporting capabilities for real-time visibility into spending trends
• Extensive integrations with other systems

What customers think about SAP Concur 

• G2: Concur has four out of five stars, scoring high on functionality and comprehensive feature stack. 
• Capterra:. 4.3 stars for efficient expense tracking and reporting. 

Pricing 

Concur offers customized pricing based on desired product modules, monthly expense report volume, and the number of users. Interested businesses can request a free quote on the Concur website or test out the platform's features with a free 15-day trial.

Navan

Like other platforms listed, Navan is an all-in-one travel, corporate card, and expense management solution. It offers automated expense categorization, adjustable spend controls, and global reimbursements across 45 countries and 25 currencies.

Key features of Navan 

• Automated reconciliation that reduces manual data entry
• Companies can set customizable spend controls enforced at purchase, reducing out-of-policy spend and fraud
• Analytics that help businesses flag out-of-policy spend and improve forecasting
• Navan provides travel booking, exclusive deals, 24/7 support, and an easy platform for business travel management

What customers think about Navan 

• G2: 4.7 stars for its user-friendly interface and productivity-boosting expense management features
• Capterra:. 4.6 stars for its time-saving travel booking tools. 

Pricing

Navan provides customized pricing plans based on business needs and size, with a free trial available. The platform’s sales team can give you a personalized quote. 

Airbase

Airbase consolidates guided procurement, accounts payable automation, expense management, and corporate cards into a single, user-friendly interface.

Key features of Airbase 

• AI-powered expense management with OCR technology for easy receipt scanning and automated expense report creation
• Controls to ensure policy compliance and prevent unauthorized spending
• Global payments in 145+ currencies and 200+ countries, with support for multi-subsidiary operations
• Integration API popular ERPs like NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and QuickBooks Online for accurate and efficient financial management and reporting

What customers think about Airbase 

G2: 4.8 stars for its easy-to-navigate interface, invoice approval features, and robust integrations. 

Capterra: 4.8 stars for its customer service and consolidation of non-payroll spend.

Pricing 

Airbase provides Standard, Premium, and Enterprise pricing packages based on company size and feature requirements, with custom options available. Request a quote for specific pricing details.

Spendesk

Spendesk is an end-to-end spend management system that helps company’s control costs while giving employees access to physical and virtual credit cards compliant with pre-set purchasing policies. The system also automatically maps payments to the right GL codes. 

Key features of Spendesk

• Corporate credit cards with customizable controls
• Automated receipt capture and quick-to-create digital expense reports, which help leave an audit trail
• Streamlined invoice management that monitors payments, eliminates manual work, and proactively catches errors 
• Budget-setting features that help teams manage spend and set up approval workflows to make quick decisions

What customers think about Spendesk 

• G2: 4.7 stars digital receipt management, smart categorization, mobile upload capabilities. 
• Capterra:. 4.8 stars for its ease of use and time-saving expense management automations. 

Pricing 

Contact the Spendesk sales team to get a custom quote. 

Mesh

Mesh helps global teams combine expense management, travel arrangements, and credit cards into one system, saving time collecting receipts and reconciling transactions.

Key features of Mesh

• Corporate credit cards with customizable spend limits, expiration dates, and vendor locks
• Travel management features with booking tools and built-in policy enforcement
• Real-time notifications that let managers quickly approve payment requests
• Automated receipt collection, categorization, and reconciliation

What customers think about Mesh 

• G2: 4.6 stars for a quick initial set up, reliable receipt collection, and credit card controls that help with budgeting. 
• Capterra:. 4.9 stars for standout customer support. 

Pricing 

Small businesses can get started on Mesh for free. The platform also offers a premium subscription for medium-sized businesses starting at $10 per user per month. If you’re an enterprise company, you can contact the sales team for a custom quote. 

Which spend management platform is best?

While all of these spend management providers can save companies time on cumbersome manual work and give teams more visibility into their finances, Rippling is the only system that unifies all aspects of workforce management. Instead of looking at company spend in a vacuum, Rippling makes the most of your employee data by connecting finance with IT and HR—allowing teams to make smarter decisions and get more done in less time.

This blog is based on information available to Rippling as of May 16, 2024. 

Disclaimer: Rippling and its affiliates do not provide tax, accounting, or legal advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide or be relied on for tax, accounting, or legal advice. You should consult your own tax, accounting, and legal advisors before engaging in any related activities or transactions.