Brex vs Expensify vs Ramp: Which platform fits your team?

Brex, Expensify, and Ramp take different approaches to managing corporate spend. Brex offers corporate cards alongside expense management and bill pay. Expensify offers expense reporting and reimbursements with an optional company card. Ramp combines corporate cards, expense management, and accounts payable on one platform.

Below, we compare the three platforms across corporate cards, expense management, pricing, approval workflows, and accounting integrations to help you find the right fit.

How Brex, Expensify, and Ramp compare at a glance

The table below highlights how the three platforms differ across pricing, features, and capabilities.

Now let's break down each feature to show how the platforms differ in practice.

Corporate cards and rewards

Corporate cards form the foundation of spend management. The card you choose affects your credit limits, rewards, and the level of control you have over employee spending.

Brex

Brex offers several card types: T&E cards for travel and meals, vendor cards for recurring payments, purchase cards for one-time buys, and benefits cards for employee perks. The rewards structure uses a points system with category-specific multipliers. Certain categories can earn up to 7x points, while others earn less.

One feature that appeals to founders: Brex doesn't require a personal guarantee. Your credit limit depends on your company's cash balance and spending patterns rather than your personal credit score. Fast-growing startups with strong funding often qualify for higher limits through this model.

Expensify

Expensify offers the Expensify Card as an add-on to its expense management platform. The card provides cashback up to 2%, though reaching that rate requires spending $250,000 or more per month. Most teams will see a lower effective rate.

The Expensify Card works well if you're already using Expensify for expense reports and want everything in one place. The card is only available in the US, which limits its usefulness for teams with employees abroad or international travel.

Ramp

Ramp provides unlimited physical and virtual corporate cards at no extra cost. You can create cards for specific vendors, projects, or individual employees, then set spending limits directly on each card. Ramp offers cashback on purchases, with no annual or foreign transaction fees.

Virtual cards are particularly useful for software subscriptions. You can issue a card for a specific vendor, set a monthly limit, and automatically block charges that exceed it. When a subscription tries to renew at a higher price or after you've canceled, the transaction simply declines.

Expense management and automation

How a platform handles expenses determines how much time your team spends chasing receipts, reviewing reports, and reconciling transactions. Small differences here add up to hours saved each month.

Brex

Brex uses AI to auto-generate receipts and memos for many transactions. When an employee makes a purchase, Brex automatically pulls receipt data, reducing the need for manual uploads. The platform also categorizes expenses and flags potential policy violations before they reach your desk.

Expense reports flow through configurable approval workflows. You can set rules based on amount, category, or department, and Brex automatically routes expenses to the right approvers.

Expensify

Expensify's SmartScan is an OCR feature that reads receipt images and extracts key details like date, amount, and merchant. Employees snap a photo of their receipt, and Expensify automatically populates the expense fields. After processing millions of receipts over the years, SmartScan's accuracy is generally reliable.

Expensify also handles mileage tracking, per diem calculations, and multi-level approval workflows. If your team travels frequently and submits a high volume of paper receipts, Expensify's expense reporting tools handle that complexity.

Ramp

Ramp's expense management matches receipts to transactions automatically and prompts employees to submit missing documentation before you have to ask. The platform uses AI to categorize expenses and apply them to the correct budgets without manual intervention.

Ramp's expense management connects to other finance functions. When someone pays with a Ramp card, the transaction flows directly into your accounting system with the correct coding already applied.

Pricing and tiers

Pricing structures vary significantly across the three platforms. Understanding what's included at each tier helps you avoid unexpected costs as your team grows.

Brex

Brex offers three tiers. Essentials is free and covers basic card issuance and expense management. Premium runs $12/user/month and adds budgets, advanced controls, and priority support. Enterprise pricing is custom for larger organizations.

One thing to watch: some features that seem standard, like certain integrations or advanced reporting, may require upgrading to a paid tier. Review what's included carefully before assuming the free plan covers your needs.

Expensify

Expensify uses per-user pricing that varies based on whether you use the Expensify Card or bring your own card. The Collect plan runs $5/user with the Expensify Card. The Control plan runs $9/user with the Expensify Card or $18/user with a third-party card, and $36/user for pay-per-use (no commitment).

The pricing structure incentivizes using the Expensify Card, which may or may not align with your existing banking relationships. If you're committed to cards from another issuer, expect to pay roughly double.

Ramp

Ramp offers a free tier that includes corporate cards, expense management, and basic AP features. The Plus tier costs $15/user/month plus a platform fee and adds advanced features like custom roles, procurement workflows, and enhanced reporting.

The free tier covers core needs for many teams. You get unlimited cards, receipt matching, and accounting integrations without paying anything beyond the interchange fees that fund the platform.

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Approval workflows and controls

Spending controls determine how well you can enforce policies before money goes out the door, not just track it afterward.

Brex

Brex lets you create approval workflows based on spending thresholds, categories, and departments. You can require manager approval for expenses above a certain amount or flag specific merchant categories for review. The platform also supports budget tracking at the department and project level.

Pre-approval requests allow employees to get spending authorization before making a purchase. For larger expenses where you want visibility before the transaction happens, this feature adds an extra layer of control.

Expensify

Expensify offers multi-level approval workflows that route expenses through the appropriate chain of command. You can configure rules based on amount, category, or custom tags. The platform also supports scheduled submission, so expense reports go out automatically at set intervals.

Policy enforcement happens primarily at the report level. Expensify flags violations when employees submit reports for review.

Ramp

Ramp enforces spending policies at the card level, preventing violations rather than flagging them after the fact. You can set merchant restrictions, spending limits, and category blocks directly on each card. If an employee attempts to make a purchase that violates policy, the transaction is declined.

Ramp's card-level controls prevent non-compliant spending before the transaction settles.

Accounting integrations

Your expense platform is only as useful as its connection to your accounting system. Clean data flowing into your general ledger saves hours of manual reconciliation each month.

Brex

Brex integrates with QuickBooks, NetSuite, Xero, and Sage Intacct. Transactions sync automatically with the coding you've configured, and you can map expense categories to your chart of accounts. The platform also supports custom fields for more complex accounting setups.

Expensify

Expensify connects to the same major accounting platforms: QuickBooks, NetSuite, Xero, and Sage Intacct. The integrations handle expense data well, though you may need to manage separate syncs for card transactions and reimbursable expenses if you're using multiple payment methods.

Ramp

Ramp offers two-way sync with QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct through its accounting automation. Changes you make in either system reflect in the other, keeping data in sync. The platform also auto-codes transactions based on merchant and category, reducing manual categorization work.

Because Ramp handles cards, expenses, and accounts payable on one platform, your accounting integration captures all spend data in a single sync.

Brex vs Expensify vs Ramp: Full comparison

Which platform fits your team?

Brex works well for venture-backed startups that want high-limit corporate cards without a personal guarantee. If you're scaling quickly and value category-based rewards points, Brex's underwriting model and card variety may fit your situation.

Expensify makes sense for teams that primarily handle receipt-heavy expense reimbursements. If your employees travel frequently and submit detailed expense reports with lots of paper receipts, Expensify's SmartScan technology and flexible approval workflows fit that workflow.

Ramp fits teams that want corporate cards, expense management, and accounts payable working together on one platform. Spending data flows directly into your accounting without manual reconciliation across separate tools.

See how Ramp brings cards and expense management together

When UpEquity consolidated a multi-tool stack, including Brex and Expensify, onto Ramp, they reduced the time spent on expense management and simplified their finance operations. The combination of card-level controls and automated receipt matching meant fewer policy violations and faster month-end closes.

Finance teams managing cards in one tool and expenses in another often spend hours each month reconciling data across systems. Ramp combines corporate cards, expense management, and accounts payable in a single platform, so transactions flow into your accounting system with the right coding already applied.

Try an interactive demo to see how Ramp's platform works for your team.