Why people look
Why teams look for a Airbase alternative
The reasons that come up in evaluations. Whether they apply to you depends mostly on where your receipts come from.
We consolidated AP and expense, and the documents underneath are just as poor as before.
Network receipts arrive itemized and supplier invoices are captured and matched line by line. The consolidated view is built on better inputs.
Our spend software now comes through an HR platform and renews on its schedule, not ours.
Smartbills is finance software bought on its own cycle. A payroll decision doesn't decide where your receipts come from.
Coding accuracy depends on whichever category the requester happened to pick.
Line items bring their own categories into the ledger. Coding follows the purchase instead of a dropdown choice.
The shortlist
6 alternatives to Airbase
The products teams shortlist against Airbase, each with what it's for. The order isn't a ranking, and the criteria are explained below.
- 01
Ramp
A corporate card program with spend management built around it. The comparison turns on what a card feed can and can't tell you.
Best forChoose Ramp if you're consolidating US card spend onto one program and the rebate, the controls and the card itself are where you see the value.
Compare it with Smartbills - 02
Brex
Cards and business banking for US companies. This comparison is about the purchase document behind each card charge.
Best forChoose Brex if you're a venture-backed or enterprise US company that wants cards, banking, treasury and spend controls from one vendor.
Compare it with Smartbills - 03
BILL
Worth a look if your payables team loses more time finding and coding invoices than paying them, and card receipts sit in another tool.
Best forBusinesses paying supplier invoices at high volume, especially when most of their suppliers are already enrolled on the BILL network.
Compare it with Smartbills - 04
Expensify
The expense report app most finance teams already know, set against Smartbills on where each receipt comes from before anyone files it.
Best forChoose Expensify if your team already runs on its expense reports and wants a familiar, well-supported report-and-approve workflow it won't have to relearn.
Compare it with Smartbills - 05
SAP Concur
The long-time enterprise T&E standard, set against Smartbills on setup time and on where the receipt comes from.
Best forChoose SAP Concur if you run managed travel, have complex global policy across many entities, and have the internal resources to configure and maintain it.
Compare it with Smartbills - 06
Navan
Travel booking first, expenses second. This comparison is about the everyday spend that isn't a trip.
Best forChoose Navan if your people travel constantly and you want booking, travel policy and expenses in a single flow for the traveller.
Compare it with Smartbills
Disclosure
And Smartbills, which is ours
Slipping our own product into a roundup without saying so is exactly what makes these pages worthless, so to be clear, this one is ours.
Smartbills
Best for: Finance teams that want receipts as structured data, and want their spend software on its own renewal cycle, separate from HR.
Smartbills vs AirbaseHow this list was put together
These are the products that come up in the same evaluations as Airbase, drawn from what prospects actually shortlist against it and from the rest of its category. The order is editorial rather than a ranking, because we don't run benchmarks on products we don't operate, and a scored table written by a vendor about its competitors isn't evidence. Each entry links to a full comparison with claims specific enough to check.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What people ask us before they sign up.
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Comparing Airbase with something else?
Bring one month of your own receipts and card transactions. The number that settles it is the share of transactions that ended up with an itemized document attached, and you can measure that in one cycle.