Best Alternatives To The Expensify Corporate Card

Ramp’s combination of automated accounting, precision spend controls, a strong cash-back rate, and a complete lack of corporate card fees make Ramp the best overall Expensify alternative in our estimation.

Not all businesses will meet Ramp’s cash-on-hand requirements, but for those that do, Ramp’s targeted spend controls are highly compelling and useful. According to the company, Ramp’s corporate card is the only one on the market that can “block or restrict spend to a specific vendor—on a specific card or for your entire company.”

Remarkably, Ramp is entirely free. There are no monthly or annual fees, no fees for employee cards, no late fees, no foreign transaction fees, no extra charges for the accounting and reporting features — it’s all free.

Ramp’s signature feature is an automated savings tool that notifies you of redundant software purchases, duplicate subscriptions, and any other unnecessary expense, making Ramp the rare credit card that encourages you to spend less.

Here are some of the Ramp card’s other features:

• Numerous business integrations: Integrations for automated accounting, instant receipt collection, HR, and more
• Branded cards: Add your brand logo to all your company’s Ramp cards
• Multiple bill payment methods: Pay your bills via card, check, or ACH
• Get alerts for big transactions: These alerts provide an extra level of account security
• Set flexible expense policies

One thing Ramp lacked was a mobile app. Thankfully, Ramp recently unveiled its own mobile app, thus filling this gap.

Ramp offers up to 1.5% cash back and boasts an overall savings rate of 5% for customer based on cashback, partner discounts, and saving insight automations. It’s not the highest cash back rate you’ll find in the corporate card world, but it’s also much more straightforward than some competitors. There are no spending categories to track and no spending thresholds to meet.

To qualify for a Ramp card, your company must be a corporation, LLC, or LP registered in the United States — individuals, sole proprietorships, and unregistered businesses will not qualify. You’ll also need at least $25K in the bank.

When reviewing your application, Ramp assesses your company’s cash balance, cash flows, and other financial health indicators. Thankfully, no personal guarantee is required.

Businesses that spend a lot on hotels and restaurants will earn a very high rewards rate with the BILL Divvy corporate card — much higher than Expensify’s rewards rate in these categories. With travel being essential to so many small businesses, it’s clear that BILL deserves a spot on this list.

The BILL Divvy card’s rewards increase in direct proportion to how often you pay off your statements. You’ll also get expense management features, accounting integrations, and a capable mobile app. However, the card’s foreign transaction fees hurt its suitability for international use.

Most corporate cards come with few fees, and BILL is no different. However, there are a few fees to watch out for. BILL charges a cross-border fee of 0.90% of the total transaction volume for US-based users and a currency conversion fee of 0.20% of the total transaction volume for all users. There’s also a late fee of 2.99% or $38, whichever is greater.

The BILL card’s integration with the free BILL expense management platform gives you access to a host of valuable features. There’s also a handy feature that lets you spread out vendor payments.

• Flex limit: Qualify for this feature, and BILL will pay your vendor while you repay BILL at a later date. This will incur a set fee between 0.9% and 1.9%, and you can repay BILL over one, two, or three months
• Spend tracking: Get details on spending by department, team, project, or individual
• Flexible credit line: Get more spending power as your business grows
• Partner credits & discounts: Save money on Amazon Web Services, Google Ads, FedEx Office, and more
• Accounts Payable automation

BILL once offered a convenient bill pay feature; sadly, it is not currently available.

With BILL’s charge card, you can pay your bill on a weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly basis. Your rewards will depend on your payment frequency, with the highest rewards reserved for those who pay their bill more frequently.

• Weekly repayments: Earn 7x points on restaurants, 5x on hotels, 2x on recurring software subscriptions, and 1.5x on everything else
• Semi-monthly repayments: Earn 4x points on restaurants, 3x on hotels, 1.75x on recurring software subscriptions, and 1x on everything else
• Monthly repayments: Earn 2x points on restaurants, 2x on hotels, 1.5x on recurring software subscriptions, and 1x on everything else

Rewards can be redeemed for travel, gift cards, statement credits, and cash back. Travel is the most lucrative redemption method at 1 cent per point. Otherwise, your points are worth around a half-cent.

A business must have a US bank account and a US EIN to qualify for BILL. When applying, you’ll need to sign up for a demo first, at which point BILL will tell you if your company qualifies. BILL’s eligibility page states that applicants “typically” must have good to very good business and personal credit to qualify and that while cash balance requirements can vary, you must typically have $20K+ in an active account. Your business history and revenue will also be considered, though no benchmarks are given.

Non-corporate business entities rejoice: your business doesn’t have to be a corporation or LLC for you to qualify. Furthermore, according to BILL, an international company may sign up if at least one owner with 25% ownership or more is a US citizen or resident.

If, like many online businesses, you use Stripe for payment processing, the Stripe Corporate Card gives you a solid cash back rate, expense management and accounting integrations, and no fees whatsoever. Considering the ease with which you can integrate the Stripe Corporate Card into your Stripe merchant services ecosystem, this card is an excellent corporate card choice for businesses that use Stripe Payments for processing.

The Stripe Corporate Card is another corporate card that won’t charge any of the common credit card fees. Combine this with the fact that you won’t have to pay off your card daily or weekly (monthly automatic repayments are required), and the Stripe card is an impressive value proposition.

Because a Stripe processing account (which is pretty easy to get) is required for a Stripe Corporate Card, Stripe will already have your business information when you apply, so you won’t have to fill out additional paperwork. Additionally, your credit limit is based on your processing & bank history, so your credit line will grow along with your business. Feature-wise, here’s what you’ll get.

• Personalized cards: Upload your company logo from your Stripe dashboard to put it on your corporate card
• Custom spend controls: Like Expensify, Stripe lets you set custom spend controls for your employees
• Real-time expense reporting: Stripe automatically notifies employees to share their receipts upon making a purchase
• Financing & accounting integrations: Stripe gives you easy integrations with QuickBooks, Xero, and, wouldn’t you know it, Expensify
• Support for Apple Pay & Google Pay: Your employees can add their cards to Apple Pay and Google Pay

With the Stripe Corporate Card, you’ll earn a flat 1.5% cash back for all your spending. It’s not the highest rewards rate you’ll find in a corporate card, but it’s quite solid, and it suits companies with varied spending needs. You’ll also get some impressive discounts and credits with partner brands:

• Amazon Web Services: $5,000 in credits
• Google Ads: $500 in credit after your first $500 in spending
• Slack: 25% off for 12 months
• Gusto: Three months free
• Notion: 50% cashback up to $5,000
• Expensify: 50% off for six months

Other partner discounts/credits are available with Snap, Zendesk, Intercom, Airtable, HubSpot, Carta, InVision, and Guideline.

Beyond the requirement that you have a Stripe account, Stripe doesn’t specify any business benchmarks you’ll have to meet to qualify for its corporate card. Stripe does, however, state that your payment volume, history with Stripe, and bank account history are factors that will be considered when you apply.

Note that before actually applying, you’ll first have to request access to the card’s application, as Stripe calls the card’s current state a “beta program.” After requesting an invitation into the beta, your business will then receive an email inviting you to apply for the Stripe Corporate Card.

One thing Stripe does not take into consideration is your credit score. Additionally, there is no personal guarantee requirement.

With a high flat cash back rate and flexible repayment options, Rho is a great Expensify alternative for businesses seeking a corporate card that connects to a full commercial banking suite and accounts payable platform.

As you’ll see, Rho’s eligibility requirements are steep, but this corporate card can nonetheless be quite a useful tool for qualifying companies.

The Rho card lacks most typical credit card fees. However, there are a few to contend with: a 0.6% FX fee for most currencies (0.75% for Asia-Pacific currencies) and a $30 wire recall fee.

Rho’s corporate card and business banking suite sports a strong feature lineup.

• Spend controls: Track expenses in real time — purchases automatically link to department budgets
• Bill payment: Automated accounts payable — receive, approve, code, and pay invoices within Rho’s platform
• Card controls: Supervise spending via smart limits and restrictions — change, lock, or cancel cards at any time
• Unlimited physical and digital cards for employees
• Mobile app for iOS and Android

What’s more, Rho’s business banking platform gives you free, unlimited USD wires to 161 countries as well as foreign transactions (with a 0.6% fee) via 38 global currencies.

Like some other Expensify competitors, Rho’s spending rewards depend on your bill payoff frequency.

• 1.25% cash back if the balance is paid off daily
• 1.00% cash back if the balance is paid off every 30 days

International purchases do not earn cash back.

Though Rho won’t check your credit or require a personal guarantee from applicants, its business requirements are pretty steep. To qualify, your business must either

• Earn $1 million/year in revenue

OR

• Have $1 million in equity capital raised

Many businesses will not meet these requirements, but for those that do, Rho’s corporate card + business banking package offers a compelling set of business benefits.

Brex’s eligibility requirements, though stringent, are tailored to be inclusive to tech startups with exponential growth potential, though large businesses with high monthly revenue earnings will also qualify. Brex’s corporate card offers this select group of companies an astonishing maximum of 8x points per dollar spent on some common business expenses.

Combine that with advanced spend management/tracking, automated invoicing, and a lack of personal liability, credit score requirements, and fees, and you have an ideal Expensify alternative for qualifying businesses with spending concentrated in Brex’s high-rewards categories.

Like Ramp, Brex is an Expensify competitor with no fees whatsoever. No monthly or annual fees, no employee card fees, no foreign transaction fees, and so on. You’ll only have. amonthly fee if you choose to upgrade to the $12/month Premium plan for advanced features and automations.

Like Expensify, Brex offers much more than just a corporate charge card. Let’s go over the features on offer:

• Real-time spend tracking: Stay on top of your firm’s business expenses
• Individual card controls: Tailored controls for each subscription, vendor, and employee
• Travel perks: Includes 24/7 concierge assistance
• Mobile app for iOS and Android: Deposit checks, approve payments, and manage cards on the go
• Automatic invoice payment

If you make Brex your exclusive corporate card and choose to make automatic daily repayments, you’ll earn the following for your spending:

• 8x points on rideshare purchases, 5x points on Brex Travel purchases, 4x on restaurants, 3x on eligible Apple purchases through the Brex Rewards portal, 1.5x on ads, and 1x on everything else
• Tech companies can replace the 1.5x points on ad spending with 3x points on recurring software purchases
• Life sciences companies can replace the 8x points on rideshares with 8x points on life science conference ticket spending and can replace the 1.5x points on ad spending with 2x points on lab supply purchases
• Access over $150,00 in partner rewards, including up to $100K in credits via AWS Activate and 25% off Slack for 12 months

Rewards can be redeemed for statement credit or used to book travel arrangements through Brex’s portal. Also, if you are approved for monthly repayments, you’ll earn points at 1x less than the rates listed above, and if you use Brex but it is not your exclusive corporate card, you’ll only earn 1x points on all purchases.

Brex’s eligibility requirements are both strict and hard to summarize succinctly.

With the Brex card, you either have to make daily or monthly automatic repayments, with daily repayments being easier (relatively) to qualify for. To qualify for a Brex card with daily repayments, you need to meet at least one of the following conditions:

• Received an equity investment of any amount (accelerator, angel, or VC) or plan to in the near future
• Earn more than $1 million per year in revenue
• Have more than 50 employees
• Tech startups who are on a path to meeting the criteria above, and are referred by an existing customer or partner, may qualify

The requirements for a Brex card with monthly repayments are even stricter and more complex. Essentially, startups will need at least $50K in the bank, but startups that have received accelerator, VC, or angel investments may have this requirement relaxed. Mid-market and enterprise businesses, on the other hand, will likely need more than $400K/month in revenue ($4.8 million/year).