Ramp vs. Brex: Compare These Spend Management Platforms

What does Ramp do?

Ramp has been a player in the spend management industry since 2019, offering an integrated T&E solution for businesses of all sizes. In addition to expense management, Ramp offers procurement, AP automation, vendor management, and bill payment support.

What does Brex do?

Established in 2017, Brex is a corporate card and spend management platform for startups and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Apart from high-limit corporate credit cards, Brex supports travel and expense management, automates bill payments, and allows businesses to set and track budgets.

Ramp vs Brex: A comparison of features.

How does Ramp differ from Brex?

As you can see from the above table, Ramp and Brex share many features. However, Ramp differs from Brex in these ways:

• Procurement tools: Unlike Brex, Ramp provides procurement solutions, including the ability to build custom intake forms, issue POs or virtual cards from approved requests, and PO matching.
• Vendor management: While Brex allows vendors to enter payment preferences via an email link, Ramp makes it possible for admins to set custom fields to track vendor information. In addition, Ramp facilitates contract management and offers Price Intelligence to help businesses identify cost-saving opportunities.
• Cards in local currencies: Ramp supports local issuing and debiting in 33 countries and reimbursement in 40 currencies, compared to Brex, which allows local issuing in 20 currencies.
• Free tools: Ramp offers some free tools such as an invoice generator, accounting document library, and expense categorization tool.

Key features: Ramp

Here’s a closer look at Ramp’s range of features and capabilities.

Accounting automation.

Ramp offers accounts payable automation through Bill Pay software that uses AI to extract key details from invoices and coding preferences in addition to flagging duplicate invoices. Bill Pay matches invoices linked to POs and routes bills to designated approvers.

Ramp AI uses past transactions to offer suggestions on expense categorizations and flags any issues that need review. Approved bills can be paid using diverse payment methods, including ACH, check, card, and international wire transfers in USD and foreign currencies. Transaction data syncs into the accounting software that Ramp integrates with, such as Xero, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct. In addition, Ramp supports recurring bill payments and transaction amortization.

Expense.

Ramp presents a single platform to consolidate and manage spend across corporate cards, travel, and receipts. Employees can submit expenses on the mobile app, via SMS, or through integrations with apps, such as Lyft and Amazon. Ramp automatically routes expenses through custom approval workflows while pre-built budgets ensure employees make compliant requests.

Ramp offers unlimited physical and virtual cards with spend controls accepted in over 200 countries through the Visa network, with local issuing in 33 countries and reimbursement in 70 countries and 40 currencies. Ramp also handles reconciliation by coding, categorizing, and syncing data to the ERP.

Travel.

With the ability to implement travel spend limits and flexible controls depending on prevailing market rates, Ramp makes it easy to manage travel expenses. Admins can define limits for hotel rates and per-diems and set up smart workflows based on factors, such as amount, team, and GL code. The platform offers the option of sharing savings with users who choose cost-effective options. Employees can access Priceline to find the best rates for hotels and flights while booking them through any travel platform. Ramp checks bookings for compliance and categorizes expenses accordingly.

Procurement.

Ramp offers a range of procurement features, including the ability to build a custom intake form that dynamically adapts to the user’s responses and a centralized platform that enables procurement discussions. Automated approval workflows route requests through the right channels. Managers can review contracts in Ironclad and approve requests directly in Slack or Microsoft Teams. Ramp also provides a consolidated view of all requests and purchase orders, with the ability to code line items and sync them to NetSuite or QuickBooks. Additionally, its vendor management tools automatically record contract details, offering full visibility without manual data entry. Features like Price Intelligence and Seat Intelligence help businesses optimize costs by analyzing transactions and software usage.

Ramp integrations.

Ramp offers no-code integrations with major ERPs, banks, and HRIS software.

Accounting software:

• Xero
• Sage Intacct
• NetSuite
• QuickBooks

Security/cloud computing:

• Okta
• Google Suite
• Microsoft Azure

Banking:

• Wells Fargo
• US Bank
• Citibank
• Bank of America

Productivity/HRIS:

• Gmail
• Slack
• Gusto
• ADP Workforce Now

Ramp pricing.

Ramp pros.

• Auto-submission of receipts: Employees can submit receipts through the mobile app while Ramp allows auto-submission through Amazon, Lyft, and Gmail.
• Travel tools: Ramp’s travel platform makes it easy for users to find the best deals on flights and hotels while managing their bookings on a unified platform.
• Instant card locking: Ramp supports instant card locking for out-of-policy expenses.

Ramp cons.

• Basic AP workflows: Ramp’s Bill Pay software supports basic AP workflows, making it unsuitable for businesses with complex processes.
• No partner card integrations: While Ramp offers pre-paid virtual cards, it does not integrate with SVB or AMEX, which allows companies to continue using their existing cards.
• Lacks batch invoice processing: The software does not batch invoices to allow payments in one go.

Key features: Brex.

Expense management.

Brex helps manage expenses by bringing together spend across cards, reimbursements, bill pay, business accounts, and travel. Admins can assign spend limits within budgets for each payment method, merchants, business travel, categories, and departments. Similar to Ramp, Brex uses OCR technology to match receipts in any language or currency and AI to flag spikes in spend while detecting anomalous activity. Brex supports reimbursement in USD and foreign currencies in 70 countries.

Accounting automation.

Brex’s accounting automation software leverages AI to help improve the efficiency of financial operations. AI-powered suggestions help fast-track GL coding while Brex automates category mapping, data rules, and field entries, with continuous transaction syncing and updating. In addition to support for accruals accounting, Brex offers tools to manage accounting processes across multiple entities, allowing admins to define tailored policies for currencies, local markets, and tax regulations. Similar to Ramp, Brex also has a bill pay feature that captures invoice details and suggests matching POs. Admins can Send ACH, checks, and wires from any bank account or a Brex business account for faster payments.

Bill payments.

While Brex does not offer a vendor portal to manage payments, it allows vendors to enter their payment details via a secure email link. Brex’s AI captures the itemized details from invoices, matches them with POs, and drafts payments. Users can create a virtual card to make approved payments or set up a business account on Brex. The platform supports payments via checks, ACH, and wires from Brex business bank accounts to over 115 countries. Payment reconciliation is supported through integration with ERP systems.

Travel.

Brex has partnered with providers to offer access to a global inventory of flights, hotels, and car rentals along with pre-negotiated discounts and deals from some low-cost carriers. Admins can set a shared spend limit allowing employees to book group travel that can include external guests. Brex’s mobile app makes it easy to make itinerary changes and track travel reimbursements. Users can redeem the points they earn on travel spend for miles to reduce future travel costs.

Brex integrations.

Brex offers some native integrations while other integrations are via CSV.

Accounting/ERP:

• NetSuite ERP
• Sage Intacct
• QuickBooks
• Xero
• Acumatica (via CSV)
• Chrome River (via CSV)
• SAP Concur
• Coupa Pay

HRIS:

• ADP Workforce Now
• Bamboo HR
• Deel
• Gusto
• Justworks
• Paychex

Collaboration:

• Pipedream
• Microsoft Teams
• Zapier
• Slack
• WhatsApp
• Zoom

Security/authentication:

• 1Password
• Google Workspace
• Microsoft Azure AD
• Okta

Brex pricing.

Brex pros.

• Flexible corporate card: Brex’s corporate cards can be issued in 20 local currencies and enabled for travel, procurement, benefits, and more.
• Zero fees for transfers: In addition to offering a free plan, Brex does not charge a fee for global and domestic ACH, or domestic and international wire transfers.
• AI-powered platform: Brex AI automates accounts payable, fraud detection, receipt matching, and merchant categorization in addition to offering instant answers to employee questions and accounting rule suggestions.

Brex cons.

• Lacks procurement and PO support: Brex does not offer procurement features, including guided procurement, PO creation, 3-way PO matching, and vendor management tools.
• Rewards are not straightforward: In place of direct cashback rewards, Brex offers points that can be redeemed for rewards with a relatively low dollar value.
• Lacks depth of functionality: While Brex caters to SMBs and startups, it lacks the depth of functionality in AP automation and bill payment that global mid-market and early enterprises require.

Can these two systems be used together?

While both platforms offer multiple integrations, they cannot be integrated with each other. It’s also important to note that the free plans that Ramp and Brex offer lack features, such as advanced ERP integration and multi-currency payments.

Instead, it is more efficient and cost-effective to use a single platform that includes all the features provided by both Ramp and Brex.

Which is better: Ramp or Brex?

Brex is a good choice for startups and fast-growing SMBs that need access to credit to boost their purchasing power. In addition, SMBs and startups can benefit from Brex’s free plan, business bank account, and zero charges on ACH and wire transfers.

Businesses looking for procurement tools, such as intake forms, price intelligence, PO creation, and a platform that supports procurement discussions can opt for Ramp. In comparison with Brex, Ramp also offers more comprehensive travel management tools.

When it comes to pricing, both platforms offer similar packages with the free plan including limited features. Brex’s paid plan starts at $12 per user per month while Ramp charges $15 per user per month.

Ultimately, the choice between Ramp and Brex hinges on your business’s stage of growth and priorities.

Why Airbase is a smarter choice.

Both Ramp and Brex were developed as SMB solutions catering specifically to fast-growing startups. While their offerings have matured and handle more complexity, their primary focus is on the needs of early-stage, smaller companies. One clear area for this is the robust approval workflows and dynamic intake routing that Airbase offers to accommodate organizational complexity.

Both Ramp and Brex charge for additional complexity and volumes. This means it’s important to understand how your costs will change as you grow.

While they offer useful T&E solutions, they lack the holistic approach to spend orchestration that Airbase is known for. Airbase scores over other platforms by offering comprehensive procurement solutions, advanced expense reimbursement and bill payment modules, extensive integrations with ERP and HRIS, flexible rewards, and enhanced transaction management.

Unlike Brex and Ramp which support international payments in a limited number of countries and currencies, Airbase offers extensive support for international payments, enabling faster payments in over 145 local currencies across 200 countries.

Airbase’s expense management features are more advanced compared to Ramp and Brex. Airbase offers header and line-level amortization across both bills and cards, faster payments, and the ability to manage multi-destination mileage expenses.

In contrast to the overview of spend data and compliance reports available with Ramp and Brex, Airbase’s advanced spend analytics provides comprehensive KPIs on past spending data, and productivity and compliance metrics, helping businesses identify and address bottlenecks in the spend process.

Airbase is unique in having invested in a dedicated fraud team that helps reduce the risk of payment fraud. Having processed billions in payments and hundreds of millions in AP volume annually, Airbase has demonstrated its fraud prevention and risk mitigation capabilities bring true value to its customers.

Airbase was designed as a configurable platform to allow for a certain amount of customization for meeting requirements specific to an organization. Brex and Ramp have been developed to be plug-and-play systems with self-serve onboarding. This approach is well suited to smaller and early-stage companies. This difference in approach shows up in the level of customer support that has been developed to complement the products.

Airbase’s onboarding and ongoing customer support teams are frequently recognized in review sites as excellent. It is just one part of the equation that goes into creating the top-rated customer experience for a full procure, pay, close cycle.

See how Airbase represents the next generation of P2P solutions — book a demo with us!