Brex competitors by user price: September-October 2026
On a USD comparison basis, Expensify Collect lists $5 and Emburse Spend Basic $8 per user/member-month versus Brex Premium's $12. Emburse bills at least 15 users. Concur's per-report rates stay separate; confirm currency, tax, scope and complete quotes.
On a USD comparison basis, Expensify Collect leads these Brex alternatives at $5 per member per month, followed by Emburse Spend Basic at $8 per user per month.1,2 Brex Premium lists $12; Ramp Plus and Navan Expense list $15.3,4,5 Two checked alternatives therefore have lower listed user rates than Brex. Emburse requires at least 15 billed users, so its Basic minimum is $120.2
Six of the eight companies checked also list a free tier, while the enterprise tiers at Ramp, Brex and Navan carry no public price.
TL;DR
- Expensify Collect at $5 and Emburse Spend Basic at $8 have lower listed user rates than Brex Premium’s $12.1,2,3 Compare the required scope and complete bill.
- Ramp’s $15 is not the whole bill. Ramp adds a platform fee based on team size and publishes no figure for it.
- Navan is cheaper than Brex Premium below 25 expensing users. Its first 5 monthly expensing users are free, so the break-even with Brex’s $12 falls at 25 users.
- Free plans are common. Ramp, Brex, Expensify, Navan, Mercury and QuickBooks all list a $0 tier. They differ in what the free tier covers.
- SAP Concur publishes per-report prices, and Emburse Spend publishes user prices.6,2 Concur Premium, Emburse Professional and the named enterprise tiers require a quote.6,7
How this ranking was built
The ranked field is the lowest listed paid plan price per user per month from the checked vendor pages. Original valid prices are dated 28 September 2026; Emburse Spend and Professional were captured on 1 October, and Concur Expense on 2 October.2,7,6 The Glamdring research standard explains the source method.
- Source: nine valid product pricing pages covering eight companies; each capture date remains attached to its evidence.
- Field: the lowest paid price stated per user, per member or per expensing user, per month.
- Unit: USD comparison convention for dollar-only displays, without conversion. Concur explicitly confirms USD. Currency and tax treatment require quote confirmation where the source does not state them.6
- Inclusion: a price enters the ranking only when the page states it per user per month.
- Exclusions: free tiers, per-account or per-report prices, and custom or unpriced tiers.
- Brex: shown as the reference row, not ranked against itself.
- Row count: eight companies, nine product pages, four ranked competitors and one Brex reference. Six companies list a free tier; Mercury and QuickBooks are account-priced, Concur is report-priced and Emburse Professional has no numeric tariff.
A listed price is the company’s own statement. It is not a negotiated or market price. Other spend-software coverage sits in the spend management category.
Brex competitors ranked by lowest paid price per user
| Rank | Company | Plan | Listed user/month figure on the USD comparison basis | Billing basis | Other charges or limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Expensify | Collect | 5 | Not labelled; discounts for annual commitments and Expensify Card use | Control plan is custom, “as low as $9 per active member/month” |
| 2 | Emburse | Spend Basic | 82 | Expense submitters count; approver-only users do not | Minimum 15 billed users; Basic minimum $120; US-based organisations only |
| =3 | Navan | Navan Business expense charge | 15 | Per monthly expensing user; first 5 free | Business plan limited to companies up to 300 employees |
| =3 | Ramp | Plus | 15 | “Save 20% with annual billing” | Platform fee based on team size; $0.65 per IRS 1099 filing |
| Reference | Brex | Premium | 12 | Not labelled | None listed beside the plan |
Sources: Expensify1, Emburse Spend2, Navan5, Ramp4, Brex3.
Navan and Ramp tie at $15 and are listed alphabetically. Navan’s figure is a charge inside its free Business plan, not a separately named paid plan, but its pricing page states it per user per month, so it meets the ranking rule.
Which Brex competitor has the cheapest paid plan?
Expensify Collect, at $5 per member per month.1 That is $7 below Brex Premium’s $12.
Expensify calls Collect the “small business plan that gives you expense, travel, and chat.”1 Its listed features include receipt scanning, reimbursements, corporate card management, travel booking and QuickBooks and Xero integrations. The page doesn’t label the $5 as monthly or annual billing. Its FAQ says discounts are available for annual commitments and when using the Expensify Card.1
The next Expensify tier, Control, is custom pricing “as low as $9 per active member/month”.1 That floor is also below Brex Premium. It adds multiple approval flows, ERP integration with NetSuite and Sage Intacct, SAML/SSO and budgeting. Because Control is quoted rather than listed, it stays out of the ranked column.
The constraint is scope. Brex Premium lists multi-entity support in the US and internationally, live budgets and VAT documentation.3 Collect lists neither multi-entity support nor budgeting. A company that needs those features should compare Brex Premium with Expensify Control, not Collect.
Emburse Spend Basic includes card feed integration and issuance, QuickBooks/Xero connections, policies and approvals, SAML SSO/2FA and 50 monthly ACH reimbursements.2 It costs $8 per user but bills at least 15 users, giving a $120 minimum. The product supports US-based organisations; verify geographic fit before treating its lower user rate as a replacement budget.2
What does Ramp Plus cost compared with Brex?
Ramp Plus lists $15 per user per month, plus a platform fee based on team size.4 Ramp’s page doesn’t publish the platform fee, so the total cost of Plus can’t be calculated from the pricing page alone.
Two other figures sit on the same page. Ramp offers 20% off with annual billing, and it charges $0.65 per IRS 1099 filing on every plan, with state filing free.4 Ramp’s FAQ says Plus comes with a free 30-day trial.4
At list, Ramp Plus costs $3 more per user than Brex Premium before the platform fee. For a 20-user team that is $300 a month on Ramp Plus against $240 on Brex Premium, before Ramp’s fee and before any annual discount on either side. Our comparison of Center and Ramp sets Ramp’s workflow against a second card-led system.
When is Navan cheaper than Brex Premium?
Navan is cheaper below 25 expensing users. Navan’s pricing FAQ says its expense product “is free for the first 5 monthly expensing users, and then is $15 per user per month.”5
The arithmetic:
| Monthly users | Navan expense charge (15 × users above 5) | Brex Premium (12 × users) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | $75 | $120 |
| 20 | $225 | $240 |
| 25 | $300 | $300 |
| 40 | $525 | $480 |
Two limits change this reading. Navan counts an expensing user as “anyone who submits a transaction into Navan expense”, so a staff member who submits nothing in a month isn’t counted.5 Brex’s page states its price per user and doesn’t define an active user.3 And Navan Business covers companies up to 300 employees; above that, Navan asks for a demo.5
Navan’s travel booking is free on the Business plan. The company says the plan is “powered by travel providers’ commission fees”.5 Brex also lists travel booking as free on its Essentials plan.3
Which Brex competitors offer a free plan?
Six of the eight companies checked list a $0 tier, including Brex itself.
| Company | Free tier | What the page says it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Ramp | Free, $0/mo/user | Corporate card, unlimited cards, travel booking, bill pay, QuickBooks Online and Xero integrations |
| Brex | Essentials, $0 user/month | Global card, up to two entities, accounting integrations, travel booking, bill pay, reimbursements |
| Expensify | Submit, free for all members | Receipt scanning, mileage tracking and expense reports for employees |
| Navan | Navan Business, free | Travel for companies up to 300 employees; expense free for the first 5 users |
| Mercury | Mercury, $0/mo | Banking services and essential tools |
| QuickBooks | Free, $0/mo | 1 user, income and expense tracking, 1 connected bank |
Sources: Ramp4, Brex3, Expensify1, Navan5, Mercury8, QuickBooks9.
The free tiers do different jobs. Ramp’s and Brex’s are company card-and-spend tiers. Expensify’s Submit is described as “The free plan for employees, no company approval needed.”1 Mercury’s free tier is a bank account with spend tools. QuickBooks Free is single-user accounting that includes no accountant access.9
Which competitors charge per account instead of per user?
Mercury and QuickBooks price their paid plans per account, so they can’t sit in a per-user ranking.
Mercury’s captured page shows Mercury Plus at $29.90 a month and Mercury Pro at $299 a month, beside an “Annual Pricing (15% off)” toggle.8 Mercury’s FAQ describes its paid plans as “starting at $35/month”.8 The capture doesn’t show which billing basis the $29.90 reflects, so confirm it on the live page before comparing.
QuickBooks Simple Start lists $38 a month, shown at $19 a month at 50% off for 3 months, for 1 user with access for 2 accountants.9 QuickBooks is accounting software. Its inclusion here reflects the per-account pricing model, not a like-for-like feature set with Brex.
A per-account price favours larger teams. Mercury Plus costs the same for 2 people or 50; Brex Premium scales with headcount.
Which products sit outside the user-price order?
Concur Expense is report-priced rather than user-priced. Its valid page, captured 2 October 2026, lists Base from USD 7/report, Plus from USD 11/report and Premium custom, with unlimited users. Price varies with monthly commitment.6 These figures cannot be inserted into a per-user ranking.
Emburse Professional’s valid product-specific page, captured 1 October 2026, directs buyers to a demo without a numeric subscription rate.7 Spend’s published Basic/Plus rates apply to a different product.2
- Ramp Enterprise: listed as “Custom”, with annual billing.4
- Brex Enterprise and Brex Smart Card: both listed as “Custom pricing”.3
- Navan Enterprise: listed as “Let’s talk”, with a price-quote request.5
- Mercury: directs buyers to its sales team “for custom pricing and plan options” beyond Pro.8
G2’s Brex alternatives page also names BILL Spend & Expense, Spendesk, Pleo, Zoho Expense and Payhawk.10 Their pricing pages weren’t captured for this ranking, so they carry no figure here.
Why do other published Brex competitor lists disagree?
Most published lists are written by companies that sell a competing product, and each leads with its own.
Airwallex’s list names Airwallex, Ramp and Mercury as its “top choices”.11 Payhawk’s list opens with Payhawk.12 Brex publishes a list of Ramp alternatives with Brex at number one.13 G2 orders its page by user reviews and says its alternatives “vary by use case, pricing, and features”.10 None of those four pages ranks competitors on one stated price field.
G2’s reviewer summaries also mark most alternatives as “More expensive” than Brex, including Ramp, Navan, SAP Concur and Expensify.10 That is a reviewer perception on G2, not a listed price. On the pricing pages, Expensify Collect lists a lower per-user price than Brex Premium.
What the ranking cannot tell you
The ranking shows listed user rates across the stated capture dates. A purchase still needs a matched quote.
- Features differ: Expensify Collect, Emburse Spend Basic, Ramp Plus, Navan Expense and Brex Premium buy different controls, integrations and support.2
- Fees sit outside the per-user price. Ramp’s platform fee is unpublished. Card, FX and payment fees aren’t in the ranked field.
- Billing basis is unclear on some pages. Expensify and Brex don’t label their per-user figures as monthly or annual billing.
- Coverage is eight companies. BILL, Spendesk, Pleo, Zoho Expense, Payhawk, Airwallex and Rho appear on other lists but weren’t checked.
- Recheck rates and eligibility in the current quote, including Emburse’s minimum billable users and geographic restriction.2
The decision changes when a user rate, mandatory fee, billing unit or required product scope changes. More research sits in the research archive.
Frequently asked questions
What is better, Brex or Ramp?
On listed price, Brex Premium is cheaper per user: $12 against Ramp Plus at $15 plus a platform fee.3,4 Both list a free tier with corporate cards, travel booking and bill pay. The better choice depends on which paid features a team needs and on the platform fee in Ramp’s quote.
Is Mercury or Brex better?
They price differently. Mercury charges per account, with a free tier and paid plans shown at $29.90 and $299 a month.8 Brex charges per user, with a free Essentials tier and Premium at $12 per user per month.3 At list, 2 Brex Premium users cost $24 a month, under Mercury Plus; 3 users cost $36, above it. The two paid plans buy different features, so compare those first.
Is Brex still an independent company?
No. Brex’s pricing page states that “Brex LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital One, N.A.”3 Payhawk and Airwallex both cite the acquisition as a reason buyers are reviewing alternatives.12,11
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Sources checked
Company-owned pages establish what a company says. They do not prove a market conclusion. Each source is dated so readers can judge each claim.
