We wouldn't recommend Brex, read our full Brex review here to see why and check out our BILL Spend & Expense vs Ramp comparison instead.
We believe there are better options available in this category, read below to learn what this software does well, and what they could do better. ⤵
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The spend management platform for mid-size teams (customizable virtual cards, budgeting, auto-reconciling, and expense reimbursement).
Ramp is one of the clear leaders in the spend/expense management, budgeting space, and accounting automation space (Oh and it's totally free 👀)
They have a great UI/UX, tons of reporting/insights features, and a super clean and fast search functionality to find exactly what you're looking for:
You need to have $25K sitting in your business bank account at the time of applying in order to be approved. That said, your credit limit is going to be relative to how much is in your bank account, so we still recommend that businesses who are going to have $50–100K sitting in their business bank accounts at all times consider this based on the credit limit you'd get otherwise.
Ramp has the same virtual card functionality (and physical cards for employees). You'll want to spin up a virtual card for each company you use with Ramp, and you can even restrict (lock) these cards to a specific merchant.
The rewards are pretty standard with others in the space, getting around up-to 1.5% on most categories, with a bit more in certain categories (higher % when making payments weekly—less if made bi-weekly or monthly).
Ramp is more so for larger teams, think a distributed remote team with employees all over the world. But with more employees, comes more need for insights and data on spending. Ramp allows you to see your company's spend all in one place. Further, they have AI insights which will alert you of cost saving opportunities like duplicate subscriptions, sudden increases in spend, and possible lower pricing plans available. We think this is super cool, and is a big reason why we'd recommend Ramp for teams with 30-40+ employees.
One bit that I noticed when using Ramp is that they are a bit more focused on SMS interactions instead of having a fully-featured mobile app (unlike that of Divvy for example). Ramp only has an iOS app and it's mainly just for taking photos of receipts and matching transactions.
This might be a positive for those who have employees that aren't as tech-savvy, and you just need them to text a receipt in for it to tie to the expense management side of things (something that Divvy doesn't allow for).
All-in-all, they are focused a bit more broadly than that of BILL Spend & Expense (Divvy), moving more into the accounting automation side of things and integrating with a few more accounting tools natively. They really have an impressive suite of tools.
If you're a larger team, apply for Ramp using this link. Just remember, you need to have $25K in your bank account to get approved.
A spend management (virtual credit card) platform for venture-backed startups and large teams. They also have a barebones checking account product called Brex Cash.
Brex has run into a bit of an odd situation in recent years—while focusing on growth, they apparently took on too many small-mid size businesses, which led to them axing accounts of many of their customers out of nowhere. They are now only allowing venture-backed startups onto their platform, or mid-size businesses doing at-least $400k/mo in revenue ($4.8m/yr).
We actually had a Brex account for many years when first evaluating it (checking in on how it evolved over the years), and recently, we were actually one of the many that were pulled into the axing account mess (luckily we ultimately decided on Divvy after initial evaluation of Brex, and have been happily using Divvy for 5+ years now). That said, when trying to log back into my account to add some screenshots to this post, I was met with a redirection loop and the following message from support upon reaching out:
While they have a "banking" component, it's more of just a simple checking account, and their banking features are not as robust as that of a full-fledged business-focused bank like Mercury.
All-in-all, they seem to be relying quite heavily on their YC network, getting most YC companies to use them by offering as many perks to them as possible. When actually comparing Brex against the competitors though when it comes to automatic reconciling of your expenses in your accounting software, and just overall UI/UX, there's a lot to be desired—Divvy and Ramp are far superior in many of those areas.
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