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Airbase is now part of Paylocity

Airbase alternative and Airbase pricing: Airbase competitors compared after Paylocity

Paylocity closed its acquisition of Airbase on October 1, 2024, and Airbase is now sold as Paylocity for Finance, on quote, next to Paylocity's payroll. If your renewal is coming up and you do not run payroll on Paylocity, this page lays out what changed, what the real alternatives cost, and when staying is the smarter call.

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See which charges would have paged a budget owner

Set team budgets, replay 30 days of card spend for a company profile, and watch the 80% warnings and 100% breaches fire. It works the same on Airbase cards, on the cards you move to, or on both during a migration.

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Monthly budgets

Anomaly sensitivity
Alert channels

Short answer

What is the best Airbase alternative in 2026?

The best Airbase alternative depends on which of Airbase's four jobs you actually use: corporate cards, AP automation, expense reimbursement or purchase requests. For cards and expenses with a published price, Ramp ($0 on Free, $15 per user on Plus) and Brex ($0 on Essentials, $12 per user on Premium) are the closest swaps, but both put their controls on their own card. For purchase requests, a procurement tool such as ProcureDesk. For receipts on mixed cards, Expensify. And if you already run payroll on Paylocity, staying is often the cheapest answer, because that shared employee record is exactly what Paylocity bought Airbase for.

The event

What the Paylocity acquisition changed for Airbase customers

Taken from Paylocity's own press release and from what airbase.com and paylocity.com show today. No speculation about roadmaps nobody outside Paylocity has seen.

Swipe the table sideways to compare all columns.

When What happened What it means for you
October 1, 2024 Paylocity completes the acquisition of Airbase, a platform combining bill pay and AP automation, expense management, corporate cards and procurement. Your spend platform is now owned by a payroll and HR company with close to 40,000 clients, by its own count at the time.
Since then The product is sold as Paylocity for Finance: Guided Procurement, AP Automation, Expense Management, Corporate Cards and Headcount Planning. Renewals and new quotes come from Paylocity, and the pitch leads with payroll and non-payroll spend on one platform.
Today airbase.com routes every link to Paylocity. Existing customers still log in at dashboard.airbase.io and are told to keep working with their current contacts. Nothing forces a move right now. The question is whether the product's direction still fits a company that pays its people through someone else.

Why this can be good news

A public company with a large client base is a steadier owner than a venture-funded startup. If you run payroll on Paylocity, reimbursements, headcount plans and card spend can now hang off one employee record, which is a real reduction in reconciliation work.

Why it is worth a second look

Airbase was built to sell to finance teams at companies with 100 to 5,000 employees whatever their payroll vendor. Paylocity's stated goal is to let its own payroll clients manage all spend on one platform. If you are on ADP, Gusto or Rippling payroll, that is not the use case the pitch leads with.

What it costs

How much does Airbase cost now?

Airbase has no public price list. Paylocity for Finance is quoted per customer, and Paylocity says the modules can be implemented in whole or in part, so a company that only uses cards and expenses should not be quoted for procurement and AP. Paylocity's wider platform is priced per employee per month, with implementation fees and annual escalators negotiated separately.

That makes an honest side-by-side hard, and it is why we leave the Airbase cell blank in the table below instead of repeating an estimate we cannot verify. What you can do is ask for three numbers in writing before your renewal: the finance modules as their own line item, the per-employee rate after any bundle discount, and the annual increase cap. With those three, the comparison against published prices takes ten minutes.

One point in Airbase's favor that the cheaper options do not match: Paylocity's page says you can use your existing cards or Paylocity-issued cards. Ramp and Brex do most of their controlling on the card they issue. Be precise about what that buys you: existing cards get visibility, coding and reconciliation, while blocking a charge before it clears still needs the card the platform issues. If your company is attached to its bank card program, that difference is worth more than a seat price.

Airbase competitors, side by side

Airbase competitors compared on price and card rules

Prices are what each vendor publishes on its own pricing page, re-checked in September 2026. Where a vendor publishes nothing, the cell says so.

Swipe the table sideways to compare all columns.

Platform Published price Card rules Best for
Airbase (Paylocity for Finance) None published. Custom quote, modules sold in whole or in part Existing cards or the Paylocity card, issued by Sutton Bank on Visa Paylocity payroll customers who want AP, procurement, cards and expenses in one place
Ramp Free at $0 per user; Plus at $15 per user per month plus a platform fee based on team size Controls work on Ramp-issued cards Mid-market teams willing to move cards, with bill pay included
Brex, a Capital One company Essentials at $0 per user; Premium at $12 per user per month; Enterprise on quote Brex card, with eligibility checks Funded startups and scale-ups, especially multi-entity
BILL Spend and Expense $0 per user; AP plans billed separately Requires an approved BILL Divvy credit line Cost-sensitive teams that already pay bills in BILL
Navan Expense Free for the first 5 monthly expensing users, then $15 per user per month Navan card or outside cards through Navan Connect Travel-heavy companies that want booking and expenses together
Expensify Collect $5 per unique member per month; Control $18 per active member per month on annual Card-agnostic for receipts and reimbursements Receipt capture and reimbursement across mixed cards
ProcureDesk $830 per month for 10 users; $1,250 per month for 20 Not a card issuer Replacing Airbase's purchase requests and PO approvals
SpendNotify Flat: $199, $449 or $999 per month for the company; Enterprise on quote Issues nothing; reads the cards and accounts you keep Real-time budget and anomaly alerts next to whichever platform you choose

Ramp does not publish the Plus platform fee. Brex eligibility depends on funding, revenue or headcount. Full detail on Ramp pricing, Brex pricing, Navan pricing and Expensify pricing.

Replace the job, not the logo

Which Airbase job are you replacing?

Airbase bundled four products. Almost nobody uses all four equally, and the alternative that fits best is the one that is strongest at the job you lean on most.

Corporate cards and card controls

Ramp or Brex. Both publish a $0 tier and both put limits, merchant locks and freezes on the card they issue. The trade is a card migration. See Ramp vs Brex for the head-to-head.

AP automation and bill pay

BILL, Tipalti or Stampli, or Ramp's bill pay if you are moving cards anyway. AP is usually the stickiest module to leave, because vendor bank details and approval chains live there. Move it last, and never in the same month as your cards.

Expense reports and reimbursements

Expensify if staff pay on mixed cards, Navan if travel drives most of your expenses. If you are weighing reimbursement tools more widely, our expense reimbursement software comparison covers the payout timing question that matters most to employees.

Purchase requests and budget checks

A procurement platform such as ProcureDesk or Coupa checks a request against the remaining budget before the purchase order goes out. Card platforms only see spend after it happens. If the budget check is what you will miss, read our comparison of budget alert software for procurement teams.

If you do leave

What migrating off Airbase actually involves

The subscription is the smallest number in this decision. Time the whole plan to your Airbase renewal date, since the contract decides the calendar.

Swipe the table sideways to compare all columns.

Step What it involves Where it goes wrong
1. Contract and export Confirm the renewal date and notice period. Export transactions, receipts, bills, vendor records and approval history while you still have full access. Teams wait until the last month and lose the audit trail their records retention policy needs.
2. Underwriting If the new platform issues cards, get approved and see your limit before telling anyone internally. A limit below your monthly card spend kills the plan halfway through.
3. Cards and recurring charges Issue new cards, then move every subscription and vendor that bills an Airbase card. One forgotten SaaS renewal declines on the old card and a service goes dark.
4. Policies, approvals and GL mapping Rebuild spend limits, purchase request rules and approval chains, and re-map categories to your chart of accounts. Rules rarely map one to one, so the first close on the new system miscodes spend.
5. Parallel close Run both systems through one month-end close, reconcile, then switch Airbase off. Skipping this is how duplicate or missed payments get into the books.

During the parallel month spend runs on two systems at once, and neither one shows the full picture. That is exactly when a read-only alert layer across both feeds earns its keep: one set of real-time budget alerts watching every card, old and new.

Where we fit, and where we do not

SpendNotify is not an Airbase replacement

We should be plain about this. SpendNotify does not issue cards, pay bills, run purchase requests or reimburse employees. If you need those jobs done, pick from the table above.

What SpendNotify does is watch. It connects read-only to the card and bank transaction feeds you already have, checks every new charge against the budgets you set per team, person and category, and alerts the budget owner by email, SMS or Slack at 80% and at 100%, with anomaly and subscription alerts on top. It works next to Airbase if you stay, next to Ramp or Brex if you move, and across both during the switch. Plans are flat per month, not per employee, so it costs the same whether 40 or 90 people hold a card.

Companies that want that layer without any migration at all usually start with corporate card monitoring on the cards they keep.

Questions buyers ask

Airbase alternatives, answered

What is the best Airbase alternative?

It depends on which part of Airbase you actually use. For corporate cards and expenses with a published price, Ramp and Brex are the closest swaps, but both expect you to move onto their card. For procurement and purchase requests, look at a procurement platform such as ProcureDesk. For receipts and reimbursements across mixed cards, Expensify. If you run payroll on Paylocity, staying on Paylocity for Finance is often the cheapest option.

Did Paylocity buy Airbase?

Yes. Paylocity completed its acquisition of Airbase on October 1, 2024, according to Paylocity's own press release. Airbase's cards, AP automation, expense management and procurement now sit inside a product Paylocity calls Paylocity for Finance, and airbase.com points visitors to Paylocity. Existing customers still log in at dashboard.airbase.io.

How much does Airbase cost?

Airbase has no public price list today. It is sold as Paylocity for Finance, on a custom quote, and Paylocity says the modules can be bought in whole or in part. Paylocity's wider platform is priced per employee per month, so ask for the finance modules to be quoted as a separate line so you can compare them against published prices elsewhere.

Who are Airbase's main competitors?

For cards and expenses: Ramp, Brex, BILL Spend and Expense, and Navan. For AP automation: BILL, Tipalti and Stampli. For procurement: ProcureDesk and Coupa. For receipts and reimbursements on any card: Expensify. Airbase covered all four jobs in one product, so most companies replace it with one main platform plus a gap filler.

Should I switch from Airbase after the Paylocity acquisition?

Not on the acquisition alone. Switch if your renewal quote rises, if you do not run payroll on Paylocity and the roadmap is moving toward Paylocity customers, or if support gets slower. Stay if you already use Paylocity payroll, because one employee record driving both payroll and spend is the whole point of the deal.

Can I keep my existing corporate cards if I leave Airbase?

Only with some alternatives. Ramp and Brex put their controls on the cards they issue, so leaving Airbase for either usually means a card migration. Expensify and Navan Expense accept outside card feeds. SpendNotify connects read-only to the cards you already hold and sends budget and anomaly alerts, without issuing a card.

How long does it take to migrate off Airbase?

Plan one quarter for a single US entity and longer for multi-entity setups. The software is quick to switch on. The time goes into reissuing cards, moving every recurring vendor charge, re-creating approval chains and purchase request rules, re-mapping the general ledger, and running both systems through one month-end close.

Can I get real-time budget alerts without replacing Airbase?

Yes. SpendNotify connects read-only to your card and bank transaction feeds and alerts the budget owner by email, SMS or Slack when a team or category trends past plan. It does not issue cards, pay bills or route purchase requests, so it sits next to Airbase or next to whatever replaces it.

Keep reading

Related pages

Staying on Airbase, moving off it, or somewhere in between? Put real-time budget alerts on every card either way.

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