Airbase Reviews: 4.8/5 — Highly Rated
Airbase is a modern finance and expense management platform that automates and streamlines financial processes. It offers a suite of features that include virtual cards, spend management, and real-time expense tracking. Additionally, Airbase integrates with various other business tools such as payroll, accounting, and invoicing systems, making it a one-stop-shop for all finance needs.
| Capabilities |
API
|
|---|---|
| Segment |
Small Business
Mid Market
Enterprise
|
| Deployment | Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Mobile Android, Mobile iPad, Mobile iPhone |
| Training | Documentation |
| Languages | English |
Airbase is now Airbase by Paylocity, and airbase.com/pricing redirects to Paylocity’s pricing page. Paylocity completed the $325 million acquisition on 1 October 2024, and the product has been absorbed into its HCM platform. That single fact matters more than any feature comparison, because virtually every review you will find describes a standalone company that no longer sells to you on its own terms.
- What it is: A spend management platform covering corporate cards, bill pay, expense management, and procurement, now part of Paylocity.
- Best for: Mid-market companies that also want Paylocity’s payroll and HR, so spend and payroll sit on one platform.
- Pricing: No longer published separately. Airbase’s pricing page now serves Paylocity’s, which is quote-only via a demo request form.
- The honest catch: Older reviews, comparisons, and pricing guides describe pre-acquisition Airbase and should not be relied on.
What Happened to Airbase
Paylocity announced its agreement to acquire Airbase on 4 September 2024 and completed the deal on 1 October 2024 for approximately $325 million, funded through its revolving credit facility. Both companies confirmed the completion publicly.
The strategic logic was explicit: Paylocity sells HR and payroll, Airbase sold spend management, and the combination lets a company manage payroll and non-payroll spend on one platform. Paylocity described the goal as a single pane of glass across all company spending, with real-time visibility and a faster financial close.
The practical consequences for a buyer in 2026 are concrete. The airbase.com homepage now identifies the product as “Airbase by Paylocity”. The pricing page redirects to paylocity.com. And Paylocity does not publish prices — its pricing page is a demo request form asking for your employee count, job title, and business zip code.
The product has not been discontinued. But it is no longer a standalone purchase in the way it was, and the evaluation you run should be an evaluation of Paylocity.
What Airbase Does
The underlying capability is well regarded and was the reason for the acquisition price:
- Corporate cards with policy controls applied at the point of purchase.
- Bill pay and AP automation, which was Airbase’s strongest area and a genuine differentiator against card-first competitors.
- Expense management with receipt capture, coding, and reimbursement.
- Procurement and intake, covering purchase requests and approvals before spend happens.
- Approval workflows across all of the above, which is what distinguished it from simpler card products.
- Accounting integration for close automation.
That combination — cards plus AP plus procurement in one approval framework — is what mid-market finance teams valued, and it remains the substance of what Paylocity now sells under the Airbase name.
Airbase Pricing
There is no published Airbase pricing to report. Its pricing URL serves Paylocity’s page, which offers “Request Pricing with a Free Demo” and collects your details rather than displaying rates.
This is a meaningful downgrade in transparency for evaluation purposes. Pre-acquisition, Airbase published tiered plans. Now:
- Every price is quoted. You cannot compare Airbase against Ramp or Brex without a sales conversation, and both of those publish or offer free entry tiers.
- Pricing is likely bundled with Paylocity. The commercial logic of the acquisition is cross-selling into HCM customers, so quotes may be structured around the wider platform rather than spend management alone.
- Your negotiating position is weaker. With no list price and no comparable public figures, you have no anchor.
- Ask directly whether Airbase can be bought standalone, and on what terms, before investing time in a demo. That is the question the website no longer answers.
Who Should Use Airbase Now
- Existing Paylocity customers. The clearest case by a distance. If your payroll and HR already run on Paylocity, adding spend management on the same platform is exactly the integration the acquisition was built to deliver.
- Companies evaluating Paylocity anyway. Bundling spend management into that decision may produce a better commercial outcome than buying separately.
- Mid-market finance teams needing AP depth. Airbase’s bill pay and procurement capability genuinely exceeds what card-first competitors offer.
It fits poorly for companies that want spend management alone, where Ramp and Brex are simpler to buy and publish more; for startups, where both of those have free entry tiers; and for anyone unwilling to enter a sales process to learn a price.
Honest Pros and Cons
Strengths
- Genuinely strong AP and procurement. The deepest part of the product and the reason it commanded $325 million.
- Unified approval workflows. Cards, bills, and purchase requests under one policy framework.
- Now integrated with payroll. A real advantage if you run Paylocity, and the whole point of the deal.
- Backed by a larger company. Paylocity brings scale and stability a standalone spend startup could not.
- Mid-market fit. Built for companies with real finance processes rather than a founder with a card.
Limitations
- No published pricing at all. Quote-only through Paylocity’s demo form.
- No longer straightforward to buy standalone. The commercial model now points toward the HCM platform.
- Existing reviews are out of date. Almost everything written about Airbase predates the acquisition.
- Competitors are free at entry. Ramp and Brex both offer $0 tiers; Airbase does not.
- Integration is still settling. Product direction under new ownership takes time to become clear.
Airbase Alternatives and How It Compares
- Ramp is the leading independent alternative, free at entry, with strong AP capability and a savings-oriented positioning.
- Brex is free at entry too, though it was itself acquired by Capital One in April 2026 — worth knowing that both major alternatives now sit inside larger financial institutions.
- Bill.com focuses specifically on accounts payable, which was Airbase’s strongest area, and is often the closest functional match.
- SAP Concur is the enterprise incumbent for expense and travel, heavier and more expensive.
- Zoho Expense is dramatically cheaper for expense reporting alone, with published pricing.
- Rippling offers a comparable payroll-plus-spend combination if the unified platform is what appeals.
For a broader survey, browse our expense management directory.
The Verdict
Airbase was a good product and remains one, but in 2026 the question is not whether Airbase is worth buying — it is whether Paylocity is. The acquisition completed on 1 October 2024, the pricing page now belongs to Paylocity, and the commercial model has shifted from a standalone spend management purchase to a module within an HCM platform. Evaluate it on that basis and you will not be surprised later.
For existing Paylocity customers this is straightforwardly good news. Spend management on the same platform as payroll is a genuine operational advantage, the AP and procurement capability is stronger than most card-first competitors offer, and the integration is precisely what the $325 million was spent to achieve. If Paylocity already runs your payroll, this should be on your shortlist and may well win.
For everyone else, be deliberate. Ramp and Brex are both free at entry and considerably easier to evaluate, and Bill.com covers the AP strength that was Airbase’s best feature. The absence of any published pricing means you cannot compare without a sales process, which is a real cost in itself. Before booking a demo, ask directly whether Airbase can still be purchased standalone and on what terms — that is the question the website no longer answers, and the answer determines whether this is a shortlist candidate or a Paylocity upsell.
One practical caution that applies to research rather than the product: treat any Airbase review, comparison, or pricing guide that does not mention Paylocity as out of date. A great deal of what is published still describes the independent company and its former published plans, and none of that is what you would be buying.
FAQ
Was Airbase acquired?
Yes. Paylocity announced a definitive agreement on 4 September 2024 and completed the acquisition on 1 October 2024 for approximately $325 million, funded through its revolving credit facility. Both companies confirmed completion publicly. The product now trades as “Airbase by Paylocity” and its pricing page redirects to Paylocity’s website.
How much does Airbase cost?
There is no published price. Airbase’s pricing URL now serves Paylocity’s pricing page, which is a demo request form collecting your business email, employee count, and job title rather than displaying rates. Pre-acquisition Airbase published tiered plans, but those figures no longer reflect what is on offer, and any current cost has to be obtained through a sales conversation.
Is Airbase still available as a standalone product?
It has not been discontinued, and the capability still exists under the Airbase name. But the commercial model now runs through Paylocity, whose strategic rationale for the purchase was combining payroll and non-payroll spend on one platform. Whether a standalone purchase remains straightforward is a question worth asking Paylocity directly before beginning an evaluation.
What are the best alternatives to Airbase?
Ramp and Brex are the leading independent alternatives, both free at entry and much easier to evaluate without a sales process — though Brex was itself acquired by Capital One in April 2026. Bill.com is the closest match for Airbase’s accounts payable strength. Zoho Expense is far cheaper for expense reporting alone, and SAP Concur is the enterprise option.
Should I trust older Airbase reviews?
Treat them with caution. Most published reviews, comparisons, and pricing guides describe the independent company as it operated before October 2024, including plan structures and prices that no longer apply. If a review does not mention Paylocity, it predates the acquisition and does not describe what you would actually be buying today.
Compare Airbase with other popular tools in the same category.
What sets Airbase apart is its clean, no-nonsense UI combined with a speed interface. Other tools can be a bit slow, but Airbase does not have this problem at all.
It can be difficult to figure out how much money is left available to spend for a certain policy, but other than that, there's not much to dislike about the tool.
Airbase helps me get reimbursed quickly for expenses I pay out of pocket that relate to my job. Requesting reimbursements is straightforward and opens up time for me to get real work done.
It is a user-friendly and straightforward platform. I enjoy using this to submit reimbursement requests and is a seamless process.
I've not had an issue utilizing Airbase at this time.
Reimbursement
It is super easy to use and user-friendly, I did not know anything about Airbase when I joined Doximity but it hardly took me time to learn the tool!
Would love to have more enhancements so that I do not have to click too many times to find something I need.
Processing invoices, approving PO's, can use this tool forever if I get to see more enhancements
We really like the simplicity of Airbase. It's very user-friendly and we like that our employees only have to use one system for all spend-related tasks (AP, Virtual Cards, Reimbursements). Their support team is helpful and they're always rolling out new features and functionality.
Airbase is rapidly changing and developing new features, which is great. However, there are times when the site runs slow or is buggy. These instances are rare, but they do happen. For us, it's a small trade-off for the benefits we receive from an all-in-one platform. They also lack some basic functionality around mileage reimbursements at the moment, but they are working on rolling out an update in the near future to address this and in the meantime, the workaround is easy enough.
Airbase allows our finance and accounting team to do more with less. The workflows allow for streamlined processing of expenses and makes approval documentation extremely easy. We are also able to track expense owners in a much cleaner way. We no longer have to wonder who has committed the company to certain expenses - everything has an owner.
It's been great to be able to consolidate all of the spend (reimbursements, credit cards, bills, and virtual cards) into one platform. I like how it puts the burden of spend off of my employees and back into the company's hands.
I wish Airbase had better reporting - specifically around vendor management (renewal dates, etc..) and amortization schedules. Since they are naturally going to be the source of truth for vendor data, it would be great if there was more robust reporting so we don't have to keep a log elsewhere.
We are reducing reliance on employee reimbursements, improving compliance with receipt reminders, and getting real-time expense reporting to keep a pulse on overall spend.
Ease of use with regards to submitting a reimbursement. There are no snags along the way, and being in finance, I love the ability to connect with a chart of accounts
Permissioning capabilities could be better. I think the admin should be able to modify every aspect of a user's permissions. For instance, maybe an executive assistant to the CEO should be able to approve invoices on their behalf for expenses up to a certain $ amount and then anything thereafter would get pushed directly to the CEO. Things of this nature
Employee reimbursement and the ease of use with accounting softwares. Potentially benefitting financially due to the time saved on reclassing expenses
I like the user interface of the web application. It is very easy in one place to see all relevant cards and any pending approvals for your manager or subordinate.
I think it would be beneficial to add in a note/disclaimer when selecting a one-time use card. Recently, I booked a flight on the portal, I guess the flight was broken up into a few different charges (booking, website fees, etc.). The card only accepted payment on the first charge (website fees) and then I just had a partial booking with several declined transactions, that had to be corrected. It could be helpful to add a small "heads up" when selecting a one-time use card.
Airbase is just making it very easy to view/submit expenses and request reimbursement in a simple, streamlined way. As just an end user (not an admin), I can really only speak to the UI/UX of the portal and its ease of use for expenses and vendor management.
I love the design of the online dashboard, being both beautiful and easy to digest. I also love the ease of use with the physical card and how funds are added.
So far I haven't found anything that I dislike or would want to improve. It would be nice to be able to link personal rewards cards in some way to earn points.
The biggest problem Airbase is solving is removing the need to save receipts and submit expense reports. It's nice to just have money loaded and use it.
--ability to provision cards --ability to have spend sync directly to GL --ability to have multiple approval processes/cadences
--some UI could be updated (where to add receipts can be confusing) --limited functionality to apply global settings (ie: 15% overage applies globally, but would like to customize global assumption for vendors above a certain $ threshold)
--easily can manage company cards --saving time booking entries to Netsuite
I have visibility into my team's spending without having to bother my accounting team. Further, the spending limit keeps me at ease that I am in alignment with our company goals. LOVE the reporting.
The inability to access/manage vendor subscriptions through Airbase.
Problems we are trying to solve - disparate tracking across vendor and employee spend. Benefits - through the reporting we're able to quickly identify trends across our spending to make informed business decisions.
Airbase has an intuitive UI and a great autoscanning functionality.
There are some bugs, for example when uploading a receipt photo.
I rarely have to put in the information manually bc it's autoscanning so accurate. This saves the tediousness of submitting expenses
The ability to create a visa card for reimbursements so quickly and easily is great; only having to wait for my manager's approval is the simplest part that I don't have to think about.
It would be nice if users could upload multiple receipts for a specified purchase. For instance, on Amazon, I can only purchase one thing at a time with a new card for each item because there are usually different sellers for separate items. If I were to buy all items at once, Airbase would decline the purchase and charge my personal card, causing me to go back and request a reimbursement for the difference.
With Airbase, I no longer have to send my receipts for purchases to my companies Finance team. Instead, I do everything in one centralized place w/o having to go back and forth. This way I get approvals and money faster.
There are a lot of great features about Airbase. In particular, it is helpful that the platform automatically pulls the relevant information from the invoice fields and pre-fills the vendor name and owner. Furthermore, the ease of adding layers of approval and not having to manually track those and initiate payments after approvals have been a huge time saver for the accounting department. The integration to our accounting software is essential. It allows us not to spend time manually entering bills/payments into our accounts. From a cash planning perspective, the scheduled payments tab is extremely helpful for us to help our operating expense funding plan. Airbase removes a lot of the manual processing and allows the team to focus on whether the spend is appropriate and get the proper approvals and payments out on time. For the year that we've used this platform, it has been one of the most utilized accounting tools, and I'm excited to continue using the features and value Airbase provides for our Company.
One area of improvement that would be helpful is to remove the amortization entires of denied/archived bills. I still have to go into Quickbooks Online and manually delete those entries. I think another feature that would be helpful is that when I process an invoice, and an approver adds comments, only the vendor owner/other approvers get a notification of the comment. I think it would be helpful for whoever is processing or had sent the email to the Airbase inbox to receive a notification of comments as that person, as a part of the finance team, would need an understanding of what needs to be updated/modified/vendor conversations. I'm not sure if this is currently a feature, but having Airbase connect to slack and to be able to send approval reminders to team members through slack would be extremely helpful. We also process many of our prepaid invoices through airbase, it would be great to be able to download a prepaid expenses register and amortization schedule.
We solve the issue of tracking our invoices and payments. Airbase removes a lot of manual work that we usually would have to do in tracking who has approved bills and entering bill information into our tracking spreadsheet. Additionally, some vendors will send their invoices multiple times to process and remind us when payment is coming due. Airbase will not process invoices when the same invoice number has already been processed previously. Airbase is a great tool for us to see where all of our invoices stand and what part of our approval workflow they are in.
the ability to create a temporary virtual credit card for a one-time payment is great. makes bill payment much easier. the UI is quite simple and clean, very user friendly -- you don't have to have an accounting degree to use this stuff, it's very intuitive.
no clear escalation path for things like disputing a credit card charge, for example. and it's too easy for individuals to charge back to different departments, e.g. someone in HR submitting a payment and marking it to hit Finance team's budget.
easy way for individuals to pay invoices with simple tracking for actuals and proper approvals / oversight. helps a growing business scale bill payment.
I love being able to see all of our non-payroll spend in one place and being able to direct employees to one platform for all of their needs instead of 2 or 3. The reimbursements module has received rave reviews compared to our old solution (Expensify). The approval flow is super customizable with the advanced approval module, allowing all of our stakeholders to be involved in the review/approval process.
Physical cards need some improvement. Employees not being able to request limit changes via the app is definitely a product gap, as it means that we have to resort to Slack/email for approvals. Being able to change limits in batch would also be useful, as would the concept of budgets instead of just a credit limit. For context, we come from Divvy, so there are definitely some features that I miss.
Having the approval flow is huge, especially as we grow and the likelihood of an audit increases. Department leaders having real-time access to spend reporting is also a huge win. Reimbursements have also been going very smoothly.
Controls around managing vendors and expenses between departments
Integration with Quickbooks DT could use improvement
Overall we manage our vendors much more efficiently and cut down on payment processing time
The approval process is much easier for my company. I have recovered an hour and a half each day
Not being notified if a vendor has not had their ACH information approved. I have to keep checking back to pay them.
Time-saving on approvals. Hoping my company invites our clients to use it so they can take some data entry from me
Airbase is a great tool that helps to automate and streamline procurement. I think it has a really good layout and very easy to use. I find the dashboard really helpful to manage requests and the workload. I mainly work with bill processing. It is amazing how automation helped us save the time to process incoming bills
--I would like to see more functionality around reporting and custom fields and filters. Sometimes I find it difficult to find information in one place; instead I have to click in multiple places and consolidate my findings. For example if I want to see all PO for one vendor I can't currently do that. I have to go to open PO, request, closed POs. Archieved POs. I think everything that is vendor related should be accessible from just the vendor profile. --I would like to see a better sync with our accounting system. If information for vendor details like 1099/address lives in Airbase, I want to see that information in Inacct too. Currently only vendor name syncs with inacct which is not very helpful for 1099 purposes. --I also would like to see more options for accounts. For example for balance sheet accounts I would like to see corresponding expense account. Right now you can split amounts on the bill/PO but you can't select balance sheet and coresponding P&L account.
-Working right now to streamline vendor profiles and make sure that information captured in Airbase is useful for 1099 production and vendor details tracking for the accounting software. Currently, Airbase has only one-way sync, which imposes a lot of limitations. -Trying to find a better way to manage credit card transactions and reconcile it to the statement. -Other minor issue around PO and bill functionalities.
-User-friendly interface - Slack notifications
- non automated approvers - Search all virtual cards vs Recurring and One expenses search
Creating POs
The ability to automate the approval and payment workflow after importing bill details is the best part. It enables the right people to see their spend and doesn't require involvement from the accounting department to acquire approvals or process the payment.
I wish there was more functionality to further automate the bill pay process. For example, reminder nudge emails only go out to approvers on Wednesdays. We don't have an option to change that. If the approver ignores their first email and doesn't get reminded until Wednesday, the bill will likely be late. Additionally, we have a policy that requires new approval levels for different dollar thresholds. It would be nice if the approvers required for each threshold were automatically added when a bill is above a certain amount.
We are able to share spend details with all of the relevant personnel. We are also able to require their sign-off and retain that approval in the form of an audit trail. We used acquire approvals manually through a Google Sheet and then process payment ad-hoc when those approvals came through. As a result of using Airbase, accounts payable is run much more efficiently.
The best feature within Airbase is the virtual credit card workflow. Once a card is approved and set up correctly, each charge is automatically coded to the appropriate GL account/Dept and synced without requiring review by accounting. Another great feature is the receipts matching, which can be set up so that the spender requires no work if they provide the vendor with the unique airbase email.
My biggest issue with airbase is reconciling the Airbase clearing account with the corresponding cash account in our accounting system. I run into problems with dates not lining up and the balances not reconciling pretty regularly, which requires extra investigative work.
Airbase has allowed us to implement new internal controls for procurement and streamlined approval processes for employees' spend. These features ensure that no expenses go unreviewed by the accounting team before they get charged/invoiced. The setup for the virtual credit cards also saves us time not having to reconcile credit card statements.
-The virtual card module of Airbase is superb. It is incredibly easy to issue cards with flexible controls & accurate GL coding. -Bill Pay is solid and even supports international transactions. -Their implementation team, while mostly overseas, is very diligent at making sure your team is onboarded and everything continues to work smoothly.
-The overall layout of the platform needs to be a bit more straightforward and intuitive. It is sometimes difficult to locate certain modules. -It would be helpful to see which employees are tied to certain subscriptions that we pay for. -Reconciling our account is painful. We can't complete it until pending transactions settle out, and there is not even a PDF statement. -The platform needs a better sense of accrued expenses.
We have streamlined our procurement and bill payments processes. Airbase has created a clear approval paper trail and effective coding to our GL.
As a user, it is effortless to upload receipts/attach documentation
As an admin, the navigation between those for whom I am a delegate could be better. There is no alert (yet) for missing expense information aside from the receipt (category, description, location, etc) . It would be nice to be able to filter by missing info rather than the expense only being listed in chronological order. It would also be nice to be able to list virtual cards in alphabetical order rather than the order by which they were approved so it's easier to find a specific one. Re: comments on POs/VCs, it would be helpful for the comment to have an actual date, rather than "5 days ago", etc.
Approval workflows; all information in one place.
Organized workflow to route approvals and see status. Dashboard & reporting, and email reminders are also helpful
Small quirk - from Okta, have to click 2x to successfully log in
Visibility and organization of bills to approve
Virtual cards and invoices in same tool.
Invoice approval is harder to do in batches.
Single source for all AP (virtual cards and invoices).
I love the virtual card feature. Makes it so easy to expense without being out of pocket.
Things can get a little buggy sometimes when uploading expenses but usually not an issue.
Not having to worry about having a corporate card, which I thought I liked, but now realize is more of a burden than I thought.
Very easy to use - both in app and website
Some limitations around expense reporting
Tracking expenses across the company
Airbase is a quick and easy way to process payments. Doesn't require too many hoops to jump through and the security of each payment is top notch.
There isn't much I dislike about airbase.
We can process payments quickly and easily.
Managing company expenses from one portal
Takes a bit of time to understand the platform.
Ease of access to company finances.