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.
The best and most helpful thing about Airbase is its ease of use, from submission to approval to visibility - it just works. My life got easier when we made the move to Airbase.
I have not encountered any downsides to Airbase.
It helps me understand the team's spending and manage it for my company. It simplified the expense submission and approval process for not just my team but the entire company.
I don't have to keep and submit all my receipts after a trip is over. The app prompts for the receipts and categorization immediately, making it easy to record everything at the time of the expense.
The invoice submission rules could be a bit better. At this time, it isn't possible to check if the details have been captured accurately through the OCR, and I can't quickly check if the same invoice has been uploaded twice.
It's making it easier to manage and approve the expenses posted in my reports, and it makes the issuance of virtual cards for one-off expenses extremely seamless.
Super easy and intuitive to use. I use regularly to submit and cover expenses at work and have always been delighted with how simple the whole process is. I also appreciate how streamlined the tracking of everything is while waiting for expenses to go through approval process.
Haven't found anything to dislike yet! No notes!
Streamlined expense management. Being able to pay vendors quickly and efficiently with virtual cards.
Airbase makes it super simple and efficient to submit reimbursements and manage team expenses. I've used similar tools in the past and it's by far the most intuitive but also great to manage so many things in one place. Oh, and having multiple virtual cards makes marketing purchases and overall workflow significantly smoother.
No dislikes here. I'm pretty happy with all aspects of Airbase that I use it for.
For us, we needed an all in one solution that simplified things for our AP team but also made it easy for our users. Airbase solves this problem and makes our lives easier overall.
It's super easy to navigate. Adding receipts, tagging each department, & being able to see the spending analytics is a favorite feature for me.
Sometimes a little difficult to share with vendors.
It's easy & effective for the whole team to use.
Being in a customer-facing role within marketing, I'm always sending gifts and Airbase makes it SO easy for me to get costs approved. The process of requesting approvals and uploading docs like invoices and receipts is so easy. Love this tool!
No major downsides honestly. The tool is really easy to use. If I had to choose one, it gets kind of confusing when you get approval for virtual cards, the default is one time use but sometimes you'll need to charge it multiple times.
Airbase makes it really easy for me to get approval for & costs related to the work I'm doing. I don't have to keep my customers waiting since approvals happen so quickly.
I work for a company that was acquired so I was quite new to Airbase. I was not looking forward to use a brand new system to get vendors paid. I was very happy and surprise to find out how easy it was to get a virtual card (which also makes life easy).. and it was a breeze to set up and get approved.
I can't say that there was anything in my experience that I disliked about the experience using Airbase.
Virtual cards for different vendors makes my life a breeze. Before I had to use a corporate card and then submit monthly expenses. Setting up a virtual card with pre-approved limits makes things easy. No worrying about submitting expenses.
I like that we each have our cards and can track our spending easily. I like that it feels like a company card but we still have limits so people can't overspend.
I don't like that the app doesn't have the billing address shown for the card. When traveling, I couldn't easily find the card billing address. I had to look it up on my laptop, which took additional time.
At this time, I don't have any problems for Airbase to solve. Also, I'm not sure what problems Airbase is currently solving for.
Airbase is user-friendly and easy to get going with minimum training.
Probably just that they lack a little on the international side of things and paying employees their expenses in other countries.
One place to come for T&E reimbursements/processing and virtual credit cards. Other companies have this in one place, but Airbase makes it so easy to use both!
The ease of use and end user experience is great. I work on the finance team and am a business partner. Approving invoices and ensuring they are coded correctly is amazing in Airbase. It really helps with reclasses and adjustments every month end.
Airbase does have some limitations when it comes to bills/invoices that have multiple terms/amounts. We use Airbase and integrate it into NetSuite. We had a bill that had a credit for a prorated term and the renewal annual amount. We couldn't figure out how to add multiple amortization periods with Airbase so it was imported with one line and schedule. This cause some accounting errors and was a bit of a headache during month end. Overall though it is a pretty great system.
I would hope that adding multiple amortization periods that then sync with Netsuite would be on the roadmap. However, we need to reach out to Airbase to figure out if there is already a solution.
At my last company, we also had a tool for getting expenses approved. It was the worst. It would take me like 20 minutes to upload a single receipt and submit it for approval. Airbase is SO MUCH BETTER. The first time I logged in, I easily figured out how to submit my expense reports. And it automatically reads my receipts and can figure out vendor, purchase date, amount, etc. So I don't even have to type anything out.
I haven't found anything I dislike about Airbase. It's super easy to use and so intuitive.
Airbase makes it easy for me to submit expenses.
Overall it would be the ease of use and how simple thie user experience is to navigate the required fields
I honestly can't think of something that I dislike
It makes it super simple to add reports, which motivates me to actually create a report and get reimbursed for things.
From an IT perpective, Airbase has made management super easy including: -Lifecycle management of users through the Okta integration -Passing of necessary attributes from Okta to Airbase Both of these have made it possible for my team to "set it and forget it" as users profiles are kept up to date automatically.
Since making the improvements and adding features we have found that from our perspective, all of these issues have been resolved and our team rarely gets involved. As an end user, sometimes the UI is slow
the Finance team uses airbase for PO and virtual card management. As an end user, it's been a positive experience having approval, spend, receipts all be in one area.
I love that I can manage my reimbursements and corporate credit card expenses all on one platform. The bill scan for reimbursements works well and accepts different formats for image upload, including screenshots. The Airbase card is straightforward to use and accepted widely by all merchants as it is a Visa card-I was even able to use it with no issues on our recent company retreat in Mexico. I have used other expense management platforms for work travel in the past, and Airbase is BY FAR the most straightforward platform I have used to date.
The app is sometimes clunky and glitchy when uploading receipts, and I highly prefer to use the browser version of Airbase to upload my receipts.
Airbase allows for every employee to have a "corporate card" and makes it easy for any employee to travel on a whim for clients, events, etc., without having to worry about personal reimbursements. Company perks for things like remote benefits can also be managed on the same platform.
I love how organized and intuitive it is and how supportive the process is! I really appreciate how straightforward and user-friendly it is.
There really isn't anything so far! Airbase has made the experience super easy.
Tracking expenses has always been an unorganized process that causes headaches and historically has been put off. Now with Airbase tracking and reimbursement is so easy I get it done right away!
The software is as simple as it gets, very friendly to use, the continous prompts about actioning an item are a great way to keep you on track
Airbase listens to customers and a lot has been updated as a result. All my previous complaints have been carefully taken care of. Team work makes dream work!
Replaced 3 different softwares we were using before. It is truly a all in one application for us and we appreciate every aspect of it
The comprehensive dashboard is easy to read and is extremely helpful in finding quick facts or notifications.
Out of the parts of the app that I have used, not much, honestly! its pretty standard and doesn't have too many bottlenecks.
Its removing pain points in knowing who to ask for what, and where to submit certain receipts and documents.
Airbase very easily allows all employees to manage their expenses from one platform, while making it easy for finance to manage the entire system while keeping team's accountable.
Sometimes Airbase requires a few too many clicks to get certain actions complete. However, the self-service nature of the platform makes up for the extra clicks.
Airbase allows the company to manage expenses in one central location. Additionally, it helps us better dole out specific funds for specific purposes without have to reimburse.
Platform, setup, toggles, functions, everything just works! It all makes sense once you are logged into the software. Hats off the to programmers and the architects behind the software
Nothing at all, everything works as well as it should
It feels as if our company is now very transparent in the way they reimburse and allow us to have virtual credit cards. Airbase made it possible to reduce our need for paper copies or the old school submission system
Airbase has allowed for easy travel and expense management. I love that I can easily input my travel expenses and get approval/ reimbursements quickly and easily!
When first using Airbase it took me some time to figure out all of the features and exactly where I needed to input things. However, after my first expense, I was able to figure it out pretty quickly.
Airbase is solving issues around expensing work-related costs. It allows teams to use their personal cards and expense them in real-time. Rather than go through the arduous, more traditional process of expensing costs.
Having Airbase has been very helpful on the FP&A side as it quickly helps gives access to seeing the invoice and having things go to the proper approval. One really nice feature is the Airbase Virtual cards, which we can be given out easily and then set to be coded to a specific department and GL account which helps automate the AP process.
Nothing really comes to mind. The software has been working great.
One key thing is being able to sync effectively to Netsuite. Having this saves a lot of time and manual frustration.
I love how intuitive Airbase is to use. Airbase makes it convenient and simple to cover travel and work expenses, which is extra important with the volume of travel I have to do for my role.
Occasionally it will catch an incorrect vendor on a receipt, but beyond that, I really don't have much that I would change.
Being able to have all of my reimbursements through one unified platform with the additional transparency to see what I've been paid, what's pending, and what may have been denied by my employer has been massively helpful.
What I love about Airbase is that I can process any card request at any time, I can approve requests directly from Slack, and my manager always has clear viability into what I need them to approve.
Only had one technical glitch once where a virtual card wasn't working with Amazon, but the Airbase team was quick to work with me to resolve the issue in a timely manner!
Easily managing subscriptions with separate virtual cards which keeps everything super secure. Also submitting receipts for travel expenses right from the mobile app is a breeze!
Modern and easy-to-use interface, with a very intuitive process from start to finish. I was able to submit my reimbursement in seconds, and it came through to my account within a day. I'm not sure what more you could ask for.
Nothing stood out as an inconvenience or hindrance in the process. I'd be lying if I was trying to dig for something negative. Maybe a mobile app scanner for receipts would be a nice feature in the future?
Our company's old process was through an old clunky form fill. The receipting process was ancient and cumbersome. With the drag and drop feature, I can upload my reciepts in seconds.
I have used other programs in the past. Airbase allows me to upload receipts with a few clicks of a button and remembers my expense categories. No more dedicating an hour+ per month to settle my expenses.
The tabs are a little misleading. I wish there were a tab for "My Expenses". I always forget where they are located and it takes some clicking around for me to find.
Since the categories for an expense do transfer from month to month, it saves me time when confirming my expenses by not searching for appropriate GL codes. It also sends push notifications to my phone to confirm that payments have been processed thus reminding me to finalize my expenses in Airbase.
As a finance professional, I highly appreciate the seamless integration with our accounting software. It fits perfectly in our finance stack! It makes accounting so much easier and more secure.
I wish I could implement Airbase for our international entities with the whole experience we get in the US. Hopefully soon!
It is an easy-to-use tool that allows our employees to be autonomous in managing their expenses and subscription cards. At the same time, it enables my team to set up approval policies and simplifies the month-end processes.
Simplicity in the UX and UI and the ease of use, regardless of tech experience.
Not much that I dislike. Does what it needs to in a very efficient way.
Easy way to request company credit cards. Makes my life super easy because I frequently need cards.
Very easy to upload pictures of receipts, everything else is automatic!
There are very few downsides, I would say time to approval, but that might be our own internal issue.
I travel about once a month for work. Airbase makes it very easy to enter my expenses quickly, without much other effort required.
Ease of use, whether I need to use a physical card or create an online card the process is seamless. The app to download receipts and code charges is also very user friendly!
I have not experienced any downsides to using Airbase thus far.
Maintaining financials through use of my company card.
it is easy to use and extremely self explanatory
Not much I dislike about Airbase - I wish i had found it sooner
Solving problems like managing my expenses, bills - easily and without any trouble