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.
Airbase support team has been very helpful and supportive! They are quick to respond to any inquiries we have ranging from a variety issues and they also provide updates on their progress.
I would love more options for reporting or filtering different screens so I can get more out of the data that is living in Airbase, especially in the bills page.
This platform is easy for employees to use since the platform is user friendly, this is especially helpful during the PO process. It's refreshing to see this in a platform.
I love how easy it is to submit expense reports and how quickly I see the payments hit my bank account!
It's honestly super easy! I have nothing bad to say about Airbase.
I'm submitting transportation expense reports and using my employee stipend. It's super intuitive!
It is unbelievably easy to submit reimbursement requests. I particularly love how they save and allow me to easily reuse old requests since I am often submitting similar ones each month.
Very few downsides, I love this product. I do wish I could set up recurring reimbursement requests though! Admittedly, this is a very nitpicky feature suggestion.
I can get reimbursed super easily, and also manage my teams' reimbursement requests. I can easily make sense of this info and add it to my department's P&L. It is great from end to end.
Airbase is extremely easy to use. Generating multiple cards is quick.
I suppose the uploading of invoices to each transaction, but that's a minor gripe.
Airbase is helping my team pay for and set up recurring payments for our vendors.
The ability to load receipts! Great feature!
Not much to dislike app is great and so is the desktop functionality.
It does take a little while after a purchase to come available for review
As someone who interacts with Airbase purely from a reporting standpoint, I appreciate how easy it makes expense reporting. Especially compared to other vendors I've used in the past, Airbase is painless and much quicker.
Not a big fan of the purposes being saved and reused in a dropdown, but I understand its utility for repetitive reimbursements.
Solving expense/spend management.
We had an amazing onboarding process from start to end. The team was very straightforward and resourceful. The best feature for us is the cashback. It is the highest on the world at 2.2%.
To be honest, I don't like the login system quite much. I understand it is oriented at Enterprise businesses with SSO. But other than that, I am loving Airbase.
Airbase is the best solution to spend management. I think the feature to create multiple virtual cards, for each vendor is great. I love that we can set spend limits and issue cards for everyone in our team.
I am fully confident in Airbase's security with my personal information and with the company's information. I have recommended this software to countless people!
I dislike that it usually takes a few minutes to refresh my information to see the funds, but honestly, that's just me being impatient. This is amazing software and it should be mandatory for every company to utilize it!
Peace of mind! There is no more running around tracking down countless physical paper sheets when it comes to looking at how our company is spending our funds.
Airbase has done a phenomenal job with their user-interface. The platform is easy to use and navigate. Airbase provides us insight into our spending, maintaining receipts and approvals, with their easy-to-use reporting tools. Our employees love the virtual credit card feature and it saves time for the AP team during month-end
There is nothing that I dislike about the Airbase platform. However, the mobile app needs a bit more development, as I have encountered issues with expense reimbursements.
Airbase is allowing us to track and approve employee reimbursements quicker. In addition, we can categorize our expenses in the correct department, which has saved us time in reviewing and approving expenses. With Airbase, we have reduced our month-end close by 2 days!
Simple, easy to use. Clean ux and great support.
Nothing, the product does all I need. .
Exepenses, reporting and funding.
It's so easy to use and really intuitive
Viewingreimbursements requires too many clicks to get to paid.
Reimbursements. Transparency.
The automatic reminders across text messages and Slack are super helpful in making me aware when action is needed to upload receipts and add descriptions to expense reports. Additionally, there is a tool that scans through paper receipts and uses AI to input all relevant expense data so I don't need to manually type it in.
There are very few things that I dislike about the system, however, it would be helpful to know the cut-off date for inputting an expense description before it is locked in and cant be edited. This may be a user error and I just don't understand the process well enough.
Airbase helps solve the anxiety and mad rush of inputting expenses at the end of the month, because the immediate prompts push me to upload receipts and input expense data in real-time at the time of expense, saving me the hassle of finding receipts and doing it later.
The User Interface is very intuitive. Submitting is a cinch.
I haven't encountered anything I dislike yet.
Airbase helps with the logistics of managing user submissions.
Airbase has been an incredibly effective spend management solution in rolling out some of our company perks/benefits across our entire organization. We eliminated the previously cumbersome and inconvenient reimbursement process and replaced it with virtual cards. The virtual cards have been very easy to manage, deploy and use. I love the intuitive UI, as well!
Nothing to dislike! It's very easy to use.
Our previous process was a burden, from the out-of-pocket expenses, to the reimbursement process. I often did my reimbursements in few large batches throughout the year. Airbase makes it easy to stay on top of my spend and reimbursements.
The website is quite a user-friendly website. I appreciate the ease of the website and generating an expense report. The dashboard is a great feature for a summary of all expenses.
I don't think there is a lot of dislike for me about Airbase. But I wish there was a way to automatically generate/manage vendor subscriptions on Airbase.
The time it takes to submit an expense is usually a hassle, but Airbase makes it easy to do so. It would be great if AIRBASE can be integrated with other vendors and AIRBASE could be the one-stop-shop for all vendor management portals.
I like the money management aspect of it
I dislike some of the steps you have to go through to post a receipt.
It has been easier to keep track of my conpany spending.
Really easy to use, simple to drag and drop screen shots
It's hard to login some times but we have 2FA. I can't get the mobile app to work
Super easy to expense things
Expense Management is amazing on Airbase - everything is so user-friendly!
Nothing I can think of honestly - everything is easy to use.
From expensing to reimbursing to keeping track of it all, Airbase allows me and my time to seamlessly approach a usually very tricky area of biz
The user interface is easy to navigate. The automation for tagging expenses is great and works really well. Adding receipts is super easy and the best part is you get an alert right away and can add your reciept right then and there and be done with it. No need to wait several days for expenses to load like other softwares. The virtual card options are awesome too for managing multiple payment sources with different vendors, etc. safely.
My only critique is that I wish the expenses would be archived somewhere after the month was over or after everything was categorized and paid for. This would make it easier to track what expense was completed and not having to sort through old expenses.
As I travel a lot for work, Airbase makes it easy for me to manage my travel expenses as well as manage the different vendor accounts and city accounts that I have to use my Airbase card to pay for.
Airbase is a user-friendly service with both native and web capabilities that meet me where I'm at in my day. If I'm on the go, I can launch the iOS app, open the camera, and upload a receipt right from my device. If I'm planning a business trip, I can easily put requests in and get approved quickly. I've never been without the funds I need to make transactions. The receipt reminders are super helpful too!
So far, so good. The only thing I can think of is that I sometimes get over-notified for expenses that are less than our company threshold for receipts required. Easy enough to ignore, but definitely would be a nice-to-have to turn those notifications off -- and quite frankly, maybe you can and I haven't discovered it yet.
Airbase provides a streamlined process for expense, and specifically travel, approvals. I can easily go in categorize my travel needs, send the request through and very quickly be able to book flights and other travel arrangements before costs change or seats fill up.
I love how simple and intuitive it is to use. It makes expensing seamless - Airbase is way less clunky than expense tools I've used in the past and I no longer dread putting in expenses the way I previously did.
Perhaps this is already possible as I haven't taken the time to explore this - I'd like to be able to upload a bunch of receipts at once and have them all read simultaneously as separate charges that auto-populate. It'll make the process of entering reimbursement requests much faster.
I only use it right now to expense work-related travel and purchases. The benefits are how simple and painless it is to do this when previously it was always a chore I dreaded.
The system is user-friendly, has a clean layout and the options to attach receipts and categorize them are lovely. I find it extremely helpful that I can download the app and take picture of the receipt and attach them to individual transactions.
I have not encountered any issues or delays in this program. Pages refresh quickly and data populates fluidly.
The biggest problem Airbase has solved for me is not dreading doing expense reports! I used Concur at a previous employer and it was an absolute nightmare when it came to submitting my expense report. Seriously, I waited to the last possible moment because the system was archaic and there were sooooooo many fields to fill out before it accepted and let me proceed. With Airbase, I actually look forward to completing my expenses because it's so seamless. The biggest benefit - - - saved me time and took away my anxiety.
I love how easy it is to receive and spend funds for business expenses. It's also very nice that I don't have to have another physical card fattening up my wallet.
There really isn't anything I dislike about Airbase.
I recently had to book a flight for an upcoming trip, and the whole process was simple and smooth. I like that I could easily upload my documentation and see my overview all in one place.
Airbase is really easy to use. Copying the credit card info to your clipboard and taking it to the site of choice is really straightforward and I like the flexibility of using it on any site I use.
For websites that don't accept multiple forms of payment, it would be nice to be able to increase your spend, or add credits to your airbase credit card out of your own banking in order to make payments over the maximum allowed by the card more simple. When I went to buy my sit stand desk, the overall price was over my maximum and I had to call through to support and spend a number of emails going back and forth to find a way to pay the outstanding balance on a separate card.
Being an international contract has been difficult in the sense that we don't get all of the same benefits as company employees. There were dispersal methods prior to us having Airbase, that I couldn't take advantage of. For example a skip the dishes card from the US won't work in Canada. Airbase solves that.
I really love the feature of being able to track the status of your reimbursements and see details about your spending cards! Also the app is very mobile-friendly.
Hard to find something to dislike, but sometimes the auth/login flow doesn't work on web when logging in via gmail or SSO :(
How to scale expense tracking and reimbursement requests with a fast-growing team.
Airbase has a very intuitive user interface and is very easy to navigate. It's easy to navigate and make requests, pull reports, etc.
On some pages there are quite a few buttons that more or less act as filters which could maybe be organized a little better. Even so, it's still very intuitive and easy to navigate as outlined above.
Airbase is helping us with our expense management. It allows employees to get expenses preapproved as well as provide a virtual card for the payment which is very helpful.
Airbase is user-friendly and works perfectly with our Accounting software. I was very impressed with the onboarding, as well as the customer service throughout the whole experience.
Setting up the approvals across multiple departments was pretty confusing, but we were able to work through those issues. And the pre-funding aspect is not great for our company.
Expense management is the main problem that we are solving with Airbase. We have been able to track spending across the company much better, which has been saving us time and money.
I like using virtual cards, it allows me to control vendor spending and if there is a fraud issue with 1 vendor, I only have to replace the card with that one vendor. I like that it requires receipts and I can set it to lock a card if receipts are not provided within a certain number of days! It integrates well with Quickbooks Online, which makes data entry even easier. Not to mention, with the cashback, the software pretty much pays for itself!
I wish the cash transfer was a bit faster - it takes 3 business days for the cash to move to the airbase account.
More efficient entry of bills - you can email bills to Airbase and the system "reads" the invoices, and attempts to enter the data in the create a bill screen. This makes data entry very efficient! Protection against fraudulent charges - using virtual cards really protects against fraud.
The process is so simple and easy to use. I have never used a reimbursement service at a company before and Airbase makes it so easy and fast to get my charges approved.
Initially had an issue with connecting my bank account but their CS team was very helpful and I got the issue resolved faster than my manager could even look at the transaction.
It's made the process of tracking and approving business charges much easier. I never have to worry if my boss has approved my charges or if they were deposited because it's all available in the dashboard
Software recognition is by far the coolest feature of Airbase. The ability of the tool to identify the invoice details and populate that for the user saves so much time! I also really like the amortization feature when the invoice service period is longer than one month and needs to be accounted for as a prepaid expense. The saves so much time and reduces the risk of error when processing our company's invoices.
The one feature that I wish Airbase did have was a way to assign multiple dates to an invoice/bill, assuming that the bill happens to cross periods, i.e. monthly or quarterly. This would be a very useful feature to address expense cutoff errors. Right now, I can only assign one invoice date and then I have to remember to manually update the dates in QBO if I want to separate the expense between multiple periods.
Accurate and timely recording of our company's invoices is a huge plus to the tool. I also like that I can easily onboard new team members to the functionality of Airbase, as it is user-friendly and intuitive. In addition, I also like that when adding a new vendor to the platform, that vendor can be invited to securely add his or her banking/payment details information, which protects that vendor's sensitive information.