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.
It's user friendly interface and easy to use
It can become a bit technical at times and takes time to process
It is helping in incresing the efficiency of all the employees and is helping in improving the quality of work
simple interface and functionality for expense reimbursment
challenges at scale, limited export & import function
vendor AP & expense reimbursement is intuitive
The ability to forward receipts from my phone or email, and have the data autopopulate
It's hard to find everything expected of me as a manager to approve - lots of different subcategories that can get missed
Transparency: I can see the workflow for vendor payments, and who has yet to approve them, and communicate within the application itself with other approvers
The simple but functional layout. Keeps everything in one place - records, communication etc.
Interactions with 3rd party can at times be confusing for them with the virtual card. Shared event or project budgets and spending.
Streamlined processes for approvals.
Airbase has a clean and intuitive UI that makes it easy to submit my expenses and monitor their status.
There doesn't seem to be a way to edit expenses once they're submitted and rejected. Rather they must be re-created and re-submitted
We use Airbase to submit and monitor approvals for our business expenses. We've used several other tools to manage expenses in the time I've been with the company and Airbase's expense creation workflow is has been the most intuitive.
Airbase has many great features that saves time, mostly the OCR capability to autofill bill details. Besides that, the ability to set rules to control spending and the new reimbursements feature is a plus!
There have been some issues with updating certain details when the vendor onboards themselves, such as ACH details and country/currency, as well as issues with syncing to the accounting platform.
The approval workflow has allowed us to have more control over what bills should be paid and in some instances has resulted in errors being caught before payment has been remitted.
I enjoy how user-friendly Airbase is for travel reimbursement. The Receipt Inbox vastly improves the process of uploading items for approval by having a designated email address instead of requiring me to save emails as PDFs to manually upload myself.
Nothing as of right now! This is the first work-related travel I am doing and my first time using Airbase. So far it is great!
N/A
The ease of use and ability to import in large batches or have them be directly emailed to the system. Also allowing multiple users to upload and code invoices without fear of the system getting buggy and overwriting things if two people are working at the same time.
How difficult it can be to make changes to an invoice after it has been uploaded. Having an invoice be considered "Approved" automatically when there are no approvers listed can be a headache when done as a mistake. No one enjoys having to redo work over one mistake if there is a way to just edit/change the one mistake.
We use Airbase a lot for its virtual card feature. Having employees be able to have their own virtual cards for company-related expenses significantly reduces the need for reimbursement systems and having to rely on the employee to responsibly track their expenses.
I like the easy-to-use interface on your desktop version. I also really like the easy way to submit requests for funds.
The app does not seem to work as well for me, especially when I upload receipts. It takes too long to get it uploaded and can be slow.
I use Airbase to manage my work-related spending, including but not limited to work travel. I can request funds needed for expenses, request reimbursements for expenses I've incurred, and track the progress of reimbursements. The benefits I have seen are quick and easy way to request funding, seamless way of requesting reimbursements, and having real-time insights on how much funds I have on my card.
Virtual Cards - this allows people to have a single spend location for a vendor which is amazing!
Bank verification process - the process of validating only that its an account and not that it belongs to the individual's business information.
Scalability of the business when it comes to classifying transactions & workflow.
Airbase seamlessly connects our expense transactions to Quickbooks. The autofill feature when entering bills allows for a quick, efficient process. The tag feature allows us to connect our bills to specific projects in Quickbooks.
Under the Ledger Entries tab, then pending review, for objects that have not synced with our books because of an error, it would be nice to be able to delete or clear these items off of the page.
Airbase created the benefit of allowing our organization to pay bills timely and take greater advantage of early payment discounts. It organizes all bills in one place and lists them under their specific vendors which allows for ease of looking them up.
I like the mobile app and the ability to add receipts immediately.
Hard to navigate and hard to cleanup duplicates.
Easy to expense
It is very user friendly and makes it very easy to navigate I appreciate the ability for admins to set departments taking the guess-work out of it for PO and expense submitters
My biggest complaint at this time is that I can not look at the PO's associated with a vendor from their vendor file. If I am researching a vendor because I was just emailed an invoice. I would like to check the vendor file to see if the account information is correct (ACH info, W-9, updated contract, etc.) as well as the PO's, open and closed, on the same page.
The ability to preset departments and tags and limit the departments the submitter can even choose from for reimbursement requests is a huge time saver and has streamlined the process from my perspective as someone who has to approve the requests.
Quick sync time to Netsuite which is great
Prepaid amortization schedule does not work well
Easy system for all employees to use and then quick integration into our GL accounting system (NetSuite).
It's extremely user friendly and helps to consolidate our entire tech stack.
Nothing that I can specifically think of.
Visibility for non-payroll spend. Consolidates records and data for point of reference and compliance purposes. Approval routing is much easier.
I like how easy and accessible it is! Takes the stress out of expenses.
I wish there were better categories for spend
We are solving the problems of who approves what along with receipt expenses.
Overall a great product - was able to figure it out without any additional help just from poking around. Once in the PO submission section, the process was extremely straightforward!
Finding the promot to sublit a PO button can be a little difficult - wish the UX was a little more user friendly!
Maintenance of vendor relationshsips and payments. Benefit of an easy to use platform is less downtime when submitting invoices!
Airbase does a great job at automating many of the AP functions. The built-in amortization function within Airbase is so helpful! I love that when we set up amortization and sync to QuickBooks, our amortization entries are already made!
When currently looking at Amortization Ledger Entries, the list populates with only current amortization entries. I would love to see improvements made to filter these entries based on specific dates. This would present extremely helpful in situations like audits or financial reviews or any time I want to verify the amortization schedule on a specific date in the past.
With it's ease of use, employees do not have issues requesting virtual cards for spend or requesting reimbursements. This has allowed us to cut down on physical cards which is better for security reasons as well as accidental or unapproved spend.
It's simple, easy to use, and seamless for the team
Nothing. I think it's a great platform and so easy
Solving for reimbursement delays and traveling expenses
The ability to connect Airbase to Okta which allows the approval process to dynamically adjust based on who is entering the request, and its ability to have separate approval chains depending on which P&L account is selected.
When searching for a specific PO/VC request, you have to search through PO Open and Closed, and VC Open and Closed, would be nice to be able to search in one spot.
Providing 1 unified system to go to for expense reimbursement and PO requests. By funneling all spend requests through Airbase it allows our finance team to stay up to date with all spend requests to improve forecasting and prevent unnecessary spend from occurring.
Generally well-organized. It meets several of our business needs in a web-based form factor that most of my team can easily understand. Approvals work smoothly and allow me to make sure all necessary individuals see invoices before they are paid. Slack integration is helpful but allowing invoice approvals directly from Slack generally leads to invoices being approved without a thorough review. Having a central hub for vendor payments, reimbursements, and company cards has been very helpful for our entire company, not just the accounting department. People know that if it has to do with expenses, it's probably done in Airbase.
Lack of pro features. Reporting is limited and difficult to export data to manipulate in Excel. I end up waiting for data to sync with Netsuite and then using Netsuite's reporting features. This is fine for me as an Admin, but our department leaders don't have access to Netsuite so I have to create budget reports for them. Bugs. I don't mind reporting bugs, I know Airbase is a startup and we are the guinea pigs. But we really count on Airbase and need it to work all the time. As an admin I would like to be able to switch roles to see what other users see. This would help greatly with testing new features, troubleshooting issues, and answering questions other users have that I can't specifically speak to because I don't see exactly what they see in certain situations. Opening links in new tabs. This is a must have for my workflow. It is very annoying to click on a vendor, then have to click "back" to go back to the main vendor list, scroll back down to the spot on the list, go to the next page, etc. Same with users, bills, etc. I need to be able to "Open Link in New Tab"
We use Airbase for managing vendor bill payments, corporate cards, virtual cards, and employee reimbursements. Benefits: a central hub for everything expense related, generally reliable, and allows us to stay organized (which is great!).
Having a credit card to easily use to track expenses instead of having to upload expenses manually is so much faster! Also it makes approving team expenses so much easier!
Not benefitting from the credit card points
Streamlined expense management, more guardrails in place around expense policies, faster approval processes. Less time focused on expenses
The app is easy to learn and speeds things up. Whenever I have to submit receipts for virtual cards, it takes me seconds. Expense approvals are also simple and speedy.
Setting the right permissions for people from different teams seems a little tricky -- or at least my team hasn't figured out how to configure account permissions right, deciding to give non-finance employees few to no permissions to set up new vendor types when processing invoices.
Airbase helps me get receipt management and expense approvals done much faster, so I can focus on more impactful tasks. A simple drag and drop with Airbase saves me a lot of time compared to emailing Finance.
Having a physical corporate card is a given (anyone can do that), but having the ability to have multiple virtual cards is really nice and so is the website to manage cards, receipts, and expense requests.
Getting reimbursed for corporate expenses using a different card. Our process requires us to complete a form with sensitive information so we can get paid. I believe Airbase manages this portion of the process too. If so, it's a bit clunky.
Corporate expenses and managing multiple vendors using virtual cards.
Stay on the top of accounts Payable and never miss a payment.
Currently, as a user, I don't see any need for doing any updates.
staying with our vendor:s terms and not missing a payment.
Airbase has an extremely intuitive user experience. The couple of times I've used it, has been extremely easy to use.
Navigating the different tags at times can be difficult
Reporting expenses to HR.
Airbase makes approving purchase orders and managing spend much easier. The notification and approval matrix system works very well, and we are able to better manage what spend we allow through the use of virtual cards.
Sometimes the search functionality for vendors and purchase orders is not responsive. The search bar has a hard time resetting between open and closed purchase orders, so sometimes I am unable to find what I am looking for. Additionally, the vendor page - while useful - could do a more concise job of helping our team understand spend - maybe by allowing receipts to be attached after the purchase order is approved.
Airbase has a nice reporting functionality that has helped out team drill down into Travel &Entertainment expenses. It is able to capture a more real-time view than we can get from just our accounting software. With Airbase's reporting, our team is better able to understand how actual spend is looking without having to close the books
Airbase provides an easy-to-use platform for your spend management needs. Our employees love the fact that they can request virtual cards to pay for products and services they need. The ability for Airbase to route the approvals quickly and easily, then instantly issue a virtual card number for the employee has been well received within our company. Couple that with Airbase's Bill Payment module, vendor bills can be routed directly into the system, route for approvals and paid via Airbase. Vendor details are securely stored in Airbase and vendors can manage their details like banking information and address for even more security. Overall, it provides flexibility in how we can pay for our expenses. For physical cards, I love the simple process of managing credit limits and policing of the receipt capture. Employees who are not compliant with receipts get locked out. This has always been a common problem with our traditional corporate cards but within Airbase, it is automatically handled with their lockout feature. Lastly, their cashback on card spend is one of the highest. With our card spend budget, the amount we get back practically pays for the service.
Airbase has spent a lot of time and energy adding new features like expense reimbursement, multi-subsidiary support and advanced approvals. These are all great features making them a better one-stop shop for much of our spend management needs. The issue is that some of these features haven't been fully vetted and still need some work. There are a few bugs in the multi-subsidiary features as well as issues reconciling the clearing account that has delayed our month-end close for the past couple of months.
Airbase saves us a headcount or two. In our market that is almost $200K per year. Where it saves us the headcount is the easy flow of vendor bill review, coding and approvals. Our volume has increased dramatically since we implemented Airbase last year. Without it, I would be hiring another two employees to handle the work. The same is applied for virtual and physical card spend. All the coding happens upfront before it is fed into our ERP. Separately, vendors can log into their own Airbase account to update addresses, banking details (for ACH payments), saving us from having manually communicate this and lowering the risk of fraud, pushing the responsibility back to the vendor for sensitive data changes. The additional benefits are greater visibility of our spend across the whole company. Better reporting, in detail, of who spent, which department and what vendors we are paying.
Very user-friendly platform with all the flexibility needed for the accounting department to quickly review, approve, and categorize expenses. This benefits our month-end close timeline substantially.
There is always a learning curve when it comes to new tools, especially those adopted by the whole company(!), however, our transition went better than anticipated! We have yet to hear of any major disapointments!
The need to automate the expense processing system, providing leverage to a nimble accounting team and accelerating our month-end close timeline. Benefits are in accuracy and timeline!
The interface is easy to use and not as complicated as other similar software like concur.
I am an Executive Assistant and while they do allow some delegation, Airbase can't give me the ability to approve expenses on my boss' behalf.
The virtual card is a great feature if someone doesn't use a corporate card often or hasn't received it yet.