September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Finance › Spend and procurement › Expense management · September 2026 Edition

Expense management

Asked as “expense management software”, and as “employee expense reporting tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 47 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
34%
Contested · Zoho Expense 17%
34Ramp17Zoho Expense11Spendesk38others

34% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Ramp34%6%52endorsed leader
02Zoho Expense17%3%31accepted challenger
03Spendesk11%0%16accepted challenger
04Rippling Spend9%0%24accepted challenger
05BILL Spend & Expense9%14%28accepted challenger
06Expensify4%16%50accepted challenger
07Navan4%0%29accepted challenger
08SAP Concur2%32%40criticized challenger
09Airbase2%0%10accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Emburse0%19%16accepted challenger
10Brex0%10%29accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Ramp34%
02Zoho Expense17%
03Spendesk11%
04Rippling Spend9%
05BILL Spend & Expense9%
06Expensify4%
07Navan4%
08SAP Concur2%
09Airbase2%
10Brex0%
11Emburse0%

What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
SAP Concur
32%
13 of 40 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“The most frequently criticized option among users, with consistent themes across G2 and Trustpilot” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Expensify
16%
8 of 50 labels negative · 7 of 12 models
“A mixed picture — it rates well overall (4.5/5 on G2), but has had a notable drop in sentiment since the "New Expensify" redesign” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
BILL Spend & Expense
14%
4 of 28 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“75+ reviews cite integration issues; 50+ mention fraud concerns” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Emburse
19%
3 of 16 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Customer service is the dominant complaint — "the absolute worst," email-only” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

65 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 824 links across 194 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

44 answers · 44 citations · 12 models
vendor site · G243 answers · 58 citations · 11 models
vendor site · OFX28 answers · 29 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Airwallex23 answers · 27 citations · 11 models
vendor site · G220 answers · 47 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Ramp18 answers · 36 citations · 9 models
vendor site · BILL18 answers · 23 citations · 7 models
16 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
15 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Spendesk13 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
13 answers · 13 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Capterra12 answers · 19 citations · 7 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best expense management software”, “expense management software”, “expense management tools”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Ramp ramp.com34%916246,00049,733770,056$13,5111203
Zoho parent site
Zoho Expense 17%
17%1945,40052
Spendesk spendesk.com11%981,0002224,6106
Rippling rippling.com
Rippling Spend 9%
9%124301,00017,886712,399 company$42,013115
BILL bill.com
BILL Spend & Expense 9%
9%3312,740,0001,063,0011,783,039 company$199,231119
Expensify expensify.com4%24674,00093276,29101
Navan navan.com4%329110,0001,342175,958$2,7161208
Wave waveapps.com4%363368,000253,218708,86239
SAP Concur sap.com2%41474,0005022,214,514$1,25123
Airbase airbase.com2%14214,8005775,429

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 18 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (gartner.com, ramp.com, spendesk.com). The first result for “best expense management software” is expensify.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best expense management software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which employee expense reporting tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top expense management tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best expense management software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an expense management software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which expense management tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Navan
Two alternativesRamp, SAP Concur
RampChanged
Two alternativesEmburse, Zoho Expense
no first choiceBILL Spend & Expense, Wave
One alternativeZoho Expense
no first choiceagainst: BILL Spend & Expense, Ramp
GPT-5.4 miniRippling Spend
Two alternativesNavan, SAP Concur
RampChanged
Two alternativesExpensify, SAP Concur
Ramp
Four alternativesAirbase, Brex, Expensify, SAP Concur
Zoho Expense
One alternativeExpensify
against: QuickBooks Online Expenses
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashRamp
Four alternativesAirbase, Brex, Navan, Rippling Spend
RampHeld
Three alternativesAirbase, Brex, Navan
Ramp
Five alternativesBrex, Navan, Rippling Spend, SAP Concur, Spendesk
Ramp
Two alternativesWave, Zoho Expense
against: Expensify, SAP Concur
no first choiceagainst: SAP Concuragainst: Brex, Expensify, Manual Spreadsheets, SAP Concur
Perplexity SonarRamp
Five alternativesAirbase, Expensify, Navan, SAP Concur, Spendesk
against: Brex
BILL Spend & ExpenseChanged
Four alternativesAirbase, Expensify, Rippling Spend, SAP Concur
no first choiceZoho Expense
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.20Ramp
Two alternativesNavan, SAP Concur
RampHeld
Four alternativesExpensify, Rippling Spend, SAP Concur, Zoho Expense
Ramp
Five alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Rippling Spend, SAP Concur, Zoho Expense
Zoho Expense
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Ramp
no first choiceagainst: BILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Mobills, SAP Concur
Mistral SmallSpendesk
Three alternativesEmburse, Procurify, Ramp
Expensify, Rippling Spend, SAP Concur, SpendeskChanged
Two alternativesPayhawk, Pleo
Zoho Expense
Nine alternativesAirbase, Brex, Expensify, FreshBooks, QuickBooks Online Expenses, Ramp, Rippling Spend, SAP Concur, Sage Intacct
Zoho Expense
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Ramp
no first choiceagainst: Brex, Dext, Expensify, Ramp, SAP Concur, Zoho Expense
DeepSeek V4 FlashRamp
Four alternativesAirwallex, Brex, Navan, SAP Concur
RampHeld
Four alternativesExpensify, Navan, Rippling Spend, Zoho Expense
against: SAP Concur
Ramp
Six alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Navan, SAP Concur, Zoho Expense
Zoho Expense
Two alternativesExpensify, Ramp
no first choiceagainst: SAP Concuragainst: BILL Spend & Expense, Emburse, Expensify, SAP Concur, Sage Expense Management
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceSpendeskChanged
Three alternativesEmburse, Expensify, Paylocity
no first choiceBILL Spend & Expense, Ramp, Zoho Expenseno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashRamp
Three alternativesNavan, SAP Concur, Spendesk
PleoChanged
Two alternativesExpensify, Spendesk
no first choice
Six alternativesBrex, Emburse, Expensify, Ramp, SAP Concur, Zoho Expense
Zoho Expense
Four alternativesExpensify, Fyle, Ramp, Wave
against: SAP, SAP Concur
no first choiceagainst: Expensify, SAP Concur
Kimi K2Navan, Ramp
Two alternativesExpensify, Rippling Spend
against: SAP Concur
Ramp, SpendeskChanged
Three alternativesEmburse, Navan, Rippling Spend
Ramp
Eight alternativesAppZen, BILL Spend & Expense, Coupa Expense Management, Expensify, Fyle, Navan, SAP Concur, Zoho Expense
BILL Spend & Expense
Two alternativesExpensePoint, Zoho Expense
Airbase, Ramp
One alternativeNavan
against: BILL Spend & Expense, Emburse, Expensify, SAP Concur, Sage Expense Management
GLM 4.7 FlashXRamp
Four alternativesExpensify, Navan, Paylocity, SAP Concur
Rippling SpendChanged
Five alternativesAirwallex, Expensify, Navan, Ramp, Rydoo
against: SAP Concur
Navan, SAP Concur
Six alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Ramp, Rippling Spend, Xero, Zoho Expense
Wave
Two alternativesFlowlu, Zoho Expense
no first choiceagainst: Emburse, Expensify, Ramp
MiniMax M2.5Rippling Spend
Four alternativesAirbase, Emburse, Navan, SAP Concur
Expensify, SpendeskChanged
Two alternativesNavan, Pleo
no first choiceAirwallex, Zoho Expense
Three alternativesExpensePoint, Expensify, Ramp
no first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:45yes99 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:39yes15 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:31yes1833 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:34yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 17:28yes3124 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:36yes520 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:43yes615 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:46yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:33yes518 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:54yes1028 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:35yes28112 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:43yes922 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:27yes159 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:48yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:35yes1224 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:40yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 17:38yes2413 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:35yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:33yes1717 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:28yes64 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:38yes520 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:39yes921 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:43yes1478 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:30yes1325 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:36yes97 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:35yes67 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:32yes1723 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:37yes189 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 17:33yes2714 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:47yes97 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:33yes1726 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:37yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:32yes524 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:32yes923 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:43yes1054 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:30yes513 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:30yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:28yes45 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:47yes2225 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:36yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 17:27yes139 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:29yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 17:47yes1426 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:26yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:45no029 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:41yes515 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:34yes2260 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:44yes512 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:30no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:48no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:40no016 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:39yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 17:38yes1111 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:46no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:33yes913 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:48yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:44no038 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:41yes1037 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:35yes893 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:40no010 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:30yes168 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:35yes66 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:27yes2123 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:37yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 17:38yes4115 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:48yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:27yes2926 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:48yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:44yes1841 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:46yes1529 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:38yes24102 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:47yes1022 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
BILL read as BILL Spend & Expense
Bill.com read as BILL Spend & Expense
Certify read as Emburse
Coupa read as Coupa Expense Management
Divvy read as BILL Spend & Expense
Emburse Expense Enterprise (formerly Chrome River) read as Emburse
Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify) read as Emburse
QuickBooks read as QuickBooks Online Expenses
QuickBooks Online read as QuickBooks Online Expenses
Rippling read as Rippling Spend
Wave Accounting read as Wave
Unresolved, counted raw
Mobills
Oracle NetSuite Expenses
Trigo
UiPath Assist
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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