September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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 › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Expense management for small business buyers

Asked as “expense management software”, and as “employee expense reporting tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 47 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
36%
Contested · Ramp 23%
36Zoho Expense23Ramp19Expensify21others

36% 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 small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Zoho Expense36%0%54endorsed leader
02Ramp23%4%51accepted challenger
03Expensify19%13%55accepted challenger
04BILL Spend & Expense13%15%53accepted challenger
05Brex6%7%28accepted challenger
06Wave2%9%11accepted challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
07SAP Concur0%90%10criticized 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.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Zoho Expense36%
02Ramp23%
03Expensify19%
04BILL Spend & Expense13%
05Brex6%
06Wave2%
07SAP Concur0%

What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.20, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, 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.
BILL Spend & Expense
15%
8 of 53 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Specific Tools with Significant Complaints ... Poor customer service and protection issues - Hidden fees and unexpected billing” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
Expensify
13%
7 of 55 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Reddit threads call it a "regrettable choice" with integration failures” Grok 4.20, negative prompt
SAP Concur
90%
9 of 10 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“The following types of expense management tools and platforms should be avoided or approached with extreme caution: ### 1. Legacy Enterprise-Grade Platforms (e.g., SAP Concur, Emburse)” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Brex
7%
2 of 28 labels negative · 2 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Brex - Common complaints include: Approval issues and spending limit problems - Ineffective receipt scanning” MiniMax M2.5, 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

67 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. 913 links across 171 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · G238 answers · 43 citations · 11 models
35 answers · 35 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Airwallex34 answers · 39 citations · 11 models
vendor site · OFX33 answers · 34 citations · 11 models
vendor site · BILL32 answers · 44 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Ramp30 answers · 47 citations · 11 models
23 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Mercury21 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
vendor site · G220 answers · 37 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Rippling17 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
15 answers · 16 citations · 7 models
15 answers · 15 citations · 10 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
Zoho parent site
Zoho Expense 36%
36%1945,40052
Ramp ramp.com23%916246,00049,733770,056$13,5111203
Expensify expensify.com19%24674,00093276,29101
BILL bill.com
BILL Spend & Expense 13%
13%3312,740,0001,063,0011,783,039 company$199,231119
Brex brex.com6%52460,5001,190328,914$12,238813
Wave waveapps.com2%363368,000253,218708,86239
Rippling rippling.com
Rippling Spend 0%
0%124301,00017,886712,399 company$42,013115
Airwallex airwallex.com0%26027,100416420,414$56,83245
Mercury mercury.com0%182368,000130,988301,244$284,811255
Navan navan.com0%329110,0001,342175,958$2,7161208

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 18 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (gartner.com, mercury.com, ramp.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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which employee expense reporting tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top expense management tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best expense management software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an expense management software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which expense management tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5BILL Spend & Expense, Zoho Expense
Four alternativesExpense 365, Expensify, Navan, Rippling Spend
Zoho ExpenseChanged
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Ramp
Mercury
Six alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Navan, Ramp, Sage Expense Management, Zoho Expense
Zoho Expense
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Navan
no first choiceagainst: BILL Spend & Expense
GPT-5.4 miniRamp
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Xero, Zoho Expense
ExpensifyChanged
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Ramp, Zoho Expense
Expensify
Three alternativesBrex, Ramp, Zoho Expense
against: QuickBooks Online Expenses
Zoho Expense
Two alternativesExpensify, Ramp
against: BILL Spend & Expense
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashRamp
Four alternativesAirwallex, BILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Zoho Expense
ExpensifyChanged
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Harvest, Ramp, Zoho Expense
Ramp
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Sage Expense Management, Zoho Expense
BILL Spend & Expense
Three alternativesRamp, Wave, Zoho Expense
Brex, Ramp
Three alternativesFyle, Rippling Spend, Zoho Expense
against: SAP Concur
against: Coupa Expense Management, Emburse, Expensify, SAP Concur, Tipalti
Perplexity SonarRamp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Zoho Expense
against: SAP Concur
Zoho ExpenseChanged
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify
Zoho Expense
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Ramp
against: FreshBooks, Wave
Zoho Expense
One alternativeBILL Spend & Expense
against: Expensify, Ramp
no first choiceagainst: SAP Concur
Grok 4.20Ramp
Two alternativesExpensify, Zoho Expense
against: QuickBooks Online Expenses
ExpensifyChanged
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Zoho Expense
against: QuickBooks Online Expenses
Zoho Expense
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, QuickBooks Online Expenses, Ramp
Zoho Expense
Three alternativesExpensify, Ramp, Wave
against: BILL Spend & Expense
no first choice
Five alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Ramp, Zoho Expense
against: BILL Spend & Expense, Emburse, Expensify, SAP Concur, Sage Expense Management
Mistral SmallExpensify, Zoho Expense
One alternativeRamp
Expensify, Zoho ExpenseHeld
One alternativeRippling Spend
Expensify
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Pleo, Spendesk, Xero
Zoho Expense
Two alternativesBrex, Ramp
no first choiceagainst: BILL Spend & Expense
DeepSeek V4 FlashRamp
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Zoho Expense
BILL Spend & ExpenseChanged
Three alternativesExpensify, Ramp, Zoho Expense
Ramp
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Zoho Expense
Zoho Expense
Two alternativesRamp, Wave
BILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Ramp
Three alternativesExpensify, Payhawk, Zoho Expense
against: Expensify, SAP Concur
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choice
Three alternativesFreshBooks, Wave, Zoho Expense
Zoho Expense
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Xero
no first choiceagainst: Expensify
Qwen 3.7 FlashRamp
Three alternativesAirwallex, Expensify, Zoho Expense
BILL Spend & ExpenseChanged
Two alternativesExpensify, Spendesk
BILL Spend & Expense, Ramp
Three alternativesExpensify, Rippling Spend, Zoho Expense
Zoho Expense
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify
no first choiceagainst: CardScan, Expensifyagainst: Excel, Google Sheets, SAP Concur
Kimi K2Ramp
Three alternativesBrex, Expensify, Zoho Expense
RampHeld
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify
Ramp
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Spendesk
Zoho Expense
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Ramp, Wave
no first choice
One alternativePayhawk
against: BILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify
GLM 4.7 FlashXExpensify, Ramp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Zoho Expense
BILL Spend & ExpenseChanged
Three alternativesExpensify, Ramp, Zoho Expense
Ramp
Seven alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Navan, Rippling Spend, Wave, Zoho Expense
Expensify, Zoho Expense
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Ramp
no first choiceagainst: BILL Spend & Expense, Ramp, Relay
MiniMax M2.5Zoho Expense
Four alternativesBrex, Expensify, Ramp, Rippling Spend
Brex, ExpensifyChanged
One alternativeZoho Expense
Ramp
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Zoho Expense
Wave, Zoho Expense
Two alternativesAirwallex, Ramp
Expensify
Two alternativesBrex, Rho
against: SAP Concur
against: BILL Spend & Expense, Brex, SAP Concur, Xero
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 17:35yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:48yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:26yes2326 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:27yes205 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 17:27yes2011 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:36yes53 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:28yes1515 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:32yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:38yes637 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:28yes1034 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:42yes1450 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:26yes722 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:39yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:46yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:45yes1423 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:44yes204 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 17:44yes3714 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:44yes1015 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 17:44yes2148 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:43yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:26yes515 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:40yes1526 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:37yes1754 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:33yes918 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:33yes918 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:26yes49 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:27yes1424 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:27yes2011 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 17:47yes2511 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:44yes2516 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:31yes2021 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:32yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:37yes922 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:32yes1028 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:43yes19236 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:37yes1020 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:41yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:45yes46 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:47yes1622 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:37yes185 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 17:42yes3515 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:39yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:32yes1011 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:32yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:33yes522 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:36yes1020 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:48yes2571 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:27yes512 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:32no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:27no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:27yes1022 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:26yes2012 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 17:27yes1112 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:49no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:31yes817 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:26yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:33no036 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:33yes1046 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:43yes1553 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:53no07 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:44yes158 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:44yes45 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:36yes2424 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:28yes205 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 17:48yes4119 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:41yes107 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 17:35yes2540 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:35yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:44yes1037 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:35yes2432 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:46yes1470 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:36yes2338 s

Normalization in this category

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

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Category-scoped readings
BILL read as BILL Spend & Expense
Bill.com read as BILL Spend & Expense
Bill.com (formerly Bill) 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 Expense) read as Emburse
QuickBooks read as QuickBooks Online Expenses
QuickBooks Expenses read as QuickBooks Online Expenses
QuickBooks Online read as QuickBooks Online Expenses
QuickBooks Online expense features read as QuickBooks Online Expenses
Rippling read as Rippling Spend
Wave Accounting read as Wave
Xero Expenses read as Xero
Unresolved, counted raw
CardScan
Everlance
Expense 365
ExpenseIn
Sapling
Stride
Zaggee
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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