September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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

Spend management platforms for small business buyers

Asked as “spend management platform”, and as “all-in-one spend control software”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
51%
Clear leader
51Ramp35BILL Spend & Expense06Zoho Expense08others

51% of first choices, clear leader.

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
01Ramp51%11%56endorsed leader
02BILL Spend & Expense35%10%58endorsed leader
03Zoho Expense6%0%19accepted challenger
04Brex4%29%49criticized challenger
05Spendesk2%4%23accepted challenger
06Expensify2%27%37criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08SAP Concur0%91%11criticized challenger
07Airbase0%46%13criticized 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 six head-to-head pages: the top four 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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative70%
Key
01Ramp51%
02BILL Spend & Expense35%
03Zoho Expense6%
04Brex4%
05Spendesk2%
06Expensify2%
07Airbase0%
08SAP Concur0%

What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, 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
91%
10 of 11 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“Smaller companies and startups often find Concur's costs prohibitively high, and it may be overkill for businesses with simpler spending needs.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Brex
29%
14 of 49 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Abandoned SMB market: In 2022, Brex explicitly announced it would stop serving traditional small-to-medium businesses” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
Expensify
27%
10 of 37 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“these are generally considered too clunky, administrative-heavy, and expensive compared to modern, card-first alternatives” Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt
Coupa
86%
6 of 7 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Overkill Enterprise Suites (e.g., Coupa, SAP Ariba, Oracle) ... Why to avoid: They are incredibly expensive to implement” GLM 4.7 FlashX, 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

63 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. 916 links across 185 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Emburse47 answers · 50 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Ramp33 answers · 61 citations · 10 models
33 answers · 33 citations · 10 models
vendor site · G231 answers · 46 citations · 10 models
vendor site · OFX27 answers · 28 citations · 10 models
25 answers · 28 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Brex24 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Spendesk21 answers · 30 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Zylo21 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
vendor site · BILL19 answers · 24 citations · 10 models
vendor site · G218 answers · 48 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Payhawk17 answers · 18 citations · 9 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 spend management platform”, “spend management platform”, “spend management platforms”. 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.com51%916246,00049,733770,056$13,5111203
BILL bill.com
BILL Spend & Expense 35%
35%3312,740,0001,063,0011,783,039 company$199,2311197
Zoho parent site
Zoho Expense 6%
6%1945,40052
Brex brex.com4%52460,5001,190328,914$12,238811
Spendesk spendesk.com2%981,0002224,6102
Expensify expensify.com2%24674,00093276,29101
Pleo pleo.io0%532,4001623,5930
Mercury mercury.com0%182368,000130,988301,244$284,811259
Payhawk payhawk.com0%1062,400275,824213
Emburse emburse.com0%7018,10024240,700$26651

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 14 sites; 8 of them are among the sites the models cited here (bill.com, brex.com, g2.com, gartner.com, ofx.com, payhawk.com, ramp.com, spendesk.com). The first result for “best spend management platform” is gartner.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.
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ModelDirect“What is the best spend management platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which all-in-one spend control software would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top spend management platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best spend management platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a spend management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which spend management platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Ramp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify
RampHeld
One alternativeBILL Spend & Expense
Ramp, Zoho Expense
One alternativeSpendesk
against: Coupa, SAP Concur
BILL Spend & Expense
Two alternativesExpensify, Zoho Expense
no first choiceagainst: Brex, Expensify
GPT-5.4 miniRamp
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex
RampHeld
One alternativeBrex
Ramp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Payhawk
against: Airbase
Ramp
One alternativeBrex
against: Airbase
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashRamp
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex
against: Mercury
RampHeld
Two alternativesAirwallex, BILL Spend & Expense
against: Brex
Ramp
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Zoho Expense
Ramp
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Zoho Expense
against: Brex
Ramp
Three alternativesBrex, Mercury, Rho
against: Expensify, SAP Concur
against: Airbase, Brex, Coupa, Expensify, Ramp, SAP Concur
Perplexity SonarBILL Spend & Expense, Ramp
Five alternativesBrex, Emburse, Expensify, Pleo, Zoho Expense
RampChanged
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify
Ramp
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Zoho Expense
BILL Spend & Expense, Zoho Expense
Two alternativesExpensify, Ramp
no first choiceagainst: Airbase, Coupa, SAP Concur, Tipalti
Grok 4.20Ramp
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex
against: Airbase
RampHeld
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex
against: Airbase
BILL Spend & Expense, Ramp
One alternativeBrex
against: Expensify
BILL Spend & Expense, Ramp
One alternativeZoho Expense
against: Brex
Brex, Ramp
Two alternativesPrecoro, Spendesk
against: BILL Spend & Expense, Coupa, Expensify, SAP Concur
Mistral SmallBILL Spend & Expense, Brex
One alternativeTipalti
Ramp, SpendeskChanged
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify
Expensify, Ramp
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, PayEm, Spendesk
BILL Spend & Expense, Zoho Expenseno first choiceagainst: SAP Concur
DeepSeek V4 FlashRamp
Four alternativesAirbase, BILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify
BILL Spend & ExpenseChanged
One alternativeRamp
against: Brex
Expensify, Ramp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Navan, Pleo
against: Brex
BILL Spend & Expense, Ramp
One alternativeExpensify
against: Brex
no first choiceagainst: BILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Ramp
Llama 4 MaverickBILL Spend & Expense
Three alternativesBrex, Spendesk, Tipalti
no first choiceChanged
Four alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Fraxion, Spendesk
no first choiceBILL Spend & Expense, Rampno first choiceagainst: BILL Spend & Expense, Expensify, Spendesk
Qwen 3.7 FlashRamp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Spendesk
RampHeld
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Spendesk
Ramp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Spendesk
BILL Spend & Expense, Zoho Expense
One alternativeRamp
no first choiceagainst: Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement, SAPagainst: Amper, Avid Xchange, BILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Chase, Citi, Oracle NetSuite Financials, Ramp, SAP Concur, Wells Fargo, Workday Strategic Procurement
Kimi K2Ramp
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex
BILL Spend & ExpenseChanged
Two alternativesRamp, Spendesk
Ramp
Two alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex
against: Expensify
BILL Spend & Expense, Rampagainst: Brexno first choiceagainst: BILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Ramp, SAP Concur
GLM 4.7 FlashXBILL Spend & Expense
Six alternativesEmburse, Expensify, Pleo, Ramp, Spendesk, Xero
BILL Spend & Expense, ExpensifyChanged
Three alternativesRamp, Spendesk, Tipalti
Ramp
Six alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify, Pleo, Spendesk, Zoho Expense
against: PayEm
BILL Spend & Expense
Two alternativesExpensify, Zoho Expense
no first choiceagainst: Airwallex, BILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Coupa, Moss, Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement, Ramp, SAP Ariba
MiniMax M2.5Ramp
Three alternativesAirbase, Brex, Expensify
against: Coupa, SAP Concur
BILL Spend & ExpenseChanged
One alternativeRamp
Brex, Ramp
Three alternativesPEX, Spendesk, Zoho Expense
Ramp
Three alternativesBILL Spend & Expense, Brex, Expensify
no first choiceagainst: Brex, Expensify, Ramp, SAP Concur
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 19:01yes99 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:24yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:56yes1630 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:44yes206 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 21:02yes3718 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:11yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:46yes1827 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:46yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:26yes525 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:40yes720 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:24yes1545 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:07no09 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:29yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:59yes47 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:53yes1071 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:43yes207 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 19:25yes3516 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:45yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:31yes2329 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:40yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:56no028 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:04yes1926 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:02yes1537 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:08yes1037 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:49yes910 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:32yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:01yes1424 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:03yes2010 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 20:51yes3216 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:20yes58 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:58yes2021 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:51yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:56yes518 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:42yes1036 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:36yes1344 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:24yes2534 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:54yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:52yes56 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:50yes1619 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:53yes205 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 20:08yes3417 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:45yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:20yes912 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:20yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:50yes525 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:38yes1020 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:30yes3043 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:34yes513 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:11no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:08no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:15no0138 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:36yes209 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 19:16yes1715 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:55no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:36yes918 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:21yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:32yes1553 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:15no047 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:17yes2289 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:43no08 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:17yes179 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:53yes46 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:55yes2263 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:37yes205 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 19:31yes4020 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:35yes76 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 20:43yes2567 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:53yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:25no029 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:24yes2837 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:07yes2589 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:05yes2436 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
Divvy read as BILL Spend & Expense
Divvy (by Bill.com) read as BILL Spend & Expense
Oracle read as Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement
Rippling read as Rippling Spend
Workday read as Workday Strategic Procurement
Unresolved, counted raw
Amper
Avid Xchange
Oracle NetSuite Financials
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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