Free Expensify Alternatives: Expense Tools With a Real Free Plan
Expensify is still free for one person who scans receipts, but the moment a company wants to approve and pay back its team's expenses, Expensify asks for a paid plan. The good news for founders: several spend platforms now give away expense management for $0, usually because they earn money from their company cards instead of per-user fees. We checked every tool below on its official pricing page in November 2026: what the free plan covers, whether it handles team reimbursements, and what the next paid step costs. Tools from the older version of this list that lost their free plan, changed owner or changed business are listed separately.
Quick answer: for a small team that wants receipts, approvals and reimbursements for free, start with Zoho Expense (free for up to 3 users) or a free spend platform: Ramp, BILL Spend & Expense, Brex Essentials or Rho, all $0 per user. If your team travels, Navan Business is free for companies up to 300 employees, with expenses free for the first 5 users. Expensify's own Free plan is fine for one person, not for a company paying people back.
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What Expensify's Free Plan Includes in 2027
The Expensify pricing page (checked November 2026) lists a Free plan "for all members": it is the plan for employees, with no company approval needed, and includes receipt scanning (SmartScan), mileage tracking, expense reports, categories and tags, personal card import and chat on every expense. Reimbursements, corporate card management, expense and travel approvals and the QuickBooks and Xero integrations start with Collect at $5 per member per month. Control, with multiple approval flows, ERP integrations and SSO, has custom pricing "as low as $9 per active member/month". So if you only need to snap your own receipts, Expensify Free works. If you need a company account that approves and pays back a team, compare the free plans below.
Prefer software you can self-host? We cover that in our separate guide to open-source Expensify alternatives. This article is about free hosted tools.
Free Expensify Alternatives Compared
Sources: each tool's official pricing page in its default view, checked 8 November 2026. Card-based platforms (Ramp, BILL, Brex, Rho, Mercury) approve business applications first, so check that your company is eligible in your country.
The Best Free Expensify Alternatives in 2027
1. Zoho Expense: the closest free match to Expensify's expense reports
Zoho Expense works like classic Expensify: employees capture receipts, build expense reports and submit them for approval, and you can add mileage, per-customer or per-project tracking. The Zoho Expense pricing page (US version) lists a Free plan for a maximum of 3 users with AI-powered receipt OCR, expense reports, expense tracking via personal cards, GPS mileage, accounting integrations, multi-currency expenses and 5 GB of receipt storage; its FAQ caps free receipt scans at 20 per user per month. Standard costs $3 per user per month billed annually and adds corporate card feeds, multiple policies, cash advances and ACH reimbursements. Already on Zoho Books? Our free Zoho Books alternatives and open-source Zoho Books alternatives cover the accounting side.
2. Ramp: a free spend platform with expenses, cards and bill pay
Ramp combines corporate cards, expense management, travel booking and bill payments. Its Free plan costs $0 per user per month and includes automatic receipt collection and matching, completing expenses by SMS or Slack, a company travel policy, bill payments by ACH, card, check or wire, configurable approval workflows, unlimited cards with issuing controls, a custom report builder and QuickBooks Online and Xero integrations. Plus costs $15 per user per month plus a platform fee based on team size, and adds NetSuite and Sage Intacct, multi-entity support and AI expense reviews.
3. BILL Spend & Expense (formerly Divvy): free cards and budgets
BILL Spend & Expense is the product that grew out of Divvy, and its card is still called the BILL Divvy Card. The older version of this list said BILL only had a free trial; the FAQ on the BILL pricing page now says the Spend & Expense plan is $0 per user per month and includes corporate cards, budgets, expense tracking and access to credit lines (BILL says credit is not guaranteed). What you pay for is BILL's accounts payable and receivable: Essentials $49, Team $65 and Corporate $89 per user per month, plus per-transaction fees for some payment types.
4. Brex Essentials: free reimbursements and approvals
Brex offers corporate cards, banking, expenses and accounting. On the Brex pricing page, the Essentials plan is $0 per user per month and includes reimbursements (also paid through payroll), custom spend limits and spend requests, card controls, multi-level approval chains, an AI expense assistant that fills in expense reports and automatically generated receipts. Premium costs $12 per user per month, and Enterprise has custom pricing.
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5. Navan Business: free travel and expenses for small teams
Navan is a business travel and expense platform. The Navan pricing page lists Navan Business as free for companies up to 300 employees, with travel booking, policies and approvals, 24/7 travel support and HRIS integrations. Its expense features are free for the first 5 users: expenses and reimbursements, connecting your existing corporate or business cards, receipt scanning and ERP integrations. Larger teams move to Navan Enterprise, which is quoted on request.
6. Rho: banking, cards and expenses with no subscription
Rho is a US finance platform for startups (banking services through its partner banks) with corporate cards, bill pay, invoicing and expense management with receipts, approvals and coding. The fee summary on the Rho pricing page lists $0 subscription fees, $0 per-user fees and $0 for its built-in accounts payable, expense and accounting automation; fees apply to things like foreign currency transfers (1%). It suits a US company that wants its bank account and its expense tool in one place.
7. Mercury: free expense management for up to 5 reimbursed users
Mercury is a US fintech for business banking (its banking services come through partner banks). On the Mercury pricing page, the $0 Mercury plan includes company cards and expense management, and the FAQ says a paid plan (from $35 a month) is needed to reimburse out-of-pocket expenses for more than 5 active users a month. Mercury Plus showed $29.90 a month on the annual pricing that the page displays by default.
8. Wave: free bookkeeping, but receipts are on Pro
Wave is accounting and invoicing software for freelancers and very small businesses. The free Starter plan on the Wave pricing page covers unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, so you can record expenses by hand for free. Digital receipt capture and expense tracking are part of Wave Pro, shown at $190 a year billed annually. Choose it if you are a solo founder who mostly invoices clients, not a team that files expense reports.
Expensify Alternatives That Lost Their Free Plan or Changed
The 2025 version of this article listed several tools that no longer belong on a free Expensify alternatives list:
- Pleo: the UK pricing page starts with Start at £8 per user a month (monthly billing only), and the German page at 8 € per user a month. There is no free plan.
- Fyle: it is now Sage Expense Management. Growth costs $11.99 per active user a month billed annually, with a minimum of 5 users; there is no free plan.
- Spendesk: pricing is a fixed platform fee plus transaction-based fees, given as a quote. No free plan.
- Airbase: airbase.com now presents Paylocity for Finance, the spend tools combined with Paylocity's HR and payroll platform. No free plan is listed.
- Routespring: its website now presents a travel platform for airline crew, not a general expense tool, so we removed it.
- AccountSight: its website answered with an error when we checked, so we could not confirm the old free plan and removed it.
- QuickBooks Online and FreshBooks: paid accounting software, not free expense tools (FreshBooks offers a 30-day free trial). See our open-source QuickBooks alternatives for free accounting.
- YNAB: a personal budgeting app with a 34-day free trial, then $14.99 a month or $109 a year. It does not handle company expense reports.
Which Free Expensify Alternative Should You Choose?
- You are 1 to 3 people and want classic expense reports: Zoho Expense Free.
- You want company cards that collect receipts automatically: Ramp, Brex Essentials or BILL Spend & Expense.
- You already pay supplier bills in BILL: add BILL Spend & Expense at no software cost.
- Your team travels a lot: Navan Business, free for expenses for the first 5 users.
- You want your bank and your expenses in one place (US company): Rho or Mercury.
- You are a freelancer who mostly invoices: Wave Starter, adding Pro only if you need receipt capture.
- You only track your own receipts: Expensify Free is enough.
If you would rather own the data and host the tool yourself, read our open-source Expensify alternatives and open-source Stripe alternatives for payments.
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How Founders Use Free Expense Tools
A free expense tool is most useful in the first year, when every euro or dollar counts and nobody has time for spreadsheets of receipts. Set it up the week you hire your first person: one card per person, a simple policy, and an approval rule so you see every expense before month end. Connect it to your accounting software from day one, and your bookkeeper (or you) will thank you at tax time. Our guide on setting up estimates and invoices for service firms covers the money coming in, and how to prep your startup for debt financing in 30 days shows why clean expense records matter when you talk to lenders.
Watch the limits that end a free plan: the number of users, receipt scans, reimbursed users per month and whether the tool needs its own card. Plan your spending with one of the free marketing budget calculators and the F/MS marketing budget calculator, and stretch your runway with non-dilutive money from our lists of grants for early-stage startups and grants for female entrepreneurs. For the rest of your stack, see our free Asana alternatives, free ClickUp AI alternatives, free Bubble alternatives for no-code apps, and the best AI agents for startup founders.
Before you spend on tools at all, validate your startup idea with real customers, and when your product is live, write about it with the F/MS AI SEO Tool so people find it in Google and AI assistants. Early-stage programmes such as the ones in our accelerators for early-stage startups list often include software credits too.
FAQ About Free Expensify Alternatives
Is there a free version of Expensify?
Yes. Expensify's Free plan is for individual members: receipt scanning, mileage tracking, expense reports, categories and tags. Company reimbursements, approvals, card management and QuickBooks or Xero integrations start with Collect at $5 per member per month (checked November 2026).
What is the best free alternative to Expensify?
For classic expense reports, Zoho Expense Free (up to 3 users). For a free spend platform with cards, receipts and approvals, Ramp, Brex Essentials or BILL Spend & Expense, which all cost $0 per user.
Which Expensify alternative is free for a small business?
Ramp, BILL Spend & Expense, Brex Essentials and Rho charge no per-user fee. Zoho Expense is free for up to 3 users, Navan Business for expenses for the first 5 users, and Mercury reimburses up to 5 active users a month on its free plan.
How can Ramp and Brex be free?
Both earn money mainly from their corporate cards and paid upgrades, so the core expense software is free. You need to apply for their business account, and approval depends on your company.
Is Zoho Expense really free?
Yes. The Free plan on Zoho's US pricing page allows a maximum of 3 users, AI receipt scanning (20 scans per user per month), expense reports, GPS mileage and 5 GB of receipt storage. Standard costs $3 per user per month billed annually.
Is BILL Spend & Expense the same as Divvy?
Yes, BILL Spend & Expense grew out of Divvy, and the card is still called the BILL Divvy Card. The BILL pricing FAQ says the Spend & Expense plan is $0 per user per month.
Does Pleo still have a free plan?
No. The UK pricing page starts at £8 per user a month and the German page at 8 € per user a month, with no free plan listed.
Is there a free Expensify alternative for freelancers?
Wave Starter is free for invoices, bills and bookkeeping records. Receipt capture needs Wave Pro, shown at $190 a year. Expensify Free also works for one person tracking receipts.
Is there an open-source alternative to Expensify?
Yes. Odoo Community, Frappe HR and Dolibarr handle expense reports and approvals and can be self-hosted. Our open-source Expensify alternatives guide compares them.
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About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
