What is Ramp?

Based in New York, Ramp is a fintech company initially launched in 2019 as a corporate card and expense management platform combo and has since expanded its product capabilities to include bill payments, procurement, and accounting integrations. 

Ramp’s mission is to help build healthier businesses and does so through its platform that helps businesses control spend, save time, and automate busywork. 

What does Ramp offer?

Ramp’s products include corporate cards that offer up to 1.5% cashback, expense management, procurement, accounts payable, vendor management, working capital, a mobile app, and other core features built into their platform. 

Key features include: 

• Expense management users can upload a snapshot of receipts using the mobile app. 
• The platform auto-collects and matches receipts in minutes with integrations for Gmail, Uber, Amazon Business, and Lyft.  
• Ramp’s automation handles approvals, global reimbursements, and AI-powered reconciliations.
• Ramp Flex,  a financing solution embedded in Ramp Bill Pay that adds additional float for your vendor payments.
• Ramp will pay vendors when requested and can choose to repay Ramp over 30, 60, or 90 days. Ramp Flex fees for financing are based on the customer’s current cash balances, revenue and commerce data, and credit bureau information. Fees may change from one invoice to the next.

It’s important to note that Ramp customers must sign up for Ramp Plus to access many of the platform’s marquee features, including ERP integrations, purchase order management, and premium customer support. 

As of this article’s publishing date, Ramp Plus is $12 per user per month (when billed yearly; $15 per month otherwise), but larger enterprise organizations must contact Ramp Sales for a more specific quote if they want important features like multi-entity support. 

Another potential drawback is that Ramp does not currently offer built-in business banking or treasury management capabilities in its platform. 

This means you will need to pair Ramp with a business bank account to unify your finance stack vs consolidating everything in one platform with Rho. 

Who is Ramp best for?

Ramp is a strong spend management platform if you have a narrow set of needs related to your finance stack. For example, if you are looking for a starting corporate card solution with some expense management capabilities, Ramp provides an effective offering. 

Ramp can help you save time on processes like month end close and money compared to using a pair of legacy solutions like American Express and SAP Concur. However, depending on your payment and invoice volume, Ramp Pay payment processing costs could add up.

However, since the platform lacks banking and treasury capabilities, it won’t completely unify your finance stack, which could lend itself to SaaS overload. What’s more, some processes, like accounts payable, benefit from a banking connection (e.g., no payment delays) like that offered by Rho. 

Note that other providers like Rho offer these capabilities and more without the need to pay subscription user fees. 

What is Brex?

Based in San Francisco, Brex is another spend management fintech company that first launched as a VR startup back in 2017. After pivoting, they launched a corporate card to challenge American Express and have since added spend management capabilities like expenses, travel, and AP. 

Brex’s mission is to empower employees anywhere to make better financial decisions, doing so by providing spend management and finance automation capabilities.

Note: A key difference between Brex and Ramp and Rho is that Brex largely caters to venture capital-backed startups. In 2022, Brex made a decision to no longer support traditional small businesses. If you are in this group, Brex may not be the right solution for you. 

What does Brex offer?

Brex’s products include corporate cards that offer a points-based rewards system, expense management, procurement, accounts payable, travel booking, business banking services, a mobile app, and other finance features. 

Key features include: 

• Brex Corporate Cards that offer a points-based rewards program based on different categories of spending. For example, it offers 7x points multiplier on rideshares, which you can redeem for things like billboard ads. 
• Built-in travel booking and travel policy management capabilities and automated AP workflows. 
• Business accounts that offer yield and fee-free ACHs. 
• Brex AI, the company’s AI-powered assistant embedded in each product that can help employees with expenses and answer questions, freeing time for the finance team. 

Like Ramp, it’s important to note that Brex customers must sign up for a Brex Premium or Brex Enterprise account to access important features like dedicated customer support, custom roles and permissions, ERP integrations, live budgeting, and travel planning.

As of this article’s publishing date, Brex Premium is $12 per user per month (when billed yearly; $15 per month otherwise), but larger enterprise organizations must contact Brex Sales for a more specific quote if they would like to access more features and dedicated onboarding. 

Who is Brex best for?

As previously mentioned, Brex caters largely to startups with venture capital funding. If you fit this category, they can be a quality option, although other providers like Rho offer these capabilities and more without the need to pay subscription user fees. 

What is Rho?

Based in New York, Rho is a comprehensive finance automation platform that helps businesses boost their bottom line and operate leaner. 

Rho offers corporate cards, expense management, AP automation, business banking, accounting automations, and treasury management, all in one platform designed to help businesses and finance teams operate more profitability and save operational hours every month. 

What does Rho offer?

Rho’s products include corporate charge cards with daily or monthly terms that offer up to 1.25% cashback, spend controls, accounts payable, business banking, a mobile app, budgeting, expense management tools, and more. 

The idea is that finance teams can use Rho to eliminate non-compliant spending, generate yield and cashback that adds to the bottom line, and automate key processes like month end close, vendor payments, and budgeting. 

Key features include: 

• Rho Corporate Cards with built in spend controls, expense management capabilities as needed, and the ability to earn up to 1.25% cashback on spending. 
• Rho AP that automates the end-to-end accounts payable process in just a few clicks and without payment delays that some experience with point solutions like Bill.com thanks to Rho’s integrated business banking. 
• Rho Prime Treasury, a bespoke treasury management solution that helps customers invest their excess cash in short-dated government securities held directly in their company’s name.
• Rho Treasury Management Account, built on a network of over 400 FDIC-insured banks, that offers access up to $75M in FDIC deposit insurance per entity. 
• Live support available 24H Mon-Fri, 10-7pm ET on weekends to assist from implementation and expense policy set-up to AP automation configuration and troubleshooting. 

Unlike Ramp or Brex, Rho offers these capabilities (and more) without charging platform fees or premium, user-based plans. We designed the platform with integrated spend management and cash management to align incentives with our customers. 

Who is Rho best for?

Whether you are a sophisticated middle market business with multiple entities or a 2-person startup, you can derive significant value running your finance operations on Rho. 

To be eligible for Rho, your business must be incorporated in the United States. We do not offer services to sole proprietorships or unincorporated businesses.

Did you know? Rho is also a popular finance platform among private equity-backed companies and CFOs thanks to our comprehensive spend management capabilities and multi-entity support.

Ramp vs Brex vs Rho

In the following sections, we will provide a comprehensive comparison of how Rho compares with Brex and Ramp across core platform capabilities including corporate credit cards, expense management, AP automation, business banking and other areas worth noting. 

Ramp vs Brex vs Rho business credit card comparison guide

All three fintech companies offer corporate credit cards that are considered charge cards. In other words,  they are a type of credit card that does not provide a revolving line of credit; it requires the outstanding balance to be paid in full by a predetermined date. 

You can read why a business might prefer a corporate charge card vs a traditional corporate credit card with a revolving line of credit in our guide to corporate cards. 

In general, there are very few differences between the Ramp Card, Brex Card, and Rho corporate card from a functionality standpoint. 

All provide a series of spend controls that help businesses manage budgets, the ability to generate virtual and physical cards, rewards you can receive for things like paying for AWS cloud bills and none require a personal guarantee. 

However, there are some important distinctions that are important to consider. 

For additional reading, check out how the Rho Corporate Card compares to the Divvy credit card.

1. Underwriting 

The underwriting process of legacy corporate card providers like American Express and Capital One typically ask for years of revenue data and often require a personal credit guarantee. This can be challenging for businesses that are growing but don’t have extensive credit histories. 

Brex, Ramp and other corporate card providers (like Stripe) don’t require a personal guarantee and can be accessible to newer businesses, but they place a strong emphasis on current cash balance. 

Rho does not apply a single, one-size-fits-all approach to evaluating companies, which is one of the first ways we help businesses generate a high, stable limit.

When you submit a Rho corporate credit card application, we utilize a variety of inputs to establish a more holistic view of a company, its financial health, and its ability to support various extended credit limits. 

You can read more about our unique underwriting approach and how it compares to Amex, Brex, and Ramp in our recent blog post on the topic. 

2. Card rewards programs 

Ramp offers up to 1.5% cashback, Rho offers up to 1.25% cashback, and Brex offers a points-based perks system (with some eligibility requirements). 

We’ve written about the value of straight cashback vs points-based systems. In short, we recommend a cashback program since you won’t run into any redemption restrictions and cash never expires. 

What’s more, while a slightly higher cashback rate on qualified purchases from Ramp might make it more enticing, consider the full breadth of capabilities you need and the holistic cost of the platform. 

For example, Ramp doesn’t offer business banking service, Rho does; Ramp charges for advanced capabilities that Rho offers for free. 

3. Customer support 

This is one of the most important considerations businesses have when selecting a corporate card program and it's an area Rho has been recognized in G2 for excelling. 

Whereas Ramp and Brex charge user subscription fees to access dedicated customer support, Rho offers world-class live, expert support via chat or phone 7 days a week.

4. Minimum deposit amount

According to each provider’s website as of this article’s publish date, each company has the following deposit requirement to maintain any credit limit: 

• Rho: Rho does not currently have a specific minimum requirement to begin to access credit given our holistic underwriting model.
• Ramp: You must “have at least $25,000 in cash in any US business bank account linked to your application.” 
• Brex: “Brex generally requires its customers to maintain a cash balance of at least $25,000 to maintain any credit limit.”

So, which corporate card program is right for your business? 

Best corporate credit card for venture-backed startups

While Brex caters its marketing and brand to VC-backed startups, Ramp and Rho are both designed to serve startups as well. 

Aside from the factors above, remember that Rho offers a comprehensive finance solution, world-class customer support, and more without the subscription fees Ramp and Brex now charge. 

Best corporate credit card for bootstrapped startups

Brex is not a good choice for bootstrapped startups, because spending limits and benefits are designed for funded growth companies. In June of 2022, Brex announced that it was leaving the small business and medium-sized (SMB) market.

Ramp and Rho, on the other hand, are designed to support SMBs and can provide spending limits to qualifying businesses, although Rho has business banking and treasury without the additional subscription license fees that Ramp now charges for Ramp Plus. 

Best corporate credit card for rewards

This question has been debated for as long as corporate credit card reward programs have been around. You can read our blog, “Cash back or points: Which type of corporate credit card rewards is best?”,

Our take: Go with straight cashback, and make sure you weigh it as part of a holistic evaluation framework to pick the right corporate credit card for your business. 

Best corporate credit card for customer support

Rho wins out here. We offer world-class customer support: 24H Mon-Fri, 10-7pm ET on weekends, without charging you for it. 

In short: You never have to tweet at our CEO to get our customer support’s attention. 

Ramp provides email-only customer support to Ramp and Ramp-Plus customers. Ramp Enterprise, the most expensive pricing level, offers “premium support”. You must contact a salesperson for an Enterprise price quote.  

Brex provides a dedicated support consultant to Brex Premium and Brex Enterprise users. 

Best corporate credit card for businesses with lots of travel

This is debatable, but generally the most popular choices are to go with Brex, given its built-in travel management capabilities, or combine the power of Rho and Navan, which work together seamlessly. 

Ramp does offer Ramp for Travel, which is an in-platform capability that tracks upcoming and current “Trips” that employees are taking. The dashboard gets populated when an airline charge appears on a Ramp Card or as admins add Trips manually. Note: Ramp doesn’t offer direct booking.

Brex vs Ramp vs Rho: Expense management platform comparison guide

Corporate credit card expense management software automates businesses' tasks to adequately pay for goods and services, track and control costs, and account for purchases during bookkeeping events like month-end close.

Businesses that either rely on manual workflows to manage expense reporting or a legacy software solution like SAP Concur can see significant time and, potentially, savings value moving to a more modern finance platform.

The key value propositions of doing so include: 

• Potentially better credit terms than what you would receive from American Express, Capital One or other legacy providers. 
• The ability to automate credit card transaction reconciliation involved in closing the books thanks to corporate cards being integrated with expense management in these platforms. 
• Opportunity for cost savings and expense policy compliance improvements thanks to programmable spend controls, limits, and restrictions you can place on corporate cards. 
• Treating expense reporting and budgeting as an ongoing, real-time practice vs relying on monthly expense reports. 
• User experience improvements that encourage employees to submit receipts on time, eliminating extra administrative work that the finance team has to do every month. 
• In the case of Rho, save thousands spent on SAP Concur fees. 

Again, in general, all three platforms offer similar expense management capabilities that you won’t get from merging American Express with an expense management point solution like SAP Concur or Expensify. It’s important to evaluate the three holistically depending on your needs. 

However, here are some key distinctions worth nothing. 

1. Cost

You are required to enroll in Ramp Plus or Brex Premium ($12/user per month when billed monthly) or Brex/Ramp Enterprise (you must talk to their sales for a quote) to access advanced expense management features including controls and accounting integrations that speed up reconciliation and the close. 

Rho does not charge subscription or platform fees to access these capabilities, and Rho offers premium business banking and treasury management services built-in as your business needs them. 

2. Customer Support 

Again, Rho wins out here. We offer world-class customer support 24H Mon-Fri, 10-7pm ET on weekends, without charging you for it. 

To get dedicated, responsive customer support, you must enroll in Ramp Plus or Brex Premium. Also, Ramp does not provide live phone support. 

3. Travel management 

Again, this is debatable, but generally the most popular choices are to go with Brex, given its built-in travel management capabilities, or combine the power of Rho and Navan, which work together seamlessly.    

4. Integrations

All three offer native integrations with QuickBooks Online, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intaact, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, helping to support real-time transaction reconciliation and a streamlined month-end close. 

Ramp and Brex do offer an integration with Xero. However, Rho’s CSV export and custom attributes capability make it simple for Xero users to automate their reconciliation process. 

However, Ramp and Brex charge for their advanced accounting integrations as part of Ramp Plus and Brex Premium. 

Ramp vs Brex vs Rho: Accounts payable automation comparison guide

AP automation software digitizes and automates the end-to-end accounts payable process, allowing businesses to capture, code, match, and approve accounts payable data using fewer manual tasks. 

Businesses with high invoice management and bill payment volume can benefit from moving to a modern finance platform like Rho, Brex or Ramp. 

The key value propositions of doing so include: 

• In the case of Rho, not having to pay fees to pay vendor bills like you are required to do so using Bill.com. 
• Managing high volume of vendor payments without necessarily needing a massive AP team thanks to invoice processing software that automates workflows.
• The ability to automate accounting related to vendor invoice management and processing, including updating the ledger and closing the books. 
• Integrating invoice and non-invoice spend (e.g. travel and expense) as part of a holistic view of spend management thanks to these platform’s integrated AP and expense management capabilities. 
• In the case of Rho, the ability to reduce payment delays some see with Bill.com and Ramp Bill Pay due to a lack of integrated business banking. Rho integrates banking with AP, speeding up payments and reducing risk of delays that upset vendors. 

In general, all three offerings provide a value add when compared to legacy solutions like Bill.com or AvidXchange, but there are some important distinctions. 

1. Cost

Rho does not charge platform fees for AP automation capabilities, but Ramp and Brex do. 

For example, Ramp and Brex include access to PO management in their paid premium plans. 

2. Integrated banking

Ramp does not offer business banking, so the same issues that Bill.com users often report (payment delays) could occur. 

3. Payment float

Ramp does have a unique capability in Ramp Flex where Ramp pays your vendors when requested and you can repay them over a certain payment period. 

The financing is based on the customer’s current cash balances, revenue and commerce data, and credit bureau information. However, there are fees associated with the service and they may change from one invoice to the next.  

Wrap-up: Ramp vs Brex vs Rho

Are you considering a modern finance platform for your business? If so, we hope you found this guide helpful. 

We would also love the opportunity to answer any questions you may have about Rho and how we can boost your company’s profitability, either compared to Brex or Ramp, or potentially as a complement. 

Rho is a powerful finance platform you can use to consolidate all your financial tools in one place, backed by world-class customer support – all without platform fees. 

If:

• End-to-end functionality to manage AP and to forecast cash flows linked with vendor management software capabilities.
• Ability to invest excess cash in government securities with 2-3 business day liquidity on U.S. Treasuries
• A scalable platform that grows as you grow

All wrapped up in unbeatable pricing and customer support available 24H Mon-Fri, 10-7pm ET on weekends sounds nice to you, 

Then, you should consider Rho.

Schedule time with a Rho payments expert today!

Competitive data was collected as of January 19, 2024, and is subject to change or update.