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Most buyers should pick Pleo.
Choose Payhawk if you need cards, expenses, travel, accounts payable and procurement in one platform, especially across multiple entities. Choose Pleo if published per-user pricing, employee and vendor cards, expense reviews and accounting sync matter more. Pleo starts at £8 per user per month, while Payhawk’s pricing page does not publish prices. Neither product lists a free plan. Pleo’s listed plans also have user, card and payment limits that can affect the bill.
01Side by side
| Payhawk | Pleo | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Not published | £8/user/month on Start |
| Free plan | No free plan listed | No free plan listed |
| Best for | Teams managing spend across multiple workflows and entities | Teams wanting priced plans and card controls |
| Core strength | Cards, expenses, travel, AP and procurement | Cards, expense reviews and accounting sync |
| Learning curve | Not published | Not published |
| Integrations/data | SAP S/4HANA and advanced HR integrations are add-ons | Accounting sync and multi-entity spend visibility |
| Team/seat costs | Prices and seat limits not published | £14–£18 yearly; Build and Optimise require three users |
| Support | Review score: 5/10 | Review score: 5/10 |
Payhawk Choose Payhawk if
- Choose Payhawk if you need cards, expenses, travel, AP and procurement.
- Choose Payhawk if spend spans multiple entities.
- Choose Payhawk if configurable budgets, policies and approval workflows matter.
Pleo Choose Pleo if
- Choose Pleo if you want published per-user plan prices.
- Choose Pleo if accounting sync and expense reviews are priorities.
- Choose Pleo if vendor cards and multi-currency cash fit your needs.
02Pricing compared
Pleo is easier to budget from its published prices: Start is listed at £8 per user per month, Build at £14 per user per month billed yearly, and Optimise at £18 per user per month billed yearly. There is a pricing-page inconsistency: Start is described as monthly billing only, but also appears under “Billed yearly.” Build and Optimise require at least three users; Start allows one admin maximum.
Those prices do not tell the whole story. Start charges £1.50 per local payment and £8 per international payment; Build and Optimise include 10 local payments monthly, then charge £0.95 each. FX fees range from 2.00% on Start to 1.49% on Optimise. Payhawk does not publish prices or billing terms, and its listed add-ons—including travel and budget management—have no published prices. Neither product lists a free plan.
03Features and depth
Payhawk covers more of the spend process in one product: cards, expense reconciliation, invoice approval and supplier payments, procurement requests, and policy-based travel booking. Its AI automation covers receipt collection, approval routing, policy enforcement, and transaction coding. The platform also lists budgets, workflows, and controls across multiple entities. Business Travel, Budget Management, SAP S/4HANA, and advanced HR integrations are labeled add-ons.
Pleo centers on company spending, cards, and reconciliation. It offers employee and vendor cards with flexible limits, visibility across entities, AI expense reviews that flag out-of-policy spend, multi-currency cash management, vendor controls, and accounting sync. Plan limits matter: vendor cards range from one on Start to 50 on Optimise, while Optimise includes 100 AI expense reviews per month. Build and Optimise include 10 free local payments monthly; Build also caps vendor cards at 15. Choose Payhawk for broader AP, procurement, and travel coverage; choose Pleo if its published card and expense-review plans fit your needs.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Pleo’s published tiers make it more straightforward to assess what you can buy: the plans specify user minimums, vendor-card limits, payment allowances, and—in Optimise—monthly AI expense reviews. Those limits still need checking against your team’s payment and FX needs, since overages and transaction fees can add cost.
Payhawk’s listed scope spans cards, expenses, travel, invoices, procurement, budgets, and multiple entities. That breadth may mean more workflows and policies to set up, particularly for teams that only need cards and expense tracking. Its pricing is not published, so it is harder to estimate the cost of that scope before speaking with the company. Neither product’s published material specifies a free trial or provides enough detail to compare onboarding or setup effort.
Questions people ask
What does Payhawk do?
Payhawk is a spend-management platform for company cards, expenses, travel, accounts payable, and procurement. Its listed tools include card controls, invoice approvals and supplier payments, purchase requests, travel booking within policy, and automated receipt collection and expense coding.
What are some good alternatives to Pleo?
Payhawk is one option if you want cards and expenses alongside accounts payable, procurement, and travel. Its pricing is not published, so request a quote before comparing total cost. Pleo’s listed plans start at £8 per user per month, with payment fees and plan limits to factor in.
Who is the CEO of Payhawk?
The published material for this comparison does not identify Payhawk’s CEO, so we can’t verify a name here. Check Payhawk’s official leadership or company information for the current CEO rather than relying on an undated third-party listing.
How much does Payhawk cost?
Payhawk’s pricing page does not publish prices or monthly versus annual billing terms. Business Travel, Budget Management, SAP S/4HANA, and advanced HR integrations are labeled add-ons, but their prices are not published either. Ask Payhawk for a quote based on your required products and entities.