Expensify vs. FreshBooks

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Expensify
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Expensify automates the entire spend management process. Scan receipts, track mileage, submit and approve expenses, manage corporate cards, reimburse employees, pay bills, send invoices, and book travel. Built for individuals and companies of all sizes, anywhere in the world.
$5
per month per user
FreshBooks
Score 9.1 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
FreshBooks is an accounting service for small businesses. The solution enables users to send and manage invoices, track billable time and collect online payments. The vendor’s value proposition this that their solution provides a straightforward service that simplifies the billing process.
$21
per month
Pricing
ExpensifyFreshBooks
Editions & Modules
Collect
$5
per month per user
Control
$9
per month per user
Lite
$21
per month
Plus
$38
per month
Premium
$65
per month
Select
Custom Pricing
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ExpensifyFreshBooks
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details10% discount for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ExpensifyFreshBooks
Considered Both Products
Expensify
Chose Expensify
I did not use any other product other than Expensify.
Chose Expensify
Compared to SAP Concur which is the only other app that I have ever used, it's so much easier and so much useful, it'll keep you updated all the time, and has more categories (of what I can remember)
Chose Expensify
Much more easy and user intuitive, the chat/support function is of an entirely different caliber that makes all the difference, UX/UI is far more 'advanced'
Chose Expensify
There is no comparison. Expensify is user friendly and easy to learn.
Chose Expensify
There is no comparison - Expensify rules & Concur drools. I dreaded when it was time to do Concur expense reports, as they would take 4-6 hours to complete every 2x weeks. Concur had SOOOOOOOOOO many rules & snags. Expensify is the opposite of Concur in all the best ways …
Chose Expensify
Within this company, Expensify is the primary tool we use, so I haven't heavily evaluated other platforms here. However, I have brief experience with tools like Navan, whick I used once and honestly I don't remember so well. I know I prefer Expensify
Chose Expensify
Expensify is much better than chrome river across all dimensions, from ease of use to OCR capabilities. I had a good experience with Chrome River but it has been eclipsed by my Expensify experience by far. Chrome River really struggled to capture all the details in my invoices, …
Chose Expensify
Expensify's auto-capturing of receipts makes life so much easier. Very rarely do you have to worry about a lost receipt or try tracking someone down to get the documentation that you need. It's far more user friendly within the app and more straightforward to use than Bill or …
Chose Expensify
Expensify is more powerful, less cumbersome, easier to use than Zoho Expense. Zoho expense would frequently hiccup during expense entry and that would lead to loss of work in progress, which was very frustrating to team members. Expensify is smoother workflows and the AI and …
Chose Expensify
Expensify is much more streamlined and easier to use than Concur which I used at my previous employer. Many of the functions I had to manually do on Concur, I am able to do automatically in Expensify. The App integration makes it easy to make submissions on the Fly, where I …
Chose Expensify
I haven't really found anything like it. There are all kinds of financial apps that I use, but they are always for different purposes.
Chose Expensify
There is no comparison. When I worked at IBM, they used a legacy home-grown app on AIX that was probably designed in about 1975. Expensify is a much more modern approach, far, far easier to use.
Chose Expensify
This product is much better to use than fresh books. the user interface is very modern and very intuitive and easy to use. I wish the other organizations I worked at would have used this software instead and I could get my expenses paid timely. The reporting is excellent and …
Chose Expensify
Expensify is more refined and better interface, it is easier to use, more intuitive and gives better visibility on the status of reports. Also has good features to flag expense policy violations as one is creating a report.
Chose Expensify
Fast and Efficient Employee Reimbursement.
Chose Expensify
Expensify is simpler to use and less expensive than Dext. I find it to be much simpler to use, it feels less bulky. Ramp does not have the variety of tools available when compared to Expensify. I am not familiar with using Expensify cards, but I assume that they do that well.
Chose Expensify
A dedicated app like Expensify does better than a combined platform at the main use case - expense tracking, reporting, and reimbursement. Bigger, wider-scope platforms take more effort or have other features that can occasionally get in the way. We prefer Expensify's simpler, …
Chose Expensify
I can't remember what they were called... they were unmemorable.
Chose Expensify
It's more modern and easier to use.
Chose Expensify
Expensify is more user friendly interface, shorter tasks, more accurate, timely notification
Chose Expensify
Expensify is SO MUCH BETTER than Concur. The app in concur is terrible, expense scanning never works and reports are so hard to enter. Expensify makes all of that better. I only wish I'd had an opportunity to use Expensify travel as that I'm sure is also so much better than …
Chose Expensify
Concur is the only formal software I've used, though I think this was only used in my PhD program (2010-2014), so in fairness, it's been a while. I remember Concur being just OK. It was certainly easier to use than the 'upload documents to email' process my former employer had …
FreshBooks
Chose FreshBooks
QuickBooks' interface is clunky, confusing, and slow. QuickBooks support is worse than if there were no support at all. FreshBooks' UI is clean, intuitive, and even when changes are rolled out, easy to quickly learn. Their support is second to none and never disappointed us.
Chose FreshBooks
FreshBooks does very well in comparison, especially since it is free software for Barclays bank users. Sage software is much worse than FreshBooks. However, Xero and QuickBooks, the market leaders, are still ahead with usability, additional features, reporting, and connection …
Chose FreshBooks
For its simplicity, if your business is just a basic process of billing repeat clients and recording expenses, anyone can use this software.
Chose FreshBooks
There is no fluff and feature overload with FreshBooks. I can get to what I need quickly and easily. I don't have to deal with unnecessary features and fields the system considers essential. The payment features are streamlined and have lots of flexibility when receiving …
Chose FreshBooks
FreshBooks interface is better than QuickBooks. Xero's interface is more basic than both, but seems to work fine.
Chose FreshBooks
In my experience, quickbooks customer service was terrible, and program was very complicated to use. We switched to FreshBooks to simplify day to day use.
Chose FreshBooks
FreshBooks people were friendly and helpful up-front. Because of the inability to receive payments correctly, I will be moving to Stripe.
Chose FreshBooks
FreshBooks is a relative novice compared to the giant Quickbooks application that has been around for years and it is established as the go-to app for account management and invoicing. I would say that in a few years, FreshBooks can become a threat to QuickBooks but it will …
Chose FreshBooks
We do not consider other options since our client wants the implementation of this platform in order to use it in the two countries where it has operations. At the moment, full integration was not possible and we still share the information with a Mexican system to complete …
Chose FreshBooks
I selected FreshBooks because it combined Toggl, Harvest and Quickbooks features into a single system. This simple move allowed for me to save money on the tools and in turn bring all client data into a single portal.

FreshBooks is easy to use and automatically generates the …
Chose FreshBooks
FreshBooks is easy to implement and the onboarding process is straightforward. It has great user interface to navigate and any user can easily start using it. It also offers customization of the modules/reports. Most importantly invoice tracking is a great module. It is offered …
Chose FreshBooks
Freshbooks was willing to work with us on all needs and compliance issues specific to our processes.
Chose FreshBooks
I looked at QuickBooks but they only had desktop products and I was interested in a hosted solution. Freshbooks has always been ahead of their competition in this area of mobile, on the go use cases where a modern platform can be used to stay up to date and accessible from …
Chose FreshBooks
We considered using Xero for our invoicing due to the more advanced accounting features but chose FreshBooks because it offered recurring payments. Xero did not offer this critical feature at the time of purchase. And since invoicing was our main priority, FreshBooks did a …
Chose FreshBooks
It was not my choice to select FreshBooks, but my client finds it easier to do billing with FreshBooks over QuickBooks.
Chose FreshBooks
Freshbooks offers its finances in a secure and easy manner. they are also simple yet they can efficiently manage expenses, invoices, reports, and time tracking.
Chose FreshBooks
FreshBooks is an invoicing software that wants to do accounting.
Xero is an accounting software that wants to do billing.
Both are pretty solid at their core functionality, and weak on the other. However, it's a shorter step for Xero to add interest and recurring CC billing, so …
Chose FreshBooks
Years ago we started using FreshBooks and then decided to look for a less expensive option. After trying multiple solutions, we went back to FreshBooks and haven't looked back since. That was over 10 years ago.

No service can compete with their functionality, pricing, and …
Chose FreshBooks
The software we selected is because the learning curve is very kind. Once we draw the way we manage our business, we understand we have to make some changes in order to adjust to the new software. This software allows us to reflect every aspect of the business, costs and …
Chose FreshBooks
I really liked Wave Apps for a bit. It had some limitations, but I really like how easy it was to use and intuitive. Great pricing too. So I would recommend that over Freshbooks at this point for someone who is just getting started. Quickbooks is great for accounting. Super …
Chose FreshBooks
Don't get me wrong — I like Xero for accounting purposes. But Xero's invoicing isn't great. There's too many features I depend on that FreshBooks has that Xero just does not. I need to be able to take deposits, send automatic reminders, and create an extremely user-friendly …
Chose FreshBooks
FreshBooks is hands down the best software for collecting invoices, payments, tracking time and managing expenses we have ever used. I am an avid user and fan and have been and will continue to be. They are keen on the updates, on listening to customers feedback and making …
Chose FreshBooks
You have to know why you want to establish an online solution. Understanding what you want to accomplish will probably lead you to FreshBooks as it has the cleanest, simplest design going and it accomplished its tasks without being a burden.
Chose FreshBooks
I love that I can truly give an estimate on the spot and afterward transform it into a receipt. I can begin working with my customer instantly. It is similarly wonderful that I can do it anywhere and it incorporates with Stripe, which collects numerous monetary forms so we can …
Features
ExpensifyFreshBooks
Expense Management
Comparison of Expense Management features of Product A and Product B
Expensify
9.6
Ratings
15% above category average
FreshBooks
-
Ratings
Employee Expense Reporting9.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Corporate Card Reconciliation9.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Payment Management
Comparison of Payment Management features of Product A and Product B
Expensify
9.4
Ratings
16% above category average
FreshBooks
-
Ratings
Customizable Approval Policies9.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Financial Document Management9.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Payment Status Tracking9.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Payment Audit Trail9.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Bill Detection9.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Advanced OCR9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Electronic Funds Transfer9.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Expensify
-
Ratings
FreshBooks
9.1
Ratings
18% above category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Expensify
-
Ratings
FreshBooks
10.0
Ratings
19% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Expensify
-
Ratings
FreshBooks
7.5
Ratings
5% below category average
Dashboards00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings4.80 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Expensify
-
Ratings
FreshBooks
7.5
Ratings
2% below category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Cash management00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Bank reconciliation00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Expense management00 Ratings6.60 Ratings
Time tracking00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Multi-currency support00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Regulations compliance00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Self-service portal00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Expensify
-
Ratings
FreshBooks
9.5
Ratings
24% above category average
Pricing00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ExpensifyFreshBooks
Small Businesses
Dext
Dext
Score 9.6 out of 10
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 4.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
BILL Spend & Expense
BILL Spend & Expense
Score 8.9 out of 10
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Emburse Chrome River
Emburse Chrome River
Score 8.3 out of 10
SAP Cloud ERP
SAP Cloud ERP
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ExpensifyFreshBooks
Likelihood to Recommend
9.6
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.6
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.6
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.5
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ExpensifyFreshBooks
Likelihood to Recommend
I think it's really good for small businesses. At least in the way we use it. It's very good for keeping an eye on employee spending in nearly real time. I'm not sure how it works for larger companies when there is a larger number of people to keep track of.
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FreshBooks is the perfect tool for businesses who have hundreds of clients and customers whom they invoice regularly. It removes the need to manually send invoices to clients and customers, by streamlining inputted information to create an automated invoicing system which keeps clients and customers up to date with their bills. It is also a great tool for managing expenses, especially for companies with different teams working on varying projects, ensuring these teams do not exceed the budget ceiling.
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Pros
  • I am able to submit my mileage and the great feature to put the starting destination and end destination. It auto populates the mileage for you!
  • The coniserge is helpful and reminds me when I did not do certain things like submit my report. That’s a nice feature!
  • I am able to submit my expenses quickly and it scans the receipts or you can upload a picture of them very quickly.
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  • FreshBooks is pretty intuitive to use. I did have some questions when I first started using the system, but it wasn't a long learning curve.
  • FreshBooks provides more capability than other billing applications such as PaySimple or BlinkSale. FreshBooks does provide an easy invoicing function. It's easy to create invoices that can be sent via email or snail mail to one or more individuals (for example, the decision-maker and the accounting dept). Clients can pay online or send a check and then I note that the payment has been received. If paid by credit card, the system automatically marks the invoice paid. Your business accounts such as bank accounts can be linked to FreshBooks. Then, the system can automatically draw in expenses and will create simple P&L reports, overdue invoices, client history, etc. If you don't have inventory and complex payroll, etc. FreshBooks provides just the right level of capability to make financial tracking simple.
  • FreshBooks integrates with a number of credit card companies. I use Stripe, which has fees similar to Paypal, but much more reliable processing. I can accept all credit cards, including American Express, for a reasonable fee.
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Cons
  • Cant choose for specific lines of non -reimbursable expenses to several credit cards. only one preconfigured.
  • there are limited cards to choose for with Expensify Travel as a corporate cards.
  • The policy rules are pretty basic. i would like to have more granular options
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  • Pricing structure is very poor for us. $10/user per month when we have staff that comes and goes. And it's impossible to change a free contractor to a paid staff and vice-versa. This is my biggest complaint.
  • They only allow one admin owner user. Emails must come from that account. This is annoying, as other staff cannot log in with the same power.
  • The user interface is quite dated. I've made recommendations to improve it and all have been ignored. It's skinny and not fluid. Also, there is no way to link between invoices and clients.
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Likelihood to Renew
Our company will use Expensify for as long as it will fit our purposes. However, it is obvious that once the fast-growing company will reach a certain size, we will need to transition to a more complex system. For our current purposes however, Expensify is great and I would recommend it to everyone
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At the current needs of our business, FreshBooks suits us perfectly - it allows online access by our accountant to the system for GST purposes, easy input of expenses and tracking of Profit and Loss statements. FreshBooks customer service is great as well - very understanding and accommodating.
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Usability
So simple to set up and use. It was easy to roll out to all our staff! The demos, instructions, and FAQ's were well written and enabled us to train our staff quickly. We have frontline employees who have mastered the system in a day. The scalability is also perfect. We are able to start with just a few cards and grew that number as our organization needed without any problems.
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It is well-built software with no significant drawbacks. It offers all the necessary futures expected from online software. However, it is not yet up there with Xero and QuickBooks regarding connections with other software and advanced reporting features. The developers work closely with accountants, and therefore, I expect further development of the software.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
FreshBooks is easy to use and always works!
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Support Rating
Our rep has been amazing. He has built custom reports for us that have been very time consuming and difficult. Our reps are also currently looking into new submission solutions for us that we are excited about. They came up with this and recommended it on their own without me complaining about an issue. They are about our success and are very excited about the product they offer.
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I think the support level for FreshBooks is on par with a 6 because the folks behind this application do a fairly good job at providing support for their customer base. I still don't think they are at an elite level when it comes to supporting but are getting there although too slow in my opinion.
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Implementation Rating
The implementation process went rather smoothly, linking it to the bank and cards was handled easily. without too many unnecessary steps. Getting the accounts setup did take some time, but that would be true with any organization. All in all things went smoothly and I was very pleased with the setup and implementation process
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I haven't changed my mind since my first evaluation. Freshbooks is still meeting my needs, easy to use, etc.
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Alternatives Considered
Concur is the only formal software I've used, though I think this was only used in my PhD program (2010-2014), so in fairness, it's been a while. I remember Concur being just OK. It was certainly easier to use than the 'upload documents to email' process my former employer had instituted, but it was not Expensify-level smart and easy. At least back then, there was no simple drag-and-drop document parsing for example.
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There is no fluff and feature overload with FreshBooks. I can get to what I need quickly and easily. I don't have to deal with unnecessary features and fields the system considers essential. The payment features are streamlined and have lots of flexibility when receiving payments. I love FreshBooks support, and it is 100 more customer-friendly and easier to work with than its primary competitors from my experience.
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Return on Investment
  • Positives include - timely expense reports to reconcile our fiscal year financials
  • Negatives include - the monthly service fee per employee (even if no expenses were generated that month) - it is not cost effective for ALL of our employees to utilize the application.
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  • Since implementing FreshBrooks, 80% of invoices created are paid in less than 30 days from the time the invoice is sent via email to the client. Prior to FreshBooks, we were mailing or hand-delivering our invoices and payment on those invoices was in the 45-90 day range.
  • Time tracking is done directly in FreshBooks (or through a plugin that's connected directly to FreshBooks) and is very easy to use. With this feature we're much better able to track all business activities. This has helped us to quantify the time we're spending on non-billable business-related work in addition to our billable client hours. We've been able to adjust our pricing accordingly, as well as being more efficient with our non-billable activities.
  • When FreshBooks online payments is set-up in your account, payments made with this method are automatically sent to your bank account. We choose between FreshBooks payments and PayPal payments in order to manage how much money stays in the PayPal account for online expenses vs. how much is transferred directly to the bank account.
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ScreenShots

Expensify Screenshots

Screenshot of the dashboard used to manage expenses, book travel, reimburse employees, and create expense reports.Screenshot of corporate cards. The Expensify Card offers cash back on every US purchase.

FreshBooks Screenshots

Screenshot of the dashboardScreenshot of an invoice overviewScreenshot of an example of a customizable invoiceScreenshot of an invoice appearing across devicesScreenshot of expensesScreenshot of time tracking