Ramp vs Amex, Brex vs Amex and Amex vs Ramp costs for a 10-person US team

The honest short answer for a ten-person US company goes like this. Ramp Free and Brex Essentials cost $0 a year in software, but both are charge cards that require you to move card spend to them, and Ramp asks for at least $25,000 in a US business bank account. Amex Business Platinum costs $895 a year for the Basic Card, plus $400 a year for each Employee Business Platinum Card or $0 for each Employee Business Expense Card, according to the card page on americanexpress.com. Keeping Amex and adding Expenditure for receipts, coding and approvals costs $2,400 a year on Starter or $4,200 on Growth for ten seats, on top of the card fee.

Rewards are where Amex earns its fee. Business Gold earns 4X Membership Rewards points on your top two eligible spending categories each month, on the first $150,000 of combined purchases a year and 1X after that. Business Platinum earns 5X on flights and prepaid hotels booked on amextravel.com. Neither card charges foreign transaction fees. Ramp advertises uncapped cashback on every transaction and says it charges no foreign transaction fee, though its help center notes that card purchases in another currency can carry a conversion markup of up to 3%. Brex states an FX rate markup of up to 3% on card spend that needs converting.

Controls are where Ramp and Brex earn their place. Both issue unlimited virtual and physical cards, set limits by employee, merchant or category, block out-of-policy purchases at the moment of authorization and chase receipts by text or app. Ramp Free includes receipt matching, approval rules and QuickBooks Online and Xero integrations. Brex Premium at $12 per user a month adds more policy and travel controls. Amex gives you employee cards with spending limits and an online account to review charges after they post. Small business Card Members get Connect to QuickBooks at no extra cost, and companies on the Corporate CashBack Program get the Amex Expense app.

Underwriting decides a lot of these choices before any feature does. Ramp underwrites the company on its cash and revenue, with no personal credit check and no personal guarantee. Brex, now a Capital One company, also issues its corporate card without a personal guarantee. Amex small business cards are opened by a named Basic Card Member, and American Express explains that business credit cards usually carry a personal guarantee, which puts the owner on the hook if the business cannot pay.

There is a third setup that neither Ramp nor Brex pitches: keep your Amex cards, points and credit relationship, and add software that does the expense work. That is what Expenditure does. You import the Amex statement as a CSV, OFX or QFX file, we match each line to its receipt, read the receipt at line level, code it to your chart of accounts, check it against your policy, route it for approval on Growth and export a clean file for QuickBooks Online, Xero or NetSuite. Duplicate receipts are flagged before they reach the books. We never move or hold your money, we are bank-grade secure and we never sell or train on your financial data. This is software and insight, not financial, tax or accounting advice.