Four of these five give something away before they charge, and the free offers are not comparable. Navan is the strongest by a wide margin and for a structural reason rather than a promotional one: the platform is free for companies with 300 or fewer employees, with no limit on trips, because Navan earns travel booking commissions instead of charging for the software. Its expense side is free for the first five expensing users before moving to $15 per user a month. Brex Essentials and Ramp Free are both genuine $0 tiers with no credit card and no trial clock, and they are the two easiest ways to test a corporate card program with real employees. Airwallex Explore is $0 per user a month and includes unlimited multi-currency cards with zero international fees, plus 10 free Spend users, though its payment fees still apply per transaction. Expensify is the only one with no free tier at all - a 30-day trial of Collect at $5 per unique member a month. Prices read from the vendor pages on 2026-10-03. The free tiers split on what they actually waive. Navan's waiver is the broadest: the whole platform is free under 300 employees with unlimited trips, and only the expense module starts charging — free for the first five expensing users, then $15 per user a month, with Enterprise on custom pricing on top. Brex is the cleanest zero: Essentials is $0 per user a month with no card and no trial, and the paid Premium rung is $12 per user a month, so the jump from free is explicit rather than a promotional clock running out. Ramp's Free tier is also a permanent $0 per user a month, and its paid Plus tier is $15 per user a month plus a platform fee that scales with company size, with a 20% discount when billed annually; that company-size platform fee is the part to read before you assume Free means the bill never grows. Airwallex is the multi-currency angle: Explore is $0 per user a month and ships unlimited multi-currency cards with zero international fees and 10 free Spend users, so it is the natural pick when the team spends across currencies — but the per-transaction payment fees still apply, so the $0 user price is not the whole cost. Expensify is the odd one out: no free tier, only a 30-day trial of Collect at $5 per unique member a month (pay-per-use), with Control at annual $18 per member plus $36 per active member above the subscription size, so it is the priciest entry of the five and the only one you cannot run on free. Net: Navan if you are under 300 people and want travel and expense on one free platform; Brex or Ramp if you want the simplest $0 corporate-card trial for real employees; Airwallex if international spend is the point; Expensify only when you already know you will pay.
Essentials is $0 per user per month permanently, so a startup can issue cards to employees, run a month of real spend and see whether the workflow holds before paying $12/user for Premium.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: $12/user/mo (Premium) (Billed per user per month on top of card spend; the page also lists per-transaction card and wire fees ($15-$25 per wire in the comparative table) and the premium/enterprise tiers add credit and control features rather than metered units)
Brex runs a two-step public price list: Essentials is $0 per user per month and Premium is $12 per user per month, with the card, the expense tooling and the credit line all sitting on top of that seat fee.
Free is $0 per user per month with the core card and expense functionality. Plus at $15/user adds custom approval policies, card freeze rules and budget tracking, and annual billing carries a published 20% discount.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: $15/user/mo (Plus) plus platform fee (Per-user subscription plus a company-size platform fee; card interchange and any revenue-based rewards are separate from the subscription line)
Ramp prices in two steps as well - Free at $0 per user per month and Plus at $15 per user per month - and adds a platform fee on top, with a published 20% discount for annual billing.
Explore is $0 per user a month with business accounts in 20+ currencies, unlimited corporate cards with zero international fees, free batch transfers to 120+ countries, expense management and AI receipt matching, plus up to 10 free Spend users. Transaction fees still apply.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: $12/user/mo (Grow) plus platform fee (Subscription per user plus a team-size platform fee, with payment and card rails charged separately: 2.80% + $0.30 domestic, 4.30% + $0.30 on international cards, 0.50% per successful subscription transaction, $15-$25 per wire, and $12 per active Spend user/month above the 10 free Spend users up to 250)
Airwallex is the multi-currency account layer that also does spend: Explore is $0 per user per month, Grow is $12 per user per month plus a platform fee, and Accelerate is custom - with up to 10 free Spend users.
Collect starts at $5 per unique member a month on a 30-day trial, with no annual commitment and no card requirement. It is the only vendor here without a $0 tier, and also the only one whose entry price is small enough to ignore while you evaluate.
Free tier: No — trial only · Free 30-day trial of Collect
Paid from: $5/member/mo (Collect) (Charged per unique member on Collect and per active member on Control, so employees who never submit an expense still count on Control; orgs whose first workspace predates 2025-04-01 stay on legacy Collect pricing)
Expensify is the pay-as-you-go outlier of expense management: Collect is a flat $5 per unique member a month, and Control annual starts at $18 per member included, dropping to $9 with Expensify Card volume discounts.
Bottom line: Navan takes the free-tier crown on substance rather than promotion: the whole platform is free below 300 employees because booking commissions fund it, and travel is not charged at all. Brex and Ramp both offer permanent $0 tiers that are the easiest way to test a card program with real employees, and Airwallex gives away multi-currency accounts and cards at $0 per user, though its payment fees are the real cost. Expensify has no free tier, but at $5 per unique member a month it is the cheapest entry point in the cluster and the only one with no card requirement attached. The general rule for this category: free tiers are generous in seat count and stingy in transaction economics, so check what still gets charged on tier zero before you commit.
Four of the five. Navan Business is free for companies up to 300 employees with unlimited trips; Brex Essentials, Ramp Free and Airwallex Explore are all $0 per user per month. Expensify offers no free tier, only a 30-day trial of Collect at $5 per unique member a month.
Navan Business covers companies up to 300 employees, though Navan Expense is free for only the first five expensing users. Brex and Ramp price per user from $0 with no stated cap, and Airwallex includes up to 10 free Spend users on top of its $0 per-user plan.
Transaction fees. Airwallex Explore is $0 per user but still charges 2.80% + $0.30 per domestic card transaction, 4.30% + $0.30 internationally and $15-$25 per wire. Brex and Ramp free tiers likewise have card spend economics that apply regardless of tier.
Navan, if the team is under 300 employees and travels at all - five expensing users stay free and travel is included. Expensify at $5 per unique member a month is close enough to free to be worth naming, and it works with any bank rather than requiring a card program.
Navan, Brex Essentials, Ramp Free and Airwallex Explore are standing tiers rather than trials - Expensify is the only one of the five whose entry is a time-limited trial.