Navan
Navan is free for companies of up to 300 employees: Navan Business costs nothing, Navan Expense is free for the first five expensing users and then $15 per user per month, and Navan Enterprise is sales-only.
Verified against: navan.comnavan.com as of 2026-10-03
Quick verdict: Navan is the pick for a company whose real spend is travel, and the free tier here is not a marketing number: it is funded by booking commissions, which is why there is no limit on trips below 300 employees. For a company with heavy travel and light expense volume it is the best value in this cluster by a wide margin. It stops being the answer when travel is incidental and receipts are the problem - at that point $15 per expensing user from the sixth person is a step you would rather take with Expensify at $5 per member.
- Our rating: 4.0/5
- Strongest dimension: Value (5/5, research only)
- Weakest dimension: Collaboration (3/5, research only)
- Pricing: Free plan · $15/user/mo after 5 free expensing users
- Verification: Research-only pass over official sources, last checked 2026-10-03. Sources: navan.com, navan.com
Navan pricing details
- Free plan available
- paid plans from $15/user/mo after 5 free expensing users
- navan Business free for companies with 300 or fewer employees, with no limit on trips · Navan Expense free for the first 5 expensing users, then $15 per user per month · Navan Enterprise custom (adds unlimited travelers and expensing users, ERP integrations and enterprise travel support)
- no published annual rate
Travel itself is funded out of provider commission rather than charged; the expense side bills per expensing user, defined on the page as anyone who submits a transaction by manual entry or Navan Connect
In our index: Navan Business free for companies with 300 or fewer employees, unlimited trips · Navan Expense free for the first 5 expensing users, then $15 per user per month · Navan Enterprise custom (unlimited travelers and expensing users, ERP integrations, enterprise travel support)
How Navan scores across our 6 index dimensions
- Functionality: 4/5 (research only)
- Usability: 4/5 (research only)
- Stability: 4/5 (research only)
- Collaboration: 3/5 (research only)
- Localization: 4/5 (research only)
- Value: 5/5 (research only)
Score rationale: The best free offer in the cluster by a wide margin - the whole platform is free below 300 employees because the travel side earns its money from booking commissions, so the expense software is the loss leader. The catch is the definition of free: it is capped at 300 employees and five expensing users, and the moment you need ERP integrations or unlimited travelers you are in a sales conversation.
What Navan does well
- The best free offer in the cluster: the whole platform at $0 for companies up to 300 employees, and the reason is structural - travel commissions pay for the software
- Travel booking is genuinely included at no cost rather than subsidised from a higher subscription, so frequent travellers cost nothing extra
- Free Expense for the first five expensing users, which covers a large share of small teams at zero cost
- Navan Connect automates transaction capture from bank feeds, which is where most expense platforms quietly fail
Where Navan falls short
- Free is explicitly capped at 300 employees, and above that you are in a demo, not a checkout
- The $15 per expensing user step arrives at six people, so a twenty-person team pays $225 a month for the expense side alone
- No annual rate published and no card-led spend program to speak of - this is travel-and-expense, not spend management
- Expensing user is defined as anyone who submits a transaction, which is broader than it sounds once consultants and contractors are included
How Navan compares to other Expense & Spend Management tools
Our index tracks 5 Expense & Spend Management tools. Navan sits at 4.0/5, with no published annual rate. Here are the 4 closest alternatives we hold pricing and scoring evidence for.
- Ramp — 4.4/5 · Free plan · $15/user/mo (Plus) plus platform fee
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. - Brex — 4.3/5 · Free plan · $12/user/mo (Premium)
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. - Expensify — 4.2/5 · Free 30-day trial of Collect · $5/member/mo (Collect)
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. - Airwallex — 4.1/5 · Free plan · $12/user/mo (Grow) plus platform fee
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.
Frequently asked questions about Navan
How much does Navan cost?
Free plan available; paid plans from $15/user/mo after 5 free expensing users; navan Business free for companies with 300 or fewer employees, with no limit on trips · Navan Expense free for the first 5 expensing users, then $15 per user per month · Navan Enterprise custom (adds unlimited travelers and expensing users, ERP integrations and enterprise travel support); no published annual rate. Billing detail: Travel itself is funded out of provider commission rather than charged; the expense side bills per expensing user, defined on the page as anyone who submits a transaction by manual entry or Navan Connect. Figures verified 2026-10-03.
Does Navan have a free plan?
Yes. Navan has a free tier; paid plans start at $15/user/mo after 5 free expensing users.
What is Navan rated in our index?
Navan sits at 4.0/5 in our index, strongest on value (5/5, research only) and weakest on collaboration (3/5, research only). Navan is the pick for a company whose real spend is travel, and the free tier here is not a marketing number: it is funded by booking commissions, which is why there is no limit on trips below 300 employees. For a company with heavy travel and light expense volume it is the best value in this cluster by a wide margin. It stops being the answer when travel is incidental and receipts are the problem - at that point $15 per expensing user from the sixth person is a step you would rather take with Expensify at $5 per member.
What are the drawbacks of Navan?
Free is explicitly capped at 300 employees, and above that you are in a demo, not a checkout The $15 per expensing user step arrives at six people, so a twenty-person team pays $225 a month for the expense side alone No annual rate published and no card-led spend program to speak of - this is travel-and-expense, not spend management Expensing user is defined as anyone who submits a transaction, which is broader than it sounds once consultants and contractors are included.
What does Navan do well?
The best free offer in the cluster: the whole platform at $0 for companies up to 300 employees, and the reason is structural - travel commissions pay for the software Travel booking is genuinely included at no cost rather than subsidised from a higher subscription, so frequent travellers cost nothing extra Free Expense for the first five expensing users, which covers a large share of small teams at zero cost Navan Connect automates transaction capture from bank feeds, which is where most expense platforms quietly fail.
How was Navan verified?
Research-only pass over official sources, last checked 2026-10-03. Sources: navan.com, navan.com.
What are the alternatives to Navan?
We track Expensify, Brex, Ramp, Airwallex as the closest alternatives in our Expense & Spend Management index.