Best for
Best for companies that invoice, pay suppliers and run teams across several currencies and want spend management on the same account.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Accounting & Invoicing Comparison
Airwallex vs. Pleo
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for European companies that want cards, reimbursements and supplier invoices in one place at a published per-user price.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Airwallex | Pleo |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free; Grow $12 / user / month US pricing. Explore has no monthly fee and includes up to 10 Spend users. Grow is 12 dollars per active Spend user per month plus a platform fee based on team size, up to 250 Spend users. Accelerate is priced on request. Monthly fees are charged per legal entity; FX, transfers and payment processing are charged per transaction. | From £8 / user / month The Start plan, billed monthly, with a maximum of one admin. Build and Optimise are billed yearly and require at least three users. |
| Free trial | Not stated | Yes, the vendor offers a free trial on the Start and Build plans; no duration is stated on the pricing page. |
| Users | Not stated | More than 40,000 companies, per the vendor |
| API | Yes, APIs for accounts, payments, transactional FX, payouts, card issuing and billing, plus the AgentOS MCP server for acting on a production account | Yes, a public API at developers.pleo.io, plus an official MCP server |
| Hosting | Cloud (SaaS) | Cloud (SaaS) |
| Made in | Australia (founded in Melbourne) | Not stated |
| Invoicing and quotes | Yes, one-off and recurring invoices with automated reminders, credit notes and automatic reconciliation, plus subscription and usage-based billing; incoming bills are captured, approved and paid through Bill Pay | Incoming supplier invoices only, through the accounts payable module, which the vendor describes as running purchase orders through to payments. Customer invoicing and accounts receivable are not among the listed features |
| Bookkeeping and bank feeds | No general ledger of its own; bank feeds, expenses and bills sync to Xero and QuickBooks, and from Grow to NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central | No general ledger of its own. Transactions and receipts export to Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite, FreeAgent, XLedger and Twinfield, and the vendor names Sage, Visma e-conomic, DATEV and Microsoft among the systems it syncs to |
| Expenses and receipts | Yes, multi-currency corporate cards with spend controls, receipt data extraction, employee reimbursements in more than 200 countries and a mobile app to submit and approve expenses | Yes, physical and virtual cards with individual spending limits, vendor cards for recurring subscriptions, receipt capture in the mobile app, reimbursements and mileage tracking, with AI expense review on the top plan |
| Tax and compliance | Tax rates are imported from the connected accounting software together with the chart of accounts and applied when expenses are coded | Tax codes are imported from the connected accounting system and applied to expenses, and the developer platform exposes a Tax Code API for that sync. No tax filing or return of its own is listed |
| Payroll | No payroll calculation. Airwallex pays out salaries worked out elsewhere: domestic and cross-border payouts to employees and tax authorities through the Payouts API, or embedded in HR, payroll and Employer of Record platforms | No payroll module. HR systems including SAP SuccessFactors and BambooHR connect for employee onboarding and offboarding, but pay runs happen elsewhere |
| Reports and exports | CSV export for expenses and bills and advanced multi-currency reporting; tracking budgets against actuals is marked as coming soon | Yes, automated expense reports and real-time spend tracking across teams and entities, with budgets, spending insights and cash management on the higher plans |
| Integrations and API | Yes, platform APIs with SDKs and e-commerce plugins, accounting sync with Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite and Business Central, HRIS integrations, and an official MCP server | Yes, a public API at developers.pleo.io covering export, tags, tax codes, accounting entries, employees, webhooks and marketplace endpoints, for direct customers and for partners building integrations, plus an official MCP server for connecting an AI assistant or agent to Pleo data |
| AI features | Yes | Yes |
| MCP-ready | Yes | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Email helpdesk | Email helpdesk |
| Onboarding | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Guided onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | more entries Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage, Odoo, Campfire, Rillet, BambooHR, Workday, Employment Hero, HubSpot, Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Amazon, Zapier | Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite, FreeAgent, XLedger, Twinfield, DATEV, Visma e-conomic, SAP SuccessFactors, BambooHR |
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Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price Airwallex Free; Grow $12 / user / month Pleo From £8 / user / month
- API Airwallex Yes, APIs for accounts, payments, transactional FX, payouts, card issuing and billing, plus the AgentOS MCP server for acting on a production account Pleo Yes, a public API at developers.pleo.io, plus an official MCP server
- Invoicing and quotes Airwallex Yes, one-off and recurring invoices with automated reminders, credit notes and automatic reconciliation, plus subscription and usage-based billing; incoming bills are captured, approved and paid through Bill Pay Pleo Incoming supplier invoices only, through the accounts payable module, which the vendor describes as running purchase orders through to payments. Customer invoicing and accounts receivable are not among the listed features
- Bookkeeping and bank feeds Airwallex No general ledger of its own; bank feeds, expenses and bills sync to Xero and QuickBooks, and from Grow to NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Pleo No general ledger of its own. Transactions and receipts export to Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite, FreeAgent, XLedger and Twinfield, and the vendor names Sage, Visma e-conomic, DATEV and Microsoft among the systems it syncs to
- Expenses and receipts Airwallex Yes, multi-currency corporate cards with spend controls, receipt data extraction, employee reimbursements in more than 200 countries and a mobile app to submit and approve expenses Pleo Yes, physical and virtual cards with individual spending limits, vendor cards for recurring subscriptions, receipt capture in the mobile app, reimbursements and mileage tracking, with AI expense review on the top plan
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Airwallex
Strengths
- Explore has no monthly fee and covers up to 10 Spend users
- Collect and hold funds in more than 20 currencies, with local transfers to more than 120 countries
- Invoicing carries no platform fee
- AgentOS MCP server lets AI agents act on the production account, with money-out actions off by default
Limitations
- No general ledger, so an accounting system is still needed alongside
- The platform fee on Grow depends on team size and is not published
- FX conversion, SWIFT transfers and card acceptance carry per-transaction fees
- Several listed features are marked as coming soon, among them budget tracking and single sign-on
Pleo
Strengths
- Published per-user prices, so the cost is knowable without contacting sales
- Official MCP server for connecting an AI assistant or agent to Pleo data
- Vendor cards for recurring subscriptions, up to fifty on the top plan
- Exports to DATEV and Visma e-conomic alongside Xero, QuickBooks and NetSuite
- The entry plan starts at a single user
Limitations
- Priced per user, so the cost climbs with headcount rather than with spend
- The entry plan allows only one admin and no reimbursements or approval workflows
- Build and Optimise are billed yearly and need at least three users
- Not a general ledger, so a separate accounting system is still needed
- No customer invoicing or accounts receivable
Plans
Pricing
Airwallex
- Explore $0 Per month. Up to 10 Spend users, multi-currency accounts, unlimited corporate cards, expenses and reimbursements, bill pay, payment acceptance and invoicing. Sync with Xero and QuickBooks.
- Grow $12 Per active Spend user per month, plus a platform fee based on team size; up to 250 Spend users. Adds multi-conditional approvals, the AI expense policy agent, bill automation and vendor approvals, and sync with NetSuite and Business Central.
- Accelerate Not stated Priced on request. Adds purchase orders, AI three-way matching, a direct ERP Spend API integration, multiple legal entities, a dedicated account manager and onboarding support.
Pleo
- Start £8 Per user per month, billed monthly, minimum one user and maximum one admin. Physical and virtual cards, accounts payable, real-time expense tracking, automated expense reports, accounting integrations, email support, one vendor card and a £5,000 credit limit.
- Build £14 Per user per month, billed yearly, minimum three users. Adds reimbursements, mileage tracking, AI spend guidelines, flexible card limits, up to fifteen vendor cards, approval workflows, recurring vendor tracking, cash management and a £20,000 credit limit.
- Optimise £18 Per user per month, billed yearly, minimum three users. Adds cashback, up to fifty vendor cards, budgets, HRIS integrations, AI expense review, spending insights, advanced vendor management and a £100,000 credit limit.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Airwallex
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Pleo
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Airwallex https://www.airwallex.com · no check date recorded yet
Pleo https://www.pleo.io · checked against the official source on 2026-09-09
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.