Head to head
Brex vs Relay
Both platforms are scored with the same methodology and the same category rubric. Nothing on this page is influenced by advertising.
56/100 | 59/100Higher score | |
|---|---|---|
| Category rank | #3 | #3 |
| Confidence | High confidence | High confidence |
| External Reputation | 92 | 82 |
| AI Authority | 61 | 29 |
| Web Authority | 18 | 68 |
| Expert Assessment | 28 | 50 |
| TOP10 User Score | — | — |
| Pricing | $0 user/month (Essentials); first paid tier $12 user/month · free tier: Essentials at $0 user/month — global card acceptance and 1 local card program, AI custom rules, up to two entities (1 global entity), accounting integrations, local currency wires, free travel booking, real-time reporting, Brex API access, bill pay and reimbursements | USD $30/month (Grow, 14-day trial) · free tier: Starter — $0/month with no time limit and no monthly maintenance fees: 20 checking accounts, 1.11% APY on savings, 1% credit card cash back, 50 credit and debit cards, unlimited users, invoicing, accounting integrations, built-in spend controls |
| Pricing model | Subscription (per user/month, freemium entry tier; Enterprise custom) | Freemium subscription (paid tiers) plus per-transaction fees |
| Best for | US-centric startups wanting a genuinely free card, expense and bill-pay stack, and mid-market finance teams (roughly 50-1,000 seats) that need policy enforcement, multi-entity US+international operations and ERP/HRIS syncs at $12 user/month. | US small businesses at any size up to roughly $1M+ revenue that want to physically separate money across many checking accounts for Profit First or envelope budgeting, work with a bookkeeper on QuickBooks Online or Xero, and need spend controls across many cardholders — provided they maintain a second banking relationship for payroll and wires. |
| Avoid if | You have heavy international card spend that cannot absorb an FX markup of up to 3%, a large population of occasional spenders (uniform-plan rule), a hard requirement for SSO and audit logs on a free-tier budget, or a procurement process needing fixed published pricing before engagement. | You cannot survive a multi-week freeze on operating capital, depend on high-volume or time-critical international wires, need point-of-sale functionality, require contractual support SLAs or a named account manager, want deposit insurance at the institution you bank with directly, or are choosing primarily on per-transaction cost. |
| Markets | Startups, SMB, Mid-market, Enterprise | SMB, Solopreneurs and startups, Small and medium teams, Large teams, Accountants and bookkeepers |
| Founded | — | — |
| Headquarters | — | — |
A higher TOP SCORE means more of the evidence favours that platform on this methodology — it is not a recommendation, and it does not account for your specific requirements. Advertisers are never declared the winner of a comparison.