Comparison

Spendesk vs Circula

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Spendesk

This all-in-one solution provides finance teams with enhanced control, visibility, and automation for managing company spending. It integrates approvals, virtual and physical cards, reimbursements, and invoice management into a unified platform for smarter financial decisions.

Highlights
  • Real-time spending tracking
  • Receipt capture and upload
  • Virtual and physical card management
  • Expense claim submission and tracking
  • Invoice management
  • Spend approval workflows
  • Automated reconciliation
Features
Read full description

Spendesk is the all-in-one spend management solution that delivers more control, visibility, and automation to today's finance teams. Combine spend approvals, virtual cards, physical cards, expense reimbursements, and invoice management into a single source of truth. With automated reconciliation processes and complete pre-spend control, finance teams are empowered to make smarter spending decisions. Within the Spendesk mobile app you are able to: • Track your spending in real time • Snap and upload receipts on the spot • See your card balance • Block and unblock your Spendesk card • Request top-ups • See your card's PIN code • Approve your teams' requests on the go • Submit expense claims and follow reimbursement • Request and generate single-use & recurring virtual cards

About

Circula

Streamline employee expense, credit card, and benefit management with this digital and automated solution. It offers seamless integrations with financial and HR systems, ensuring a compliant and efficient end-to-end process. Enhance employee satisfaction and strengthen your employer brand with hassle-free administration.

Highlights
  • Mobile app with OCR Scanner & web-app
  • Automated per diem calculation & currency conversion
  • Up-to-date travel expenses and tax guidelines
  • Automatic receipt control
  • Automatic expense creation & auto-receipt matching
  • Integrations to DATEV, Personio, TravelPerk
  • Configurable workflows & travel policies
Features
Read full description

With Circula, your business expenses manage themselves. Circula is the flexible spend management platform for European finance teams, bringing employee & travel expenses, corporate credit cards, accounts payable, and employee benefits together in one app. From the first receipt to the pre-accounted booking in your downstream system, Circula closes the loop. With Circula you can: • Get per diem rates for trips calculated automatically • Snap a photo of a receipt or invoice, no more manual data entry • Pay directly with physical or virtual company credit cards • Get invoices captured automatically and routed for approval • Approve your team's expenses on the go • Keep an overview of the benefits budget and use it with ease • Catch duplicates and policy violations before they become a problem • Export clean, GoBD-compliant data straight to financial and payroll accounting Compliance isn't an afterthought at Circula, it's part of every process from day one. Circula keeps data clean, tax-compliant, and audit-ready, without any manual effort. Thanks to Circula AI, more than 60% of all expenses are already export-ready at the moment of submission, with no manual work for accounting required. More than 3,000 companies and 250,000 users in over 25 countries worldwide trust Circula, including About You, DATEV, Deutsche Fußball Liga, Noerr, and Securitas. Circula was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Berlin. Download Circula today.

Screenshots

Spendesk4 screens
Circula4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Spendesk at every 4 days against Circula's every 3 weeks. Spendesk also leads on ratings volume (634 vs 69). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Spendesk against 4.7 for Circula. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spendesk has 634 ratings behind it against 69, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 46% and 46% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spendesk ships an update every 4 days, Circula every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Spendesk versus Circula: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpendeskCircula
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (634 ratings)4.7 (69 ratings)
Positive reviews45.8% of reviews45.8% of reviews
Number of ratings634 — better69
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size218 MB336 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSpendeskCircula GmbH

Customer experience

Spendesk

All ratings634 ratings
Positive92.7%
Neutral2.2%
Negative5.0%
Written reviews48 reviews
Positive45.8%
Neutral18.8%
Negative35.4%

Circula

All ratings69 ratings
Positive92.8%
Neutral1.4%
Negative5.8%
Written reviews48 reviews
Positive45.8%
Neutral20.8%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

None

Spendesk

No in-app purchases

None

Circula

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Spendesk free?
Spendesk is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Circula free?
Circula is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Spendesk or Circula?
Spendesk and Circula are both rated 4.7 out of 5 on the App Store, from 634 and 69 ratings respectively.
Do Spendesk or Circula have ads?
Neither Spendesk nor Circula shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spendesk or Circula?
Spendesk ships an update every 4 days, and Circula every 3 weeks. Most recently, Spendesk was updated on September 29, 2026 and Circula on September 30, 2026.

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