Brex vs Divvy: Key differences
Brex and Divvy both give you corporate cards and expense management, but they fit different businesses. Here's how they line up on the things that decide it.
Brex and Divvy handle deposits and investments differently. Brex separates its primary checking (through Column N.A.), a Vault sweep for FDIC coverage up to $6 million across partner banks, and a Treasury tier that invests in a money market fund. Treasury is an investment, not an FDIC-insured deposit.
On the Divvy side, the card is separate from the BILL Cash Account, an invited product that advertises 3% APY and up to $200 million in eligible pass-through FDIC insurance through Column N.A. and its sweep network. Figures checked [Aug 8, 2026]; confirm current terms before you decide.
Divvy vs Brex: Who they’re made for
The funding stage alone won't decide this. What matters more is how your spend is structured, where your money moves, and the controls your team actually needs.
Brex
Brex gives you corporate cards without a personal guarantee, reading your bank balance, spend, and funding history to set limits that often run well above what a traditional bank offers. It fits best once your operations have outgrown a single-market, single-account setup. That looks like:
- Global or multi-entity spend
- API access and enterprise integrations
- Travel and local-currency card needs
- Advanced approval and policy workflows
The catch is qualifying. Brex weighs funding, revenue, referral route, cash balance, and how you plan to pay, so eligibility varies by business rather than sitting at one fixed number. Since April 2026, Brex has been a Capital One company; this comparison uses its current published terms.
Divvy (BILL)
Divvy is built for US teams that want tight control over spend without paying for software. Its signature move is hard budget control: assign $5,000 to a team for the month, and the cards stop at $5,000. It also reports responsible use to business credit bureaus, which helps you build credit history as you grow. It's the stronger fit when your priorities look like:
- Department and project budgets
- A free card and expense software
- A close tie-in with BILL AP/AR
- Domestic or US-led operations with some international needs
Budget-level control also suits project-based businesses like construction, where spend is assigned by job, crew, or site. Approval and any credit line still run through underwriting, so a lower entry bar doesn't mean automatic acceptance.
Eligibility requirements and onboarding differences
Neither platform publishes a single pass/fail rule. Both run underwriting, so approval and any limit depend on your entity, financials, and documentation. Here's what each one weighs.
Brex
- Eligible business types: registered US entities; not sole proprietors or unregistered businesses.
- Funding and revenue: built for venture- or accelerator-funded companies and those with solid recurring revenue.
- Payment structure sets the bar: Brex has two repayment modes, and which you qualify for drives the requirement. Daily payments auto-debit your balance each evening, with your limit tied to your account balance, much like a debit card, so the entry bar is lower. Monthly payments work like a traditional corporate card, collected at the end of the statement period, and call for stronger financials, generally venture funding plus around $50,000 in cash reserves, or higher revenue for larger companies.
- Cash balance: the $50,000 figure applies to funded startups seeking monthly terms and can be lower through a referral partner. Businesses below that, or without funding, can still apply for daily terms.
- Personal guarantee: none, and no personal credit check.
- Onboarding: largely online; timing depends on how quickly your documentation and account verification clear.
If that bar rules you out, Brex vs Mercury is worth a look, since Mercury takes a more open approach to who it approves.
Divvy (BILL)
- Eligible business types: broad, aimed at US small and mid-sized businesses, from 1 to 500 employees.
- Funding and revenue: no set revenue requirement and no public minimum balance.
- Credit review: Divvy reviews business credit reports and revenue documentation, and any credit line is set during underwriting, so the absence of a fixed cutoff isn't a guarantee of approval.
- Documents: newer companies may be asked for extra verification.
- Personal guarantee: generally not required for the standard credit line.
- Onboarding: online; extra verification can extend the review.
Brex vs Divvy rewards: how each card pays you back
Rewards work differently on each platform. Brex rewards where you spend; Divvy rewards how often you pay.
- Brex uses category multipliers, currently 7x on rideshare, 4x on travel booked through Brex, 3x on restaurants, 2x on software subscriptions, and 1x on everything else, redeemable for cash back, travel, or transfer partners. Brex sets these tiers at its discretion, and its rewards agreement allows multipliers, caps, eligibility, and redemption options to change, so confirm current rates on Brex's rewards page before you rely on them.
- Divvy ties its rates to your billing cycle. On weekly, daily, or prepaid billing you can earn up to 7x on restaurants, 5x on hotels, 2x on recurring software, and 1.5x on other eligible spend, with the category multipliers applying only to the first $5,000 of qualifying spend each month and further eligibility conditions attached. Pay on a longer cycle and the top rates don't apply. It rewards teams with the cash flow to pay often.
- Rates checked [Aug 8, 2026]; both providers can change terms, so verify before you decide.
Brex vs Divvy spend controls: budgets vs card limits
Both give you real control; they just start from different places. Here's how they compare across the levers that matter:
- Budget assignment: Divvy centers on this, you assign available funds to a budget, and the card draws from it. Brex supports budgets too, but leads with card and policy settings.
- Card limits: both let you set per-card and per-cardholder limits.
- Merchant and category rules: both allow restrictions by merchant or category.
- Approval workflows: both support multi-step approvals; Brex offers more configurable policy logic for complex orgs.
- Temporary limits and exceptions: both let admins raise, lower, or make one-off exceptions.
- When available spend is exceeded: the transaction is declined once the budget or card limit is reached. This is the same mechanism on both; Divvy simply makes the budget the primary control, so spend stops at the assigned amount.
Brex emphasizes configurable policies and card limits, while Divvy's interface is centered on assigning available funds to budgets and cards.
Brex's flexible limits vs Divvy's tight budgets
Divvy takes budgets literally. Fund a team and that money powers their cards on the spot. Give marketing USD $10,000 for the quarter, and the cards keep working right up to USD $10,000, then quit. Nobody overspends, and there's no clawback conversation later. Want it looser? Raise the cap or drop it entirely.
Brex does it the older way, with limits set per card or per cardholder. Someone can still try to spend past their limit; the charge just gets declined at checkout. Divvy heads that off earlier by wiring the card straight to the budget. Which you'd want comes down to how your team runs. Firm caps fit distributed teams that need guardrails. Brex's looser setup works better when you need to move fast and change limits on the fly.
Brex vs Divvy integrations and API: how they connect to your stack
Both connect to the big three ledgers, so basic reconciliation isn't the deciding factor. What separates them is sync depth, ERP and HRIS reach, and how much sits behind a paid plan.
- Native accounting integrations: Brex connects to QuickBooks Online, Xero, and NetSuite, with GL mapping and custom accounting fields. Divvy (BILL Spend & Expense) syncs with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct.
- Two-way vs one-way sync: BILL runs a direct two-way sync across NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, Microsoft, and Xero, keeping vendors, charts of accounts, and dimensions aligned in both directions. Brex automates coding and exports transactions to your ledger or, where no direct connector exists, via CSV.
- Custom fields and dimensions: both support GL mapping. On Sage Intacct, BILL syncs user-defined dimensions; Brex lets you map categories and merchants to your GL accounts.
- API availability: both offer a REST API. Brex includes API access on its free Essentials plan, covering accounting, expenses, budgets, payments, transactions, and webhooks. BILL exposes a REST API for custom connections.
- ERP support: Brex adds customizable ERP integrations on its paid Premium tier. BILL's deeper ERP connectors (NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics) are strongest through its AP/AR product and scale up by plan.
- HRIS integration: Brex supports 40-plus HRIS connections (Workday, Gusto, Deel, BambooHR and others), with customizable HRIS integration on Premium. BILL connects to HRIS platforms as well, though HRIS-driven expense rules are less central to its Spend & Expense product.
- Multi-entity support: Brex covers up to two entities on the free tier, with multi-entity (US and international) on Premium. BILL supports multi-entity accounting, with the more advanced controls on higher tiers.
- Plan dependency: this is the practical catch on both. Brex's ERP, HRIS, and multi-entity depth sit behind Premium; BILL's fuller two-way ERP sync and PO matching scale with its paid AP/AR plans.
If you're already running AP and AR inside BILL, Divvy's two-way sync keeps one ledger clean with less setup. If you want programmatic access on a free plan and broad HRIS coverage, Brex's API and integration range go further, as long as you account for what's gated behind Premium.
Brex vs Divvy global capabilities
This is where the two separate most. Brex is built for cross-border operations; Divvy is US-led but has been adding international expense features. Here's the breakdown.
- Card availability by country: Brex issues cards in 50-plus countries, with local card issuance on its enterprise tier. Divvy ships cards to a smaller set of supported countries.
- Local-currency cards and reimbursements: Brex runs local-currency card programs and reimburses employees in local currencies. Divvy has added international expense features, including local-currency display and local-currency reimbursement requests, though the program remains US-led.
- International vendor payments: Brex supports payments in 40-plus currencies. On the BILL side, international vendor payments run through BILL's AP tools and its Pay By Card service, which carries a 2.9% transaction fee plus exchange rates on international card payments. Note that this is the Pay By Card fee, not a foreign transaction fee on Divvy card purchases.
- Foreign and cross-border card fees: Brex charges no foreign transaction fees. For the Divvy card, reported terms vary, and BILL's card page directs you to the Cardholder Agreement for foreign-currency and cross-border fees, so confirm your specific rate there rather than assuming a flat percentage.
- Account or balance currencies: Brex's higher tiers include multi-currency accounts for holding international cash. Divvy does not offer a multi-currency account; spend is USD-denominated.
- Entity support: Brex supports multi-entity, US and international, on Premium and up. Divvy's multi-entity support is US-centered.
- Plan dependency: Brex's deepest global capability sits in its premium tiers, which carry spend minimums and subscription fees.
For genuine cross-border operations, Brex goes further, especially on multi-currency and local issuance, though the strongest features are gated behind premium plans. Divvy works for US-led teams with some international spend, but it isn't built as a multi-currency platform.
Pricing: free models vs the cost of scaling
Both start free, and both charge for what sits around the core card and expense layer. The difference is what triggers a bill.
Brex
Its Essentials plan is $0 per user and covers corporate cards, expense management, bill pay, accounting integrations, and up to two entities. Costs start once you need more: Premium runs $12 per user per month for advanced approval workflows, multi-entity (US and international), and customizable ERP and HRIS integrations, and Enterprise is custom-priced for local card issuance and unlimited entities. So a paid plan becomes necessary when you require advanced approvals, multi-entity, ERP, or global capabilities, not before.
Divvy (BILL)
The Spend & Expense software is $0 per user, funded through interchange, and that covers the card, budgets, and expense tracking. The added costs sit next to it: BILL's AP and AR are paid per-user subscriptions, and specific payment methods carry transaction fees, such as the 2.9% on Pay By Card and international card payments. Rewards are a separate variable, since your cashback rate depends on how often you settle your balance rather than on a plan tier.
The practical read: match the spend to what you actually need. If you stay on cards plus basic expense management, both run at no software cost. Costs appear when you add AP/AR and certain payment methods on the BILL side, or advanced, multi-entity, and global features on the Brex side.
The cross-border alternative: Aspire
If your money moves across currencies as a matter of course, both Brex and Divvy show their US-first roots: Brex keeps its multi-currency capability in premium tiers, and Divvy has no multi-currency account to hold and pay in local currency. That's the gap Aspire is built around.
Aspire¹ is a financial technology platform, not a bank, for globally minded teams that want international payments and expense management in one place. In the US, it provides a USD checking account¹ through Column N.A., Member FDIC, with separate EUR, GBP, CNY, and HKD accounts* provided by Aspire HK, which are not FDIC-insured. Aspire’s US card² is a secured commercial charge card, collateral-backed and paid in full daily, with virtual cards and spend controls, cashback on eligible spend^ under current rewards terms, QuickBooks and Xero integrations, and an optional Treasury³ investment product with variable, non-guaranteed returns.
Aspire may fit when:
- You need international payments and supported non-USD accounts
- You want virtual US charge cards and spend controls
- You don't need branch access or cash-deposit services
- You can work with the collateral and daily-repayment structure
- You meet current account and product eligibility
Final verdict
Your choice comes down to stage, geography, and how you want to control spend.
- Choose Brex if: You are a funded startup with around USD $50,000 in the bank, you travel constantly, and you want high credit limits based on funding rather than revenue. Just weigh the Capital One ownership change into your long-term view.
- Choose Divvy (BILL) if: You are a US small or mid-sized team focused on strict budgeting, you already use BILL for AP/AR, and your operations are mostly domestic.
- Choose Aspire if: You are building across borders and need multi-currency accounts* without heavy fees, uncapped cashback^, and expense management that works at any stage. Aspire fills the gap between Brex's high-growth tooling and the US-first focus of the others.
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