Payhawk vs Equals Money: Expense cards, FX and finance automation compared

Key takeaways

• Choose Payhawk if you run a large business that needs complex customisations, rules and limits, and integrations with your existing systems.

• Choose Equals Money if you’re a smaller business in need of a turnkey solution for managing spend and sending money abroad.

• Alternatively, you can choose Airwallex is –  a great alternative to both, offering a wider and cheaper service for FX and international transfers, customisable controls for expenses, and highly competitive pricing.

You want to get on top of your company’s spending and employees’ expenses – to do that, you need the right software. Payhawk and Equals Money are both good options for this, but they have some key differences and points of interest you need to consider.

In this article, we’re going to do that hard work for you. We’ve collated detailed notes on their features, and how they compare.

Payhawk vs Equals Money: Feature comparison overview

First, let’s take a flash review of both providers and their key features. After that, we’ll get into a closer look at both platforms.

We’ve covered the essentials you need in a spend management platform in the table above, but there are some features we haven’t included. 

If you’re looking for a specific detail and can’t see it here, you should check their websites to verify.

Pros and cons: Payhawk vs Equals Money

Both offer a lot of useful features for spend management (and beyond), but no platform is perfect. It’s just as important to know each option’s shortcomings as well as its benefits. 

After all, you can only make a truly informed decision if you have the full picture.

Pros and positives of Payhawk

Payhawk is geared for large and enterprise-scale businesses, with a raft of ERP integrations, multi-entity support, and a deep feature list.

Businesses can use Payhawk to operate essentially all of their internal financial functions, as well as sending money internationally.

The scalable automations and AI agents make Payhawk more than a tool to more like an extra resource for your finance department.

Cons of choosing Payhawk

Payhawk’s pricing reflects its scope and scale. The cheapest Payhawk plan costs almost six times more than the cheapest from Equals Money.

Micro enterprises and charities are not eligible for a Payhawk account. A micro enterprise is usually defined by meeting two of the following criteria: Turnover below £1 million, a balance sheet of £500,000 or less, and fewer than 10 employees.

Payhawk cards are only available in six currencies and their accounts can hold seven currencies. Many enterprise clients will work with a more global supplier and staff base than that.

Pros and positives of Equals Money

Equals Money is well-suited to small and medium sized businesses, especially ones with an international footprint – or ambitions in that direction.

Their plans are relatively affordable (starting at £25/month), especially when compared to Payhawk.

When you compare Payhawk vs. Equals Money, the latter has better currency coverage for both accounts and card spend. Not what you might expect for an enterprise vs. SMB product comparison.

Cons of choosing Equals Money

Equals Money only advertises two accounting software integrations (Xero or Concur Expense). If you don’t use those tools, Equals Money might not be as fluid, integrated, or useful as it could be for your business.

The Enterprise package from Equals Money is for any business that wants more than 51 cards. That puts a huge range of businesses in that category, placing some medium-sized businesses in the same in a tier that’s normally reserved for only the largest companies. This makes it harder to understand the costs upfront and make a like-for-like comparison across the market.

There’s no payment acceptance or accounts receivable feature with Equals Money, so it’s not an all-in-one financial platform for SMBs. If you want to take payments from your customers, you’ll need a separate platform – and that will need to integrate across your systems.

Why Airwallex is better for global finance operations

If you’re comparing Payhawk vs. Equals Money, there’s one more platform to add to your research list: Airwallex. Take the best of both options – scalability, multi-currency accounts, international scope, flexible and global cards, and intelligent spend management – and you get Airwallex.

On top of that, you get additional features, cost savings, and benefits, including:

• Free transfers via local rails (unlike Payhawk’s 0.90 GBP fee ¹⁴) and highly competitive 0.5% FX margin on major currencies.

• Payment acceptance in over 130+ currencies and 160+ payment methods.

• A billing engine with invoicing, subscription management, and usage-based billing (coming soon).

What is Payhawk?

Payhawk provides businesses with spend management software, as well as business accounts, cross-border payments, and AI tools for finance teams.

Finance teams use Payhawk to get visibility on spending across their entire business, help employees manage expenses (either out-of-pocket or with issued cards), and to move money around the world.

What is Equals Money?

Equals Money is a money movement platform, providing businesses with accounts, spend management, card issuing, payouts, and infrastructure. You can run much of your financial operations through it, if you want to.

They have a business and personal product, but this article is only about Equals Money for business.

A closer look at Payhawk vs Equals Money features

Let’s look at both options in more detail, reviewing some of the most important features and where each provider stands out.

Expense cards and spend controls

Both offer virtual and physical cards, but Payhawk’s controls are more granular and customisable. They claim to provide over 1.5 million sets of rules for cards. ¹⁵

One quick example is the use of logic-based limits to auto-block a card if an employee’s expense report is late. Features like this allow for automatic proactive management, keeping your finances as safe as can be.

Best of the two: Payhawk.

FX pricing and international use

Equals Money offers better international coverage for both card spend and balances, besting Payhawk’s rates for card (1.50% vs. 1.99%) and number of currency accounts (38 vs. seven).

Payhawk can process payouts in 115 currencies ¹⁶, but Equals Money lists 140+ for its outbound transfers.¹⁷

Overall, this is a reflection of Payhawk’s attention being on spend management and your internal finance function. Equals Money, on the other hand, sells itself as a money movement specialist.

With Airwallex, you pay 0% fees on all your card spend, can payout to 150+ countries, and open local accounts in 60+ countries.

Best of the two: Equals Money.

Integrations and finance automation

When looking at integrations, Payhawk really stands out from Equals Money. This makes a lot of sense, considering Payhawk’s positioning as an enterprise-scale provider vs. Equals Money being more focused on SMBs.

You’ve already seen the number of integrations Payhawk offers (37x that of Equals Money!), but we haven’t discussed their use of AI. As well as the more standard OCR receipt scanning (in 60+ languages ¹⁸), they’ve also developed agentic AI systems for travel, procurement, payments, and financial control tasks.

Best of the two: Payhawk.

Cash flow, funding and credit options

Payhawk users have the option to switch between credit and debit payments, creating an optimal product for managing cash flow and spend control. 

Using Equals Money, you can choose prepaid cards – which they advertise as a ‘credit card alternative’. Pre-loading is not the same as a credit line, although the cards can work in roughly similar ways.

Both platforms give you real-time data about spending and expenses, so you will be kept up-to-date regardless of which you choose.

Best of the two: Payhawk

HEADLINE: Centuro Global save up to £50 per transaction after joining Airwallex

CTA: Read their story

LINK: https://www.airwallex.com/uk/case-studies/centuro-global 

Final verdict: Which you should choose

There’s a clear dividing line here: Payhawk is best for enterprises that need a highly customisable and flexible solution that harmonises with their ERP system. Equals Money is a good choice for small and medium businesses that need a straightforward spend solution, with decent international coverage included.

Then, there’s Airwallex: The option that provides the scale and flexibility of Payhawk with more powerful international financial infrastructure than Equals Money.

The right option is going to depend on lots of factors unique to your business, but you should now have a better understanding of what they offer and how they might fit in with your business.

FAQs

Who can open a Payhawk account?

As long as you aren’t a charity or a micro business, you can use Payhawk. Your business is considered ‘micro’ if it has a turnover below £1 million, a balance sheet of £500,000 or less, and/or fewer than 10 employees. If you only meet some of those criteria, contact Payhawk to check if you’re eligible.

Is Payhawk a bank?

No, Payhawk offers e-money accounts. That means they can’t lend your money to other customers and have to keep all customer funds in separate safeguarding accounts. So, your money is protected – but not by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (as with a licensed bank). Payhawk is regulated by the FCA.

Is Equals Money a bank?

No, Equals Money is an e-money institution – regulated by the FCA, but not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Your money is instead protected by a process called safeguarding. This means that Equals Money keeps all your money in dedicated accounts with licensed banks, completely separate from their own operating cash and never used to lend to other customers.

Can I withdraw cash with an Equals Money card?

It’s possible to withdraw cash using your Equals Money card, but it depends on the limits your company sets for each card. Cash withdrawals can be switched on and off.

Sources and references

1. https://payhawk.com/product-visa-cards

2. https://equalsmoney.com/expense-cards

3. https://payhawk.com/spend-control

4. https://equalsmoney.com/spend-management-software

5. https://payhawk.com/integrations

6. https://payhawk.com/pricing-and-plans

7. https://equalsmoney.com/pricing

8. https://payhawk.com/card-fees/

9. https://equalsmoney.com/pricing

10. https://payhawk.com/business-payments

11. https://equalsmoney.com/business-accounts/multi-currency-business-account

12. https://payhawk.com/product-visa-cards

13. https://equalsmoney.com/expense-cards

14. https://payhawk.com/help/global-fx-payments-in-payhawk

15. https://payhawk.com/product-visa-cards

16. https://payhawk.com/business-payments

17. https://equalsmoney.com/business-payments/international-payments

18. https://payhawk.com/product-expense-management