Honest, side-by-side comparisons of Cleo Pay against other AP automation platforms. Built for hospitality teams that need the facts before they decide.

AP Automation

Bill.com

Cleo Pay is a hospitality-focused AP automation platform with no extra fee for standard ACH and same-day payments on Growth and higher plans. Bill.com is a broad SMB solution that charges $0.59 per ACH payment, takes 4 business days for standard transfers, and starts at $49/user/month. For restaurants, venues, and hotels, Cleo Pay offers purpose-built features like AI category matching, one-link vendor onboarding, and multi-location P&L segmentation that Bill.com does not provide.

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AP Automation / Bill Pay

Melio

Cleo Pay is a hospitality-focused AP automation platform with no extra fee for standard ACH and same-day payments on Growth and higher plans. Melio is a general SMB bill pay tool that charges $0.50 per ACH payment after a limited free monthly allocation, takes 3 business days for standard transfers, and starts at $25/month with per-user fees on most plans. For restaurants, venues, and hotels, Cleo Pay offers purpose-built features like AI category matching, one-link vendor onboarding, and multi-location P&L segmentation that Melio does not provide.

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Corporate Card + AP Automation

Ramp

Cleo Pay is a hospitality-focused AP automation platform with no extra fee for standard ACH and same-day payments on Growth and higher plans. Ramp is a corporate finance suite built around a corporate card with bill pay, expense management, and procurement features. Ramp's free plan includes basic bill pay, but same-day ACH costs $10 per payment and advanced automation requires the $15/user/month Plus plan. For restaurants, venues, and hotels, Cleo Pay offers purpose-built features like AI category matching, one-link vendor onboarding, and multi-location P&L segmentation that Ramp does not provide.

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Corporate Card + Spend Management

Brex

Cleo Pay is a hospitality-focused AP automation platform with no extra fee for standard ACH and same-day payments on Growth and higher plans. Brex is a corporate charge card and spend management platform designed for funded startups and enterprises, requiring $50,000+ in cash reserves to qualify. Brex offers free bill pay with same-day ACH from its business account, but lacks hospitality-specific features and does not provide native 1099 e-filing. For restaurants, venues, and hotels, Cleo Pay offers purpose-built features like AI category matching, one-link vendor onboarding, and multi-location P&L segmentation that Brex does not provide.

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Enterprise AP Automation

Tipalti

Cleo Pay is a hospitality-focused AP automation platform with no extra fee for standard ACH and same-day payments on Growth and higher plans. Tipalti is an enterprise-grade global payables platform that charges ~$1 per domestic ACH, starts at $99/month, and typically requires 4-6 weeks to implement. For restaurants, venues, and hotels, Cleo Pay offers purpose-built features like AI category matching, one-link vendor onboarding, and multi-location P&L segmentation that Tipalti does not provide.

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Mid-Market AP Automation

AvidXchange

Cleo Pay is a hospitality-focused AP automation platform with no extra fee for standard ACH and same-day payments on Growth and higher plans. AvidXchange is a mid-market AP platform that charges $1 plus 1.55% per ACH payment, starts around $440/month, and takes 45 days to implement. For restaurants, venues, and hotels, Cleo Pay offers purpose-built features like AI category matching, one-link vendor onboarding, and multi-location P&L segmentation. While AvidXchange has a hospitality offering (AvidSuite for Hospitality), it is designed for hotels using M3 Accounting, not restaurants or venues.

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SMB Banking + Bill Pay

Relay

Cleo Pay is a hospitality-focused AP automation platform with no extra fee for standard ACH, same-day payments on Growth and higher plans, and 1099-NEC forms prepared from your payments and e-filed with the IRS. Relay is a small business banking platform that includes bill pay as a secondary feature. Relay's free plan offers basic bill pay, but same-day ACH costs $5 per transaction, there is no 1099 generation or e-filing, and the platform lacks hospitality-specific features. For restaurants, venues, and hotels, Cleo Pay offers purpose-built features like AI category matching, one-link vendor onboarding, and multi-location P&L segmentation that Relay does not provide.

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Invoice Processing & Food Cost Management

xtraCHEF by Toast

Cleo Pay is a full AP automation platform for hospitality businesses that pays vendors by standard ACH, or same-day on Growth and higher plans. xtraCHEF by Toast is a restaurant invoice processing and food cost management tool, but it does not process vendor payments. Restaurants using xtraCHEF still need a separate solution to pay vendors. Cleo Pay handles the entire AP cycle from invoice capture through payment execution, with W-9 collection, 1099-NEC forms prepared from your payments and e-filed with the IRS, one-link vendor onboarding, and AI-powered category matching for QuickBooks.

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Restaurant ERP & AP Automation

Restaurant365

Cleo Pay is a hospitality-focused AP automation platform with no extra fee for standard ACH and same-day payments on Growth and higher plans. Restaurant365 is a full restaurant ERP starting at $249/location/month that bundles accounting, inventory, workforce, and AP automation into one system. R365 processes payments via ACH (3-4 business days), check, and vCard, but requires weeks of implementation and manual vendor onboarding. For restaurants that need fast, affordable AP automation without buying into an entire ERP, Cleo Pay offers a faster setup, no extra fee for standard ACH, 1099-NEC forms prepared from your payments and e-filed with the IRS, and same-day vendor payments on Growth and higher plans.

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Restaurant Back-Office Automation & Bill Pay

MarginEdge

Cleo Pay is a hospitality-focused AP automation platform with no extra fee for standard ACH and same-day payments on Growth and higher plans. MarginEdge is a restaurant back-office platform at $300-$330/location/month that bundles invoice processing, food cost tracking, recipe costing, inventory, and bill pay with 2-business-day ACH. While MarginEdge includes bill pay at no extra cost, it lacks 1099 compliance features, vendor self-service onboarding, and same-day payment processing. Cleo Pay serves the broader hospitality market, including venues, hotels, and event companies, with W-9 collection, IRS TIN matching, and 1099-NEC forms prepared from your payments and e-filed with the IRS.

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Expense Management + Corporate Cards + AP

BILL Spend & Expense (Divvy)

Cleo Pay is a hospitality-focused AP automation platform with no extra fee for standard ACH and same-day payments on Growth and higher plans. BILL Spend & Expense (Divvy) is a free corporate card and expense management tool, but full AP automation requires a paid BILL plan at $49 to $89 per user per month, plus $0.59 per ACH payment. For restaurants, venues, and hotels, Cleo Pay offers purpose-built features like AI category matching, one-link vendor onboarding, and multi-location P&L segmentation that Divvy does not provide out of the box.

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Enterprise Payment Automation

Corpay

Cleo Pay is a hospitality-focused AP automation platform with no extra fee for standard ACH, same-day payments on Growth and higher plans, and transparent pricing. Corpay (formerly Nvoicepay) is an enterprise-focused payment automation platform with opaque, custom-quoted pricing and a 2 to 3 business day standard ACH timeline. For restaurants, venues, and hotels, Cleo Pay offers purpose-built features like AI category matching, one-link vendor onboarding, W-9 collection with 1099-NEC preparation, and multi-location P&L segmentation. Corpay lacks W-9 collection, 1099 filing, and hospitality-specific workflows.

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AP Automation

Stampli

Cleo Pay is a hospitality-focused AP automation platform with no extra fee for standard ACH, same-day payments on Growth and higher plans, and published plan prices. Stampli is a generalist AI-driven AP platform targeted at mid-market businesses, with sales-led pricing that is typically not published. For restaurants, venues, hotels, and event production teams, Cleo Pay offers purpose-built features like AI category matching for hospitality charts of accounts, one-link vendor onboarding, and multi-location P&L segmentation that Stampli does not provide out of the box.

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