Expensify vs Shoeboxed (2026)

Expensify starts at $5 a seat a month, and its free Submit plan gives one person receipt scanning and mileage at no charge. Every paid Expensify workspace opens with a 30-day free trial. Shoeboxed starts at $9 a month. It has no free plan and no unpaid trial. Shoeboxed charges your card at signup and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee in place of a trial.

Expensify moves money. Vendor bills forwarded to a workspace address are scanned, routed for approval and paid by ACH or card. Card feeds import automatically from more than 10,000 banks. Branded invoices go out to clients, who pay by card or bank transfer without an account. Admins can switch on time tracking so members log billable hours. Transactions are coded automatically, and the vendor says it learns how you categorize. Shoeboxed connects to no bank or card account and moves no money.

Shoeboxed is built for paper. Receipts arrive by mail, app, email and Gmail sync. Data entry specialists check every receipt the software has read, and the vendor includes that check on all plans. Receipts are sorted into 15 tax categories, and you can add your own tags and rules. Expensify has no reviewers. It is software a company runs itself, though support staff can correct the AI.

Accountant access differs. On Shoeboxed, a bookkeeper or accountant is added as a sub-user within the users the plan already includes and can sit on as many client accounts as they like. Expensify gives firms in its partner program a free account and a dashboard over client workspaces. Neither product files a tax return. Neither is a ledger. Each produces expense reports, not a profit and loss or balance sheet.