Coupa is a P2P spend management platform designed for enterprise and global companies. In addition to expected procurement and AP automation tools, Coupa also has a wide range of features to help large organizations work more efficiently, including inventory management, contract management, tax compliance tools, and even consulting services.
While Coupa may be a great option for large enterprises, small and growing businesses might find some of Coupa’s offerings unnecessary. Combine the complexity of the software with its heftier price tag, and most small and mid-sized teams are priced out of the conversation early on.
Our post reviews the best Coupa procurement alternatives, with solutions for all team sizes. We’ll start with a review of our procure-to-pay solution, ProcureDesk.
ProcureDesk
User-Friendly, Customizable P2P Software Solution for Small & Scaling Teams
ProcureDesk is a comprehensive procure-to-pay system designed to help procurement and AP teams automate day-to-day processes, gain better visibility into cash flow, and control spending.
ProcureDesk’s modern and intuitive dashboard lets you onboard team members and bring them up to speed without formal training; users can easily learn to browse vendor sites and place orders, communicate with other departments and vendors, and track purchases.
We designed the ProcureDesk dashboard to be highly configurable so that you can add vendors you currently shop with, build automated approval trees, establish procurement budgets, and set user roles.
As your team grows and your workflow evolves, ProcureDesk scales with you. You can add or remove vendors, change purchasing rules and permissions, and optimize budgets. Our pricing reflects this — we offer packages for small and mid-sized teams and custom solutions for enterprise businesses.
Our team can help you get up and running with complementary white-glove onboarding, and we’re always around to help or answer questions.
Features to Support and Automate Procurement Processes
ProcureDesk lets procurement managers create purchasing rules and budgets so users can shop within those confines.
- Add approved vendors to the platform — add as many vendors as you wish to ProcureDesk; we even offer punchout catalogs with popular sites like Amazon.
- Set procurement budgets (by person, department, spend category, and more) for greater cost control.
- Create custom purchase request forms to gather all pertinent details about orders.
- Build custom approval workflows to automate the review process.
ProcureDesk automatically checks an order against established budgets and approval criteria when an employee submits it for review. Then, our system notifies employees to let them know if purchases were approved or denied.
- If an order goes over budget or breaks established approval criteria, it’s automatically denied.
- Orders flagged for review are automatically routed to the appropriate manager or team member for approval — users can review and approve orders within the ProcureDesk dashboard, in their email, or on their mobile devices.
- Orders that meet purchasing guidelines can be automatically approved by our system.
After orders are approved, our system generates and sends POs to vendors so managers don’t have to do this manually.
ProcureDesk provides a central dashboard where all team members, managers and employees alike, can view orders, track their status, and keep tabs on budget.
Features for Employees to Shop, Track Orders, and Verify Purchases
Employees can shop with vendors any time they wish through our platform. They can check available budgets, build shopping carts with the needed products, and send the orders for approval (as described above).
ProcureDesk’s central dashboard lets employees dig deeper into the status of each order. Vendors can note when they receive the order and communicate with the purchaser via the dashboard, updating the order status as they go.
Once vendors ship orders, employees receive tracking numbers and can easily add those to ProcureDesk for updates through our system.
When orders arrive, the receiver logs the arrival date and makes a note of the order’s condition. If employees note any issues with orders, procurement or AP team managers can access the details in the dashboard and address issues with vendors.
Features for Accounts Payable Teams to Automate Invoice Processing & Send Vendor Payments
AP teams can store all invoices in our platform for improved invoice management. Our platform supports e-invoicing and lets you establish vendor portals, but you can also connect email accounts and upload paper invoices to ensure everything is kept in one place. (Our system will catch duplicate invoices, so you can avoid double payments.)
After detecting new invoices, our AP automation software streamlines workflows in a few ways. Our system:
- Automatically matches invoices with the corresponding PO and receipt in our system. (Our system supports touchless invoice processing through e-invoicing and vendor portals; managers must initiate three-way matching after reviewing uploaded invoices.)
- Checks for discrepancies and routes flagged invoices to the right AP team member for review.
- Adds appropriate accounting codes to matched and approved invoices.
- Sends invoice data to your ERP to facilitate payment.
After payment is issued, the AP team can easily update the payment status in ProcureDesk. Then, everyone can monitor invoices and keep track of which have been paid.
Features to Track Spending & Purchasing Trends
ProcureDesk has a central reporting dashboard, making it easy for procurement and AP teams to track real-time spending, analyze purchasing patterns, and pinpoint opportunities for cost savings.
In the screenshot below, you can see spend breakdowns by category, supplier, and user, but you can also filter by department or other custom criteria.
We also provide graphs so you can analyze purchasing patterns over months or years to uncover patterns in your spending.
This spending data is helpful for a few reasons. For example, you can:
- See where you’re consistently overspending and develop strategies to reign it in.
- Get a better understanding of who’s spending what and the resources each department requires; this can guide decision-making when planning and readjusting budgets.
- See which vendors you spend the most with and establish contracts with them for better rates and payment terms (or renegotiate contracts with key suppliers).
Pricing
ProcureDesk offers several pricing options based on your needs:
- Our full procurement and AP software, with all the features discussed above, is priced at $600 monthly.
- Teams that only need procurement functionality can access our procurement package — with punchout catalogs, automated purchase approval workflows, and more — for $380 monthly.
- We offer custom packages and pricing for enterprise teams (with 200+ employees).
We also provide contract management, expense report management, and inventory management as add-on modules.
ProcureDesk vs Coupa
While Coupa and ProcureDesk provide many comparable procurement and AP features, Coupa is largely tailored to enterprise corporations with tools to help navigate global regulations, IT management, and supply chain management.
Given its scale and size, you’ll likely find that Coupa’s implementation process takes longer and is more demanding than ProcureDesk’s hassle-free white-glove onboarding.
Coupa Alternatives for Small Business Owners
Compared to other P2P software solutions, these options have simpler functionality and a pricing structure that favors small businesses. However, some of these Coupa competitors still provide solutions for larger businesses, so the software can grow with your team.
Tradogram
Tradogram is a digital procurement platform for small and growing teams. They offer a basic free plan for small businesses to test the platform, and a more advanced plan with tools to build custom approval workflows, create POs, track and receive orders, automate invoice processing, and analyze procurement data.
Although Tradogram’s free package might seem appealing, it only supports five transactions per month, so most teams choose the Premium plan to get started with the tools and flexibility they need.
Some users reported that Tradogram’s platform is difficult to learn and lacks instructions on how to use features, but they also say Tradogram has a responsive customer service team and can help during set-up.
Notable Features
- Budget & spending control
- Unlimited number of suppliers & catalogs
- Requisition tools
- Purchase order management
- Inventory management
- Expense management
- Two- & three-way invoice matching
- Invoice tracking
- Project management
Pricing
Tradogram has three pricing levels. The free Basic plan is limited to one user and five transactions per month, and it lacks key features like requisition features and approval routing.
The Premium plan starts at $168/month and supports up to 20 users; it supports unlimited monthly transactions and grants access to advanced tools like multi-level budget tracking, approval routing, and reporting.
The Enterprise plan is designed for 20 or more users. Teams must contact Tradogram for a custom quote.
Tradogram vs. Coupa
While Tradogram and Coupa both offer features to manage the P2P cycle, they are designed for different customer segments, and Tradogram does not offer the advanced extras that Coupa does.
Precoro
Precoro is an online procurement software with user-friendly features, straightforward pricing structure, and guided onboarding to help teams get started. Their primary package is catered to small businesses — it grants access to all their core features and they charge per user. However, they also offer custom packages and pricing to support growing teams.
Precoro provides a central dashboard to help teams control spending, simplify the purchase request process, and automate AP tasks. While it does have a number of features commonly found in more robust procurement solutions, some of the features may only have limited functionality. (This is why reviewers say Precoro may not be the best choice for larger teams.)
Notable Features
- Supplier catalogs
- PR & PO management
- Approval workflows
- Invoice management
- Spend management
- Three-way invoice matching
- Direct integration with QuickBooks & Xero
- Reporting
- Inventory management
- Supplier management
- Document storage
- Multi-location & multi-department features
- Multi-currency features
Pricing
Precoro offers two plans:
- For smaller teams, less than 20 users — this costs $39/user/month and includes all features. Precoro has a pricing tool on its website that provides estimates based on the number of seats you require.
- For larger teams, more than 20 users — Precoro offers custom quotes based on your team size and desired features.
Precoro vs. Coupa
Small teams looking for an alternative to Coupa Procurement may be attracted to Precoro’s simpler features and comparatively lower prices.
Coupa Alternatives for Growing Teams
These P2P solutions generally have more features or are more customizable in order to support growing and mid-sized companies.
Procurify
Procurify is a full P2P software solution serving small, medium, and large businesses. We placed them in the “growing teams” category because they offer numerous advanced features to manage operations that small teams may not find necessary. Not to mention, their $1,000 starting price point may be out of reach for smaller businesses.
One feature that sets Procurify apart from competitors is its virtual spend cards. These help procurement managers control spending while allowing employees to shop independently.
While users like Procurify because it has a modern look and feel, some warn that it can be complex to learn. That’s also why we recommend it for mid-sized teams; larger teams might have trouble onboarding everyone in the organization who needs access.
Notable Features
- Approval workflows
- Purchase request management
- Purchase order management
- Vendor & contract management
- Virtual spend cards
- Invoice processing
- Bill management
- Payments
- Mobile apps
- Integrations with ERPs
- Budget control & tracking
- Reporting
Pricing
Procurify offers packages by company size — they offer a Small Business plan (starting at $1,000/month), a Medium Business plan (starting at $2,000/month), and a Large and Enterprise Business plan (custom pricing).
Note that Procurify offers annual subscriptions and your specific rate will depend on your team size and requirements.
Procurify vs. Coupa
Coupa and Procurify both support growing teams, however, Procurify provides greater mobile functionality for users, making it more appealing for teams who are frequently on the go.
Kissflow
Kissflow is a workflow automation tool with solutions to support several key business processes, including administration, sales, finance, human resources, procurement, and more.
Their procurement template, Procurement Cloud, provides a number of common P2P software features, including purchase order management, three-way invoice matching, ERP integrations, and more.
Kissflow’s platform is highly customizable, allowing teams to build off the software “template” and create a system that meets their specific P2P workflow. While this can be a major benefit to certain teams, it does require more effort and expertise to set up and manage compared to other options on this list.
Teams with limited resources or lacking in coding expertise may not be able to deploy Kissflow successfully — these teams may want to look elsewhere for a procurement software solution.
Notable Features
- e-Procurement tools, including assisted buying
- Strategic sourcing
- Hosted and punchout catalogs
- Purchase order management
- AP automation, including three-way matching
- Vendor & contract management
- Inventory management
- Mobile apps
- Reporting & spend analytics
- Integrations with Xero & QuickBooks
- Webhooks & API
Pricing
Kissflow offers a Basic plan that supports simple use cases and internal teams — this package costs $1500/month. They also offer custom enterprise packages; these upgraded plans grant full platform access and let you onboard external users. Kissflow offers custom pricing for these plans.
Kissflow vs. Coupa
Kissflow and Coupa both provide an extensive feature set to support the P2P cycle. However, Kissflow’s low-code software solution may be better suited than Coupa to support teams with unique P2P workflows.
Enterprise Coupa Alternatives
The following options generally appeal to large or multi-national businesses in need of robust features to support complex procurement workflows or scalability.
SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing
SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing is a top spend management solution and provides many features for large procurement teams — you can vet potential suppliers, establish buying guidelines to control purchasing, automate invoice reconciliation, gain visibility into purchasing data, and manage the P2P cycle from a centralized dashboard.
Features like global support, tax support, and regulatory compliance tools appeal to international enterprises, making SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing one of Coupa’s top direct competitors.
Notable Features
- Supplier discovery
- Procure-to-pay
- Product sourcing
- Invoice management
- Centralized invoice processing
- Contract management
- Spend analysis
- Supplier lifecycle management
- Travel expense management
- Supplier risk management
Pricing
Pricing for SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing is not available on their website. You must contact the company for a custom quote.
SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing vs. Coupa
SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing and Coupa provide similar functionality and serve a similar customer segment. In head-to-head comparisons, however, Coupa is generally rated higher, particularly when it comes to payment functionality.
Jaggaer
Jaggaer is a procurement and spend-management software designed to serve large multinational or enterprise businesses around the globe. They offer AI-powered procurement features and tools to automate AP workflows, but their platform also helps with cost optimization, supply chain resilience, compliance, and source-to-pay strategies.
They offer dozens of advanced features in addition to their procurement and AP functionality; they also provide consulting services to support your procurement strategy. Like SAP above, Jaggaer is another close Coupa competitor.
Jaggaer can be more difficult for teams to implement and learn, but the company is known to have a great customer service department to facilitate the onboarding process.
Notable Features
- Supply chain management
- eProcurement
- Sourcing
- Supplier network
- Contract management
- Inventory management
- Global e-invoice compliance
- Supplier management tools
- Invoice digital capture
- Integrations with ERPs & accounting software solutions
- Reporting & spend analytics
Pricing
Jaggaer does not provide pricing information on their website. You must contact the company for a custom quote.
Jaggaer vs. Coupa
Jaggaer and Coupa are very similar, as both are leading P2P solutions for large enterprise businesses. According to customer reviews, Jaggaer is slightly more scalable and has more customizable features, while Coupa has slightly more integrations.
