LemSubs vs Ramp
Free corporate cards with sharp SaaS spend insights — but US-only and visibility ends where the cards end
Ramp is the fastest-growing corporate card platform in the US — last valued at $13B+ — and it does SaaS spend management as a side benefit of issuing every card. When a vendor charges your Ramp card, the platform auto-categorizes it, surfaces price hikes, flags duplicate seats across employees, and recommends cancellations based on usage signals it pulls from SSO and accounting.
It's genuinely good, and the base tier is free if you're willing to switch your corporate spending onto Ramp cards. The catch is structural. Ramp is US-only — you need a US entity, US bank account, and EIN to even start.
The SaaS insights only cover vendors you actually pay through Ramp, so anything on Stripe Connect, PayPal, ACH, partner billing, founder personal cards, or revenue-share rails is invisible. And the entire business model assumes you're consolidating spend onto their cards.
If you can't or won't do that, you're paying $15/user/mo for the Plus tier just to access the deeper SaaS module on a partial dataset. LemSubs is the inverse posture: works in any country, captures every subscription regardless of payment method, and never requires you to change how you pay.
The trade-off is honest — we don't issue cards, we don't do AP automation, and we don't have a free tier subsidized by interchange. We charge a flat $7.99/mo for individuals and $11.99/mo for small teams, with no per-seat scaling.
Many founders run both: Ramp for the cards and cashback, LemSubs for the complete subscription picture across every payment rail. **Decision framework.** Choose Ramp if you're US-incorporated, willing to consolidate spend onto Ramp cards, and want one platform for cards + AP + light SaaS insights.
Choose LemSubs if you're outside the US, refuse to share bank or card data, or have meaningful spend on rails Ramp can't see. Run both if you're a US team that wants the cashback and AP from Ramp plus complete subscription visibility — this is the most common pattern at our small-team customers who also use Ramp.
Ramp pricing
Free for cards + Bill Pay; Ramp Plus from $15/user/mo; Ramp Enterprise custom (typically $25K+/yr)
Ramp is best for
US-incorporated companies that want corporate cards, expense management, and SaaS visibility consolidated into one platform — and are comfortable routing all spend through Ramp to unlock the SaaS layer.
Where Ramp wins
- Free corporate cards with 1.5%+ cashback on common categories
- Best-in-class auto-categorization of card spend
- Native price-hike alerts on Ramp-paid vendors
- Strong accounting integrations (NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage Intacct)
- Bill Pay and reimbursements bundled into the free tier
- Genuinely strong product team and rapid feature velocity
Where Ramp falls short
- US-only — no UK, EU, Canada, or APAC card issuance
- Only sees vendors paid via Ramp cards or Ramp Bill Pay
- Requires switching your corporate cards to Ramp to unlock value
- Plus tier ($15/user/mo) needed for the deeper SaaS recommendations
- No LTD/lifetime deal tracking, no manual categorization rules, no health scores
- Onboarding is fast for a card platform but still includes underwriting and entity verification
- Recommendations powered by external LLMs — your vendor data leaves the platform
Moving from Ramp to LemSubs
- In Ramp, go to Settings -> Vendors -> Export CSV (or use the Spend -> Vendors export)
- Sign up for LemSubs at lemsubs.com — no credit card needed for the 14-day Pro trial
- Use Smart Import to drop the Ramp CSV in; vendor name, amount, and category fields auto-map
- Add the subscriptions Ramp can't see: Stripe Connect, PayPal, partner billing, founder personal cards, ACH, revenue-share platforms
- Turn on the renewal calendar (auto-imports from due dates) and overlap detection (catches duplicate vendors and seat sprawl)
- If you have department budgets in Ramp, mirror them as Workspace Budgets in LemSubs (Teams plan) so finance has a single source of truth
- Optionally connect your Google Sheets export so finance can keep their familiar pivot tables alongside the LemSubs dashboard
Frequently asked questions
Should I use Ramp or LemSubs?
They solve different jobs. Ramp replaces your corporate cards and gives SaaS insight as a downstream benefit. LemSubs gives complete subscription visibility regardless of how anything is paid. The honest answer for most US-incorporated teams is both — Ramp for the card stack, LemSubs for the full picture.
Does Ramp work outside the US?
No. Ramp requires a US entity, US bank account, and EIN. There is no Ramp UK, Ramp Canada, or Ramp Europe. LemSubs works globally with multi-currency formatting and detection.
Can Ramp see my Stripe Connect and PayPal subscriptions?
Only if you route them through Ramp Bill Pay. Direct charges to Stripe accounts, PayPal balances, partner-billing arrangements, or revenue-share platforms are invisible to Ramp. LemSubs captures everything because the source of truth is what you tell it, not which card was used.
How does pricing actually compare?
Ramp's base tier is free, monetized by interchange. Ramp Plus is $15/user/mo. LemSubs is $7.99/mo flat for Pro and $11.99/mo flat for Teams — no per-seat scaling. For a 5-person team, Ramp Plus runs $75/mo; LemSubs Teams stays at $11.99.
What's the total cost of ownership at 25 people?
Ramp Plus at 25 people = $4,500/yr. LemSubs Teams at 25 people = $144/yr (Teams is capped at 6 members per workspace; multi-workspace if you exceed). The TCO gap is roughly 30x at that scale, before counting Ramp Enterprise upgrades.
Does LemSubs replace expense reports or reimbursements?
No — that's deliberately out of scope. We focus exclusively on subscription visibility, optimization, and renewal management. For expense reports, Ramp, Brex, or Expensify are the right tools.
What about the Ramp AI features?
Ramp's AI suggestions are good for the vendors it sees on its cards. LemSubs uses deterministic rules — not external LLMs — to surface overlap, zombie subscriptions, and overpayment, so the recommendations are auditable, predictable, and don't leak your vendor data to third-party AI.
Will you ever issue cards?
No. Card issuance is a regulated, capital-intensive product with a deep moat (Ramp, Brex, Mercury, Rho all have it). We deliberately stay focused on subscription management, where we can be sharper than tools that treat subs as one feature among many.