The 5 best Navan alternatives in 2024

Anyone familiar with the world of business travel knows that behind-the-scenes planning for corporate trips is as challenging as it gets.

A corporate travel management software helps you manage business trips for your employees from start to finish, allowing organizations to simplify travel and expense management. You can plan itineraries, book flights, hotels, or rental cars at the best rates, and tweak any reservations if plans change.

Plus, having everything in one place makes it easy to track all expenses before, during, and after a trip, for smoother reimbursement management. A travel management tool puts you in the front seat with complete control of bookings, expense tracking, reimbursements, and travel program compliance.

One popular corporate travel management solution is Navan. It’s known for its booking and management technology, advanced automation capabilities, and top-rated customer service.

That being said—Navan is not for everyone. Some organizations find the Navan pricing too high and others consider the setup and onboarding too difficult.

Can you get a better deal elsewhere? Are there other tools that might suit your company’s needs more fully? This short guide will walk you through five Navan alternatives, with a side-by-side comparison of each so you can choose the right tool for you.

5 Best alternatives to Navan

Each corporate management tool excels in a different area and can help with different travel project management. If you’re looking for alternatives to Navan, here are the five best travel management softwares like Navan to consider.

1. TravelPerk

TravelPerk combines flexibility, comfort, and accessible prices into its comprehensive travel management platform.

With an industry-leading inventory of flights, rentals, hotels and rail tickets, TravelPerk offers outstanding deals, including budget options. It also enables you to integrate your travel compliance policies for an efficient booking experience that effortlessly adheres to your policies.

One of TravelPerk’s strongest features as compared to Navan is its 7-star customer support team. With a target response time of 15 seconds, TravelPerk’s dedicated and ultra-fast customer support gives it a major edge over competing apps.

Key TravelPerk features

Ease of setup and use with no fixed fees and zero implementation costs

Developer-friendly API available for integration into your business tools

Customizable and automated travel policies to maximize compliance

Automated expense reports created from travel receipts

24/7 customer support available in English, and 9-5 support in German and Spanish

FlexiPerk for flexible corporate travel—get 80% of your fare back when canceling travel

TravelPerk vs Navan

Inventory: Navan offers a limited inventory compared to TravelPerkTravelPerk’s large inventory includes low-cost carriers, a more extensive rail inventory, and even Airbnb.

Cost: Navan charges a monthly fee per user, even if they don’t travel. TravelPerk only charges you when you use their services.

Hidden fees: With TravelPerk, there are no additional costs for implementation or customer care. You'll know exactly what you're paying with no hidden costs or fees, ever.

Integrations: TravelPerk integrates with top expense management solutions, meaning it fits seamlessly within your current tech stack. Navan offers limited options with one in-built solution. Navan does offer a built-in expense solution, but it comes at an additional charge.

In addition, Navan reviewers online have said that “trips are overpriced and you're locked in to their pricing…The flight pricing is not consistent with what you can find going direct and Navan doesn't allow you to leverage discounts like AAA rates or Government rates.” TravelPerk, on the other hand, leverages industry connections and an extensive industry to give you great deals that you might not find elsewhere.

Others have mentioned limited routes and difficulty changing or cancelling reservations: “For every change, you need to wait HOURS so an agent can talk to you. If you need to change your flight, be prepared to wait 8 hours so an agent becomes available.” With TravelPerk’s FlexiPerk feature, you can cancel (and change) your reservation whenever you need, in just one click. If you cancel, get 80% of your money refunded, automatically. Flexible business travel is easy and effortless—giving you and your employees peace of mind in a fast-paced world.

Not to mention that Navan’s Glassdoor reviews are alarming. On Glassdoor, a review platform where employees can share anonymous reviews of their work experiences, Navan scores only 3.4 out of five, with numerous employees saying that fraudulent reviews of the product are created by internal staff and that clients regularly complain about lack of support. On the flip side, TravelPerk has a Glassdoor score of 4.1—our commitment to company culture benefits not just our employees, but also our product and our users.

Overall, TravelPerk comes out on top on multiple fronts. It offers more competitive rates, solves problems more efficiently, and reduces the total cost of ownership for businesses. Whether you're a startup, a small business or a team that spans countries—it’s the best all-around alternative to Navan.

Click below for a more detailed comparison between both platforms:

Why choose TravelPerk over Navan?

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2. Egencia

Egencia is an all-in-one travel booking solution used to plan, reserve, and track trips from a single dashboard. The platform’s powerful booking engine offers a seamless and quick approach to corporate travel booking.

The tool allows you to sync multiple accounts—simplifying the process of booking flights, cars, or hotels for different employees from a single platform. It also offers additional services like visa processing, risk management, flight insurance, and more.

Its team of seasoned travel consultants is also available to assist your travelers with any queries or concerns via chat, mobile app, and knowledge base. Egencia also has a dedicated customer care center called AirHelp to cater to travelers, travel managers, and coordinators.

Key Egencia features

Easy and efficient booking management on any device—PC or mobile

Simple click-to-call AssistMe feature with a dedicated travel consultant to resolve questions about travel plans with native language support

Use Travel Advisor to define your corporate travel policies and ensure budget compliance

Sustainable travel choices help you minimize your carbon footprint

Egencia’s Analytics Studio assesses all your travel data to create meaningful insights and help you optimize expenses for your upcoming trips

Egencia vs Navan

Integrations: Navan features several third-party integrations, such as Okta, BambooHR, Expensify, and Divvy. Egencia doesn’t have as many integrations.

Dashboards: Egencia offers robust data and analytics to help you understand travel spend, policy compliance, and more. Navan offers dashboards too, but the data isn’t as comprehensive as Egencia.

Customer support: Egencia offers 24/7/365 customer support with more than 2,500 travel agents on the team to support your travelers. Navan’s customer support is mostly in-app or via phone, which some travelers find lacking.

Policy compliance: Egencia comes with a detailed approval workflow to restrict any bookings without the managers’ approvals. Navan focuses on expense policies and travel expenses more than the entire process.

Egencia is one of the top Navan competitors. It’s best for teams that want a more comprehensive solution, while Navan is best for teams that need an expense management platform to manage travel spend.

Read our full breakdown on the differences between Egencia and Navan to see which one is right for you.

3. SAP Concur

SAP Concur is an integrated solution to manage your business travel, expenses, and invoices all at once. Its automated workflows for reporting expenses and approving invoices—alongside the control and visibility it offers for managed travel—wins it a place among the best alternatives to Navan.

The platform enables finance teams to easily evaluate your travel spending and modify it according to your budget.

Need to simplify your expense management and reimbursements? Our expense reimbursement policy template will help you set clear and effective reimbursement guidelines that make business travel expense management easier, no matter what platform you use.

SAP’s unique loyalty programs and long-standing partnerships with hotels and airlines allow you to make direct bookings with top travel brands—like Delta, Hyatt, Lufthansa, and more.

Similar to other alternatives, Concur enables you to give your employees the flexibility and freedom to book their travel, share itineraries, and change reservations—all while complying with your travel policies.

Key SAP Concur features

Consolidated dashboard to oversee all employee travel and ensure effortless compliance

Global network of suppliers offering direct reservations at negotiated rates

Concur TripLink for more visibility into employee travel and optimal spend-management

Seamless request and approval process before purchasing with Concur Request

SAP Concur vs Navan

Rates: SAP Concur offers more negotiated rates with bigger brands for airlines and hotels than Navan does.

Self-booking process: Navan offers a full-fledged system for employee self-service and itinerary management whereas Concur has a request and approval process.

Ease of use: Navan outperforms Concur in its ease of setup and intuitive interface. Some users complain that Concur’s interface is clunky and outdated.

Functionality: SAP Concur is a complete suite of products for expense management, travel reservations, event management, data analytics, and more, while Navan focuses mostly on travel expense management.

Concur is one of the most feature-packed Navan alternatives that you can consider. Equipped with several products to meet every business travel need, Concur definitely outperforms companies like Navan on functionality.

While Navan might be better for enterprises who need a more focused solution, SAP Concur provides an all-in-one suite of tools that caters to large enterprises and their multi-faceted business needs.

Read our full breakdown on how SAP Concur stacks up to Navan, and see which one makes more sense for your team.

4. CWT

CWT is one of the oldest travel management companies available in over 150 countries. This API-based product for corporate travel & expense management simplifies flight bookings, hotel reservations, and trip planning.

With choices of over 800,000 properties worldwide—courtesy of its hotel booking integration, RoomIt—CWT brings you special prices for budget-friendly trips without compromising on convenience and comfort. You can also get actionable insights for all your trips with its analytics and reporting tool, AnalytIQs.

CWT also features employee care functionality. You can easily locate any employee in an accident and trigger mitigation efforts to safeguard their wellbeing.

Key CWT features

Dedicated hotel management and booking integration to streamline room reservations

Assistance from expert consultants to make the right travel arrangements

Powerful reporting and real-time visibility to track your travel expenses

ECO (short for Employee Wellbeing, Climate Impact, and Organizational Performance) framework to align sustainability with your travel needs

CWT vs Navan

Features: Navan comes with a more holistic software solution integrated with auditing, workflow management, self-service, and other features, However, CWT offers more comprehensive business travel solutions like meetings and events, travel consulting, and more.

Sustainable travel: CWT’s sustainable travel solution is more concrete and comprehensive than Navan’ eco-friendly options.

Risk management: CWT offers more comprehensive risk management and duty of care than Navan does, which provides more peace of mind when managing lots of international business travel.

CWT is a leading name in the corporate travel industry with a massive inventory for companies of all sizes. If you’re looking for a corporate travel platform that offers great hotel management and booking integration, CWT would be a good choice for you. They offer more corporate travel features and experience, while Navan is newer, offers less comprehensive customer support, and focuses more on expense management.

5. TravelBank

TravelBank is a user-friendly and cost-efficient travel management platform delivering travel solutions to travel managers and employees worldwide.

The tool offers a rewards program that incentivizes employees to stay under budget. You can decide the rewards that your employees receive for the savings they make. For instance, if your budget is $400 and your employee spends $300, then they can receive $50 as an incentive while you save $50.

TravelBank also sets itself apart with unique features like group travel and Slack customer support.

In contrast to expense-oriented travel management software like Navan, this tool gives you better control over travel and expenses—all at once. You’ll also have access to detailed reports to track every trip and identify possible gaps in your policies.

Key TravelBank features

Lets you reward employees for saving more on trips with a custom points-based system.

Negotiated prices for a massive inventory of over 500,000 flights and hotels

Customized reporting workflow based on your chosen parameters

24/7 support via email, phone, and chat

TravelBank vs Navan

Customer support: TravelBank boasts a 97% satisfaction rate on customer service interactions, while many Navan customers say the customer service is lacking.

Better for small businesses: With no hidden fees and all features included, TravelBank is better suited for the specific needs of small businesses and startups than Navan.

Hotels: TravelBank has a more powerful hotel reservation system with more options for extended periods that Navan lacks.

In short, TravelBank is a great choice if you want a simple tool with all the functionalities of a premium travel management software. It also has the unique rewards feature that incentivizes your employees to save on their travel costs.

Read our full comparison of TravelBank and Navan to see which one is better for your needs.

Wrapping up the best Navan alternatives

Planning a trip is a taxing process with so many moving parts to consider, and that’s not even considering the actual taxes! If you’ve been using Navan and it’s not making the process any easier, consider switching to a travel management software that meets your needs better.

For a flexible and easy-to-use solution with intuitive technology and booking processes, hard-to-beat rates, and experienced support teams—TravelPerk is the comprehensive solution that will save you time and money.

Just ask Hotjar. They were working with another travel agency, but it left them feeling disappointed. Even though employees were able to book travel compliant with their policies, the booking process was still time-consuming and clunky, and didn’t have as much inventory as they could find on standard OTAs.

So, they switched to TravelPerk. “It’s a much easier, more user-friendly experience. They don’t have to go back and forth with the agency or with operations,” says Melissa Mauk, Finance Manager at Hotjar.

Schedule a free demo today to see how you can simplify business travel and give traveling employees better booking autonomy while maintaining full control with TravelPerk.

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