Mercury vs Ramp

by Gralio Apr 24, 2025

Mercury and Ramp offer financial platforms but cater to slightly different needs. Mercury acts more like a bank replacement for startups and smaller businesses (1-100 employees), providing core banking services alongside expense tools. Ramp is geared towards mid-sized businesses, focusing heavily on controlling spend through corporate cards, expense automation, and accounts payable features, backed by better customer support ratings.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 2148 reviews and 60 websites, saving 12 hours, 26 minutes of reading.

About

Mercury is a financial technology company offering banking and financial management tools specifically designed for startups. It provides FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts, credit cards, expense management, and integrations with accounting software. Mercury aims to simplify financial operations, offering a single platform for managing banking, expenses, invoicing, and bill payments. While not a bank itself, Mercury partners with established banks to provide these services.
Ramp is an all-in-one finance software designed for mid-sized to large businesses, particularly those in fast-growing sectors. It combines corporate cards, expense management, bill payments, and accounting automation into a single platform. Ramp aims to save businesses time and money by automating tasks, enforcing spending policies, and providing insights into company spending. It integrates with popular accounting systems and promises to simplify financial operations, making them more efficient and transparent.

Summary

Main difference
Mercury centers on providing banking services tailored for startups via partner banks, integrating basic financial tools. Ramp focuses on providing a comprehensive spend management platform with corporate cards, expense automation, and AP features for growing businesses.

Relative strengths of Mercury (compared to Ramp)

  • Core Banking Focus: Offers integrated FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts through partner banks, which Ramp does not directly provide.

  • Free Wire Transfers: Includes free domestic and international USD wire transfers, a significant cost saving compared to traditional banks and potentially Ramp depending on usage.

  • Startup Specialization: Tailored features and setup process specifically designed for the needs of early-stage startups and smaller businesses (1-100 employees).

Relative weaknesses of Mercury (compared to Ramp)

  • Customer Support: Significantly poorer customer service ratings and user reviews regarding response times compared to Ramp's more positive feedback.

  • Account Stability Issues: Reports of unexpected account closures and inconsistent compliance enforcement create reliability concerns not as prevalent with Ramp.

  • Less Advanced Spend Management: Ramp offers more robust features for expense management automation, spending policy enforcement, and accounts payable workflows compared to Mercury's current offerings based on user feedback and feature lists.

What companies are using Mercury and Ramp?

Who is using Mercury and Ramp?

Who should use Mercury VS. Ramp

We find Mercury is often chosen by startups and tech companies seeking a straightforward banking and financial management platform. Users appreciate the quick online setup, the ability to manage banking, expenses, and payments from one dashboard, and features like free wires and virtual cards. While its ease of use is a plus, some users have noted challenges with customer support response times and account stability issues reported in reviews. It aims to simplify finances for growing businesses handling everything from banking to bill pay in one spotlessly to bill pay

Ramp seems like a great fit for mid-sized to enterprise businesses looking to get a handle on their finances. We've noticed it really shines for companies wanting to simplify things like corporate cards, expense management, and bill payments all in one place. Users often tell us how easy it is to use, especially for submitting expenses, and how well it integrates with their accounting software, saving a lot of manual effort. It's designed to help growing companies operate more efficiently.

  • In our experience, Mercury is an excellent fit for startups and small to medium businesses, especially those with 1 to 1000 employees.

  • We notice Mercury is particularly well-suited for tech startups, e-commerce businesses, and firms within the finance and IT sectors.

  • In our experience, Ramp works best for medium (101-1000 employees) and large enterprise (1001+ employees) companies needing robust financial control.

  • We find Ramp is versatile and suitable for businesses across various sectors, from tech startups to established firms in finance or insurance.

Mercury and Ramp features

Supported
Partially supported
Not supported
Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

  • Corporate Cards
    Supported

    Mercury offers corporate cards with real-time spending visibility and control features.

    Supported

    Ramp provides corporate cards with real-time spending visibility and control, including customizable limits and restrictions.

  • Single Dashboard Management
    Supported

    Mercury provides a single dashboard for managing business banking and core financial operations.

    Supported

    Ramp offers a single dashboard for managing expenses, vendor transactions, and some banking integrations.

  • Seamless Payment Processing
    Supported

    Mercury offers free USD wires and automated payment processing, simplifying payments for businesses.

    Partially supported

    Ramp supports automated payment workflows and multi-currency payments, but free USD wires are not confirmed.

  • Receipt management
    Supported

    Mercury allows uploading, storing, and matching receipts to expenses.

    Supported

    Ramp supports uploading, storing, and matching receipts to expenses.

  • Receipt uploading
    Supported

    Receipt uploading is supported via the Mercury mobile app and web interface.

    Supported

    Ramp allows receipt uploads via their website, mobile app, and email.

  • Receipt capture
    Supported

    Receipt capture is supported via the mobile app.

    Supported

    Ramp allows receipt capture via its mobile app.

Qualities

  • Value and Pricing Transparency
    +0
    Neutral sentiment
    +0.41
    Rather positive sentiment
  • Customer Service
    -0.23
    Neutral sentiment
    +0.58
    Rather positive sentiment
  • Ease of Use
    +0.7
    Strongly positive sentiment
    +0.94
    Strongly positive sentiment
  • Reliability and Performance
    +0.04
    Neutral sentiment
    +0.54
    Rather positive sentiment
  • Ease of Implementation
    +0.37
    Rather positive sentiment
    +0.76
    Strongly positive sentiment
  • Scalability
    No data
    -0.2
    Neutral sentiment

Mercury and Ramp Pricing

Mercury offers a free business banking plan with unlimited bill payments and invoice generation. Paid plans offer additional features like recurring invoicing, branded invoices, expense reimbursements for more users, and advanced accounting automations.
Plans

See full Pricing page

Ramp offers a free plan, a Plus plan at $15/user/month plus a platform fee, and an Enterprise plan with custom pricing. Annual billing is available for the Plus and Enterprise plans. A detailed feature comparison is available on the pricing page.
Plans

User sentiment

Rather positive
+0.41

See full Pricing page

Mercury and Ramp review insights

2050 reviews analysed from

Users love

  • User-friendly interface and easy navigation on both web and mobile app
  • Simple and efficient account setup process
  • Free international and domestic wire transfers
  • Virtual card creation and management
  • Multiple account creation for better financial organization
  • Easy and efficient expense reporting
  • Seamless integration with accounting software
  • Intuitive and user-friendly interface
  • Receipt capture via text, email, or app

Users dislike

  • Account closures without clear explanations or communication
  • Unacceptable delays in customer support responses, sometimes taking days
  • Slow processing times for transfers and check deposits (7-10 business days)
  • Inconsistent application of compliance rules and requirements
  • Lack of transparency regarding compliance and account closure reasons
  • Bill Pay is not yet available in Texas
  • Can be difficult to track spending if not constantly monitoring
  • Balance adjustments make cash planning difficult
  • International employee reimbursements are a hassle

Mercury and Ramp Ratings

  • G2
    4.6/5
    (101)
  • G2
    4.8/5
    (1949)

Company health

Employee growth

33% increase in the last year
127% increase in the last year

Web traffic

20% increase in the last quarter
1% increase in the last quarter

Financing

February 2022 - $152M
No data

How do Mercury's and Ramp's approaches to fraud monitoring differ?

Mercury explicitly lists fraud monitoring tools and account security protocols as a feature aimed at safeguarding business finances. Ramp, on the other hand, focuses more broadly on controlling spend *before* it happens through features like corporate card controls, automated policy enforcement within expense management, and real-time visibility, which indirectly helps prevent fraudulent or out-of-policy spending rather than solely monitoring for it after the fact.

Which product better integrates with existing accounting software for startups?

Based on the information provided, Ramp appears to offer better integration with existing accounting software. Ramp lists integrations and accounting automation as key features, and users specifically praise its "seamless integration with accounting software." While Mercury is designed for startups and mentions accounting integrations and automations (especially in paid plans), the user feedback for Ramp on this specific point is more explicit and positive.

What are the advantages of Mercury?

Mercury offers several advantages, particularly for startups and small businesses. It provides a fast online application for FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts, featuring enhanced insurance coverage through partner banks and sweep networks. The platform simplifies financial operations with a single dashboard, seamless payment processing including free USD wires, and credit cards designed for accessibility with low deposit minimums and cashback. Users appreciate its user-friendly interface, simple setup, free wire transfers, and features like virtual card creation and AI-powered bill pay.

What are the disadvantages of Mercury?

Mercury faces significant disadvantages, particularly concerning customer service, which users report as unacceptably slow, sometimes taking days for a response. Reliability and performance are also major drawbacks, with complaints about slow processing times for transfers and check deposits, often taking 7-10 business days. Users express frustration over accounts being closed without clear explanations and a general lack of transparency regarding compliance issues and account closure reasons. Additionally, Mercury receives highly negative ratings for ease of implementation and value/pricing transparency.

Is Mercury cheaper than Ramp?

Both Mercury and Ramp offer free entry-level plans. However, comparing their paid tiers is not straightforward. Mercury has fixed monthly pricing for its Plus ($35/month) and Pro ($350/month) plans. Ramp's Plus plan costs $15 per user per month plus an unspecified platform fee, and its Enterprise plan has custom pricing. Therefore, whether Mercury is cheaper than Ramp depends on the specific paid plan required and the number of users; Ramp's per-user pricing could make it more expensive than Mercury's fixed-price plans for teams beyond a very small size, especially when factoring in the platform fee.

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Page co-authored by
MK
Michal Kaczor
CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

TT
Tymon Terlikiewicz
CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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