I've tested a lot of business travel and expense software over the years, and they all promise the same thing: easier bookings, better compliance, and magical cost savings. Most of them deliver on maybe one of those promises, if you're lucky.

Navan (formerly TripActions) is different, and honestly, it took me by surprise. After spending three weeks using it for both personal and business travel, I can tell you it's one of the few platforms that actually lives up to its claims. But it's not perfect, and it's definitely not for everyone.

Here's what you need to know before signing up.

What Is Navan?

Navan is an all-in-one corporate travel and expense management platform that combines three things most companies have to cobble together from multiple vendors: travel booking, expense tracking, and corporate cards.

The idea is simple. Instead of using Concur for expenses, a separate travel agent for bookings, and whatever corporate card your bank issues, you do everything in one place. Employees book flights and hotels, expenses automatically categorize themselves, and finance teams get real-time visibility into every dollar being spent.

The platform serves everyone from small businesses with 10 employees to massive enterprises like Zoom, Snowflake, and Thomson Reuters. It's used in 140 countries and supports over 100 currencies, which matters if you have any kind of international operation.

The Good Stuff (What Actually Works)

The Booking Experience Is Genuinely Easy

I'm going to start here because this is where most corporate travel platforms fall apart. Legacy systems like Concur feel like they were designed by someone who hates travelers. You click through 47 screens, fight with policy restrictions, and end up calling someone anyway.

Navan's booking interface is clean and fast. You search for a flight the same way you'd search on Google Flights or Kayak. Results show up instantly, prices are clear, and the app remembers your preferences. If you always pick aisle seats and prefer Delta, it learns that and shows those options first.

The mobile app works just as well as the desktop version, which is rarer than it should be. I booked a last-minute flight change from my phone while sitting in an airport, and it took about 90 seconds. No frustration, no waiting on hold.

Policy Enforcement That Doesn't Make You Want to Quit

Here's where Navan gets clever. Instead of letting you book whatever you want and then rejecting it later, Navan enforces policy at the time of booking.

If your company policy says domestic flights under three hours have to be economy, you literally won't see business class as an option. The system just filters it out. If you're allowed to spend up to $200 per night on hotels, anything over that amount requires manager approval before you can complete the booking.

This sounds restrictive, but in practice, it's actually liberating. You know exactly what you can book without waiting for approval. For managers, it means they're not approving routine bookings all day. They only see exceptions.

Expenses That Actually Manage Themselves

The expense management side is where Navan really shines compared to competitors. When you book travel through Navan, those expenses automatically flow into your expense report. No receipts to scan, no categories to select, no mental gymnastics trying to remember what that $47 Uber ride was for three weeks ago.

If you use a Navan corporate card for other purchases, those transactions also auto-categorize and match to receipts. The system uses AI to figure out if that $23.50 charge at Panera was breakfast (meals and entertainment) or lunch with a client (client entertainment). It's not perfect, but it's right about 80% of the time, which is 80% less work than doing it manually.

For the finance team, this is huge. Instead of chasing down employees for missing receipts or fixing miscategorized expenses, they're dealing with a much cleaner data set from day one.

The Corporate Card Integration Is Smart

Navan offers its own corporate cards, but here's what's actually interesting: they also work with your existing Visa, Mastercard, or American Express cards through something called Navan Connect.

This matters if you've already negotiated great terms with your bank or you have rewards programs you don't want to lose. You can keep those cards and still get Navan's automation and policy enforcement. The platform pulls in transaction data from your existing cards and handles everything the same way.

Most competitors force you to use their card or you lose half the functionality. Navan's approach is more flexible, and I've seen companies switch to Navan specifically because of this feature.

The Rewards Program Is Actually Useful

Navan has something called Navan Rewards that I was skeptical about but actually ended up appreciating. Here's how it works: if you book travel that comes in under budget (cheaper hotel, earlier flight booking, whatever), you earn points that you can use toward personal travel.

The company doesn't pay extra for this. You're just getting a cut of the savings you generated. I booked a hotel that was $40 under the nightly budget and earned enough points for a $25 credit toward a future personal trip.

It's a clever way to incentivize employees to be cost-conscious without making it feel like you're just doing extra work for the company. The personal benefit feels real.

24/7 Support That Picks Up the Phone

Travel emergencies happen at 2am in random time zones. Navan has actual humans available 24/7 who can fix problems. During testing, I had a flight cancellation at 11pm on a Saturday. I used the in-app chat, got a real person in under two minutes, and they rebooked me on the first flight out the next morning.

For companies that pay extra for Navan Pro, you get access to their Reed & Mackay team, which is their premium concierge service. I didn't test this personally, but companies I've talked to say it's worth it if you have executives who need white-glove service.

The Not-So-Good Stuff (Real Problems You Should Know About)

The Learning Curve Is Real

Despite the clean interface, Navan has a lot of features, and figuring out how to set everything up properly takes time.

Employees generally figure out the booking side pretty quickly, but finance and travel managers need to invest time learning the admin console. It's not impossibly complex, but it's not plug-and-play either.

Smaller companies with simpler needs might find this frustrating. If you just need basic expense tracking and occasional travel bookings, Navan might be overkill.

The Pricing Isn't Transparent

Navan doesn't list prices on their website, which is always annoying. You have to request a demo and go through their sales process to get pricing.

From what I've gathered talking to multiple companies, pricing is based on active users (people who actually travel and incur expenses) rather than total employees. Small companies might pay $10-15 per active user per month, while larger companies with volume negotiate better rates.

The platform itself is technically free for basic features, but most companies end up paying for premium features or higher service levels.

The Special Rates Aren't Always Special

Navan markets their "special rates" with airlines and hotels pretty heavily. In my testing, these rates were sometimes good, sometimes just average. I compared about 30 hotel bookings to what I could find on the hotel's direct website or through other channels, and Navan was cheaper about 60% of the time, the same about 30% of the time, and actually more expensive about 10% of the time. So just like anything, do your homework.

The inventory is solid, but don't expect magic discounts just because you're using Navan. You're getting decent corporate rates, not insider secrets.

Limited Customization for Complex Policies

If your company has really complex travel policies with tons of exceptions based on role, department, destination, and booking lead time, Navan can handle a lot of it, but not everything. I talked to one company that had to simplify some of their policy rules because Navan couldn't support the level of granularity they wanted.

For most companies, this won't be an issue. But if you're in a highly regulated industry or you have unusually complex requirements, you might run into limitations.

International Support Is Uneven

Navan works in 140 countries, but the experience varies. In the US, UK, and Western Europe, inventory is great, support is responsive, and everything works smoothly. In parts of Asia, Latin America, and Africa, hotel selection can be limited and you might have more trouble with local payment methods or language support.

If you're a global company with significant operations in emerging markets, test Navan thoroughly in those regions before committing.

How It Compares to the Competition

Navan vs. Concur

Concur (now SAP Concur) is the 800-pound gorilla in this space. It's been around forever, has every feature imaginable, and is used by a ton of Fortune 500 companies.

Navan is faster, easier to use, and has better mobile apps. Concur has more customization options and deeper integrations with complex ERP systems. If you're a massive enterprise with complicated workflows, Concur might still be the better choice. If you're anywhere from 50 to 5,000 employees and you want something modern that people won't hate using, Navan wins.

Navan vs. Expensify

Expensify has great expense management and recently added travel booking. If expense tracking is your main concern and travel is secondary, Expensify is a strong option and generally cheaper.

Navan's travel booking is more mature and the policy enforcement is more sophisticated. If travel is a significant part of your business and you want deep integration between booking and expenses, Navan is better. If you mostly care about expenses and travel is occasional, Expensify might be enough.

Navan vs. TravelPerk

TravelPerk is popular in Europe and has a clean interface similar to Navan's. The main difference is that TravelPerk is primarily a travel booking tool and you need separate software for comprehensive expense management.

Navan's all-in-one approach means fewer systems to manage and better data integration. If you want one platform for everything, Navan wins. If you already have expense management covered and you just need better travel booking, TravelPerk is worth considering.

The Bottom Line

Navan is legitimately good at what it does. It's not perfect, and it's not the cheapest option out there, but it solves real problems that most corporate travel and expense systems create instead of fix.

The booking experience is smooth enough that employees will actually use it instead of finding workarounds. The expense automation reduces busywork for everyone involved. The policy enforcement works without feeling oppressive. And the whole thing is integrated in a way that actually makes sense rather than feeling like someone duct-taped three different products together.

If your company is growing, travel is part of your business, and you're tired of fighting with clunky legacy systems, Navan is worth a serious look. Request a demo, actually test the mobile app yourself, and make sure the inventory in your key travel markets is good. For most mid-sized companies, it'll be a significant upgrade over what you're using now.

Just know going in that setup takes work, the pricing requires negotiation, and you'll need buy-in from both finance and employees to make it work. But if you clear those hurdles, you'll end up with a system that mostly just fades into the background and lets people focus on their actual work instead of fighting with travel and expense software.

And honestly, that's the best thing I can say about any business software: it works well enough that you stop thinking about it.

Check out Navan Here

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