Four years, one favourite: top spend management tools ranked by finance leaders

Four years of data reveal which spend management tool finance leaders favour most, and how the competition has shifted.

The right finance tools can transform the way a business operates. The wrong ones can leave teams buried in spreadsheets, chasing approvals and struggling to understand where company money is going. With so many platforms promising greater efficiency, automation and financial control, which spend management tools do finance leaders actually prefer?

For four years, CFO Connect, a global community of more than 12,000 finance leaders, has surveyed finance professionals about their favourite software platforms. Its annual Top CFO Tools reports offer a unique view of the platforms that have stood the test of time, the challengers gaining ground and the tools slipping down the rankings.

Key findings from four years of rankings:

• One consistent winner: Spendesk topped CFO Connect's spend management rankings every year from 2023 to 2026.

• Challengers: Ramp remained a recurring contender, while Payhawk and Moss entered the top five in 2026.

• Growing interest: Search demand for 'spend management software' increased by 170% between 2023 and 2026.

Businesses are paying more attention to how they manage spending

Between 2023 and 2026, worldwide demand for "spend management platform" increased by +400%, while interest in "spend management software" rose by +170%. Related searches also grew, including spend management services at +110%.

As businesses grow, managing expenditure becomes increasingly complex. Software subscriptions multiply, employees need company cards, purchasing requests move between departments and finance teams need visibility over spending across the organisation. Unlike traditional expense tracking, which focuses primarily on recording and reimbursing purchases, spend management covers the wider process of planning, approving, tracking and controlling business expenditure. The best spend management tools help companies control spending before it happens, rather than simply account for it afterwards.

Yet despite growing interest, many businesses still operate without a dedicated platform. According to CFO Connect data, 24% of respondents reported having no dedicated spend management platform, compared with 10% in the 2025 survey.

As finance teams look for better ways to control costs, improve visibility and streamline financial processes, choosing the right technology has become increasingly important.

So which platforms are finance leaders choosing?

Top 5 spend management tools rated by finance leaders

We compared CFO Connect's annual rankings from 2023 to 2026, tracking the five leading spend management platforms in each edition. The results reveal the tools that have maintained their positions, the challengers climbing the rankings and the names that have slipped down the leaderboard.

Source: CFO Connect Top CFO Tools Reports, 2023–2026.

Spendesk: Four consecutive years at #1

Four years, four first-place finishes. Spendesk has topped CFO Connect's spend management rankings every year since 2023, maintaining its position despite growing competition.

Our French-founded, AI-powered spend management platform is built for European businesses and brings corporate cards, expenses, procurement, accounts payable and budget controls together in one system, helping finance teams automate workflows and maintain visibility over company spending.

In 2026, Spendesk received 25% of responses. It also ranked first among named procurement platforms, receiving 13% of responses in the category's inaugural ranking.

The results make Spendesk one of the most consistent performers across CFO Connect's four years of spend management rankings.

The risers, fallers and new challengers

While Spendesk has maintained its position, the competition beneath it has been considerably more fluid.

Ramp has emerged as a recurring challenger, climbing from third place in 2023 to second in 2024. After slipping to fourth in 2025, it returned to second place in 2026.

Meanwhile, Payhawk and Moss entered the top five in 2026, taking third and fifth place respectively. Their arrival illustrates how the competitive landscape continues to evolve, with different platforms gaining recognition among finance leaders.

Other established players have experienced more mixed results.

Expensify ranked second in both 2023 and 2025 but dropped out of the top five in 2026. SAP Concur held third place in 2024 and 2025 before slipping to fourth in 2026.

How do the top five spend management tools compare?

Rankings offer a useful indication of popularity, but the right spend management platform depends on the size, location and requirements of each business.

Here's how the five leading platforms from the 2026 survey compare.

Rankings: CFO Connect Top CFO Tools Report 2026. Product positioning: Spendesk's spend management software comparison.

The results highlight the diversity of the spend management market. Some platforms focus heavily on cards or travel and expenses, while others provide broader workflows connecting purchasing, payments, approvals and accounting. For finance leaders, the right choice depends on which processes need improving and whether a specialist solution or a more comprehensive platform would deliver greater value.

For a more detailed breakdown of features, pricing and integrations, explore our guide to the best spend management software.

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What four years of rankings tell us about spend management

The rankings reveal a competitive market in which established platforms continue to face new challengers. They also sit alongside a broader evolution in what businesses expect from spend management technology.

Finance teams increasingly need connected workflows covering purchasing, company cards, invoices, approvals and budgets, particularly as business spending becomes more complex. New categories of expenditure are adding to that challenge.

Spendesk's European Spend Report 2026 found that AI software spending increased by 340% over twelve months, highlighting how emerging technologies can introduce new and sometimes unpredictable costs.

For Pauline Babel, CFO at Spendesk, the future of spend management is about enabling better decisions rather than simply enforcing tighter restrictions.

The future of finance isn't tighter control alone, it's intelligent, responsible autonomy across the business.

Pauline Babel

Spendesk CFO

As finance teams evaluate their technology, connected workflows, visibility over expenditure and proactive spending controls are likely to become increasingly important. The platforms that continue to earn finance leaders' trust will need to demonstrate how they help businesses manage these challenges without adding unnecessary complexity.

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About the rankings

This analysis draws on CFO Connect's annual Top CFO Tools reports from 2023 to 2026, based on finance leader surveys.

The rankings show named spend management platforms rather than responses such as "Other" or "None". A platform's absence from the top five does not necessarily mean it received no votes.

Search-interest statistics reflect changes in relative search interest between 2023 and 2026, rather than absolute search volumes.