Coupa offers business spend management applications, including invoicing, procurement, expense management, sourcing and inventory, contract lifecycle management, supplier management, risk management, and supply chain design and planning. While it maintains a significant market presence with approximately 16% market share and 2,000+ customers, it is not for everyone and has challenges and limitations. For varying reasons, companies look out for an alternative to Coupa,
Some of the reasons were,
- Coupa’s subscription and implementation costs are high, especially for small and medium businesses.
- It typically takes more than 8 months for implementation which is a big challenge if you don’t have a dedicated team to involve in this project.
- Even though it has comprehensive features, the user interface is outdated and complex to use for employees.
- Coupa is built for enterprise, so often seen as an overkill for small and growing businesses.
In this article, we will cover the top Coupa alternatives in the market, and key factors to consider when looking for an alternative solution.
Best Coupa Alternatives
This section covers some of the top procurement software out there which could be a great alternative for Coupa. We’ve curated the list based on our own research where we reviewed endless user ratings in review websites like G2 and Capterra, industry analyst reports, and countless product demos.
1. SAP Ariba
SAP Ariba offers a full suite of enterprise-level functionality spanning procure-to-pay, sourcing, supplier network, supplier-relationship management, contract management, spend analytics and sustainability.
If you’re a larger enterprise with complex procurement needs, multinational operations, and do both direct and indirect procurement, SAP Ariba could be the preferred Coupa alternative.
It has an extensive supplier network with more than 5 million suppliers across the globe. SAP Ariba helps businesses to diversify their supplier base without the need to build their own supplier base from scratch.
Coupa vs. Ariba
There is no big difference in cost, time to value, and capabilities between Ariba and Coupa. Since Ariba is part of the SAP ecosystem, it can seamlessly integrate with SAP ERP systems like S/4HANA. In addition, it reduces the learning curve as your team would be familiar with SAP interfaces. So, if you’re already in the SAP ecosystem, it's better to consider Ariba before looking further.
Ratings
4.1/5 ⭐ (550+ reviews) on G2
Best For
Enterprises seeking global supplier networks and integration with SAP ERP might find SAP Ariba as a preferred option.
Key Features
- Unified Source to Pay Suite: It enables you to manage the entire source-to-pay cycle, from generating requests, sourcing, to paying invoices and managing suppliers.
- Advanced Supplier Management: It offers sophisticated supplier management capabilities, including automated supplier onboarding, performance management, and risk monitoring.
- AI-Enhanced Sourcing: SAP Ariba Sourcing leverages AI for guided sourcing, supplier optimization, and event creation.
- Integration with SAP ERP Systems: Ariba integrates seamlessly with SAP ERP systems like SAP S/4HANA, allowing for real-time data synchronization.
- Spend Analytics: It provides detailed spend analysis and reporting, enabling organizations to track spending patterns, identify cost-saving opportunities, and make informed procurement decisions.
- Contract Lifecycle Management: It offers comprehensive contract management capabilities, including automated workflow functions for contract review and approval processes.
- Sustainability and ESG Compliance: Ariba supports sustainability goals by enabling organizations to enforce supplier guidelines related to environmental impact and ethical business practices.
Strength
- SAP has a proven track record of having the ability to deploy and support an S2P solution that can meet global requirements and high transaction volumes.
- Its seamless integration capabilities with other SAP products like SAP ERP systems.
- Ariba has a matured and vast supplier network which most of the other players lack.
Cautions
- SAP lags other solutions in ease of use and user experience, which can lead to increased training and change management.
- SAP’s source-to-pay offering relies on partnerships with 3rd party vendors to deliver depth of functionality. Customers may need to buy additional licenses from those vendors for extended functionality.
2. Jaggaer
Jaggaer ONE is an intelligent source-to-pay and supplier collaboration platform.
It offers a fully integrated suite covering the entire source-to-pay lifecycle with tools for managing all direct and indirect spend categories. Jaggaer’s integrated procurement suite empowers procurement teams to cut costs and add value through their spend.
Coupa vs. Jaggaer
Coupa provides basic sourcing features like RFx and auctions but lacks the depth and sophistication of Jaggaer’s optimization tools.
Jaggaer offers robust sourcing tools, including RFx (Request for Information, Proposal, or Quote), reverse auctions, and multi-round bidding processes. Its sourcing optimization engine uses algorithms to evaluate supplier bids based on cost, quality, delivery timelines, and other variables, making it ideal for strategic sourcing decisions.
For organisations whose sourcing involves high-stakes negotiations, direct materials, or intricate workflows, JAGGAER would be a great alternative solution.
Ratings
4.4/5 ⭐ (27 reviews) on G2
Best for
Jaggaer can be a good option for organizations that deal with direct and complex procurement processes.
Key Feature
- Sourcing: Tools for managing RFPs, RFQs, reverse auctions, and supplier negotiations to optimize sourcing processes.
- Supplier Management: Features for onboarding, evaluating, and monitoring suppliers, including risk assessment and performance tracking.
- Contract Management: Capabilities for creating, storing, and managing contracts, with compliance tracking and renewal alerts.
- Procurement:A purchasing module for requisitioning, catalog management, and purchase order creation, designed to streamline buying processes.
- Invoice Management: Automation of invoice processing, matching, and payment workflows to improve efficiency and reduce errors.
- Inventory Management: Tools to track and manage inventory levels, ensuring alignment with procurement and operational needs.
- Category Management: Support for strategic category planning, market analysis, and cost optimization across specific spend categories.
- Supplier Risk and Performance: Monitoring and mitigating supplier risks while assessing performance metrics to ensure reliability and quality.
- Advanced Analytics: AI-driven insights, predictive analytics, and scenario modeling for deeper supply chain and procurement intelligence.
- Integration and Collaboration Tools: Modules or features enabling seamless integration with ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle) and fostering supplier collaboration through portals.
- Direct Materials Procurement: Specialized tools for managing direct materials sourcing, particularly for manufacturing and supply chain-heavy industries.
- Supplier Portal: A dedicated interface for suppliers to interact with the system, submit bids, update profiles, and collaborate.
Strengths
- Jaggaer has a number of capabilities that complement the direct procurement process, including sourcing, supply chain collaboration and connectivity with other key platforms.
- Jaggaer has a strong AI/ML roadmap. One of their recent innovations around AI includes AI-based smart PO matching that matches invoices without a PO number to their respective purchase orders, and Contracts AI, which performs contract risk analysis.
- Its spend analytics tool is highly praised for helping to identify savings opportunities across multiple strategic sourcing exercises.
Cautions
- Jaggaer customers often don’t buy a full S2P suite and this may be indicative of customers looking to pair Jaggaer capabilities in some areas while supplementing with third-party point solutions for other areas.
- Due to its highly customizable nature, implementation can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Customers reported lengthy setup processes, particularly when integrating with existing ERP systems or tailoring workflows.
3. Ivalua
Ivalua's source-to-pay platform is highly configurable and can be tailored to meet the specific procurement needs of different industries and organizations. It offers a comprehensive solution that covers the entire procurement lifecycle, from sourcing to payment, helping organizations achieve better outcomes and drive value from their procurement activities.
Coupa vs. Ivalua
Ivalua's most distinctive advantage over Coupa lies in its superior customization capabilities and flexibility. Its no-code/low-code platform makes it easy for procurement teams to customize workflows, processes, and data structures to build tailored solutions for their unique needs.
Ratings
4.3/5 ⭐ (43 reviews) on G2
Best for
Customers often select Ivalua as a replacement for a solution they were unable to configure to meet their business needs.
Key Features
- Supplier Management: Collaborate with suppliers to get accurate information, assess risk and improve performance while informing all procurement activities.
- Sourcing: From spot bids to complex sourcing projects involving direct materials, customers achieve results fast.
- Contract Management: Manage the full lifecycle of your contracts in close collaboration with stakeholders. Ensure contract data informs all procurement activities.
- Procurement: Digital procurement to empower your employees and suppliers. Simplify the buying experience, achieve high adoption and manage all spend.
- Invoicing: Digitize your AP process and enable suppliers with electronic invoicing, while ensuring compliant, efficient and flexible processes.
- Strategy & Analytics: One platform and one data repository makes analytics a breeze. Tracking your savings and managing all procurement projects with all stakeholders makes you a star.
Strengths
- Ivalua’s private cloud platform offers a unique ability to significantly configure and extend its product capabilities through low-code/no-code extensions.
- Ivalua launched its Environmental Impact Center a couple of years back to help customers measure and manage Scope 3 emissions. It is one of the few S2P vendors offering this capability.
Cautions
- Ivalua’s supplier network is private, which prevents it from offering benefits seen with public networks, such as aggregated benchmarking and transaction insights, reduction of redundant data entry across customers for suppliers, and native supplier discovery.
- Its flexibility can cause certain downsides such as unstable testing environments and bugs.
- Ivalua lacks native integration with SAP and other ERP systems.
GEP
GEP is a comprehensive, AI-powered procurement and supply chain management platform. It helps procurement teams to streamline sourcing, purchasing, and spend analysis for businesses of all sizes.
Coupa vs. GEP
GEP excels in managing direct materials procurement, a critical need for manufacturing, industrial, and supply chain-heavy businesses. Its tools support bill of materials (BOM) management, supplier collaboration on production inputs, and integration with supply chain planning systems. While Coupa is strong in indirect spend (e.g., office supplies, services), has a less robust offering for direct spend.
In addition, GEP supports detailed category management, allowing procurement teams to build tailored strategies for specific spend categories. But Coupa’s category management capabilities lean toward a more generalized approach. It may not suffice for industries with unique sourcing requirements.
Ratings
4.4/5 ⭐ (24 reviews) on G2
Best for
Businesses with complex procurement scenarios as GEP possess deep expertise in procurement.
Key Features
- Sourcing: Tools for managing RFx (RFPs, RFQs, RFIs), reverse auctions, and supplier negotiations, designed to optimize strategic sourcing processes.
- Contract Management: Features for authoring, negotiating, storing, and tracking contracts, with compliance monitoring and renewal management.
- Procurement: A purchasing module for requisitions, catalog management, purchase order creation, and approval workflows to streamline buying.
- Supplier Management: Capabilities for supplier onboarding, performance evaluation, risk assessment, and collaboration through a supplier portal.
- Accounts Payable: Automation of invoice capture, matching, approval, and payment processes to enhance efficiency and accuracy.
- Category Management: Tools for strategic planning, market analysis, and cost optimization across specific spend categories.
- Direct Materials Management: Specialized features for managing direct spend, including bill of materials (BOM), inventory alignment, and supply chain integration.
- Supplier Risk Management: Monitoring and mitigation of supplier risks, with insights into financial stability, compliance, and performance metrics.
- Analytics and AI: AI-powered predictive analytics, scenario modeling, and real-time insights, often integrated with GEP’s broader supply chain solution, GEP NEXXE.
- Inventory Management: Tools to track and optimize inventory levels, ensuring procurement aligns with operational and production needs.
- Strategic Sourcing Optimization: Advanced optimization tools for scenario analysis, bid comparison, and supplier selection in complex sourcing events.
- Supplier Collaboration Portal: A dedicated interface for suppliers to submit bids, update information, and collaborate with buyers seamlessly.
- Integration Suite: Connectivity with ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle), supply chain platforms, and third-party tools to ensure a cohesive ecosystem.
Strengths
- GEP offers extensive procurement capabilities through strategy, consulting and outsourcing services in addition to their software services.
- It has extensive support for industry-specific requirements.
Cautions
- GEP SMART’s interface is often described as less intuitive or cluttered compared to other competitors like Coupa. Users reported that navigation can feel cumbersome, especially for non-technical staff and has a steep learning curve.
- Customers frequently criticize the search capabilities within GEP SMART, noting that finding specific data, documents, or items (e.g., in catalogs) can be inefficient or unintuitive, slowing down workflows.
Procurify
Procurify is a cloud-based procurement software designed to simplify purchasing and spend management for small to mid-sized businesses.
It offers an intuitive platform with features like purchase order management, approval workflows, budget tracking, and real-time spend visibility.
Coupa vs. Procurify
Coupa offers broader, deeper tools for end-to-end spend management, while Procurify focuses on streamlined procure-to-pay basics. Procurify is more budget-friendly compared to Coupa’s higher cost.
Ratings
4.6/5 ⭐ (273 reviews) on G2
Best for
Procurify is the ideal procurement solution for small and mid-sized companies.
Key Features
- Request Management: A system for employees to submit purchase requests, which can be reviewed and converted into orders.
- Purchase Order Management: Create, track, and manage purchase orders with customizable templates and automated workflows.
- Approval Workflows: Configurable multi-level approval processes to ensure purchases align with company policies and budgets.
- Budget Tracking: Real-time visibility into budgets, allowing users to monitor spending against allocated funds and prevent overspending.
- Catalog Management: Centralized catalog of pre-approved items and vendors, simplifying the requisition process for users.
- Vendor Management: Tools to store vendor details, track interactions, and manage supplier relationships efficiently.
- Mobile Access: A mobile app for approving purchases, reviewing budgets, and managing orders on the go.
- Integration with Accounting Tools: Seamless syncing with platforms like QuickBooks, Xero, and NetSuite for streamlined financial workflows.
- Expense Management: Features to submit, track, and approve expenses alongside procurement activities.
- Receiving and Inventory Tracking: Basic tools to log received goods and monitor inventory levels tied to purchase orders.
Strengths
- Many users praise Procurify's intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface. It’s simple to learn, even for those not tech-savvy, and easy to implement across teams.
- Affordable pricing with comprehensive order management capabilities that are ideal for small businesses.
Cautions
- Limited scalability and advanced features for large enterprises.
- Less robust analytics and sourcing capabilities compared to enterprise-grade solutions.
Esker
Esker’s Source-to-Pay solution concentrates on streamlining sourcing processes, improving policy compliance, and enhancing supplier management to enable procurement and finance leaders to remove functional silos.
Coupa vs. Esker
Coupa offers a broader and more integrated source-to-pay suite, excelling in business spend management and scalability. On the other hand, Esker focuses on automating key S2P processes with a lighter footprint and less comprehensive coverage.
Esker is simpler and more process-driven which makes it less intuitive for non-procurement users. Compared to Coupa’s premium pricing, Esker is more cost-effective. You can choose Esker if your priority is automating procurement and payables processes efficiently at a lower cost and faster rollout. It is ideal for mid-sized firms or those with simpler needs.
Ratings
4.4/5 ⭐ (27 reviews) on G2
Best for
Esker could be a good fit for growing organizations looking for a cost-effective source-to-pay suite.
Key Features
- Sourcing: eSourcing capabilities (via Market Dojo) for RFQs, auctions, and supplier discovery, with a focus on efficiency.
- Procurement: Automated purchase requisitions, order creation, and approval workflows with customizable dashboards.
- Payables: AI-powered invoice capture, 3-way matching, and payment approvals, integrated with ERP systems.
- Analytics: Real-time KPIs and dashboards for process visibility.
Strengths
- Esker offers a cost-effective suite for growing organizations without a high price tag.
- Strong automation of document-driven processes (e.g., invoices, requisitions), reducing manual work.
- Faster implementation and flexibility, appealing to businesses prioritizing efficiency over breadth.
Cautions
- Narrower S2P scope compared to Coupa, less emphasis on strategic spend management or extensive supplier ecosystems.
- Esker is a general-purpose solution with no vertical specialization. It can’t support Customers with industry-specific requirements.
- Esker is fairly new to the full source-to-pay suite marketspace, so the product maturity is questionable.
Key factors to consider when looking for a Coupa alternative
Functionality and Scope
Assess whether the alternative solutions cover your process requirements (e.g., sourcing, procure-to-pay, contract management, spend analytics). Coupa is a comprehensive source-to-pay platform, so determine if you need similar breadth or a narrower focus like, just purchasing.
Ease of Use
Some reviewers found the Coupa interface complex and outdated. So, look for an alternative with an intuitive UI and minimal learning curve, especially if user adoption is a priority for you and can’t put additional resources into change management.
Cost and Pricing Model
Coupa can be expensive, particularly for smaller firms. Compare subscription costs, implementation fees, and scalability pricing to ensure affordability and value for your organization’s size.
Scalability
Ensure the solution grows with your business. Coupa suits large enterprises; if you’re smaller now but plan to expand, confirm the alternative supports future complexity without overkill today.
Integration Capabilities
Coupa integrates well with ERPs (e.g., SAP, Oracle) and other financial systems. Check if the alternative syncs seamlessly with your existing systems (e.g., accounting tools, HR software) to avoid workflow disruptions.
Customization and Flexibility
Coupa offers moderate configuration. If you need more tailored workflows or industry-specific features (e.g., direct spend for manufacturing), seek a platform that offers greater customization.
Analytics and Reporting
Coupa excels in real-time spend visibility. Evaluate the alternative’s analytics depth - look for robust, customizable reporting if strategic insights are critical, or simpler dashboards if not.
Implementation Time
If you’re exploring Coupa alternatives because of their longer and more complex deployment cycle. Look for a solution with faster implementation time (e.g., weeks vs. months). This could be an important criterion if speed-to-value is essential for your team.
Customer Support
Customer support is critical to get the best out of your procurement software investment. Research the alternative’s support reputation - look for a responsive and reliable vendor that is well known for its ongoing customer support and services.
Mobile Accessibility
Coupa’s mobile experience is decent but not excellent. If remote access is key for your organization with teams on the field, prioritize an alternative provider with a strong, user-friendly mobile app or responsive design.
Direct vs. Indirect Spend
Coupa leans toward indirect spend. If you manage direct materials (e.g., manufacturing), seek an alternative with specialized features for managing direct materials, supply chain integration, and sourcing.
Wrapping up
While Coupa remains a strong player in the business spend management space, it's not the right fit for every organization. High costs, complex implementations, and an enterprise-focused approach make many businesses seek alternatives that better align with their needs.
Fortunately, there are several compelling alternatives, each catering to different use cases. However, the best Coupa alternative depends on your company’s size, procurement complexity, and integration needs. Evaluate the listed solutions based on your priorities and find the right platform to streamline your procurement, optimize spend, and deliver value.
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