Comparison
An honest comparison for mid-size companies: what each is, who each fits, the feature-by-feature differences, real Navan user reviews, and what you actually pay.
The short version
Before comparing features, it's worth being clear about what kind of product each one is — because they're fundamentally different.
Navan (formerly TripActions) is a technology platform. Its core strengths are self-service booking, integrated expense management, a well-reviewed mobile app, and real-time reporting. It's built to give travelers and finance teams a single interface for booking and expenses. Support is primarily chat-based, with account management most robust at the enterprise tier.
Telios Travel is a boutique travel management company. Its core strengths are dedicated account management, a named bilingual agent team, proactive program oversight, and white-glove service. It uses SAP Concur as the booking platform and provides the human layer on top of it — handling disruptions, vendor negotiations, unused ticket recovery, and monthly reporting.
The simplest way to put it: Navan is a product you use. Telios is a service that manages your program.
Fit
Navan works best for
Telios works best for
| Navan |
Telios Travel
Best fit
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Type of service | Technology platform (SaaS) | Managed service with dedicated team |
| Account management | Shared or rotating — no single point of contact for mid-size accounts | One dedicated account manager — your single point of contact, presents your quarterly reviews in person |
| Agent support | Chat-based; phone for enterprise plans | Dedicated 5-agent team, calls answered in 3 rings |
| Response time | Chat support, response times vary | 23-minute average email response |
| After-hours support | 24/7 chat available | 24/7 in-house agents, phone and email |
| Bilingual support | Not a primary feature | In-house English & Spanish, same team |
| Booking platform | Proprietary Navan platform | SAP Concur (industry standard) |
| Expense management | Built-in, strong feature | Via SAP Concur Expense (separate setup) |
| Unused ticket management | Tracked in platform, client-managed | Proactively tracked and applied by account team |
| Vendor negotiations | Platform-level rates | Proactively negotiated for every client from day one |
| Group travel & events | Available at higher tiers | Available for all clients |
| VIP / executive travel | Standard booking | Dedicated VIP program, priority agent access |
| Best-fit spend range | Any size — strongest for frequent travelers | $100K–$2M annual travel spend |
| Pricing model | Per-user subscription + booking fees | Per-transaction, no monthly per-user fee |
The reviews
Navan has strong reviews overall — it's a well-built platform and genuinely useful for many companies. But a consistent pattern emerges in the reviews from mid-size company users that's worth understanding before you decide. The complaints cluster around three things: customer service responsiveness, flight inventory, and the gap between what the platform promises and what small-to-mid-size accounts actually receive in terms of support.
To be fair, Navan also has many positive reviews — particularly from users who appreciate the platform's ease of use, mobile app, and expense management capabilities.
Flights that were more convenient were listed as sold out even though they were available on other travel sites. I'm going to ask my office to switch their corporate travel partner.
The core tension
Navan's revenue comes from supplier commissions and software subscriptions — so its incentives are aligned with booking volume and platform adoption. A boutique TMC's revenue comes from service fees — so its incentives are aligned with keeping your program running well, your costs down, and your travelers happy. Neither model is wrong, but they produce different behaviors when something goes wrong at 11pm before an important trip.
Already on Concur?
This is an important consideration. Navan is a standalone platform — it is not SAP Concur, and it competes with Concur. If you're currently on Concur and considering Navan, you'd be migrating away from Concur entirely, which is a significant undertaking.
If you're on Concur and unhappy with your current TMC's service — a very common situation — you don't need to change platforms. You need a better TMC. Telios transfers your existing Concur instance to us in a single day. Your travelers stay on the same platform they already know, your profiles and policies carry over, and what changes is the service layer on top.
Pricing
Navan's Business Travel tier is free for companies under 300 employees, funded by supplier commissions. The Business Expense tier (expense management + travel) costs $15 per user per month — for a 100-person company, approximately $17,000 per year before any booking fees or add-ons. Enterprise pricing is negotiated separately.
Telios Travel charges per transaction — a standard fee for self-service Concur bookings and a higher fee for agent-assisted bookings. There's no monthly per-user subscription. For companies that primarily self-book through Concur, the total cost is often lower than a per-user SaaS model at scale. For companies that rely heavily on agent-assisted bookings, the comparison depends on volume.
The honest answer is that a direct cost comparison requires knowing your booking volume, team size, and service needs — contact us with your approximate annual travel spend and we'll show you exactly what the comparison looks like for your company.
Common questions
Navan works well for mid-size companies that primarily need a self-service booking and expense management platform. However, companies that want dedicated account management, a named agent team, bilingual support, or proactive program oversight often find Navan's service model insufficient at the mid-market tier. Its best-reviewed features — the mobile app, expense capture, and real-time reporting — are genuinely strong. Its weakest area for mid-size companies is the human service layer.
Based on verified user reviews, the most common complaints are: slow or chat-only customer support when something urgent goes wrong, flights missing from search results that are bookable on other platforms, hotel rates that some users have found inconsistent, a steeper onboarding curve than expected for policy configuration, unclear pricing when bundling expense management with travel, and limited customization for specific company needs.
No — Navan and SAP Concur are competing platforms. Companies that use Navan book travel through Navan's proprietary interface, not through Concur. If you're currently on Concur and want to switch to Navan, you would be migrating away from Concur entirely. If you're happy with Concur but unhappy with your TMC's service, switching to a new TMC like Telios preserves your Concur setup — we transfer your existing instance in a single day.
Yes. If you're currently on Navan and want to switch to a managed TMC model with SAP Concur, we handle the full transition — including setting up Concur, configuring your travel policy, creating traveler profiles, and training your team. The process typically takes 3 to 4 weeks from contract signing to go-live. We can also analyze your current Navan spend and show you what the program would look like under Telios before you commit to anything.
Navan's Business Travel tier is free, funded by supplier commissions. The Business Expense tier costs $15 per user per month — approximately $17,000 per year for a 100-person company before booking fees. Telios charges per transaction with no monthly per-user fee. The right comparison depends on your booking volume, team size, and how much you rely on agent-assisted bookings. Contact us with your travel spend details and we'll model the comparison for your specific situation.
The bottom line
Navan is right if you want a tech-first self-service platform. Telios is right if you want your program actively managed. Share your approximate travel spend and we'll show you a cost comparison, projected savings, and a clear onboarding plan.
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