Comparison
silentVIP and Navan, side by side
Navan is a self-service travel and expense platform. silentVIP is a managed travel program. This page sets out where each one does more, area by area, with a source for every statement about Navan.
In short
Which fits which program
Navan is likely the better fit if…
- Employees should search and book instantly without waiting
- You want corporate cards and expense management from the same vendor
- You need live API connections to your HR and finance systems
- You're under 300 people and would rather pay no booking fees, funded by supplier commissions
silentVIP is likely the better fit if…
- You want a named specialist to source and own each trip
- You want to pay published fees, with no supplier commissions behind the advice
- You're over 300 people and want a price you can see before talking to sales
- You bill several legal entities, and recovering refunds and unused credits matters to finance
Scope
What this comparison covers
What is compared
Navan Enterprise (by quote, for companies over 300 employees) is the relevant comparison for most of our clients; Navan Business (up to 300 employees, published pricing) is shown where it differs. Both are set against silentVIP's Essentials and Managed plans. silentVIP Enterprise is by quote.
Sources and dates
Navan's details come from its public pages, help center, filings and press releases, checked on Oct 14, 2026 and Oct 16, 2026, with the date beside each statement. Navan may have changed things since. Last reviewed: Oct 16, 2026. Spotted something out of date? Email support@silentvip.com.
Booking
Navan
- Self-service booking of flights, hotels, trains, rental cars and black cars, with saved profiles and loyalty details. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- Mobile app to search, book, change and cancel, with 24/7 agent chat and trip notifications. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- Arrangers can book for executives, employees and guests from one account. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- Navan Pro, backed by Reed & Mackay, for high-profile travelers. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- Book with AI covers 600+ airlines and 2.5 million hotels (May 13, 2026), and NDC or direct connections with 25 airlines (May 28, 2026). Source (checked Oct 16, 2026)
silentVIP
- There's no live self-booking engine. Travelers or assistants send a request, our team sources options, and the traveler compares and selects them in the portal, with the full price, fare rules and policy status on each option.
- Assistants book for the travelers delegated to them, without shared logins. Our team takes phone and email requests under the same policy.
- The portal works in a phone browser and can be installed on a phone's home screen, with your upcoming trips and the urgent numbers available offline. There's no app-store app.
The difference: Navan suits travelers who want to search and book instantly themselves. silentVIP suits programs where a specialist sourcing every trip is the point, at the cost of waiting for options rather than booking on the spot.
Policy controls and approvals
Navan
- Policy entered once, with budget limits by category, department or trip type, and 'dynamic policies' that adjust to market prices. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- In-policy bookings can be auto-approved. Out-of-policy bookings are flagged or rejected, depending on set-up. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- Business plan lists 'unlimited policy and approval workflows'. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- An August 2026 release added policies by traveler group and flight length, and country-level hotel caps. The same post lists 'Multi-Level Approvals' and 'Tiered, person-centric caps' as 'Expected Soon'. Source (checked Oct 16, 2026)
silentVIP
- Rules for cabin by flight length, hotel caps by city, advance booking, preferred suppliers, a maximum trip cost and restricted destinations. Policy groups for standard, senior and executive travelers.
- An out-of-policy choice needs a written justification and goes to the traveler's approver, or a delegate while the approver is away. A change after approval is approved again.
- The same rules apply whether the booking comes through the portal, an assistant or our team. No dynamic, market-based limits.
The difference: Both enforce policy before booking. Navan adds market-adjusted limits. silentVIP keeps the justification, the approver's decision and any later change in one approval record.
Payments and expenses
Navan
- Navan corporate cards with up to 1.5% back and no annual card fee, plus links to existing Visa, Mastercard and Amex cards. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- Full expense management: receipt capture, per diems, mileage and reimbursements via payroll or bank transfer. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- Expense on the Business plan is free for 5 monthly users, then $15 per user per month. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- No dedicated multi-entity billing feature is described. Transactions can carry legal-entity fields that sync to accounting. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
silentVIP
- No corporate card and no expense-management product. Bookings are billed to the company, charged to a company card or marked employee-paid. Employee-paid items go to your expense system as a file.
- Invoices per legal entity, with every charge allocated to an entity, department and project when it's booked.
- Refunds are tracked from requested to received, and unused ticket credits are tracked to expiry and applied to new bookings.
The difference: If you want one vendor for cards, expenses and travel, Navan covers more ground. silentVIP covers travel billing only, and goes deeper on entity invoicing and on recovering refunds and credits.
Integrations
Navan
- Accounting: NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Xero and Campfire on the integrations page. The expense FAQ also names QuickBooks Online, Sage and Datev. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- HR: ADP, BambooHR, Gusto, HiBob, Personio, Rippling, Workday and an SFTP option. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- Sign-in: Okta (SSO and SCIM), Entra ID, Google Workspace, OneLogin, SAML 2.0 and others. 43 integrations are listed in all. Source (checked Oct 16, 2026)
silentVIP
- Accounting, expense and HR connections are files: journal files for QuickBooks Online, Xero and NetSuite, a general ledger file, expense files for Expensify and SAP Concur, and an HR roster import. Exports that fail because data is missing show the rows to fix.
- User provisioning from Okta and Microsoft Entra through SCIM, and an import for users, upcoming trips and unused tickets exported from Navan or another agency.
- A read-only MCP endpoint so your own AI assistant can answer questions about your travel data.
- Sign-in by single-use email link, with two-step sign-in available. Single sign-on with Google or Microsoft is available on request, and an account can require it for everyone.
The difference: Navan connects directly to more systems (43 listed). silentVIP's accounting, expense and HR connections are files someone downloads or uploads. If you need live accounting or HR syncing, that's a real gap.
Reporting
Navan
- Advanced Analytics powered by ThoughtSpot, with drill-downs and threshold alerts. The plan that includes it isn't stated. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- Admin reports on bookings, transactions, out-of-policy spend and carrier share, plus custom dashboards. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- Carbon dashboards by department and travel mode (DEFRA, TREMOD or ICAO methods, per a 2024 post). Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
silentVIP
- Dashboard of spend by entity, department, project, supplier and traveler, with policy exceptions, outstanding refunds, unused credits and data coverage. Every table downloads as CSV.
- A monthly report with findings, recommended actions, owners and follow-up dates.
- Flight emissions estimated with UK government (DESNZ) factors.
The difference: Navan offers a more flexible analytics tool. silentVIP's monthly report is fixed in format, but every finding comes with an action, an owner and a date.
Support
Navan
- In-house agents available 24/7 by chat or phone. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- No response-time commitment for human agents is published. Source (checked Oct 14, 2026)
- Ava, Navan's AI agent, handled about 60% of customer interactions in Q2 FY27 (reported Sep 9, 2026). Source (checked Oct 16, 2026)
- Reported NPS of 47 and CSAT of 96 on the Q4 FY26 earnings call. Source (checked Oct 16, 2026)
- A designated account executive and customer success manager are Enterprise features; the Business plan has none. Source (checked Oct 16, 2026)
silentVIP
- Urgent help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; office hours 8am–8pm ET and 8am–8pm AET, Monday to Friday. Out-of-hours calls: $45 per out-of-hours call on Essentials; included on Managed and Enterprise.
- Managed and Enterprise clients have a named account manager. Essentials clients are served by a shared team, with a named lead through implementation.
- Published commitments for urgent issues: acknowledgement within 5 minutes and ownership within 15 minutes.
- A named person owns each issue until it's resolved. No AI agent handles client requests.
The difference: Navan resolves many requests with AI. silentVIP has a person own every request and publishes response commitments.
Implementation
Navan
silentVIP
- 4 to 6 weeks, in eight stages with a named owner and your responsibilities at each stage.
- Existing bookings, unused tickets and open refunds move over on a tracked list.
The difference: Both let a company start on its own: Navan Business by self-serve sign-up, silentVIP by creating a company account. For companies over 300 people, Navan Enterprise and silentVIP both run a managed implementation.
Total cost
Navan
- Enterprise (over 300 employees) is priced by quote. Navan's 10-Q says contracted customers pay a per-trip or per-transaction fee on annual or multi-year contracts; the amounts aren't published. Source (checked Oct 16, 2026)
- Business plan (up to 300 employees): travel booking is free, funded by travel providers' commission fees. Source (checked Oct 16, 2026)
silentVIP
- Published fees: $8 per active traveler per month for platform access, plus a fee per booking, with $600 a month minimum.
- No commissions from airlines or hotels. Every fee is shown on the option and the invoice.
The difference: For a company over 300 people, Navan's per-trip fee is set by quote and not published, so compare a written quote against our published fees. Under 300 people, Navan Business charges no booking fee and is paid through supplier commissions. Use our quote tool to see a 12-month total for your headcount.
Before you choose
Questions to ask any travel management company
Whoever you're comparing, these answers decide how the program works in practice.
Money
- How are you paid: our fees, supplier commissions, or both? Is that on our invoice?
- What does a change, cancellation or after-hours call cost?
- Who keeps unused ticket credits and refunds, and how are they tracked?
Our answer: Clients pay our published fees. We don't take commissions from airlines or hotels. Where a preferred-partner hotel program adds benefits such as breakfast or upgrades, those benefits go to the traveler, and any program fee paid to us is disclosed on your invoice.
Service
- Who answers at 6am on a Saturday, and how fast?
- Do you publish response times, and what happens if you miss them?
- Who owns a disruption until the traveler is rebooked?
Our answer: who answers, hour by hour.
Control
- Does the same policy apply when someone phones instead of booking online?
- Can approvers see the cheaper options they're turning down?
- Can finance split spend by entity, department and project without a spreadsheet?
Risk
- Who issues the tickets, and under what accreditation? Tickets are issued under silentVIP's IATA accreditation (33661736) through our reservation system.
- Can we get our data out, in what format, and how fast?
- What security documents can you share before we sign?
What reviewers report
Where Navan customers say they struggle
Short quotes from public reviews and Navan's own pages, each dated and linked. Reviews skew toward problems: on G2, as shown on navan.com, Navan rates 4.7 out of 5 from 9,000+ reviews; on Trustpilot it rates 3.2 out of 5 from 481 reviews (checked Oct 16, 2026).
Getting hold of someone when a trip goes wrong
“I spent over 5 hours on the phone with them (mainly whilst being on hold)”Aug 27, 2026 · Source
“There was no clear owner of the issue”Sep 30, 2026 · Source
Our answer: a named person owns each issue, with published response commitments.
Hotel reservations that don't match at check-in
“the hotel informed me that Navan had made the reservation for only one adult.”Aug 31, 2026 · Source
“My reservation was cancelled by the hotel when I checked in”Mar 2, 2026 · Source
Our answer: the traveler's details are on every booking, and we aim to reconfirm hotels before arrival.
Refunds that take months
“I have been trying to get a refund for nearly 5 months and it has still not been resolved.”Mar 2, 2026 · Source
“Refunds take in excess of 90 days”Jul 26, 2026 · Source
Our answer: every refund is tracked from requested to received, with outstanding kept apart from recovered.
Companies above 300 employees
“For companies up to 300 employees ... If your company has more than 300 employees, request a demo”Oct 16, 2026 · Source
“customers pay a per-trip or per-transaction fee for access to our Travel offering”10-Q, Sep 2026 · Source
Our answer: published fees for every size, and a 12-month quote you can generate yourself.
Approval depth still on the way
“Multi-Level Approvals (Expected Soon)”Aug 3, 2026 · Source
Our answer: approvals happen before anything is booked, changes are approved again, and approvers see cheaper options.
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