Melio vs InvoiceFort (2025): The Better Choice for Small Teams That Need Real Invoice Extraction

Melio is a great tool for sending payments—ACH, card, international, batch—but it is not a true AP automation or invoice-extraction platform. Most small teams that adopt Melio eventually realize they are still manually typing invoice data into QuickBooks or Google Sheets.

If your real need is "clean data from invoices → into Sheets or your accounting system", Melio won't get you there.

This guide breaks down the differences and shows where InvoiceFort is the stronger choice for small agencies and SMBs processing ≤150 invoices per month.

Summary: Melio = Payments. InvoiceFort = Data Extraction.

Melio is a payments system. InvoiceFort is an extraction + sync system.

If you need both, you can even use them together (keep Melio for payments, use InvoiceFort for extraction). But if you try to rely on Melio to extract invoice data, you'll eventually hit the same wall everyone hits: no line items, no structured fields, and lots of manual entry.

Melio Pricing (2025)

Melio's current pricing for businesses:

• $25/month base plan
• +$10 per additional user
• 20 free ACH/month
• Card payments still incur fees
• No limit on invoice uploads, but no structured extraction
• QBO sync available, but totals only—you must type line items manually

This makes Melio low-cost for payments—but ineffective as an automation tool.

Melio's Strengths

To stay objective, here's what Melio does well:

1. Cheap and simple payments

ACH, card, international, batch payments—Melio executes cleanly.

2. Good QBO bill-payment sync

Payments flow into QBO reliably if you're using it as your payment rail.

3. No forced adoption of a complex suite

It's lightweight compared to Bill.com or Ramp.

For teams that simply need a "Stripe for vendor payments," Melio is solid.

Where Melio Breaks Down (and Why Customers Look for Alternatives)

1. No line-item extraction

Melio can read totals, but it cannot extract:

• Item descriptions
• Unit prices
• Quantities
• Multi-page line tables

Teams end up typing these manually into:

• QuickBooks
• Google Sheets
• Internal tracking spreadsheets

This is the biggest reason teams churn.

2. Weak OCR for anything beyond clean PDFs

Melio's "AI bill capture" simplifies totals, not structured data. Scans, photos, multi-page PDFs, and messy vendor formats degrade quickly.

3. No Google Sheets sync

If your financial workflows rely on Sheets for budgeting, accruals, or reporting, Melio gives you nothing.

4. Still requires manual categorization

Even if totals sync to QBO, categories and line items still require human input.

5. Costs rise with team size

$25 + $10/user is low compared to mid-market tools, but still adds up if you have 3–5 people touching invoices.

Melio stays attractive as a payments rail—but not as an automation platform.

InvoiceFort: The Practical Alternative to Melio for Small Teams

InvoiceFort is built for one job: extract data from invoices—fast, accurately, and with structure—then sync it where you need it.

It doesn't replace Melio's payments. It replaces the manual typing Melio leaves behind.

Where InvoiceFort Outperforms Melio

1. 95%+ line-item extraction accuracy

InvoiceFort extracts:

• Full line items
• Quantities
• Item descriptions
• Multi-page tables
• Vendor names
• Invoice dates
• Totals
• Taxes

This alone eliminates 70–90% of the manual work small teams do after Melio ingests a bill.

2. Real-time Google Sheets sync

Every invoice pushes directly into a structured sheet:

Invoice header fields: invoice_id, vendor_name, invoice_number, invoice_date, due_date, total_amount, currency…

Line-item fields: Quantities, descriptions, amounts, plus all metadata.

Melio has no Sheets sync.

3. Instant onboarding

Upload → Parse → Auto-sync.

No workflow changes. No payment migration. No implementation.

30 seconds to start.

4. Designed specifically for ≤150 invoices/month

InvoiceFort isn't built for enterprises. It's built for:

• Marketing agencies
• Creative agencies
• 5–20 person SMBs
• Small finance teams
• Low-volume AP environments

This is exactly where Melio falls short.

5. Clean separation of tasks

Melio = payment rails InvoiceFort = data rails

You keep Melio for payments if you want. InvoiceFort handles the messy extraction piece that Melio doesn't have.

6. Clear, simple pricing

Plan-based, plus: $1 per invoice above your plan limit. No extra users, no payment fees.

When Melio Is Still a Good Choice

Remain objective:

• You need cheap ACH and don't care about structured invoice data
• You only receive a handful of invoices per month
• You're focused on vendor payments, not reporting or line-item accuracy
• Your vendors have clean, single-page PDFs
• You manually categorize everything anyway

If extraction is not your bottleneck, Melio works fine.

Melio vs InvoiceFort: Side-by-Side

Bottom Line

If your goal is fast, accurate invoice extraction, Melio is not enough. It's a payments tool—not an automation tool.

For teams processing 20–150 invoices a month, especially agencies and small SMBs, InvoiceFort eliminates the manual data entry that Melio leaves unresolved, while letting you continue using Melio for payments if you prefer.

For anyone searching "Melio alternative" or "Melio vs InvoiceFort" in 2025, the clearest distinction is:

Melio moves money. InvoiceFort moves data.