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PEX's common church product is a prepaid Visa you load first. KleerCard Standard and Pro use a weekly charge line. See pricing, Aplos cards, and when to stay.
PEX and KleerCard have two similar products. PEX Prepaid and KleerCard Wallet (Free plan) are load-first cards. PEX Credit Expense and KleerCard Standard and Pro are charge cards paid in full.
I co-founded KleerCard and serve as treasurer at my church. The product facts come from each vendor's published pages as of September 2026. Those published pages change. Confirm them before you apply.
| KleerCard | PEX | |
|---|---|---|
| Load-first product | Free plan. Spends a deposit in the Wallet | Prepaid Expense Visa, often through Aplos |
| Charge-line product | Standard and Pro. Weekly credit line paid in full | Credit Expense. Statement paid in full |
| Grant / beneficiary cards | Not offered | Disburse |
| How the card gets money | Free: deposit first. Paid plans: weekly credit line | Prepaid: admin loads funds first. Credit Expense: a separate charge line |
| Card controls | Amount, merchant category, day/time, freeze, $0 until a funding request | Amount, merchant/MCC, day/time/location, freeze until a receipt |
| Personal guarantee | Waived for a registered 501(c)(3) | Not required on Prepaid Expense or Credit Expense as PEX currently describes them |
| Pricing (published) | Free; Standard $29/mo up to 15 users; Pro $49/mo up to 30 | Prepaid: Base $0 / Core $75 / Pro $200 on the business pricing page. Extra cards from $2. Aplos: 5 cards free, $2 each after. Credit Expense: $0 subscription, up to 1% back |
| Per-card fee | None inside the user limit | Yes on prepaid after the included cards |
| Accounting | Aplos, ACS, Realm, Shelby, ParishSOFT, Blackbaud, PowerChurch, QuickBooks, NetSuite | QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Sage Intacct; Aplos through the prepaid connector and tags |
| Cash back | Custom plans only, roughly $30k+/mo in card spend | Up to 1% on Credit Expense |
| International fee | None published | 3% fee on international prepaid and Disburse transactions |
PEX's public prepaid list is the Base / Core / Pro table on its pricing page. The church prices below use the Aplos bundle, which Aplos documents directly.
PEX sells three products. PEX Prepaid, Disburse, and Commercial cards are issued by Fifth Third Bank, N.A., or The Bancorp Bank, N.A. Prepaid Expense is the one most churches already hold, especially through Aplos. An administrator moves cash onto the PEX account, then onto individual cards.
Credit Expense is a charge card with no monthly subscription, $0 per card, and up to 1% back on qualifying purchases. The organization pays the statement in full on a weekly or monthly cycle. PEX requires a linked business bank account, autopay, and a minimum bank balance to qualify. It doesn't ask for a personal guarantee or a personal credit check, as PEX currently describes Credit Expense.
PEX Disburse is a prepaid card for grants, stipends, and people who aren't on staff. Setup is listed at $399.95, with 50 cards included and $5 per extra card.
KleerCard issues one Visa Commercial card, from The Bancorp Bank, N.A., and pairs it with expense software. Free holds the spending limit as a deposit in the KleerCard Wallet. That's the load-first plan. Standard and Pro attach a weekly credit line that's paid in full. That's the charge-line plan.
PEX states that the Prepaid, Disburse, and Commercial cards "are not credit cards." KleerCard's paid plans are a charge card. The organization pays the balance in full. There's no APR for leaving a balance unpaid. The difference is explained on Is KleerCard a credit card?.
On PEX Prepaid, the card works up to the balance you loaded. Someone on staff has to move money onto the PEX account, then onto each card, before the youth trip, the hospitality run, or the substitute who needs classroom supplies on Tuesday morning. If the load is short, the swipe declines.
KleerCard Free works the same way on the funding side. Free spends only the money already in the Wallet. If the Wallet is short, the swipe doesn't go through. You deposit first. You don't get a weekly credit line on Free.
The admin work is similar on both. Someone has to put money in before the card spends. A PEX Prepaid balance sits on the card you loaded. Freeze that card and the unused load still has to be moved back onto the PEX account. A KleerCard Free limit sits in the Wallet, not as a prepaid pile on each piece of plastic.
If a board won't approve any credit, these are the two products to compare. Not Standard. Not Pro. Not Credit Expense.
On KleerCard Standard and Pro, the organization has a weekly credit line. You can cap a hospitality card at $250, restrict a card to grocery stores, set a time window, or leave a card at $0 until a funding request is approved. Those limits are set on each card. They don't require a prepaid balance on that card first.
PEX Credit Expense is the PEX product that belongs in this pair. The organization spends against a charge line and pays the statement in full. Cards don't need a prepaid load before they work.
A KleerCard charge card on Standard or Pro can be frozen without putting a prepaid balance on that card first. Credit Expense works as a charge card too. Don't price this pair against PEX Prepaid's $2 extra-card fee. That's a different product.
PEX is a card plus expense software. So is KleerCard. The control lists overlap.
Both let you cap a card by amount, lock a merchant category, set a day or time window, freeze a card, and require a receipt. PEX publishes those rules on its spend controls page. KleerCard sets them on each card when you issue it.
PEX's extra surface is that cardholders can send a receipt by text or email, not only the app.
KleerCard's extra surface is a $0 card plus a funding request, a lock to one merchant, and church or school books. You can leave a hospitality card at $0 until someone approves $250. You can restrict a virtual card to one merchant ID. Fund and account tags are built for Aplos, Realm, Shelby, ParishSOFT, ACS, and Blackbaud, not only QuickBooks or NetSuite.
Don't pick KleerCard or PEX because one "has controls." Both do. Pick Free vs Prepaid if the board wants load-first. Pick Standard or Pro vs Credit Expense if you want a charge line.
PEX Base, Core, and Pro, and the Aplos bundle, don't all include the same software. Confirm which software you need before picking a plan.
An Aplos church with five prepaid cards pays $0 per month under the Aplos + PEX bundle. KleerCard Free is also $0 if the church deposits money into the Wallet first. At five cards, the load-first pair is a tie on monthly subscription.
Aplos includes five PEX prepaid cards. The next ten cost $2 each, or $20 per month, before other PEX fees. PEX publishes a $25 base maintenance fee in any month prepaid spend falls under $1,000, and a $50 dormancy fee after 90 days with no active spending on the whole PEX account. International prepaid and Disburse transactions carry a 3% fee. KleerCard Free has no per-card add-on. You still have to keep money in the Wallet.
That's the prepaid pair. The charge-line pair is different.
PEX Credit Expense lists $0 subscription, $0 per card, and up to 1% back. Credit Expense also requires a minimum bank balance to qualify. KleerCard Standard is $29 per month for up to 15 users, with unlimited cards in that plan. Pro is $49 for up to 30. There's no per-card add-on. KleerCard doesn't publish a cash or revenue floor. KleerCard cash back starts on custom pricing for organizations spending roughly $30,000 a month on cards. Current KleerCard plans are on the pricing page.
Aplos partners with PEX on prepaid cards. Active Aplos customers get five cards, no setup fee, and the upgraded PEX features Aplos lists as an $80-per-month value. Cardholders can tag fund and account in PEX. Aplos can import those PEX purchases by fund and tag. For a church that already lives in Aplos and only needs a handful of cards, that setup already works.
That Aplos prepaid import stops working if the church moves its books to Shelby, Realm, ParishSOFT, ACS Technologies, or Blackbaud.
KleerCard connects to Aplos as well. It also connects to ACS Technologies, Realm, Shelby, ParishSOFT, Blackbaud, PowerChurch, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, and NetSuite. If month-end entries have to post in one of those other systems, compare KleerCard's connections to those systems, not the Aplos prepaid import.
Stay on PEX Prepaid when the Aplos bundle already covers the people who spend, and the office is used to loading those cards. If five cards already cover the team, the Aplos bundle costs less than switching to another load-first card.
Pick PEX Disburse when you need to put controlled funds on cards for grant recipients, stipends, or program participants who aren't on staff. KleerCard doesn't issue those recipient cards.
Pick PEX Credit Expense when you want a charge line with a $0 subscription and the 1% back, and church-specific accounting connections matter less than that price. PEX requires a linked bank account, autopay, and a minimum bank balance for that product.
A board that forbids any credit line should compare PEX Prepaid with KleerCard Free. Not with Standard or Pro.
Pick KleerCard Free when you want a load-first card without PEX's extra-card fees after the fifth card, and you're willing to keep a Wallet deposit.
Pick KleerCard Standard or Pro when more than a handful of people need a card and the office is spending time loading balances before purchases. That's the charge-line pair against PEX Credit Expense, not against PEX Prepaid.
Volunteers and ministry leads can have their own cards without a new fee each time you add one.
I'd look at KleerCard when you have a lot of volunteers who need cards or when month-end entries have to post in Realm, Shelby, ParishSOFT, ACS, or Blackbaud, not only in Aplos tags.
Skip KleerCard if you need recipient grant cards, if the Aplos prepaid bundle already covers the team, or if the 1% on PEX Credit Expense is the reason you're shopping.
KleerCard Free is the prepaid-style plan. It spends a Wallet deposit, the same job PEX Prepaid does with a loaded balance. KleerCard Standard and Pro are a weekly Visa charge line. That pair belongs next to PEX Credit Expense, not next to PEX Prepaid.
Yes. Both cap amount, lock merchant category, set a time window, freeze a card, and chase receipts. PEX adds location blocks and Auto Enforcer. KleerCard adds a $0 card until a funding request is approved. Don't pick on the control list.
PEX Prepaid and PEX Disburse are prepaid; PEX Credit Expense is a charge card paid in full. PEX's own site says the Prepaid, Disburse, and Commercial cards are not credit cards.
KleerCard waives the personal guarantee for a registered 501(c)(3); PEX prepaid and Credit Expense are described as requiring no personal credit check and no owner guarantee. The KleerCard rule is on eligibility.
The Aplos + PEX deal includes five prepaid cards at $0 per month, no setup fee, and $2 per extra card, with fund tags that sync into Aplos. PEX charge cards sit outside that prepaid bundle. Aplos documents the bundle in Visa prepaid cards with PEX.
On the load-first pair, Aplos prepaid is about $10–$20 a month in extra-card fees before other PEX fees. KleerCard Free is $0 and still needs a Wallet deposit. On the charge-line pair, PEX Credit Expense lists $0 subscription. KleerCard Standard is $29 with unlimited cards in the plan. At five Aplos cards, PEX prepaid is free.
Current plans and the nonprofit credit card page are the next place to check details.
Speak to a member of our team and we can have you up and running in minutes, not weeks.
