Atta vs Zip
Zip is a procurement platform that takes in purchase requests and routes them through approvals and vendor onboarding. Atta covers the approval step too, then the agent finds the item, pays with a capped single-use card and places the order. Pick Zip for a procurement team's workflow, Atta when you want the purchase done.
What Zip does well
Zip sits in the intake-to-procure category. A request comes in through a form, gets routed to the people who must sign off, and the process around a new vendor (reviews, contracts, onboarding) is tracked in one place. Teams with a procurement or legal function use that kind of tool to keep a consistent path for larger, contract-backed purchases. It's a good fit when the work is coordination between departments.
Where Atta differs
Atta follows a purchase from the first message to the invoice. The sequence:
- Someone asks in Slack, WhatsApp, ChatGPT, Claude or the browser.
- The agent searches the stores the workspace allows and shows the item, price and delivery date.
- A policy function decides
auto,askordenyfrom the amount, the person's role, the budget left and the workspace's rules. Code makes that call, not the model. - Over a limit, an approval chain is built and answered one approver at a time. The approval binds to the amount and the lines, and a changed cart fails the order with both figures.
- With a card program on, the agent pays with a single-use virtual card for that order, capped at the approved total on the issuer's side too. Without one, it hands over the checkout link.
- Checkout reserves the budget and payment settles it. A received invoice links to the PO it names.
The agent places the order. If placing it fails after approval, it waits for a person to press Try again, and a spend is never retried automatically.
Side by side
| Atta | Zip | |
|---|---|---|
| A request starts as | A message in Slack, WhatsApp, ChatGPT, Claude or the browser | A form or intake flow |
| Finding the item | The agent searches your allowed stores | The requester brings the vendor |
| Approval | Chain built from amount and rules, enforced in code before payment | Workflow routing |
| Vendor review and contracts | Not what Atta does | Core of the category |
One order
Here's the same request in Atta. Dana asks in Slack for 10 monitor arms. The agent finds them at $42 each, $420 total, arriving Thursday. That's under Dana's limit, so her yes is the approval, and the agent pays with a card capped at $420. There's no vendor onboarding step because the store is one the workspace already allows. A purchase that needs a new vendor reviewed is the kind to send to a procurement platform.
When to pick Zip instead
Zip is the better fit when:
- You have a procurement team and the hard part is routing requests, security and legal reviews and vendor onboarding between departments.
- Your purchases are contract-backed and run through a sourcing process, not a store checkout.
- You want one system of record for a long vendor approval process, and a person doing the buying is fine.
Using both
Atta covers the purchases someone can ask for in a sentence. Other spend can stay where it is. Atta is in invite-only beta and free during the beta.
Questions
Is Atta a Zip replacement?
For small and repeat purchases, it can be. Atta takes the request, gets approvals and buys. If your process depends on vendor reviews and contract workflows, a procurement platform like Zip covers work Atta doesn't.
Can I use Atta alongside a procurement platform?
Yes. You can keep a platform for contracted spend and use Atta for the purchases that never reach a procurement team.
Who places the order?
In Atta the agent does, after the approvals pass and with a capped single-use card, or it hands you the checkout link if there's no card program.
Related
- Purchase approval softwareSet approval limits per role and build approval chains by amount. Approvers answer from Slack, WhatsApp or the app, and nothing is paid until the last step clears.
- Virtual cards for purchases an AI agent makesAtta issues one single-use Stripe Issuing card per approved order, capped at the approved total and checked on every charge. The number never enters the app.
- Atta vs RampRamp is a corporate card and spend management platform. Atta's agent takes a request, gets approval and pays with a capped single-use card. Where each fits.