# Atta vs Zip

> Zip routes purchase requests through intake and approvals. Atta also finds the item, pays with a capped single-use card and places the order. How they differ.

Updated 2026-11-06. Source: https://atta.sh/compare/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`, `ask` or `deny` from 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.