Vendors vs suppliers is one of those questions where the honest answer is shorter than the ones you will usually find. There is a real difference in supply chain terminology, it matters if you manufacture or distribute, and if you are a small business trying to work out what to call the companies you pay, it matters far less than having one list of them with the dates attached.
The distinction, where it is real
In supply chain language a supplier provides inputs you transform or resell, and a vendor sells a finished good or service to the end buyer. A component manufacturer supplies you; the company that services your air conditioning is a vendor. The distinction matters in manufacturing and distribution, where the two relationships genuinely behave differently in contracts, lead times and quality management.
Where it stops mattering
For most small businesses the two words are used interchangeably and nothing turns on it. The accounts payable ledger does not care, the contract does not care, and the certificate of insurance does not care. What matters is that one record holds every company you pay, whatever you call them, because a business that keeps suppliers and vendors in two systems has two incomplete lists.
What to standardise instead
Rather than policing the noun, standardise the fields: legal entity name, owner, category, status, documents with expiry dates, contract with its notice date. Those are what you will actually search and sort by. Venbix uses vendor throughout for one reason only, which is that a record cannot have two names for the same row.
Questions people ask about vendors vs suppliers
Is a vendor the same as a supplier?
In everyday small-business use, yes. In supply chain terminology a supplier provides inputs and a vendor sells finished goods or services, but nothing in a small business's contracts, payments or record keeping depends on the difference.
Does the distinction change the paperwork?
No. A W-9, a certificate of insurance, verified bank details, a signed agreement and a named contact are what you need from either, and the diligence you run is sized by what the company touches rather than by which noun you use for it.
Which word should our own records use?
Pick one and use it everywhere. Two words for one row is how a list ends up split across two spreadsheets, which is the actual cost of caring about this question.