By Region:
- International
- Revolut
- Wise
- USA
- Axos Bank
- Brex
- lili
- Novo Bank
- Radius Bank
- Canada
- Tangerine
- EU
- bunq
- Curve
- Holvi
- N26
- UK
- Monzo
- Monese
- Starling Bank
- Hong Kong and Singapore
- Neat
- Aspire
- Za Bank
- Australia
- Judo Bank
International
Revolut
- For companies and sole traders
- Starts from $0
- Multi-currency accounts
- Free international and local payments
- Spend in over 150 currencies at the interbank exchange rate
- Issue cards to employees
- Accept payments on your website
- Access on the web or via the app
- Loans and overdrafts
- Integrates with accounting tools
Revolut is available in all 31 countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) plus Switzerland. Worldwide, Revolut for business is available in 48 countries, including the United States, the UK, Australia, and many others. If your country isn’t supported, you can express your interest by joining their waitlist.
It offers an unlimited number of bank accounts for your business in 28 currencies, making it a wise choice for a worldwide enterprise. Like many other digital banks, Revolut has consciously made the whole sign-up process as fast as possible.
Business customers can sign up using an email address with a laptop or phone in minutes and have the account approved in 24 hours or less. You’ll automatically get both a GBP and a Euro bank account with a sort code, account number, and an IBAN.
Revolut has three or four company accounts, depending on the country you’re from, and three freelancer accounts. They all range from free to custom monthly membership.
If you need to cut costs or need a basic business account, then the free Revolut account will be enough for you. For anyone else that’s doing “serious” business, one of the paid options should work.
Some of the features include free international and local payments, interbank exchange rate for spending in 150+ currencies, automated expenses and receipts, automated accounting with integrated tools, discounts, and rewards.
Revolut already has more than 500,000 businesses that have their business account. With their recent expansion to Australia and the United States, that figure is set to skyrocket.
>> Read our Revolut Business review
Wise (ex-TransferWise)
- For companies and freelancers
- No monthly fees
- Multi-currency account
- Cheap transfers
- Ability to invoice customers
- Spend anywhere with no hidden fees
- Xero integration
- Business Mastercard
- Receive and hold 55+ currencies
Wise is an excellent option for businesses making transactions around the world and holding money in different currencies. It can save your business plenty of money with its renowned low-fee transfers for paying freelancers, contractors, or importing from overseas.
To open a Wise business account, you’ll either have to download their app or visit their website. The process is straightforward and similar to other digital banks.
The Wise business account has many features and benefits for solopreneurs and companies. You can pay invoices in more than 70 countries at a meager exchange rate.
Wise lets you make one-off payments, recurring payments, and even mass payouts with excellent rates.
You’ll get account details for other countries. Local IBAN, sort code, and a routing number are all provided for your account to act as a local bank account in the UK, US, Eurozone, Australia, and elsewhere.
Your team can spend in-store and online with no foreign transaction fees with virtual and real debit cards.
Lastly, the Wise business app scores highly with users. Its clean, polished interface makes it easy for users to review all their transfers and make a payment with a click. It is Apple Pay, and Google Pay enabled. You can now also add card details via your camera instead of entering them manually.
>> Read our Wise for business review
USA
Axos Bank
Basic Business Checking Account
- No monthly maintenance fees
- The first set of 50 checks free
- Unlimited domestic ATM fee reimbursements
- Visa debit card
- ACH payments accepted
- QuickBooks compatible
- Up to 200 free items debits, credits, or deposited items per month
- Dedicated Relationship Managers
Business Interest Checking Account
- Earn up to 0.81% Annual Percentage Yield (APY)
- $100 minimum opening deposit
- $5,000 minimum average daily balance requirement to waive the $10 monthly maintenance fee
- Unlimited domestic ATM fee reimbursements
- Up to 50 free items per month, $0.50 per item after that
- Up to 60 items per month for Remote Deposit Anywhere
- Free image statements
Axos Bank is a digital banking ‘grandpa’ as it launched back in 2000. They’re offering competitive interest rates, low to no fees, and convenient access to their personal, small business, and commercial banking accounts as well as commercial lending.
With the Axos mobile app, you can view account balances, deposit checks, automate your bills, and more. Axos has no monthly maintenance fees, a low minimum deposit requirement, and unlimited domestic ATM fee reimbursements.
Their Interest Checking Account can earn you up to 0.81% APY and their Savings Account, up to 0.50%.
Brex
- Free and Premium account ($49/m)
- Easy online application
- No minimum balance
- No account fees
- Send free ACH & wires worldwide
- Unlimited users and cards
- Builds business credit
- FDIC insured
- Accounting integrations
- Expense tracking
Founded in January 2017, Brex has since become a popular choice for many small businesses, offering them increasing flexibility where other business accounts and credit lines can’t.
Brex is marketed as an ‘All-in-one finance for your business.’ And this digital-only bank is an excellent choice for businesses, entrepreneurs, and e-commerce. It’s a zero-fee alternative to big banks that does give you a credit card, unlike most other business accounts on this list.
You can issue unlimited cards for your team with custom limits and the ability to track expenses.
Brex also seamlessly integrates with your accounting tools to help automate reconciliation and helps avoid manual work and errors.
E-commerce sellers can get instant payouts on Shopify, Amazon, Stripe, and more. Instant payouts can, in turn, boost your Brex credit card limit with the ability to spend your earnings before they’re deposited into your account.
Every entrepreneur knows how important it is to track expenses and spending. With Brex, you can track them in real-time and issue cards, track transactions, approve them, or follow up on them.
For $49/m, you can get their Premium account that ads functionality such as automated invoice and payment process and spend controls that save you time and money. Controls include approval flows, custom expense policy, auto-reminders, and alerts.
Lili
- No account fees
- Easy online signup
- No minimum balance
- Free cash withdrawals at 38,000 ATMs
- Get paid up to 2 days earlier
- Visa Zero Liability
- Mobile check deposits
- Expense reports and management
- No overdraft fees
- No foreign transaction fees
Designed for small businesses, Lili offers helpful tax tools, no account fees, mobile bank capabilities, a VISA debit card, early payment options, and automatic savings.
If you’re over 18 and have a valid SSN, you can open an account with Lili Bank, and creating an account with Lili won’t affect your credit score.
Lili understands that planning for taxes can be complex and time-intensive for busy freelancers. Hence, their service provides simple and straightforward tools like a tax bucket, expense management, and expense reports.
The tax bucket allows users to allocate a percentage of revenue into a tax bucket automatically. It assures that there is a reserve of funds ready to satisfy the tax liability.
One of Lili Banking’s best features is zero account fees, including no fees for foreign transactions or overdrafts. Lili also does not require an initial deposit. There are also no ATM fees across Lili’s 38,000+ strong network in the United States.
With Lily’s debit card and app, if you deposit your earnings from online platforms and payment apps like Shopify, Etsy, Upwork, or PayPal, for example, you can get your money two days earlier.
Novo
- No monthly fees
- Apply in under 10 minutes
- Free ACH transfers, mailed checks, and incoming wires
- $50 min amount to open
- No min balance
- Refunds all ATM fees
- Connects to various tools
- FDIC insured
Novo is a simple banking account that launched in 2018. The company was founded in 2016 by Michael Rangel (CEO) and Tyler McIntyre and has headquarters in New York.
After you apply for their account online, you’ll get access to various banking tools to help you run your business. Things like depositing checks, paying bills, processing ACH transfers are all available from the app.
The business bank account has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and lets you easily integrate with Wise, Slack, Xero, Shopify, Quickbooks, Stripe, and even Zapier.
You’ll receive the Novo business Mastercard with your account. It’s a debit card and is accepted worldwide. And the good thing is that all your ATM fees get refunded even if you withdraw money abroad.
With Novo, you get some sweet perks as well that can quickly add up. For example, you get $150 in credits with Google and Snapchat Ads, 50% off Salesforce essentials annual plan, 40% on the first six months with Quickbooks, $20,000 in fee-free card processing with Stripe, and others.
To sign up with Novo, your residence must be within the US, and the business must also be registered in the US. You have to have a social security number, a US cell phone number, and a US address to complete the application.
Although there isn’t a minimum balance required to open a Novo account, they do request a $50 deposit into your account to unlock all of the features that Novo has to offer.
Radius (LendingClub)
- $10 monthly fee
- No monthly fees for balances over $5,000
- Earn up to 0.10% APY
- $100 minimum to open an account
- Unlimited automatic ATM fee rebates
- Mobile check deposits
- FDIC insured
Radius has recently merged with LendingClub and has started rebranding. It’s still offering personal, business, and institutional accounts. There are tailored checking, and deposit accounts for small and commercial businesses that you can open quickly online.
All ATM withdrawals are fee-free worldwide, and you’ll even get reimbursed when charged a fee by another bank’s ATM. You don’t have to settle with one business account. You can easily open multiple accounts after opening the first one.
The checking account itself offers real-time transaction history, bill payment, transfer of funds, sending wires, mobile check deposits, the ability to create and send professional digital invoices, and much more.
Every client gets Radius Advantage that earns you 1% cash back, $50 for referring your network to Radius, or access to their Marketplace.
The Marketplace has some cool apps that help you automatically save money for your goals, for instance. There’s also the bill-negotiating service Billshark that enables you to lower your bills to service providers like cable and internet.
Radius is a nationwide Preferred SBA Lender that offers SBA 7(a) and SBA 504 loans, as well as SBA express lines of credit for businesses that need a loan.
Canada
Tangerine
- No maintenance fee
- Free ATM deposits and withdrawals
- 0.50% interest rate
- No minimum balance
- CA$ and US$ savings accounts
Tangerine was launched as ING DIRECT Canada all the way back in 1997. They’re a completely digital bank except for one physical branch – a café. They’re currently only offering four types of business savings accounts:
- Business Savings (up to 0.50%)
- Business US$ Savings Account (0.20%)
- Business Guaranteed Investment (up to 1.45%)
- Business US$ Guaranteed Investment (up to 0.70%)
Tangerine is available on any screen – phone, tablet, or desktop. There you’ll be able to manage your business savings accounts, get information about your accounts, and helpful pointers.
There are also no ‘unfair’ fees or service charges associated with their business account.
To open a Tangerine Business Savings Account, your business needs to have a chequing account at another financial institution. And to open a US$ savings account, you will have to have the Business Savings Account and a US dollar business chequing account at another institution.
Tangerine’s accounts are a great way to complement your existing chequing account.
Europe
Bunq
- Three account types (from €2.99-€19.99)
- 25 fully functional bank accounts with unique IBANs
- Pay abroad without currency exchange fees
- Free worldwide ATM withdrawals up to 10 times a month
- Partnership with Wise for 8X cheaper international payments
- Autosave money
- Travel assistant
- Budgeting and insights
- Slice groups
Bunq is a Dutch challenger bank that was founded in 2012 and is only available in the EEA countries.
As it only offers Euros accounts, UK residents cannot use it to have their salary paid into or access their funds in sterling, so it is only convenient for employees paid in Euros.
Bunq’s business account features include a special VAT vault where 20% is automatically set aside in a separate sub-account, ready to be paid as soon as the tax office demands.
You can set up other sub-accounts for different outgoings, such as business expenses, office supplies, or travel. Since each sub-account comes with its account number and IBAN, managing different money pots becomes much more straightforward.
Setting up a bunq business account is straightforward, requiring only a mobile phone, an address, and some ID.
Their three business accounts are:
- Easy Green (€19.99/m)
- Easy Money (€9.99/m)
- Easy Travel (€2.99/m)
Because bunq is a fully-fledged bank, your deposits are insured under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme (DGS) up to €100,000 if something happened with the bunq bank.
The company also has security features for your app, like the option to freeze your cards, change your PIN, or change your CVV number every 5 minutes.
Curve
- Three types of accounts (free, €9.99/m, €14.99/m)
- Worldwide Travel Insurance
- Free Mastercard
- 1% Cashback
- Access to fair FX rates
- Customer Protection up to 100,000€
Curve, available throughout the EEA, is a challenger bank that has managed to carve out its niche among the myriad of new banks. They created an app that allows you to load up all your accounts and cards, including Mastercard and debit cards, and then use one single Curve card to make payments with them.
This digital bank has also proven itself to be a step ahead in security as a USP by bypassing the traditional password-protected login process instead of sending out an email every time you want to log in. While this does hamper convenience somewhat, it makes your account much more secure.
There are three different accounts:
- The Classic (blue card) free
- The Premium (black card) €9.99/m
- The Ultimate (metal card) €14.99/m
When you set up your Curve account, you’ll be asked your Employment Type. Which option you pick defines which type of Curve Card you’ll get.
Holvi
- Two paid accounts (€6/m and €12/m)
- 1 to 3 Mastercards included
- Multi-user access
- Freelancers and SMEs
- 2-2.5% ATM fee
- 2% fee to use the card abroad
- Invoicing and business insight
- Accounting and tax filing
- Deposits not directly insured
Since 2011, Helsinki-based fintech company Holvi has been offering freelancers and small business owners digital online-only banking.
Holvi offers business accounts in all ten countries in which it operates – Finland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Uniquely, you can set up your online store alongside your business bank account in all of the countries mentioned above, excluding the UK.
To apply for a Holvi business account, you will need your ID, company registration number, VAT number if VAT-registered, and a registry extract from Companies House. That bit is quick, but the card issued with your Holvi business account can take up to 10 days to arrive.
With Holvi’s app, you can check balance and payments, scan and store receipts for effortless bookkeeping, categorize transactions, and get instantly notified. You can also change PIN, security settings, and lock and unlock cards.
N26 Bank
- Free and paid accounts (€4.90/m, €9.90/m, €16.90/m)
- Virtual and physical debit cards
- Mobile payments
- Free payments worldwide
- Sub-accounts
- Shared sub-accounts
- Deposit protection up to €100,000
N26 was founded in 2013 by Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal as Number26, referring to the 26-sided Rubik’s Cube. It has since been rebranded as N26 Bank since it received its banking license in 2016.
The neobank has successfully raised more than $800 million to date from investors such as Chinese tech giant Tencent and famous billionaires Peter Thiel and Li Ka-Shing. It also has more than 7 million customers.
N26 is available in:
- Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France (not available for residents in the DOM/TOM), Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the US.
It left the UK market in 2020, blaming Brexit. Still, the truth is probably that the company struggled to acquire a significant number of customers there.
N26 has some solid all-round bank accounts that have real-time spending notifications, 3D Secured payments, an AI tool that automatically categorizes and labels your purchases for easy expensing, and much more.
Many of the features and services offered by N26 will particularly appeal to frequent travelers, such as unlimited free foreign currency withdrawals and purchases worldwide.
N26 premium bank accounts come with travel insurance and 0.1% cashback. You can also choose one of 5 different colors for your Mastercard or even a superb metal card.
The sign-up process is straightforward. You need to have the usual requirements like an ID, smartphone, and an address in the supported country.
United Kingdom
Monzo
- Low to no monthly fees
- Tax pots
- Integrated accounting
- Mobile/web access
- Multi-user access
- 24/7 customer support
- Free Xero account for 6 months
- Free lite version
- Up to £85,000 protected by FSCS
Monzo is still inside the chrysalis as a business bank, promising to emerge as a beautiful banking butterfly sometime soon. It began trialing its business services in February 2019.
It now offers you a full UK bank account with easy mobile sign-up and switching, multi-user access, integrated accounting, invoicing, both mobile and desktop access, and much more.
You’ll get a Mastercard debit card with unlimited fee-free UK bank transfers. The daily withdrawal limit is 400 pounds, while the monthly withdrawal limit is 5,500 pounds. You can also deposit cash using your Monzo card, but each deposit comes with a 1 pound fee. You can deposit up to 1,000 pounds cash every six months, which is not a lot.
With a Monzo Pro account (£5/m), you can set aside a percentage of the money you get paid into a Tax Pot for your peace of mind.
While there are still some kinks to be worked out – such as the issues with international deposits – it’s clear that Monzo is an up-and-comer in the business banking world. Their online services are user-friendly, and sign-up is a breeze. Entrepreneurs can do a lot with a business account with Monzo.
The company recently expanded to the United States, where it’s still very much in its beta state. New users can only join the waitlist without a hard date for the launch.
>> Read our Monzo Business review
Monese
- £9.95 per month
- Free Personal account
- Free debit card
- 0.50% fee for foreign currency spend
- 6 free ATM withdrawals per month
- Up to 10 saving pots
- Free Faster Payments
- No FSCS deposit protection
Monese, which offers accounts handling GBP and Euros, requires potential business account holders to sign up for a personal Monese account first. Despite this extra step, this is unlikely to cause much fuss or delay as this challenger bank avoids credit checks and proofs of address and lets you set up your account using your mobile phone number.
While business accounts are currently only available for UK businesses, Monese may well expand its customer base in the future.
You have the option to set up UK Direct Debits and handle payments using the UK Faster Payments network for no charge. When sending, spending, or receiving local currency, there are no markup fees.
Sending money internationally is available to 30 countries. Receiving international transfers is free. There’s even the ability to create and send invoices for easy billing.
The Monese app lets you manage both personal and business accounts.
Starling
- No monthly fees
- Current Account Switching Service
- Multiple-user access
- Multi-currency accounts
- For sole traders and LLCs
- Saving spaces
- No fees abroad
- No ATM fees
- Deposits FSCS insured
Voted Britain’s Best Bank 2018, 2019 & 2020, Starling Bank offers a business bank account without monthly fees. The account is suitable for freelancers and small business owners, as well as other registered limited companies.
Opening a business account takes a few more steps than opening a personal account. You’ll still do it over the smartphone by downloading their app. If you don’t have a personal account yet, you’ll also need a photo ID.
Starling offers an account switching service that does all the work for you to lure you into their business account. They’ll move your outgoing payments, payees you’ve set up, Direct Debits, and standing orders. Any old account payments will automatically be redirected to your Starling account.
There are quite a few handy add-ons to the account.
- A euro bank account for UK businesses (£2/m)
- A US dollar business account in the UK (£5/m)
- The Business Toolkit (£7/m)
According to the company, more than 300,000 UK businesses have a Starling Business account.
Hong Kong & Singapore
Neat
- No monthly fees
- Incorporation services
- Business banking
- Online account opening
- Multi-currency wallet
- Corporate Visa cards with no fees
- 1% cashback on all purchases
Hong Kong-based Neat boasts of its simple sign-up process, which takes only 10 minutes using the regular email address and password combination.
It also highlights that its account opening process has won an award from the Hong Kong government for its high level of security, operating to its strict national standards.
The Neat website hosts a long list of nationalities, industries, and company jurisdictions that the bank does not accept, which perhaps reflects the stringent rules under which it must operate.
It also clearly lays out the different charges applied for different actions you undertake, which differs from the usual monthly subscription tiers you can choose from other digital banks.
While many functions are free, there are charges for withdrawals, transactions, card replacements, and even an inactivity fee, so it is worth checking these carefully and doing a bit of maths to truly understand if what you’re getting is worth paying for.
Aspire
- No monthly fees
- Digital business account
- Open an account in 5 minutes
- Make payments in 50+ currencies
- Mid-market exchange rate
- Link to your accounting software
- Connect to Stripe, PayPal, Shopify, Lazada, Shopee
- Lines of credit and term loans
Aspire is a Singapore-based digital bank specializing in business accounts for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It was founded in 2018 by Andrea Baronchelli (CEO) and Giovanni Casinelli (CTO).
Aspire currently operates in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam.
It’s advertised as an all-in-one digital business account that saves you money and time with their expense management, borderless payments, corporate cards, and more.
The account is free and has no minimum deposits or minimum balance. Some of its many features include multi-user access, expense and invoice management, cash back of up to 1% on your digital marketing, and SaaS payments.
Aspire integrates with accounting software (Xero, Quickbooks, SAP…) and e-commerce and payment processors like PayPal, Shopify, Lazada, Shopee, and others to make your life easier.
If you don’t have a company or a startup yet, you can open one in Singapore from anywhere in the world with Aspire. The incorporation service starts from S$299 and ends with S$2950 for foreign directors who want to work from Singapore.
If you have all the documents required handy, your company can be incorporated, and your business account opened in as quick as 1 business day.
Once incorporated, you can open your business account and make your first transaction on the same day.
Za Bank
- HK$100 monthly fee
- Open account online
- Great for SMEs
- Time deposits are available in HKD, CNY, and USD
- Business loans with a revolving credit line
- Low handling fees
- Local funds transfer via FPS/CHATS
- Insurance
ZA Bank is one of eight digital banks in the Hong Kong market and is a joint venture of ZhongAn Online and Best Group.
According to the ZA Bank website, only companies established or incorporated in Hong Kong are eligible to apply for their business account.
After you fill out their form online, the relationship Manager from the bank will arrange a meeting with you as soon as possible and collect all the necessary forms and required documents. After that, it takes them about a week to complete the process.
With your ZA account, you also get a ZA Visa debit card with no annual fees and the option to withdraw cash at 3,000+ ATMs in Hong Kong for free. The card itself has no CVV, expiry date or signature, and you can choose your number.
Australia
Judo Bank
- Term deposits
- Personal lending
- Business lending
- Equipment and home loans
- Relationship banking
- Deposits protected up to $250,000
Judo Bank is an Australian digital challenger founded in 2016 by David Hornery and Joseph Healy, who also serve as co-CEOs. Judo got its banking license in 2019 and started by focusing on Australia’s SMEs but is now also offering term deposits to regular Australians.
This fintech is disrupting the Australian banking landscape like no one before.
Judo offers business loans to SMEs that are variable or fixed interest rate at terms of up to 5 years with a total loan amount of up to $10 million. Other products include a line of credit, equipment loans, finance leases, and home loans.
Why choose an online business bank account?
The number of digital-only challenger banks is rising from day to day. And each neobank offers a range of features and benefits that suit your business and save you time and money.
If you’re on the fence and thinking to open a bank account for your company, it’s probably time to abandon the traditional branch-based banking and jump into the new online-only business banking world.
However, finding the right digital bank for your business can be challenging, especially since not all these new fintechs are available worldwide or even Europe-wide.
So, before you open an online bank account for your business or trade, read on to find out more about the benefits offered by some of the biggest and brightest new challenger banks, along with details on who exactly qualifies for an account.
With digital, online-only banks, all transactions are done online through an app. There are no physical branches to visit.
While they lack banking staff on hand to talk face to face with printed bank statements and sometimes even access to cash, they make up for these by offering finance-at-your-fingertips convenience plus a range of tools to make financial management more straightforward.
Plus, since they don’t have to pay for staff, you often get a bank account for free and with hardly any fees!
This focus on convenience means sign-up is usually very straightforward. It requires answering some questions about your business, providing company information, and uploading a form of ID.
Some fundamental benefits appear with digital banking, that traditional banks can’t match.
Real-time spending alerts can help you spend less time and energy tracking outgoings. At the same time, the ability to freeze and unfreeze cards can add security. You can even create customized sub-accounts that can help you and your employees stick to different budgets and keep up with multiple regular payments.
How to open an online business bank account
Before you embark on your new banking journey, take a look at the account opening processes and conditions of some of the most significant new digital banks to help you find the right one for your business.
There’s a substantial range of online business bank accounts to choose from. It’s possible to find one that will match or even surpass the demands of your 21st-century business and help you manage your company’s finances clearly and conveniently.
Adrian Volenik is a fintech enthusiast who loves testing and reviewing digital banking apps and financial products in general. How many digital banking accounts can one man have? Not enough, if you ask Adrian. As his wallet will soon explode if he doesn’t cut back on the number of cards.