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The best online business account overall is Revolut. It’s easy to use, has a great website and mobile app packed full of features, you can receive payments directly from customers (making it cheaper) and it’s free to use (no monthly fees). For international payments, and earning interest on your money, check out Wise Business.
Running a successful business and keen to make the most of your bank account? Or maybe just starting out and looking for the best business bank account? – no matter where you are in your business journey, we’ve got you covered.
For most businesses, opting for an online business account is a great choice – all the modern providers (who offer the best accounts), are only online, typically via a mobile app.
So, without further ado, here’s the best online business accounts.
Revolut is our top pick for an online business account – it’s low cost, easy to use, and is packed full of features.
Try a paid plan free (1 month)
Revolut is a modern business account designed to suit modern day businesses – unlike traditional banks that run on slow and outdated systems and processes.
Revolut have thought of everything, and the app is packed out with many helpful tools and features to help grow your business. And easy to use.
It’s pretty much perfect for every size of business, from a freelancer to large enterprises.
It’s also great for international businesses, and receiving payments in different currencies, such as customers based in Europe, paying in Euros. You can hold over 25 different currencies inside your Revolut business account – you can swap one currency for another in a couple of clicks, for a low exchange rate too!
You can also receive payments from customers in-person without needing a card machine, and online without needing other software, and even via text messages.
And, there’s loads of extra features you wouldn’t expect from other accounts, such as payroll and invoicing features, and team expense management.
It’s got pretty much everything you need, and more. Highly recommended.
Note: it’s not technically a bank, it’s an e-money account. Your money is still just as safe and secure.
Overall cost: low
Account cost: free to £100 per month
Bank transfer cost: free up to a limit
ATM withdrawal cost: free up to a limit
Multiple currencies: 25+
Debit card: yes
Cash deposits: no
Accounting integrations: yes
Save or invest cash: yes (and crypto)
Get £50 when you open an account
Tide is a popular bank account in the UK, with over 500,000 customers.
It’s a bit more basic than the other business bank accounts, but you can start with a free account and pay fees as you use it (e.g. payment per transaction).
The app itself is easy to use and has useful tools to create invoices and manage expenses.
However, you can’t use multiple currencies.
Tide will also help set up your new business and register your limited company if you sign up with them, and need help with the admin side. They can also help you get a business loan.
Overall cost: low
Account cost: free to £49.99 (plus VAT) per month
Bank transfer cost: 20p per transfer (free on paid plans)
ATM withdrawal cost: £1
Multiple currencies: no
Debit card: yes
Cash deposits: yes (£2.50 or up to 3%)
Accounting integrations: yes
Save or invest cash: no
ANNA is a business account with a few extras. If you’ve got a simple business, this might be the only account you’ll need to manage everything.
You’ll get tools to manage your business finances, such as creating and sending invoices (and they’ll send chasers automatically too), expense tracking and sorting your tax.
Love it, or hate it, the card even makes a Meow sound when you use it. Yes really!
Overall cost: low
Account cost: free to £49.90 (plus VAT) per month
Bank transfer cost: 20p (free on paid plans)
ATM withdrawal cost: £1 (free on paid plans)
Multiple currencies: no
Debit card: yes
Cash deposits: no
Accounting integrations: yes
Save or invest cash: no
Revolut is our top pick for an online business account – it’s low cost, easy to use, and is packed full of features.
Wise business is the best option for multiple currencies. Send and receive money in over 40 different currencies, including Euros and US Dollars, all for a low cost (it’s the cheapest option).
You can even store multiple currencies in one account, meaning you don't have to keep swapping currencies and paying exchange fees.
Another great feature, is being able to save and invest your business money, so instead of your money sitting in your account doing nothing, you can invest it to grow more over time (with the help of experts) – adding a whole new revenue stream to your business – and still allowing you to spend it whenever you need to.
Overall cost: low
Account cost: £45 set up fee
Bank transfer cost: From 0.43% to send. Free to receive
ATM withdrawal cost: free up to a limit (£200)
Multiple currencies: 40+
Debit card: yes
Cash deposits: no
Accounting integrations: yes
Save or invest cash: yes
Revolut is our top pick for an online business account – it’s low cost, easy to use, and is packed full of features.
Wise business is the best option for multiple currencies. Send and receive money in over 40 different currencies, including Euros and US Dollars, all for a low cost (it’s the cheapest option).
You can even store multiple currencies in one account, meaning you don't have to keep swapping currencies and paying exchange fees.
Another great feature, is being able to save and invest your business money, so instead of your money sitting in your account doing nothing, you can invest it to grow more over time (with the help of experts) – adding a whole new revenue stream to your business – and still allowing you to spend it whenever you need to.
Overall cost: low
Account cost: £45 set up fee
Bank transfer cost: From 0.43% to send. Free to receive
ATM withdrawal cost: free up to a limit (£200)
Multiple currencies: 40+
Debit card: yes
Cash deposits: no
Accounting integrations: yes
Save or invest cash: yes
Revolut is our top pick for an online business account – it’s low cost, easy to use, and is packed full of features.
There’s a lot of options out there in the UK for business bank accounts – and some really great online business accounts.
We’ve compared all the best and most popular accounts, and with a focus on online accounts – online via a website and mobile app – most high street banks use outdated technology, have limited features and are expensive.
The criteria we’ve used to put together the our list of the best online business accounts is:
All the best options we've listed above are business accounts we recommend to our friends and family (if they’re running a business), and we also use some of them ourselves here at Nuts About Money.
That means you can be confident that whichever account you opt for, you’ll be using one of the best online accounts out there – one that’s great to manage your business finances, save you time, and help grow your business.
If you’re a sole trader, which is someone who runs a business under their own name, rather than using a limited company (explained below), you’ll need a business account rather than using your personal account.
It’s not a legal requirement, but it is against the terms and conditions of almost every personal bank account – and it’s not worth the risk of getting your account frozen and losing access to your money to pay both business bills and personal bills.
Business accounts are much better anyway! They’ve got some amazing features to help you manage your business finances, and grow your business (such as invoicing), and they can be free (no monthly fees).
The best sole trader business account is Revolut¹, it’s online, and is packed full of features to help your business, accept payments from anywhere (in store, in-person, or online), and save time on admin – best of all, there’s a free plan.
If you’re not quite sure what the difference is between a sole trader and a limited company, don’t worry, let’s run through it quickly.
A sole trader is someone who runs a business under their own name – anyone can do this, and you simply start your business! No need to register anything.
You are technically self-employed, and all the money the business makes in profit counts as your income, which you would pay Income Tax on (the same as if you were employed).
Note: you don’t legally need to open a business bank account if you’re a sole trader, however using your personal bank account for your business would be against the terms and conditions of almost all banks.
A limited company is registering the business with the Government (via Companies House) as a separate business, it becomes completely separate from its owners (legally and financially), it is its own ‘legal entity’.
This means the profits and debts (if there are any) are all the company’s, rather than the owners (the owners have ‘limited liability’, and can’t normally be chased for any debt if there is any).
The owners are called shareholders as they will own a ‘share’ of the company. If a company has 1 share, the person who owns it, owns 100% of the company. If a company has 100 shares, and someone owns 20 shares, they own 20% of the company.
The company can pay out its profits to shareholders as ‘dividends’, which can be taxed slightly less than income Tax.
Note: legally, you need a business account for your limited company – you can’t use your personal account. This is because your business is its own legal entity, and needs an account in its own name.
If you’re a small business (so likely a limited company rather than a sole trader), you’ll probably want to make use of the great features that business accounts can come with – such as invoicing, expense management, multiple cards and payroll features – to name just a few!
The account with pretty much every feature you’d ever need as a small business is Revolut¹ – and it works great online and via a mobile app. Plus, there’s a free monthly plan if you don’t need all the features right away.
Nuts About Money tip: if you’re keen to learn more about banking and small business, here’s our guide to the best business account for small businesses, and if you’re running a startup, here’s our guide to the best business account for startups.
If you’re not keen on splashing out on an all singing, all dancing business account just yet, then don’t worry, you’ve got a wide range of options – and in fact, all of our recommended options have a free plan.
If you’re happy with a great account that just offers the basics, we recommend Tide¹, you’ll get a free account and just pay 20p for transactions (bank transfers).
Or, if you think you’ll want a few more features, such as international payments, or spending on a card abroad, check out Revolut¹, they’ve got a great free plan (no monthly fees), and you can upgrade to more features later down the line if you want to.
If you’ve got international customers or suppliers, and are sending and receiving money in a foreign currency, you’ll likely want to get yourself a nice modern online business account, rather than using an account with a high street bank – they’ll typically charge you hefty fees every time you send or receive cash (and include hiddens fees).
With a modern online account, such as Wise Business¹, you’ll be able to hold, send and receive a huge range of currencies, and send and receive quickly across the world, but not only that, it’s one of the lowest cost options out there – and works seamlessly online and as an app on your phone.
As your business grows, you might find yourself having lots of spare cash lying around, that you might need at some point but don’t want to withdraw (take out) just yet – well, you can actually earn interest (money) on your money in your business account. Just like a savings account for your own money.
It’s very unusual for a business account to pay interest, but with Wise Business¹, you can earn a top interest rate on all the cash in your account, and you can even let experts invest it for you. It’s easy to use and get set up too.
Nuts About Money tip: you don’t have to just have one business account, you can have as many as you like – so you could have one account for all your regular transactions, and an account such as Wise Business¹ for foreign currency transactions and business savings.
A business account is like a bank account you’ve probably got for your own money, to pay bills and send and receive money.
However, with a business account, alongside all the regular things you’d expect with your personal account such as online banking, ATM withdrawals, and direct debits (regular payments), there can also be tonnes of extra features to help you manage your business finances – saving you time, and could help grow your business. Let’s run through them now.
Let’s run through a few of those now.
Online business accounts have some great features to help you manage your finances. If you’ve got other businesses as customers, you’ll likely need to send them an invoice to get paid – a good business account like Revolut¹ can do this all for you, including producing and sending the invoice, and all automatically if it’s a regular payment.
If you’ve got a team, you could also let some team members have a card to spend, and manage all your team’s expenses in one place (you can even set limits and have restrictions on purchases and approval requests).
Plus, you can also manage all the payroll admin (paying employees) through your business account too. The list goes on.
Depending on your business, you might want to receive payments directly from your customers, such as if you were a self-employed plumber, or personal trainer – you could create a payment link with all the payment information pre-filled, and send this to your customer to pay you directly via SMS and email.
You can even create a QR code for customers to scan and send payment directly, for instance, if you’re at an event.
Or, integrate the payment system into your website if you’re selling online.
You’ll likely save cash on fees too – there’s typically high fees when accepting payments via credit and debit cards, and other payment methods.
A business account can also integrate with accounting software – which can be very useful. Accounting software can produce all the reports that you need for your business, such as a profit and loss statement (how much money your business has made), and a balance sheet (how financially healthy your business is – it shows your assets (things your company owns), and your debts). Plus, loads more reports.
You’ll typically need to file these financial statements (with the Government) at the end of the financial year, and pay any tax owed.
When linking a business account to accounting software, your transactions (sales and expenses) will pull through, and all of the reports you need can be produced automatically. Pretty great right?
To put simply, yes you will need a business account. If you’re a limited company, you’ll be legally required to use one, as a business is its own legal entity, and therefore needs its own account to manage its own finances.
If you’re a sole trader, it’s not a legal requirement, but using a personal account for business purposes is against the terms and conditions of pretty much every bank out there. It won’t be pleasant if you end up getting your account frozen and not able to access your money, or pay suppliers and receive cash from customers.
Plus, a business account is far better! And they can be free (no monthly fees). We’ve gone through all the great benefits above.
If you’re keen to learn more about this, check out our guides: do I need a business bank account? And do I need a business account as a sole trader?
Yep. Online bank accounts don’t have any high street branches, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pay in cash, or withdraw cash from a cash machine (ATM) – although unfortunately, not with every business account. And, it’s not typically free (normally a small fee per deposit).
You can typically pay in cash anywhere there’s a PayPoint machine, or simply pay cash in at the Post Office.
If you do want to pay in cash, check out Tide¹. It’s a great business bank account, with a free plan (no monthly fees).
Note: you’ll still need your bank card to pay money in.
Yes, online business accounts are perfectly safe to use.
All business accounts need to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They’re the people who make sure financial companies are looking after your money.
That also means your money is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which gives you protection up to £85,000 should the business account provider go out of business.
And typically, your money is stored with a separate, large bank, with all the money under your name, and can only be returned to your business. Giving you that extra reassurance.
There we go, the best online business accounts. There’s quite a few options isn’t there? But each one is a great option, and all have low fees (or even free).
Online business accounts can let you manage your business money much easier, and on-the-go with a mobile app. They’ve got great features such as invoicing, expense and team management, integrating with accounting software, and you can send and receive foreign currencies easily and for a low cost. You can even save your business cash and earn interest.
To recap, our top recommendation is Revolut¹. They've got a great online business account, which is free (no monthly fees), and is packed full of features.
For foreign currency transactions, we recommend Wise Business¹, there’s a huge range of currencies, it’s easy to use, and very low cost.
And we also recommend Wise Business¹ for saving cash too – you’ll earn a great interest rate, and can even let experts invest to grow your money sensibly over time too.
That’s it. All the best running and growing your business!
This article was written, reviewed and fact checked by the expert team at Nuts About Money. You’re in safe hands. Learn more.
Revolut is our top pick for an online business account – it’s low cost, easy to use, and is packed full of features.