Accounts built for freelancers and sole operators - Novo, Found, Lili, Mercury - written up one at a time, with the fee that bites named in the line.
Start with whether a freelancer needs a business account at all, or go straight to the roundups.
Start here
Are online-only business banks safe for keeping my company's money?
Read the guide ExplainerDo I really need a separate bank account for my small business?
Read the explainer ShortlistWhat's the best online business bank for freelancers?
Read it How-toHow do I open a business bank account for my LLC?
Follow the steps ShortlistWhat's the best online business bank for freelancers?
Read it Head to headWhat's the best online business bank for freelancers?
Read itHead-to-heads, shortlists and a how-to for one-person businesses. A reference is a position in the statement, not a rank.
Two accounts built for freelancers, set side by side. Which one fits comes down to the bookkeeping habits you already have.
Ref 02For work paid from abroad, and for the question of which business checking option is open to someone with bad personal credit.
Ref 03One account on its own, read against the stage a freelance business is at.
Ref 04For work billed rather than sold: which account fits depends on how you invoice.
Ref 05Accounts with a built-in set-aside for estimated tax, for a freelancer who pays it four times a year.
Ref 06Opening a business bank account for an LLC, in the order the steps come.
The standards behind every comparison and shortlist, including Best Business Bank Accounts for Freelancers: an order in words, never a score.
No ratings, no stars, no tier board. Where one account is the better fit, it is said in a sentence you can disagree with.
Prices are dated and taken from the providers' own pages, and rules link to official sources such as the FDIC, SBA and IRS. Nothing here describes a hands-on trial or a test process that nobody ran.
Some links may earn a commission. That changes no order and no verdict, and the page says so wherever it applies.
How to work through an account before you move money into it, in three steps: open, read, file.
Card work, invoices, marketplace payouts and cash all push you to a different account. The payment method decides more than the brand does.
The published schedule is where the wire fee, the deposit cap and the payout cut live. The marketing page rarely mentions any of them.
Fee schedules are revised and grandfathering is inconsistent. The version you agreed to is the document worth saving.
Read more in Alternatives to Using Your Personal Account for Freelance Work, Do Freelancers Need a Business Bank Account? and Is Your Freelance Income Safe in a Fintech Account?.
Account and sort numbers shown on this page are masked placeholders. No balance, figure or total on this site is real data, and none will be invented to fill a line.
Read more in Do Freelancers Need a Business Bank Account?, Is Your Freelance Income Safe in a Fintech Account? and Best Account If Freelancing Is Your Side Income.
Common questions