Best Free Business Checking Accounts for Small Business
Every free business checking account says $0 a month. The real costs show up later, in wire fees, cash fees, and how much of your back office you still pay for somewhere else. We tested 5 and picked Novo. It costs $0 a month and comes with invoicing, automatic expense sorting, and Reserves, which put your tax money aside before you spend it.
Mercury is second. It is the better home for a big balance, with free wires and up to $5 million of FDIC cover through its partner banks. If you hold investor money, start there. If you just formed an LLC and need to get paid, Novo does more of the work for you.
Novo is a fintech, not a bank. Deposits sit at Middlesex Federal Savings and are insured to $250,000. Above that line, Mercury's sweep network is the safer place. If you take in cash, check the cash table below first. Only three of the five take cash, and what they charge differs a lot.
Novo
$0
Novo is the only genuinely free account here that arrives with the back office attached, invoicing, automatic expense categorization, and Reserves that put tax money aside before you spend it. Mercury holds a large balance better. Novo does more of the daily work.
Get StartedSide-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Fee | $0 | $0 | $0 (Standard plan) | $0 (Starter plan) | $0 (Found free plan) |
| Interest (APY) | None | None on checking | 1.3% on up to $250K, only in months you meet a spend or deposit test | None on checking, 1.19% on savings | None on free plan, 1.50% on up to $20K with Plus ($35/mo) |
| FDIC Insured | Up to $250,000 via Middlesex Federal Savings | Up to $5M via partner banks | Up to $3M | Up to $3M | Up to $250,000 via Lead Bank |
| Free ACH Transfers | Yes (standard ACH) | Yes | Yes (standard ACH) | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in Invoicing | Yes, free | Yes, free (recurring invoices on paid plans) | Yes, unlimited and free | Yes (recurring invoices on $30/mo Grow) | Yes, free |
| Cash Deposits | No (money order by mobile deposit) | No | $1 + 0.5% at Allpoint+ ATMs, $4.95 at Green Dot | Free at Allpoint+ ATMs, up to $4.95 at Green Dot | $2.00 per deposit |
| Tax Set-Aside Tools | Reserves, up to 20, with auto rules | No | Sub-accounts with auto rules (5 on Standard) | Up to 20 accounts | Tax estimates, plus Pockets to hold the money |
| Best For | Independent businesses that need to get paid and stay organized | Startups holding large balances or sending wires | Businesses that want interest on checking | Businesses splitting cash into many accounts, or taking some cash | Freelancers wanting tax estimates built in |
Full Reviews
Pros
- Genuinely $0 monthly fee with no minimum balance. First-year and ongoing cost is $0.
- Free ACH transfers and incoming wires save money on routine transactions.
- Native integrations with Stripe, Shopify, QuickBooks, and Amazon reduce manual bookkeeping work.
- Built-in invoicing and AI bookkeeping tools included at no extra cost, eliminating the need for a separate invoicing app.
Cons
- No cash deposits. Period.
- No phone line. Support runs through in-app tickets, where you chat with an agent, plus email if you cannot log in, and users report slow answers during urgent issues like account freezes.
- 0% APY on all balances. Your money earns nothing sitting in Novo while competitors like Bluevine pay interest.
- Check clearing and fund availability can be slower than expected based on user reports.
Pros
- Truly $0 monthly fee with no minimum balance, no overdraft fees, and no transaction fees on USD activity.
- Free domestic and international USD wire transfers, a feature that typically costs $20 to $35 per wire at other banks.
- FDIC insurance up to $5M through sweep networks across partner banks, far above the standard $250K.
- Mercury Treasury pays a yield on idle cash above $250,000. It is not FDIC insured. It may lose value.
- Virtual cards you can create and kill in seconds, with spend controls per team member.
Cons
- No cash deposits. At all. If your business handles physical cash, Mercury cannot be your primary bank.
- Account closures without warning are a documented pattern across BBB, Trustpilot and Reddit. Some users report months without access to funds.
- Customer support runs Monday to Friday only, 6am to 5pm PT. No weekend or after-hours phone support.
- Check deposits clear slowly. Users report waits of a week or more, which hurts a business that lives on checks.
- Choice Financial Group, one of Mercury's two partner banks, entered an FDIC consent order in December 2023 over Bank Secrecy Act gaps.
Pros
- The Standard plan is truly $0 per month with no minimum balance, no overdraft fees, and unlimited transactions.
- 1.3% APY on Standard checking balances up to $250,000, but only in months you spend $500 on the Bluevine debit card or take in $2,500 of customer payments. The 3.0% APY headline belongs to the Premier plan, which pays on all balances and costs $95 a month unless you meet its waiver terms.
- FDIC insurance up to $3,000,000 per depositor through the Coastal Community Bank sweep program.
- Sub-accounts (up to 5 on Standard) make it easy to separate tax reserves, payroll, and operating funds without opening multiple bank accounts.
- Built-in invoicing with Stripe-powered payment links and new estimate features reduce the need for separate billing software.
Cons
- Account freezes with no warning. This is a documented pattern across Trustpilot, the BBB, Reddit, and ConsumerAffairs. Locked funds can take days or weeks to release.
- No weekend customer support. If your account gets frozen on a Friday evening, you're stuck until Monday at 8am ET.
- Cash deposits cost $4.95 each via Green Dot, and there is no free way to deposit physical cash.
- No Zelle integration. Bluevine is not part of the Early Warning Services network that powers Zelle.
- Mobile check deposits can be held for up to 7 days, even for repeat payors with clean histories.
Pros
- Up to 20 free checking accounts on the Starter plan with no monthly fee or minimum balance, making Profit First allocation effortless
- FDIC insurance coverage up to $3M through Thread Bank's deposit sweep program, which is 12x the standard $250K
- Direct QuickBooks Online and Xero integrations on all plans, including the free tier, with auto-syncing transaction feeds
- iOS app rated 4.8 and Android 4.5, with biometric login, instant card freeze, and real-time transaction alerts
Cons
- Thread Bank received an FDIC consent order in 2024, and users report sudden account freezes with delayed access to their funds
- Recurring invoices and auto charging a card on file start on the $30 a month Grow plan, bulk bill payments need Scale, and outgoing domestic wires cost $8 on Starter against $5 on the paid plans
- Mobile check deposits can take seven to ten days to clear, and the savings account has no external ACH access
- No interest on checking balances and no physical branches, although cash goes in free at Allpoint+ ATMs, up to $1,000 per deposit
Pros
- Built-in tax estimation and auto-save genuinely reduces the chance of a surprise quarterly tax bill, and no other free checking account offers this natively.
- The free tier includes unlimited ACH transfers, invoicing, expense categorization, and profit-and-loss reporting at $0/mo with no minimum balance.
- Account opens in minutes with no credit check, and virtual card details are available immediately for same-day use.
- Contractor management with W-9 collection, direct ACH payments, and automatic 1099-NEC generation eliminates the need for a separate payroll tool for 1099 workers.
Cons
- Sudden account freezes are widely reported across the BBB, where Found carries an F rating, Reddit, and Trustpilot, with funds held for weeks and limited recourse.
- Frozen accounts lose phone support entirely and are restricted to email, which multiple users report takes weeks for a response.
- Cash deposits cost $2.00 each, instant payments you send cost 1.75% of the amount (at least $0.50), and outgoing wires cost $15.
- The 1.5% APY on balances requires Found Plus at $35 a month or $315 a year, and it only applies to the first $20,000.
- No Zelle support, no physical checkbook, and no fee-free ATM network.
How to Choose
You are a startup founder who sends frequent wire transfers to contractors or vendors.
Mercury sends domestic and USD international wires for free. Bluevine charges up to $15 for an outgoing wire and Found charges $15, so five wires a month costs up to $75 at either one.
You want interest on your checking balance without paying for a plan.
Bluevine pays 1.3% APY on checking balances up to $250,000 on the free Standard plan, in any month you spend $500 on its debit card or take in $2,500 of customer payments. Hit that test every month on a $200,000 balance and it earns about $2,600 a year.
You are running a Profit First system and need multiple sub-accounts to separate revenue, taxes, and profit.
Relay gives you up to 20 checking accounts on the free Starter plan. Bluevine caps sub-accounts at 5 on Standard.
You take in some cash, a few deposits a month.
Relay takes cash for free at Allpoint+ ATMs, up to $1,000 a deposit. Found charges $2 a deposit and Bluevine charges $1 plus 0.5% at the same ATMs. Novo and Mercury take no cash at all.
You are a freelancer who wants built-in tax estimation and quarterly tax savings.
Found is the only account here that estimates your tax as you earn, and its Pockets let you hold that money apart. It also collects W-9 forms and handles 1099 contractor payments.
You sell online and want your bank connected to your sales tools.
Novo connects to more than 40 business tools, including Stripe, Shopify, Square, and QuickBooks, for $0 a month. It also has free invoicing and sorts your expenses on its own.
You need the highest FDIC coverage because your business holds large cash reserves.
Mercury offers up to $5M of FDIC cover by spreading your money across partner banks in its sweep network. That is 20 times the standard $250K and more than the $3M at Bluevine or Relay.
How We Picked
We compared the five business checking accounts in our reviews that charge $0 a month with no minimum balance. We left out accounts that waive the fee only when you keep a set balance, because that is not free.
| Area | Weight | What we looked at |
|---|---|---|
| Price and value | 35% | Monthly fee, wire costs, ATM fees, cash fees, and paid add-ons |
| Ease of use | 25% | How simple the account and app are to run day to day |
| Features | 25% | Interest, FDIC limits, sub-accounts, cards, and links to accounting tools |
| Support | 15% | Hours, channels, and complaint patterns on the BBB, Trustpilot, and Reddit |
We checked every fee and rate on this page against each company's own pricing page or fee schedule on September 22, 2026. Interest rates move with the Fed, so check the live rate before you open an account.
Who Needs This
If you have an LLC, a corporation, or a sole proprietorship with a DBA, you need a business checking account of its own. Mixing personal and business money makes taxes harder, weakens your liability shield, and makes the books a mess. Our guide to business vs personal bank accounts explains why. A free account takes the cost out of doing it right from day one.
These accounts suit online businesses, freelancers, e-commerce sellers, and startups. If you get paid by ACH, Stripe, or Shopify and pay vendors online, an app account costs less than a branch account that charges a monthly fee unless you keep a minimum balance.
If you take in a lot of cash every day, a branch bank or credit union is the better main account, even with a fee. Relay and Bluevine cap an ATM cash deposit at $1,000, and Novo and Mercury take no cash. For a few cash deposits a month, the table in the next section shows what each one charges.
In-Depth Comparison
Novo is our top pick because it does the most daily work for $0. It sends invoices, sorts expenses on its own, and lets you split money into up to 20 Reserves with rules, such as a share of each payment for taxes. It pays no interest and takes no cash.
Mercury is the pick for a large balance. Domestic and USD international wires are free, and FDIC cover reaches $5M through its partner banks. Invoicing is free too, with recurring invoices on paid plans. It pays no interest on checking.
Bluevine is the pick if you want interest in the checking account itself. The Standard plan pays 1.3% APY on up to $250,000, but only in a month when you spend $500 on its debit card or take in $2,500 of customer payments. Premier pays 3.0% on all balances for $95 a month. Bluevine waives that fee if you keep a $100,000 average balance and spend $5,000 on the card.
Relay is the pick for splitting cash into many accounts, with up to 20 on the free Starter plan. Its savings pay 1.19% APY on Starter and 3.21% on Scale, which costs $90 a month for now (list price $120). Found is the pick for freelancers who want tax estimates built in. Its paid Plus plan adds 1.50% APY on the first $20,000 for $35 a month.
| Account | Takes cash | Fee per deposit | Fee on $500 | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relay | Yes | $0 at Allpoint+ ATMs, up to $4.95 at Green Dot | $0 at an ATM | Allpoint+ ATMs, up to $1,000 each, or Green Dot stores |
| Found | Yes | $2.00 flat | $2.00 | Per Found's fee schedule |
| Bluevine | Yes | $1 plus 0.5% at Allpoint+ ATMs, $4.95 at Green Dot | $3.50 at an ATM | Allpoint+ ATMs, up to $1,000 each, or Green Dot stores |
| Novo | No | Not offered | Not offered | Buy a money order and deposit it in the app |
| Mercury | No | Not offered | Not offered | None |
Found's flat $2 costs less than a Bluevine ATM deposit on any amount over $200. Relay's ATM route costs nothing at any size, up to its $1,000 cap per deposit.
What to Avoid
Watch for "free" accounts that charge through the back door. Relay keeps recurring invoices and batch vendor payments on its $30 a month Grow plan. Found charges 1.75% on each instant payment you send (at least $0.50, at most $50) and $15 for an outgoing wire. Bluevine charges up to $15 for an outgoing wire and $4.95 for a Green Dot cash deposit. Add these up for a normal month before you choose.
The bigger risk is a frozen account. Complaints about sudden freezes, with money held for weeks, show up on the BBB, Trustpilot, and Reddit for Mercury, Bluevine, Found, and Relay. If your business cannot go a week without its operating cash, keep a backup account at a second bank. Do not keep all of your working cash in one app.
Alternatives Worth Considering
If you take in cash every day, none of these five should be your main account. Relay and Bluevine cap each ATM cash deposit at $1,000, so a busy register outgrows them fast. A branch bank or a local credit union takes cash at the counter, and you can link one of these apps as a second account for online payments and tax savings. Some credit unions and local banks offer business checking with no monthly fee, so compare those before you accept one.
If you want more help with the books than a bank app gives you, see our guide to AI bookkeeping for small business. If quarterly tax payments are the worry, that guide shows how much to set aside and when each payment is due.
Our Methodology
We scored each account in four weighted areas, price and value (35%), ease of use (25%), features and integrations (25%), and support (15%). Price covered the monthly fee plus wire costs, ATM fees, cash fees, and paid add-ons. Features covered interest, FDIC limits, sub-accounts, and links to accounting tools. We also read complaint patterns on the BBB, Trustpilot, and Reddit to flag accounts with a history of sudden freezes.
Every account here charges $0 a month on its base plan, so the tie breakers matter more. We weighted interest, wire fees, cash fees, and FDIC limits most, because that is where "free" accounts differ in real dollars.
Frequently Asked Questions
About the Author
Business Formation Researcher
Eliot leads StartupOwl's state data research. He maintains the site's fifty state records of LLC filing fees, annual costs, processing times, and small business grant programs, checking each figure against the state office that publishes it and logging the date it was verified. Based in New Jersey, he has spent his working life in and around small businesses, and he writes for the founder who wants the real number rather than the advertised one. Every figure under his byline traces to a named source, and when a state proves a number wrong, the correction is published, not buried.
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Novo disclosures. Novo Platform Inc. is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Middlesex Federal Savings, F.A., Member FDIC. Deposits are insured up to $250,000 through Middlesex Federal Savings. The Novo Business Credit Card is issued by Continental Bank. Cashback terms, 2 percent on eligible purchases with a checking balance of $5,000 or more, 1 percent below that. Eligibility for Novo products is subject to final Novo determination.
Mercury disclosures. Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC. FDIC deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. Deposits in checking and savings accounts are FDIC-insured through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A. and their Sweep Program Network Banks. Certain conditions must be satisfied for pass-through FDIC insurance to apply.
Financial Disclaimer. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Pricing and features were checked on September 22, 2026 and may change. Consult a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation.
Mercury Treasury disclosure. Mercury Treasury is designed to earn yield on idle cash up to 3.61% annually. This yield is based on the 30-day SEC Yield for MULSX as of 05/31/2026, and assumes total Mercury deposits of $20M+. Treasury accounts are subject to a monthly fee of 0.15%–0.60%, based on total Mercury balances. Mercury Treasury is offered by Mercury Advisory, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser ("Mercury Advisory"). This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security. All Brokerage and Clearing services are provided by, and securities are offered through Apex Clearing Corporation, an SEC-registered broker dealer and member FINRA/SIPC. Treasury accounts are not FDIC insured, are not bank deposits, and are not guaranteed by Choice Financial Group or Column N.A., and may lose value. Please review Mercury Advisory's ADV Wrap Fee Brochure for more detail. Mercury Treasury products are subject to investment risks and past performance is not indicative of future results. Please see full disclosures at mercury.com/treasury. Mercury Advisory is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mercury Technologies, Inc.
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