Best Business Bank Accounts 2026: Germany and the UK Compared

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Last updated: 16 October 2026

Which business bank account is best? It depends first on where your business is registered and second on how it uses the account. For a UK sole trader or limited company with UK-resident directors, Starling Business is the simplest pick: no monthly fee, no fees on UK payments, and FSCS protection because it is a licensed bank. For a German freelancer, Vivid Business Free Start and N26 Business Standard cost nothing a month; a German GmbH or UG needs a provider that issues a capital-deposit confirmation. Above all, check whether the provider is a bank or an e-money or payment institution — Tide, Airwallex, Qonto and Vivid are not banks, and that changes what protects your money. The worked examples below show what each costs at real transaction volumes.

Choosing a business account is mostly a question of jurisdiction. What you are legally required to have, what documents you need, and above all what protects your company's money differ sharply between Germany and the UK — and several of the best-known providers in both markets are not banks at all.

This guide covers Germany and the UK separately, because the answers genuinely differ. It is written for freelancers, sole traders and small limited companies rather than large enterprises.

How this comparison was compiled

No accounts were opened and nothing was tested first-hand. Legal requirements were read from the statutes themselves, deposit protection from the relevant scheme, and every price from the provider's own published pricing page. Statutes were read on 1 August 2026; prices and protection statements were re-read on 16 October 2026. All are linked below. Where a provider's pricing could not be read, it is marked as such rather than filled in from a comparison site.

Germany

Is a Geschäftskonto legally required?

For a GmbH or UG, effectively yes, though no German statute uses the word "Geschäftskonto". What the law actually requires is provable payment of share capital.

Under § 5 GmbHG the share capital of a GmbH must be at least €25,000. Under § 7 GmbHG registration may only take place once at least a quarter of each share is paid in, with total cash contributions reaching half the minimum share capital, so €12,500. Under § 8 GmbHG the directors must declare that contributions are "endgültig in der freien Verfügung der Geschäftsführer" — finally at the free disposal of the management — and the register court may demand proof, expressly including deposit receipts from a financial institution or payment service provider established in the EU.

That last detail matters and is widely misreported: the statute accepts a Zahlungsdienstleister, a payment service provider, not only a bank. This is why licensed payment institutions can legitimately serve as capital-deposit accounts.

For a UG, § 5a GmbHG is stricter: registration is only permitted once the share capital is paid in full, and contributions in kind are excluded.

For a sole trader or freelancer there is no legal requirement to hold a separate business account, but many banks' terms require business and private payment traffic to be separated, and mixing them makes bookkeeping harder. Check your own account terms rather than assuming.

What you need to open one

The identification requirements come from the Geldwäschegesetz. Under § 11 GwG a bank must collect the company name, legal form, register number, registered address and the names of the representative bodies. Under § 12 GwG verification is by official photo ID for individuals and by a Handelsregister extract, comparable official register extract or founding documents for the entity.

One trap worth knowing: § 11 Abs. 5 GwG states expressly that obtaining beneficial-owner data from the Transparenzregister alone is not sufficient for the bank's verification. Your provider will ask you for it directly even though the register exists, and separately, § 20 GwG requires the company itself to keep its Transparenzregister entry current.

In practice a GmbH or UG should expect to supply a Handelsregisterauszug or, pre-registration, the notarial contract and shareholder list; ID for all managing directors and shareholders; a shareholder resolution to open the account; the tax number; beneficial-ownership details; and proof of business address.

German pricing, read 16 October 2026

Qonto, per its German pricing page, plans for solo businesses and freelancers. Prices are stated net of VAT, and the paid prices shown are the annual-billing rate (Basic is €108 a year); Qonto offers monthly billing but the page does not show its price:

• Starter: €0 per month, 5 free SEPA transfers per month, one virtual card (a physical card is a €5-a-month add-on).

• Basic: €9 per month, 30 free SEPA transfers, one physical and two virtual cards.

• Smart: €19 per month, 100 free SEPA transfers.

• Premium: €39 per month, 200 free SEPA transfers, and additional transfers at €0.10 rather than €0.20.

Qonto's plans for companies with employees sit on a separate tab that could not be read, so they are not priced here.

Vivid Business, per its plans page: Free Start at €0 per month with free outgoing SEPA and instant transfers, Basic at €6.90 with five free outgoing SWIFT transfers per month and €5 thereafter, and Pro at €18.90 with ten free outgoing SWIFT transfers. The page states the SWIFT offer runs until 30 November.

N26 Business, per its pricing page: Business Standard free, Business Smart €4.90, Business Go €9.90 and Business Metal €16.90 per month. Note the eligibility limit — N26 Business is aimed at Selbständige und Freiberufler trading under their own name, and N26's support page does not list GmbH eligibility.

The incumbents publish materially higher headline prices. Commerzbank's business accounts run at a standard €15.90 per month for KlassikGeschäftskonto with 10 free electronic bookings and €0.20 per booking after that, €34.90 for Premium with 50 (then €0.15), and €54.90 for Premium Plus with 250 (then €0.10). The eye-catching "€0" offers are introductory: Klassik is refunded for 12 months for new online customers who meet the conditions. Deutsche Bank's business accounts are €14.90 (BasicKonto), €24.90 (ClassicKonto) and €39.90 (PremiumKonto) per month until 31 December 2026, priced per paperless SEPA booking at €0.30, €0.20 and €0.10. From 1 January 2027 they rise to €16.90, €27.90 and €44.90 a month, with bookings at €0.39, €0.29 and €0.12. The page states no free allowance.

Finom's German pricing could not be read — every pricing page returned an HTTP 403 to automated retrieval — so no Finom price is published here.

Worked examples: what a German account costs a month

A freelancer sending 40 SEPA transfers a month.

• Vivid Business Free Start: €0, because outgoing SEPA transfers are free. €0.00.

• Qonto Starter: 5 transfers included, 35 extra at €0.20 = €7.00. With the €5 physical-card add-on, €12.00.

• Qonto Basic: €9 + 10 extra transfers at €0.20 = €2.00. €11.00 (annual-billing price).

• Qonto Smart: €19, all 40 included. €19.00.

N26 Business Standard also costs nothing a month, but its per-transfer terms were not part of what we read, so it is left out of the sum.

A GmbH with 60 electronic bookings a month at a traditional bank (bookings count incoming as well as outgoing items, so check how your bank defines one):

• Commerzbank KlassikGeschäftskonto at the standard price: €15.90 + (60 − 10) × €0.20 = €15.90 + €10.00 = €25.90.

• Deutsche Bank BasicKonto in 2026: €14.90 + 60 × €0.30 = €14.90 + €18.00 = €32.90. From January 2027: €16.90 + 60 × €0.39 = €16.90 + €23.40 = €40.30.

The per-booking price matters more than the headline fee once volumes rise: at 60 bookings, Deutsche Bank's booking charges are larger than its monthly fee.

German deposit protection, including for companies

The statutory scheme is set by § 8 EinSiG: €100,000 per depositor per bank, rising to €500,000 for six months following qualifying life events.

Company deposits are covered. The exclusion list in § 6 EinSiG covers credit institutions, financial institutions, investment firms, insurers, collective investment undertakings, pension funds and public authorities — an ordinary GmbH is not excluded. The Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken confirms it "protects private individuals, private companies and corporations".

Above that, member banks of the private banking association participate in a voluntary fund, the Einlagensicherungsfonds, which protects up to €3 million for private individuals and €30 million for protected companies. These ceilings are falling on a published schedule: from 1 January 2025 the per-institution percentage limit dropped to 8.75% of own funds, and from 2030 the ceilings fall to €1 million and €10 million.

The critical point: Qonto and Vivid are not banks

This is where most German business-account coverage goes wrong.

Qonto is a French-licensed payment institution, not a German bank. Its imprint identifies QONTO SA as a regulated Zahlungsinstitut authorised by the French ACPR under licence 16958, operating in Germany through OLINDA Zweigniederlassung Deutschland under joint ACPR and BaFin supervision. Crucially, the protection is French, not German: Qonto states that in the event of one of its partner banks becoming insolvent, deposits are covered up to €100,000 by the Fonds de Garantie des Dépôts et de Résolution, per bank and per customer. Writing that Qonto customers are covered by the German statutory scheme would be wrong.

Vivid is a Luxembourg electronic money institution, authorised by the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance and supervised by the CSSF. Its funds are safeguarded — held in segregated accounts at credit institutions and, in Vivid's words, "will not be included in our liquidation estate" — rather than covered by a deposit guarantee scheme.

N26 is a licensed German bank, N26 Bank SE, supervised by BaFin and the Bundesbank, so its deposits sit under the statutory scheme.

None of this makes the payment institutions unsuitable. It means operating balances and reserves should be treated differently. Our German-language business banking guide covers this market in more depth.

United Kingdom

What you need to open a business account

For a limited company, the requirements flow from regulation 28 of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017: the bank must identify and verify the customer, obtain the company name, company number, registered office address, governing law and constitution, the full names of directors and senior management, and identify and verify beneficial owners.

In practice, providers ask for the certificate of incorporation, the memorandum and articles, government-issued photo ID and proof of address for every director and beneficial owner holding 25% or more, and a liveness check.

Can a non-UK resident open one?

This varies by provider and is worth checking before you apply, because the differences are stark.

Starling requires UK residency: its eligibility page states that all persons of significant control and all directors with account access must be residents of the United Kingdom, and that the business must not be run through a separate incorporated legal entity.

Tide is more accommodating on residency but not on phone numbers: per Tide, limited company directors may have a home address in the UK or overseas, but every applicant must have a valid UK mobile number, and sole traders must have a UK home address.

Airwallex publishes entity-level criteria rather than director-residency rules: the company must be officially registered, active, and incorporated in an eligible country.

UK pricing, read 16 October 2026

Tide, per its pricing page: Free at £0 with 5 bank transfers a month, Smart at £12.49 with 30, Pro at £27.49 with unlimited transfers, and Max at £69.99. Per its fees page, bank transfers in or out beyond the allowance are 20p, GBP cash withdrawals £1, cheques 90p, and cash deposits at the Post Office £2.50 for deposits up to £500, then 0.99% of the deposit on the Free plan or 0.5% on Smart, Pro and Max. PayPoint cash deposits are 3%.

Starling Business, per its business account page: no monthly fees and no fees on UK payments in or out, with up to six free ATM withdrawals a day within a £300 daily limit, and Post Office cash deposits at 0.7% subject to a £3 minimum. The current price of its optional Business Toolkit add-on could not be read from any Starling page and is not published here.

Airwallex UK, per its pricing page: Explore at £0 or £19 per month — free if you deposit at least £10,000 monthly or hold a £10,000 balance — Grow at £49, and Accelerate on custom pricing through sales (the page listed it from £999 in August). FX is 0.5% above interbank for major currencies and 1% for others, domestic EUR, GBP and CHF transfers are free, and SWIFT transfers cost £10-20.

Worked examples: what a UK account costs a month

A sole trader with 50 bank transfers a month (Tide counts transfers in and out):

• Starling Business: £0.00.

• Tide Free: 5 included, 45 × 20p = £9.00.

• Tide Smart: £12.49 + 20 × 20p = £12.49 + £4.00 = £16.49.

• Tide Pro: £27.49, transfers unlimited.

The same business paying in £1,000 of cash in one Post Office deposit:

• Starling: 0.7% × £1,000 = £7.00, above the £3 minimum, so £7.00.

• Tide Free: deposit over £500, so 0.99% × £1,000 = £9.90.

• Tide Smart, Pro or Max: 0.5% × £1,000 = £5.00.

Cash-heavy businesses should price the deposits, not just the monthly fee: four £1,000 deposits a month cost £28 at Starling and £39.60 on Tide Free.

FSCS protection for business deposits

Two things are commonly got wrong here.

First, the limit rose to £120,000 per eligible depositor on 1 December 2025, per the FSCS. Guidance still quoting £85,000 is out of date.

Second, there is no company size test for deposits. The FSCS states plainly: "We generally protect companies' deposits, regardless of the size of the company." What is excluded is most types of regulated financial services company. For a limited company or LLP, the business and the director's personal accounts are separate deposits, each eligible for the full limit; for a sole trader, all accounts at the same institution aggregate under one limit.

The critical point: Tide and Airwallex are not banks

Tide states it directly: "Tide is not a bank." It is authorised by the FCA under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, firm reference number 900843, per Tide.

Tide's protection position is split, and this is the detail to get right. Tide offers accounts powered by ClearBank, and Tide states that eligible deposits with ClearBank are protected up to £120,000 by the FSCS. Other Tide accounts are provided by PrePay Technologies, where funds are held in a safeguarding account rather than FSCS-protected. Saying "Tide customers have FSCS protection" without that qualifier is inaccurate — check which provider your specific account sits with.

Airwallex UK is an electronic money institution and states unambiguously that it "is not a bank and is not covered by the FSCS, in the event of our insolvency, customers will not be eligible for protection under the FSCS." Our Airwallex review sets out its licence position market by market.

Starling is a licensed bank and publishes the standard FSCS information sheet.

Choosing

• A German GmbH or UG at formation needs an account that issues a capital deposit confirmation. Qonto sells formation packages built around this; a traditional bank will also do it, more slowly and at higher monthly cost.

• A German freelancer with domestic-only needs should take the cheapest compliant option: N26 Business and Qonto Starter both cost nothing monthly.

• A UK limited company with UK-resident directors gets the simplest position from a licensed bank, because the protection question disappears.

• A UK company with overseas directors will find Tide and Airwallex more accommodating than Starling on residency.

• Any business earning in several currencies should hold operating balances with a multi-currency provider such as Airwallex or Vivid, and reserves at a licensed bank.

• Taking card payments in person needs acquiring rather than an account, where SumUp is the option we hold (UK and Swiss businesses sign up through SumUp's UK and Switzerland site); paying supplier invoices in volume points to Melio. UK contractors needing accounting support can look at Caroola, ACCA, AAT and FCSA accredited, UK only.

For the wider category see our business neobanks guide and our Mercury review for the US startup case. Norwegian-language coverage is in our journal guide to business payments, and more sits under business banking.

Important Disclaimer

We may earn commission when you open an account through our links. This does not affect our rankings or the figures published above. This is general information, not financial, legal or tax advice, and it does not account for your circumstances. Statutory references are to the law as published on 1 August 2026; pricing was read from provider pages on 16 October 2026 and changes without notice. Verify current terms with the provider, and take professional advice on company formation and tax. Your capital is at risk.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best business bank account to start a company?

Choosing a business account is mostly a question of jurisdiction. In Germany, a GmbH or UG legally requires a capital-deposit account for share capital. For sole traders and freelancers, there is no legal requirement to hold a separate business account, though many banks mandate separating business and private payment traffic.

What do I need to open a business bank account?

In Germany, requirements include official photo ID, a Handelsregister extract or founding documents, tax number, beneficial-ownership details, and proof of business address. In the UK, providers typically request the certificate of incorporation, memorandum and articles, photo ID and proof of address for key directors and beneficial owners.

Are Qonto and Vivid banks for small businesses?

Qonto is a French-licensed payment institution operating in Germany, not a German bank, with partner-bank insolvency covered up to 100,000 euros by a French fund. Vivid is a Luxembourg electronic money institution where funds are safeguarded in segregated accounts at credit institutions rather than covered by a deposit guarantee scheme.

Which business bank account is cheapest?

It depends on volume. For a UK business making 50 transfers a month, Starling Business costs £0 against £9.00 on Tide Free and £16.49 on Tide Smart. For a German freelancer sending 40 SEPA transfers, Vivid Business Free Start costs €0 against €7.00 to €19.00 on Qonto's plans. Cash deposits and per-booking charges at traditional banks can outweigh the monthly fee, so add them up for your own month.

Is Tide a bank?

No. Tide states that it is not a bank; it is authorised by the FCA under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (FRN 900843). Accounts powered by ClearBank carry FSCS protection up to £120,000; accounts provided by PrePay Technologies are safeguarded instead.

What deposit protection applies to UK business accounts?

The deposit protection limit for eligible depositors rose to 120,000 pounds on 1 December 2025 under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. There is no company size test for deposits, meaning the scheme generally protects company deposits regardless of company size, excluding most regulated financial services companies.