7 Best Free Business Checking Accounts of 2021 (Ranked & Reviewed)

As a small business owner I know firsthand the importance of a business checking account. These accounts help manage a company’s cash flow, pay bills, and most importantly, pay yourself. For those looking to open an account, here are seven of the best business checking accounts to consider.

Summary of the Best Business Checking Accounts

BlueVine–Editor’s Pick

BlueVine business checking account is best known for its 1% APY on balances of up to $100,000. At that rate, it pays a higher rate than virtually every other available business or personal checking account. And it’s able to do this without charging a monthly fee.

• Minimum Opening Deposit: $0
• Minimum Ongoing Balance: $0
• Monthly Fee: $0
• ATM Fees: $0 at over 38,000+ free ATMs
• Transaction Fees: None
• APY: 1.0% on balances up to $100,000
• Availability: Nationwide

BlueVine offers a number of features to help business owners streamline their work processes:

• Unlimited Transactions: BlueVine offers business owners unlimited transactions without charging a fee. 
• Pay Vendors: Pay vendors and bills for free by ACH wire or check. 
• Transfers: Easily transfer funds to other accounts including personal accounts at other banks. 
• Security: You can disable your card in seconds if it’s lost or stolen via the BlueVine app. 
• Recurring Payments: Use the vine app to schedule one time and recurring payments.

Novo

If banks were first created in the age of the Internet, they would all look like Bank Novo. And that’s true even though Bank Novo isn’t a bank. It’s a tech company that has built a banking platform. That’s fancy talk for a really cool banking app with a FDIC-insured checking account through its partner bank, Middlesex Federal Savings.

• Minimum Opening Deposit: $0
• Minimum Ongoing Balance: $0
• Monthly Fee: $0
• ATM Fees: $0
• Transaction Fees: None
• APY: N/A
• Availability: Nationwide

Novo offers a long list of features that make it ideal for small businesses. Among other things, a business owner can integrate a number of apps directly with the Novo checking account. Novo’s key features include:

• Invoicing: Create and manage an unlimited number of invoices through the Nova web app.
• Payments: Accept payment on an invoice either through ACH electronic transfer or through pay with a card via Stripe.
• Novo Reserves: Set aside money in Novo Reserves for any purpose, including estimated taxes, a profit account, payroll or other large business expenses.
• Integrations: Integrate Novo with other apps including TransferWise, Slack, Xero, Stripe and Shopify.
• Mobile Check Deposit: Deposit checks remotely from your smartphone.
• Send Payments: Send payments directly from a Novo account via ACH, international transfers via TransferWise and unlimited free transactions within the U.S.
• Novo Debit Card: Includes a free business debit card that can be used with Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Lili

Lili is designed specifically for freelancers. Users of Its mobile app, the heart and soul of the account, highly rate it on both iPhone and Android devices.

It offers free business checking for freelancers and those in the gig economy. 

• Minimum Opening Deposit: $0
• Minimum Ongoing Balance: $0
• Monthly Fee: $0
• ATM Fees: $0 
• Transaction Fees: None
• APY: N/A
• Availability: Nationwide

Lily offers a number of features that can help freelancers manage their business income:

• Tax Tools: Lili offers several tools to help freelancers manage taxes. Among other things, it enables freelancers to automatically set aside a certain percentage of every incoming deposit into a tax bucket. When estimated taxes are due you’ll have the money already saved.
• Mobile Payments: The Lili Business Debit Card works with both Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• Online Payments: Lili works with a number of online payment platforms, including PayPal, Shopify and Cash App.
• ATM Withdrawals: You can get cash out of ATMs without paying a fee at more than 38,000 ATMs across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Lili uses the MoneyPass network.

AXOS Basic Business Checking

Axos Bank offers a full range of banking products including both personal and business accounts. For business accounts, it offers a basic business checking account and a business interest checking account. Both are ideal for small businesses. 

The basic business checking account includes the following features:

• Minimum Opening Deposit: $1,000
• Minimum Ongoing Balance: $0
• Monthly Fee: $0
• ATM Fees: $0
• Transaction Fees: None
• APY: 0
• Availability: Nationwide

Axos Bank offers features that other banks in our list do not:

• Small Business Savings: Transfer money to Axos savings and money market accounts to earn interest on your cash.
• Business CDs: Transfer money to certificates of deposit including CD account registry services to receive FDIC coverage on deposits of up to $50 million.
• Mobile Banking: View account balances, deposit checks and automate your bill payments.
• Merchant Services: Get point of sale terminals and options for mobile commerce.
• Treasury Management: Get assistance managing high volume transactions and optimizing payment processing and receivables.

Radius Bank Tailored Checking

Radius Bank, which is now part of Lending Club, offers a business checking account with virtually no fees that also pays interest and cash back on debit transactions.

• Minimum Opening Deposit: $100
• Minimum Ongoing Balance: $0
• Monthly Fee: $0 if you keep a balance of $5,000 or more, otherwise it’s $15 a transaction
• ATM Fees: $0
• Transaction Fees: None
• APY: 0.10% on balances of $5,000 or more
• Availability: Nationwide

Radius Bank offers several unique cash management features that are ideal for small businesses who maintain a balance of at least $5,000 in their checking account:

• Unlimited Cash Back: Get unlimited 1% cash back or more on online and signature based credit transactions made with the Radius debit card. 
• Unlimited Transactions: Get unlimited transactions without penalties or fees. 
• Free ATMs Worldwide: Radius Bank doesn’t charge an ATM fee and they rebate ATM fees charged by other banks worldwide.
• Integrations: Sync your radius account to Mint, QuickBooks or Quicken. 
• Mobile App: Get real time transaction history, pay bills, transfer funds, send wires and deposit checks through the Radius mobile app.
• Digital Invoicing: Easily request, accept and track payments digitally for your business.

Chase Business Complete Banking

Chase Bank is arguably the most popular bank among the large financial institutions in the United States. Its Business Complete Back Banking package offers relatively low fees if certain requirements are met. It also enables business owners to accept credit card payments directly into the account.

• Minimum Opening Deposit: $0
• Minimum Ongoing Balance: $0
• Monthly Fee: $15 or $0 when certain requirements are met, such as, $2,000 minimum daily balance
• ATM Fees: Free at Chase ATMs
• Transaction Fees: Varies
• APY: N/A
• Availability: Nationwide

Chase offers what it calls Quick Accept, which is a feature that allows businesses to accept credit card payments via the Chase Mobile App. If you use the Quick Accept contactless mobile card reader the cost is 2.6% plus 10 cents per transaction. The cost goes up to 3.5% if using the Chase Mobile App in addition to Quick Accept.

Chase Bank offers the following features:

• Same Day Deposits: Get access to your cash the same day with same day deposits.
• Manage Sales: Issue refunds, track disputes and more through the Chase Mobile App.
• Mobile Check Deposit: Deposit checks to your Chase Bank Account via the mobile app.

Brex Cash

Brex is a cash management account and related credit card designed specifically for businesses. It stands out in that it doesn’t require a personal guarantee.

• Minimum Opening Deposit: $0
• Minimum Ongoing Balance: $0
• Monthly Fee: $0 
• ATM Fees: $0
• Transaction Fees: None
• APY: N/A
• Availability: Nationwide

Brex Cash is a cash management account designed for small businesses. The deposits are FDIC insured through the Brex Cash partner bank.

The account includes the following features:

• Money Market Account: Brex Cash allows customers to invest their deposits into money market funds or keep their cash uninvested at an FDIC insured bank.
• Mobile App: The Brex mobile app enables business owners to manage their account from their smartphone. They can schedule recurring payments, define employee rolls, and approve transaction flows among other things.
• Instant Payouts: Get instant access to your Amazon and Shopify revenue directly to your account.
• Integrations: Brex Cash integrates with QuickBooks, NetSuite and Zero as well as Expensify and Concur for expense management.
• Security: Brex offers two factor authentication.
• Brex Credit Card: The Brex account includes a credit card to spend funds and does not require a personal guarantee. Note that the card is paid daily like a debit card directly from the Brex Cash account.
• Card Rewards: Earn up to 8x in rewards when you use the Brex credit card.

How to Choose a Business Checking Account

There are several factors one should consider in choosing a business checking account. As a business owner myself I have found the following factors to be particularly important:

1. No Fees: Having paid significant fees from a business checking account at a large traditional bank, I can tell you personally that it drains your bank account unnecessarily. All of the checking accounts listed above either have no fees at all or low thresholds to required to waive monthly fees.
2. Mobile App: A lot of banking today is done either on a smartphone or tablet. With the remainder primarily done on a laptop or desktop. For this reason, it’s critical that the bank offer a well functioning online experience. Again, I’ve had experience with large banks who seem to be decades behind in technology. The banks listed on this page all have highly rated apps. That should be an important consideration in choosing a business checking account.
3. Transfers: As a small business owner, I regularly transfer money to or from my personal account. It’s important to be able to connect my my personal account to my business account. This of course is easy if both accounts are at the same financial institution. Even if they are not, this transfer process should be seamless.
4. Interest Rates: Frankly, this is not the most important factor for me personally. I do not keep a lot of cash inside my business checking account. If you do, however, earning some interest should be an important consideration
5. FDIC Insurance: Some of the companies listed on this page are not technically banks. They are technology companies that partner with banks for the deposit Account. What matters of course is that your funds are FDIC insured. All of the companies on this page are either FDIC insured banks or partner with FDIC insured banks.
6. Transaction Processing: If your business has a high volume of transactions and credit card processing, it’s important to find the lowest fees possible. In the case of transactions, you want to find banks that don’t charge transaction fees. For credit card processing, it may or may not be ideal to use your bank. In many cases, you might want to use a separate credit card processor who charges lower fees.

Mythodology

We examined 20 different banks and technology companies that offer business checking accounts. We focused primarily on fees and features. Those banks that either charge no fees at all or had fees that were easy to waive received high marks. In addition, we looked for features that most small businesses would want, including a solid mobile app experience and integrations with other technology platforms.

Lastly, we did consider interest rates and rewards. Some of the banks on this list offer either or both. This was not however, the primary consideration in our evaluation. Many businesses do not hold large amounts of cash in a checking account, and those who want to earn yield may be better served with a business savings account.

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