bunq Alternatives: The Best Business Accounts Compared 2026

Your business is running, no question, and yet the feeling creeps in that your bunq business account no longer quite keeps up with your own growth, even though bunq, as one of the most popular app banks with a Dutch banking licence, still handles daily payments well and you are far from alone with that impression. But the more revenue, the more questions. Where is the cashback for your running expenses? How do you park reserves without leaving the account every time? And that free plan, does it still hold once a GmbH comes out of it tomorrow? That is exactly the point here, for founders, freelancers and small teams.

So it is clear right away what this is about: business accounts, not personal ones. When you search for bunq alternatives, you get a level-headed overview of the serious providers as a bunq alternative in Germany in 2026 and, at the end, a clear recommendation on which alternative to bunq suits whom. No marketing spin. Just numbers you can compare directly.

What does bunq Business offer?

A look at the strengths and the limits pays off before you switch.

What bunq offers

If you like things tidy, bunq wins you over fast. You set up to 25 sub-accounts, each with its own IBAN, and slide your balance from pot to pot with a tap. German business customers now get a German IBAN, so invoices and direct debits go through smoothly. A multi-currency account, a Mastercard and a DATEV interface for the bookkeeping are all on board, and Apple Pay and Google Pay are there from the start, while as a Dutch bank bunq historically issues a Dutch IBAN (NL) alongside the German one. The Free plan costs €0 but only for sole traders and freelancers, whereas the paid plans Core from €7.99 plus Pro and Elite sit above it, and there is no cashback, since bunq instead pays interest on your balance in the savings account.

Where bunq falls short for business

As charming as the app feels day to day, a growing business leaves a few things on the table. Let us start with the big one: cashback is history at bunq, since the end of 2025 everything runs on balance interest. For running expenses that gives you little back. Anyone who wants stocks or ETFs has to switch to the personal account, which is exactly where the clean split of your finances is lost, and because the free account is reserved for sole traders and freelancers, you are in from €7.99 a month the moment you start as a GmbH or UG. A German IBAN and a DATEV interface, sure, bunq has those now, but on cashback and investing from the account it stays tight. If you are looking for an alternative to the bunq bank right here, the providers below are where you will find it.

bunq alternatives at a glance

Enough of the preamble, on to the hard numbers. The table puts starting price, IBAN, cashback, investing and the multi-currency account side by side, so you see in one go where a bunq alternative scores and where bunq lags. The figures are for 2026. And because prices like to change, take a look at the provider page yourself before you switch.

What matters in a bunq alternative

A switch sounds like effort, but no worries: with the right questions the decision is clear fast. What counts is what really affects your daily business, from the IBAN through cashback and account fees to the safety of your money.

German IBAN or one from the EU?

Nothing is as annoying as a client asking why your IBAN starts with a foreign country code. For invoices, direct debits and salaries you need an IBAN your payment partners accept without a query. The one that stands out is Revolut, where the Lithuanian IBAN is standard and a German business IBAN is only being rolled out gradually. Everyone else makes it easier: bunq, Vivid, N26, Fyrst and Qonto have long given German customers a German IBAN. An EU IBAN does count across the whole SEPA area, no one may refuse it. Still, a German one saves you the endless follow-up, and anyone dealing daily with authorities and payroll offices sleeps easier.

Legal form: who may use the account?

This is where bunq snags fastest. The free bunq Business is open to sole traders and freelancers only. As a company you pay from the Core plan at €7.99 a month. For a GmbH or UG the question is which account grows with you from the start, otherwise you move every payment over after founding. Vivid is there for GmbH and UG too, and so is Qonto. So check which legal form you run today and which one realistically joins it within the next two years.

Cashback compared

Every business purchase is a small chance to get money back. That is exactly what cashback is: real money flowing straight back to your account. bunq pays none, though, and only earns interest on your balance, which helps little on running expenses, while N26 adds 0.1% on the standard and Finom offers cashback from the Basic plan; Revolut and Fyrst pay nothing on the standard. Vivid, on the other hand, pays 0.1 to 0.5% cashback with no monthly limit on all purchases depending on the plan, and up to 6% in selected categories. Over the year that adds up to an amount you see on your balance.

Foreign payments and exchange rate

If you often pay in another currency, the exchange rate decides your costs. A true multi-currency account then plays its strength, and bunq already has one, since several currencies are built in. The other specialists are Revolut and Wise, though Revolut settles at the interbank rate during the week and charges a surcharge of 1% on the weekend. Two things are worth a close look: the size of the foreign-currency fee, and how transparently the rate is shown on the statement. With Vivid you pay in several currencies and see the exchange rate before every foreign transfer.

Security and regulation

With money the fun stops for most people, and rightly so. Where does it actually flow once it sits in the account? Good news first: every provider here is regulated, not one is an unregulated startup. bunq and N26 are full banks, Fyrst belongs to Deutsche Bank and Revolut holds a Lithuanian banking licence, while Qonto operates as a regulated payment institution and Vivid as a licensed e-money institution. bunq is a Dutch bank, your money is covered by the local deposit guarantee up to €100,000. Vivid takes a different route: your money sits separate from company assets, safeguarding is the term. The difference between an e-money institution and a banking licence therefore decides how your balance is protected, but it comes to the same thing, namely that your money stays safely held even where the classic deposit guarantee does not apply. Honestly, though, in daily life only one thing counts for you: is someone reachable when it gets tricky, and is your money there on time?

Accounting and DATEV connection

If your tax advisor works with DATEV, a direct interface saves you both hours at month-end, and Vivid, bunq and Qonto bring one. Fyrst delivers a DATEV export via the data centre, while N26 leans more on common accounting software. Almost every provider allows at least a CSV export. A second look still pays off. Do your receipts land straight in the account, and do you write the invoices from the same app? Vivid, by contrast, builds invoicing right into the account, so you no longer run three programs in parallel.

Plans and fees in focus

An account looks cheap until the first statement arrives. Because the plain monthly price is only half the truth. So look closely at how many SEPA transfers the plan includes, what extra company cards cost, whether cash fees apply when you withdraw or deposit, and whether the provider bills foreign-currency turnover and express payments on top. With bunq it also adds up that the free account is open to sole traders only. An account for €0 can end up dearer than a paid one. That happens once many fee items pile up. Vivid starts with the Free Start plan at €0 a month, with no account-keeping fee. Anyone who needs more company cards or extras picks a higher plan.

Vivid as a bunq alternative

bunq scores on sub-accounts and currencies. Other providers shine on accounting. But hardly any provider brings the decisive combination into one single account, namely cashback with no limit, investing straight from the account and sub-accounts with their own IBAN, and all of that open to corporations too. This is exactly where Vivid comes in.

Vivid account models and pricing

Vivid starts you on the Free Start plan at €0 a month. There is no account-keeping fee and no minimum deposit. Need more cards, more cashback or sub-accounts later? You move into a higher plan without switching providers. You reach your personal contact right in the app, open the business account fully online via video or selfie ident and save yourself the trip to a branch entirely.

Vivid benefits for business

Vivid bundles exactly the points that together make the difference:

All of it sits in one app: account, cards, investing and cashback run together instead of across three separate programs. The cashback with no monthly limit makes real money over the year, and your reserves work for you through the integrated investing. Sub-accounts also work for tax reserves, and through team access with multi-user permissions plus expense management with receipt handling you keep the overview at all times. And because the account is as open to a GmbH and UG as to the freelancer, you save yourself the provider switch at the next growth step.

Who is Vivid for?

The Vivid business account fits freelancers and the self-employed, small companies and a GmbH and UG too. Internationally active teams are just as right here, the ones who want to give up neither cashback nor investing from the account. It pays off especially if you run many business expenses through the card, because the cashback with no limit then lands straight on your balance. And because the plans scale up from the €0 Free Start model, the account grows with you.

Open an account with Vivid

Opening the account runs fully online in a few steps. You give a few details about your company, identify yourself via video or selfie ident and activate your account afterwards, and switching from bunq stays refreshingly straightforward throughout. You move your existing payments over bit by bit. As a fresh founder you are ready just as fast. You find all the details on the page about the Vivid business account.

More bunq alternatives

Beyond Vivid, five more business accounts are worth a look, each with its own focus.

N26 Business

Like it German and plain? Then N26 is worth it. The Berlin direct bank issues a German IBAN, runs a free standard plan and lets you split your money via so-called Spaces. You even buy shares and ETFs from €1 straight from the business account, regulated as a full German bank with deposit protection up to €100,000. It gets tighter in the detail. It gets tighter in the detail, because the free N26 Business is built for sole traders and freelancers, so that a GmbH or UG hits real limits here and the cashback stays thin at 0.1% on top.

Revolut Business

If your money flows across borders regularly, Revolut is the obvious choice. Over 25 currencies run at the interbank rate, on top come virtual and physical company cards plus spending limits for the whole team. Plans start at Basic for around €10 and reach up to Grow at €35 a month, though on the weekend a surcharge of 1% lands on the exchange rate that adds up noticeably over many transactions. Cashback is missing entirely on the standard, and the accounting runs only through Xero or QuickBooks instead of a DATEV connection.

Finom

Anyone who writes many invoices finds a strong tool in Finom. Quote, invoice and incoming payment sit in a single tool, and it sends payment reminders on its own if you want. The whole thing is meant for freelancers and small firms, kitted out with a German IBAN and cashback from the Basic plan. For the rest it gets tighter, because the ecosystem is smaller than at the big ones, securities investing is missing entirely, and with several currencies it soon stops.

Fyrst

Sometimes cash just has to go to the counter. Then Fyrst is your candidate, because the business-account brand of Deutsche Bank has exactly what the pure app banks lack: real branches on site. The BASE plan starts at €0 for sole traders and freelancers, a GmbH or UG pays €6 a month, COMPLETE sits at €10, and on top you get a German IBAN and a DATEV export via the linked data centre. Cashback, though, you look for in vain here, and investing comes only via the linked maxblue depot rather than natively in the account itself.

Qonto

If everything revolves around accounting for you, sooner or later you land at Qonto. The payment institution delivers a German IBAN on all plans, on top a DATEV and Lexoffice connection, the One Card Mastercard and fine-grained team management. Unlike the free bunq Business, a GmbH or UG is welcome here too, without tight revenue limits. Only on price does an "but" remain. The Basic plan already sits at €9 a month, the account runs euros alone, cashback comes only card-based, up to €360 a year, and instead of shares Qonto offers just a money market fund.

Choosing the right bunq alternative

Which alternative fits comes down entirely to your needs: if you want cashback and investing from one account that is open to GmbH and UG too, the road leads fairly surely to Vivid, while N26 stays the solid German option and Fyrst suits anyone who regularly deposits cash. If you pay a lot abroad, Revolut and Wise are strong, for invoice fans Finom is handy, and if everything revolves around accounting, a look at Qonto pays off. A rule of thumb helps enormously here: never count the base price alone, but add company cards, cash and foreign transfers on top, because only this total shows what an account really costs you per year.

Bottom line: which bunq alternative fits?

bunq stays a strong choice for everyone who loves sub-accounts and currencies in a good app. But anyone who needs cashback, investing and sub-accounts in one account for business is better placed elsewhere. Ideally as a GmbH or UG too. With Vivid you find the fitting all-in-one alternative. N26, Revolut, Finom, Fyrst and Qonto cover single needs depending on the focus. In the end your own profile decides, and the table and the criteria above help you choose.

Ready for your business account?

With the Vivid business account you get cashback with no monthly limit on all purchases, investing straight from the account and sub-accounts with their own IBAN in one app, for GmbH and UG too.

Discover the business account

As of July 2026. The details on bunq, N26, Revolut, Finom, Fyrst and Qonto were compiled to the best of our knowledge based on the official provider pages and can change at any time, in particular prices, plans and terms. No claim is made to completeness or accuracy. Please check the current terms directly with the respective provider. bunq, N26, Revolut, Finom, Fyrst and Qonto are trademarks of their respective companies; there is no business relationship between Vivid and these providers. Investing and interest products are provided by Vivid Money B.V. Capital investments carry risks; the value of an investment can rise or fall, and past results are no indicator of future returns.