The key points at a glance:
- FYRST at a glance: three plans from €0 to €24 a month, a brand of Deutsche Bank, a German IBAN, and almost every German legal form can open an account. Every plan bills transactions against an allowance: 50 paperless bookings are included on the entry plan, and each one after that is charged separately.
- Where it gets pricier than expected: the €0 applies only to the first account held by sole traders and freelancers. A GmbH, UG or GbR pays a monthly base price from month seven. There is no secondary account on the entry plan, the link to your tax adviser costs extra on the two lower plans, there is no cashback, and securities run through a separate brokerage account.
- Vivid as an alternative: €0 a month on the Free Start plan, open to all legal forms up to GmbH and UG, SEPA transfers that are not priced per item, as many accounts as you need each with its own German IBAN, and investing straight from the business account.
Whether the FYRST business account is cheap depends on a number that appears nowhere in large type on the plan cards: how many transactions run through your account each month. At twenty transfers, the entry plan costs you nothing. At two hundred the maths looks different, because you then pay the base price plus every booking above the allowance. The second question follows immediately: which legal form you trade under, because that decides whether the zero applies to you at all.
This article is about the FYRST business account, not a private current account. It takes the three plans apart and works through the transaction pricing. It shows what cards, cash and the link to your bookkeeping actually cost, names the limits, and puts both accounts side by side at the end. All figures come from the FYRST price and services list and the official plan pages, read in August 2026. Terms change, so there is a dated note at the end.
What is the FYRST business account?
Who FYRST is built for
FYRST is a brand of Deutsche Bank AG and issues a German IBAN. The banking runs digitally, on desktop and in the app. Behind it, though, sits the branch network of Deutsche Bank and Postbank: that is where you pay cash in, and that is where you take it out again. This combination is the real difference to purely digital providers, and it also explains why the account is priced differently from an app with no counter.
On legal forms, FYRST itself names almost all common forms. Freelancers, small traders, sole traders, registered merchants, GbR, OHG, KG, GmbH, GmbH & Co. KG and UG can open a business account, and registered associations get a dedicated association account on top. The catch is not eligibility, it is price. The first account costs sole traders and freelancers €0 a month on the entry plan. For every other legal form, meaning a GmbH or UG as a legal entity, it is €6 a month, with the first six months running without a base price. If you are in the middle of setting up, put that date in your calendar.
One point belongs before the application, because it catches people out otherwise: FYRST runs a credit check and queries Schufa to do it. So this is not a business account without a Schufa check, and negative entries will usually stop an application. That follows the logic of a bank that also grants overdraft lines and loans in the same house. Anyone looking for an account without that check is in the wrong place at FYRST and should search specifically for providers that skip the credit query.
FYRST plans and costs
What the FYRST business account costs is decided in almost one dimension only: how many transactions are included and what each additional one costs. Three plans are on offer, and everything else inside them, from the card to the cash service, is built the same way across all three tiers.
The three plans at a glance
At FYRST a booking item is every paperless payment that runs through the account, so transfers and direct debits in both directions. The allowance applies per month and expires at month end. FYRST itself talks about free transactions: 50 of them on the entry plan, the FYRST BASE business account. The further tiers are called COMPLETE and PREMIUM, and as you can see in the table, the ratio of base price to unit price flips from tier to tier.
| Plan | Price per month | Free transactions | Price per extra transaction | Secondary accounts | Enough for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FYRST BASE | €0 | 50 per month | €0.19 | no secondary account | Getting started with few transactions a month |
| FYRST COMPLETE | €10 | 75 per month | €0.08 | 1 secondary account with its own IBAN | Self-employed people with many payments |
| FYRST PREMIUM | €24 | no free items | €0.04 | up to 5 secondary accounts | High document volume with a tax adviser |
Two things are not in the table and still decide the outcome. First, the zero price on BASE applies only to the first account held by sole traders and freelancers; every legal entity pays €6 a month there once the first six months are up. Second, PREMIUM has no free allowance at all: every booking is charged from the first one, but at the lowest unit price. And a paper-based booking, meaning an order at the counter or a cheque handed in, costs €5 on BASE and €4 on the other two plans.
What every plan includes
On the terms beyond the booking items, the FYRST business account draws no distinction between the tiers. Here is what you get regardless of plan:
The cards do come with a price list that is easy to skim past, though. The first FYRST Card carries no annual fee, from the second it costs €12 a year on BASE and €6 on COMPLETE and PREMIUM. The Girocard adds €24, €18 or €12 a year depending on the plan. Virtual cards, the kind you would hand out to a team or use for subscriptions and then block again, are not part of the offer.
Before you switch plans, work out what you actually book. At 150 paperless payments a month, BASE costs you €0 in base price plus €19 in booking items, COMPLETE €10 plus €6, and PREMIUM €24 plus €6. So the lowest base price is not automatically the cheapest plan, and the plan with the cheapest single booking is the one with the highest base price. At Vivid that calculation disappears: SEPA transfers are not billed per item, no matter how many there are.
Features in the FYRST business account
Payments and cards
Day to day, payments run through online banking and the banking app. SEPA transfers count towards the allowance, a SEPA instant transfer is available and capped at €100,000 per order. For invoices you collect yourself, the key point is this: collecting a SEPA direct debit costs nothing when ordered paperlessly, a returned direct debit €5.11, and a stored business direct debit mandate €9.99 a year. So if you bill B2B customers by direct debit, you will find those functions in the account.
On cards, the debit principle stands. The FYRST Card is a Debit Mastercard, a card payment in euros inside the EEA costs nothing, and everything else carries a 1.85% currency fee. A genuine credit card with a payment term is not part of the account; it can be added as a Postbank Mastercard Business. Apple Pay and Google Pay work. If you are searching for the FYRST business account with a credit card, know the difference: the card in the package is a debit card, the credit card is a separate product.
Secondary accounts with their own IBAN
FYRST calls them secondary accounts: additional accounts under the same master account number, each with its own IBAN. In practice they are useful for everything you do not want to mix, from a VAT reserve through project money to the buffer for a tax bill.
Availability depends on the plan, and it depends on it heavily. BASE has no secondary account, COMPLETE has one, PREMIUM up to five. So if you want to separate reserves on the entry plan, you have two options: change plan, or open a further account, which also costs €6 a month for sole traders and freelancers. An organisational question turns into a pricing question.
Paying cash in and taking it out
For cash, FYRST runs on the Deutsche Bank and Postbank branch network. You can pay cash in at Deutsche Bank branches and at Postbank counters, and withdraw on top of that at around 7,000 Cash Group machines. Businesses with a till, so trades, hospitality and retail, pay their takings in over the counter.
That does not make cash free. The service fee at the counter is €0, but the deposit itself is billed in steps: for every €5,000 started, it is €3 on BASE and €2.50 on COMPLETE and PREMIUM. Using the cash code at partner tills, a deposit costs 1.5% of the amount. Withdrawals read differently: at Postbank machines, Postbank counters and Deutsche Bank Group branches you pay nothing, and €3.95 per withdrawal at other payment service providers.
Bookkeeping, DATEV and interfaces
The route to your tax adviser runs through paperless data exchange at FYRST: account data in MT940 format goes to a service data centre by remote transmission, and DATEV picks it up from there. That is exactly the line that costs money in the price and services list. It stands at €5 a month on BASE and COMPLETE, and at €0 on PREMIUM. So the DATEV interface is not generally included, it is a function of the plan, and in the maths it shifts the line between COMPLETE and PREMIUM by €5 a month.
For larger payment volumes there is EBICS, which brings its own prices: €50 one-off for the initial registration and €20 a month base fee per format. Bookkeeping software itself is not part of the account but arrives as an add-on package through sevdesk, free for twelve months on the founder account and priced by model after that. So you do not write invoices inside the account, you write them in a connected tool.
Instant access, fixed term deposits and a brokerage account
For money sitting still, FYRST offers a business instant access account and a fixed term deposit account. The entry hurdle on the fixed term product is high: from €50,000 invested, with terms between one and twelve months. We are deliberately not quoting interest rates here, because they run as promotions and go stale faster than this article.
Securities are a separate chapter, quite literally. You do not buy shares, ETFs or funds out of the business account. Instead there is a separate corporate brokerage account at Deutsche Bank, which trades under the maxblue name, optionally with the digital portfolio management service ROBIN. That means a second product, a second application, a second interface. For reserves that are supposed to work, it is a detour.
Limits of the FYRST business account
After the features, the other side. The fees on the FYRST business account hide less in the base price than in the lines beneath it, and these points cost you either money or a plan upgrade day to day:
None of these points makes the account unusable. Together, though, they draw a clear profile: FYRST is built for classic current account business with cash access, and anything beyond that is either a different plan or a different product.
The limits are rarely a shortage of features, they are a question of which tier you are on. Secondary accounts, cheap bookings and the DATEV link all exist, they just sit further up the ladder. At Vivid that scope already sits on the Free Start plan at €0 a month: SEPA transfers without a per-item charge, as many accounts as you need each with a German IBAN of its own, a DATEV interface and guaranteed cashback, open to all legal forms including GmbH and UG.
Opening a FYRST business account
The application runs in three steps and entirely online. You register and pick your plan while doing so, then comes video identification through WebID or your ID card with the eID function, and finally the account is activated. You need a valid identity card or passport to hand; legal entities also need their register documents and the details of the beneficial owners.
Between the application and a working account sits the credit check, and at FYRST it is no side step: Schufa is queried, and negative entries usually lead to a rejection. The IBAN is ready as soon as the check is through. If you are still running an account elsewhere, it pays to wait with moving your standing orders until the activation is confirmed.
Alternatives to the FYRST business account
If you are choosing the account for its cost rather than for the counter, providers with a different pricing model are worth a look. The difference almost always sits in the same place: whether transactions are billed individually, whether the number of accounts depends on your plan, and whether reserves can work inside the account. The table puts Vivid and FYRST side by side on exactly those dimensions, plus price, IBAN, cashback, currencies and the legal forms each account is built for.
| Provider | Monthly price | IBAN | Cashback | Investing | Accounts & IBANs | Currencies | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vivid | €0 (Free Start), all legal forms incl. GmbH and UG | German IBAN | 0.1% to 1% by plan, no monthly cap (all purchases), up to 10% in categories | stocks, ETFs, iBonds, money market funds, crypto | unlimited, each with its own IBAN | 22 currencies | Freelancers to GmbH/UG |
| FYRST | €0 (BASE), freelancers and sole traders only · €6 for GmbH/UG from month 7 | German IBAN | no cashback | brokerage via partner (maxblue) | no sub-accounts on BASE, up to 5 from Premium | EUR only | SMEs & GmbH/UG |
Vivid as an alternative to FYRST
Vivid approaches the maths from the other end: not a base price plus unit prices, but a scope that already stands on the cheapest plan.
What Vivid Business offers
The Free Start plan costs €0 a month. It is open to all legal forms, from freelancers and sole traders through a GbR to GmbH and UG. SEPA transfers run inside it with no per-transfer fee and no allowance, whether you send twenty a month or two hundred. That removes the calculation a booking item model forces on you afresh every month, and a business account genuinely costs you nothing to start with.
The biggest difference is in how the accounts are built. You open as many accounts as you need, and each one gets its own German IBAN, on the €0 plan already. A tax reserve, project money, VAT and salaries can all be kept apart without the number of accounts hanging on a plan tier. Team members join with no cap and no per-seat price, with four roles and approvals for limit changes.
And money that is not needed right now stays inside the same system. You buy stocks, ETFs, iBonds, money market funds and crypto straight from the business account, and an interest account comes on top. The DATEV interface and the invoicing tools are built in rather than added on, and the Visa Business cards come virtual and physical. You do not need a second brokerage account at another provider for any of it.
The Vivid plans at a glance
Three plans, and the difference is not the number of transactions but currencies, card rules and the cashback rate.
| Plan | Price per month | Cashback on all purchases | Accounts with own IBAN | Enough for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Start | €0 | 0.1% | unlimited | Getting started, all legal forms incl. GmbH and UG |
| Basic | €6.90 | 0.2% | unlimited | Working in several currencies |
| Pro | €18.90 | 0.5% | unlimited | Teams with card rules and approvals |
The prices are fixed. There is no “from” in front of them and no VAT to be added on top. What you read in the table is what gets debited.
What the zero-euro plan holds
Free Start is not a demo version. It includes SEPA transfers with no charge per booking, as many sub-accounts as you need each with its own German IBAN, cards both virtual and physical, the DATEV interface, invoicing tools and guaranteed cashback on all purchases. Team management with roles and card limits is part of it too.
For founders, one combination matters most: €0 a month permanently, and still open to limited companies. If you are setting up a UG or a GmbH, you pay no more at Vivid to start with than a sole trader does, and in both cases the number of accounts stays unlimited.
Basic and Pro: what comes on top
From Basic, accounts in 22 currencies and international transfers come on top of everything Free Start already includes. From Pro the card rules widen: limits by category, merchant and country, plus corporate cards and a higher cashback rate. A business account for a GmbH or UG grows with you that way, without having to rebuild accounts or IBANs when you move up.
Investing and interest from the account
At Vivid, reserves stay in the account and work there. Stocks, ETFs, iBonds, money market funds and crypto can be bought straight from the business account, and an interest account comes with it. All of it runs in the same app as your payments.
This is exactly where the brokerage detour disappears. Instead of opening a second product at another provider, you move money between the account, the interest account and your investments, and you see both in the same overview. For companies that need liquidity in stages, that is the practical part of it.
Opening an account with Vivid
The application runs online with photo and selfie verification, and the German IBAN is ready afterwards. If you are coming from another account, standing orders and direct debits move across gradually, as soon as you have switched them over.
If your account, your reserves and your investing are meant to sit in one place, Vivid fits: €0 a month on the Free Start plan, open to all legal forms including GmbH and UG, SEPA transfers that carry no per-item charge, unlimited accounts each with a German IBAN of its own, and stocks and ETFs straight from the account. And guaranteed cashback with no monthly cap comes on top of every purchase.
Which business account suits whom?
If you work digitally, trigger many payments a month and want everything in one place, the shorter route leads to Vivid: €0 a month for a GmbH and UG as well, SEPA transfers that are not metered, unlimited accounts each with its own German IBAN, investing and an interest account inside the same account, and cashback on all purchases. That holds for the solo freelancer with two hundred bookings just as much as for the five-person team that wants to hand out cards with rules attached.
If you regularly pay cash in at a counter, or need an overdraft line from your own house bank, you will find both at FYRST across the Deutsche Bank and Postbank branch network. Vivid covers the cash side through cards and machines and is otherwise built for cashless work, with card payments, sub-accounts and investing in one system. Many people end up combining the two: a business account at €0 a month for day-to-day operations and a house bank for the cash.
Conclusion on the FYRST business account
FYRST is Deutsche Bank’s digital business account, with a German IBAN and cash over the branch network. The price hangs on your transaction count: few, steady bookings stay inside the allowance, many add per-item charges, and the tax adviser link without a surcharge only arrives on the most expensive plan. Swinging transaction volumes, reserves spread across several accounts and trading as a limited company therefore land straight on the monthly bill.
As soon as more than payments is supposed to happen inside the account, the picture shifts. At Vivid, SEPA transfers with no per-transfer fee, as many accounts as you need each with its own IBAN, a DATEV interface, investing and cashback all sit on the plan that costs €0 a month, and your legal form does not decide the price. So if you are comparing prices for 2026, look past the base price at what comes included without a surcharge.
Ready for your business account?
Open a Vivid business account with a German IBAN: €0 a month on the Free Start plan, SEPA transfers with no per-transfer fee, and as many accounts with their own IBAN as you need.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Is the FYRST business account free?
The FYRST BASE plan costs €0 a month, but only for the first account held by sole traders and freelancers. Every other legal form pays €6 a month there, with the first six months running without a base price. On top of that come the booking items: 50 paperless transactions are included per month, and each additional one costs €0.19. So FYRST BASE is a free business account for solo self-employed people with few payments, not for every set-up.Does FYRST run a Schufa check when you open an account?
Yes. FYRST runs a credit check and queries Schufa to do it, as is usual for a bank that also grants overdraft lines and loans. Negative entries will usually stop an application. So FYRST is not a business account without a Schufa check.Can a GmbH or UG open a FYRST business account?
Yes. FYRST supports almost every German legal form, including GmbH, GmbH & Co. KG, UG, GbR, OHG, KG, registered merchants and registered associations. The difference is the price: for legal entities the first account on the BASE plan runs six months without a base price and costs €6 a month after that. On COMPLETE and PREMIUM the same €10 and €24 a month apply to every legal form.Can I pay cash into the FYRST business account?
Yes, at Deutsche Bank branches and Postbank counters. The service fee at the counter is €0, while the deposit itself is billed in steps: for every €5,000 started it is €3 on BASE and €2.50 on COMPLETE and PREMIUM. Using the cash code at partner tills, a deposit costs 1.5% of the amount. Withdrawals are free at around 7,000 Cash Group machines and at Postbank counters.Does the FYRST business account offer cashback?
No, cashback on card payments is not part of what FYRST offers. At Vivid, guaranteed cashback on all purchases is included from the Free Start plan at €0 a month, with no monthly cap, and the rate is higher in selected categories.Which alternative fits if everything should sit in one account?
Vivid. The Free Start plan costs €0 a month and is open to all legal forms including GmbH and UG, SEPA transfers run with no per-transfer fee, and you open as many accounts with their own German IBAN as you need. Stocks, ETFs, iBonds, money market funds and crypto can be bought straight from the business account, the DATEV interface and invoicing tools are built in, and guaranteed cashback with no monthly cap comes on top of every purchase.
Status: August 2026. The information on FYRST was compiled in good faith from the official provider pages and the price and services list and may 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. FYRST is a brand of Deutsche Bank AG; there is no business relationship between Vivid and FYRST. Vivid Money S.A. is an electronic money institution supervised by the CSSF and is not a bank; customer funds are held separately. Investment and interest products are provided by Vivid Money B.V. Investments carry risks; the value of an investment can rise or fall, and past performance is not an indicator of future returns. Crypto assets are unregulated and highly volatile; a total loss is possible. This article is not legal or tax advice.
