Holvi Alternative: The Best Alternatives Compared in 2026

Your invoices go out cleanly, the bookkeeping is tidy, and yet you get the feeling that your Holvi business account is no longer quite keeping pace on price and features, even though the Finnish fintech was a comfortable choice for solo self-employed people for many years thanks to its built-in invoicing, and you are far from alone with that impression. As turnover grows, the questions pile up, such as where the cashback for everyday operating expenses is, how you invest your liquidity reserves more broadly than in a single money-market fund, and why an account that bills per transfer often turns out pricier than expected at the end of the month. That is exactly what this article is about, for founders, freelancers and small teams.

So it is clear from the start what this is about: business accounts, not personal accounts. In your search for a Holvi alternative you get a sober overview here of the serious providers as a Holvi alternative in Germany in 2026, and a clear recommendation at the end of which one is right for whom, without marketing speak and with directly comparable figures that genuinely make a well-founded decision easier.

What does Holvi offer?

A look at the strengths and limits is worth it before you switch.

What Holvi offers

Anyone who writes a lot and has little appetite for a second bookkeeping program does fine with Holvi for a long time, because quotes, invoices and e-invoices sit right inside the account, and a real-time preview shows you the VAT due before you even forget it. German business customers receive one to 15 German IBANs depending on the plan, with every additional one costing 1 to 2 € a month, along with photo-based receipt management and interfaces to DATEV, Lexware and sevdesk. Pricing is tiered and quoted excluding VAT: the Flex account starts at 0 € a month but charges 0.25 € per SEPA transfer, while Lite costs 9 €, the bestseller Pro 15 € and Business 69 €. Committing for a year cuts those figures by up to half, but ties you to a twelve-month contract with no early cancellation. Holvi is regulated as a Finnish payment institution, so not as a classic bank.

Where Holvi reaches its limits for business

As tidy as the invoicing feels, a few things are left on the table for a growing business. Let us start with the most important one: Holvi offers no cashback at all, so nothing flows back on everyday operating expenses. Anyone who wants to invest their balance has exactly one option, namely a single money-market fund at up to around 1.55 % a year, which on top of that only a GmbH or UG may use, while shares, ETFs and bonds are missing entirely. Then the price adds up, because the free Flex bills every transfer separately, you only get unlimited transfers from Pro at 15 €, and the native DATEV connection comes on top as a paid add-on. Cash deposits are not possible at all. Anyone looking for an alternative to the Holvi bank right here will find one among the following providers.

Holvi alternatives at a glance

Enough of the preamble, now for the hard numbers. The table puts the monthly price, IBAN, cashback, investing, accounts with their own IBAN and currencies side by side, so you can see at a glance where the differences lie and where Holvi reaches its limits. All figures refer to 2026, and because prices and terms like to change, you are better off taking a checking look at the respective provider page yourself before a final switch.

What matters in a Holvi alternative

Switching accounts sounds like effort, but no worries: with the right questions the decision becomes clear quickly. What counts is what actually affects you in daily business, from the pricing model to cashback and investing through to bookkeeping and the safety of your money.

Flat fee or per transfer?

An account looks cheap until the first statement arrives. With Holvi the second look pays off in particular, because the free Flex charges 0.25 € for every SEPA transfer, so an active month with many payments quickly costs more than an account with a fixed flat fee. You only get unlimited transfers from the Pro plan at 15 €. So do not just count the monthly price, but add up your typical transfers, extra company cards and possible foreign-currency costs. You run a more predictable ship with a genuine 0 € account: Vivid starts with the Free Start plan without an account maintenance fee, without a per-transfer charge and without a unit price on SEPA, and that holds even when a GmbH or UG sits behind the account. That is precisely what separates it from the other free plans on the market: N26 Business Standard, Finom Solo and bunq Free are limited to freelancers and sole traders, Qonto Starter caps bookings at five a month, and at FYRST legal entities pay 6 € a month after six months.

Cashback compared

Every business purchase is a small chance to get money back. That is exactly what cashback is: real money that flows straight back to your account. Holvi pays none of it, which adds up noticeably over the year on ongoing operating expenses, while N26 adds 0.1 % in the standard plan and Finom only pays a monthly-capped cashback from the Basic plan, none at all on the free Solo plan. Vivid, by contrast, pays you up to 1 % cashback with no monthly limit on all purchases, except ATM withdrawals and SEPA transfers, and up to 10 % in selected categories. Anyone who handles a lot through the card gets part of the spending back, fully automatically.

Investing from the account

Liquidity reserves do not have to sit around earning nothing. This is exactly where it gets tight with Holvi, because there is a single money-market fund at up to around 1.55 % a year on offer, and only a GmbH or UG may use it. Anyone who wants to invest more broadly, in shares, ETFs or bonds, is out of luck. Vivid, by contrast, builds a company depot right into the business account, so you invest from the same account in shares, ETFs, funds, money-market funds and bonds, and get an interest account on top. Your reserves then work for you without you having to leave the account.

Invoicing, bookkeeping and DATEV

This is where Holvi puts its focus, and that belongs in an honest assessment, because invoicing and receipt management sit deep inside the account. A catch remains all the same, because the native DATEV connection runs as a paid add-on and the full bookkeeping depth only sits in the higher plans. If your tax advisor works with DATEV, you want the interface without a surcharge if possible. Vivid brings the DATEV interface along and builds invoicing firmly into the business account, while bunq and Qonto likewise provide a DATEV connection and Fyrst offers an export via its data centre.

Safety and regulation

When it comes to money, the fun stops for most people, and rightly so. Every provider here is regulated without exception, just in different ways. Holvi is a Finnish payment institution and therefore not a classic bank, so your funds are held separately from company assets, which is called safeguarding in the jargon. Vivid takes exactly the same path as a licensed e-money institution, so there is a fair tie here, because neither offers a statutory deposit guarantee up to 100,000 €. It looks different at the licensed banks: bunq and N26 are full banks and Fyrst belongs to Deutsche Bank, which is why the classic deposit guarantee applies there. In daily life, though, one thing counts for you above all, namely that your money stays safely held and someone from customer support is reachable in an emergency.

Vivid as a Holvi alternative

Holvi covers invoicing and bookkeeping, while other payment providers mainly handle the payment side, yet hardly any provider brings the decisive combination together in a single account: a permanently free plan that a GmbH and UG can use, unlimited SEPA transfers with no unit price, as many sub-accounts with their own IBAN as you like, broad investing straight from the account, solid invoicing tools and cashback on top. This is exactly where Vivid comes in.

Vivid account plans and prices

Vivid starts you off with the Free Start plan at 0 € a month, followed by Basic at 6.90 € and Pro at 18.90 €. There is no account maintenance fee, no per-transfer charge and no minimum-deposit requirement, which makes the difference to Holvi’s transaction-based Flex account immediately noticeable. One detail that is easy to miss when you do the maths: at Vivid the price quoted is the price charged, while Holvi and Qonto quote their plans excluding VAT, so 9 € really means 10.71 €. If you later need more cards, more cashback or extra features, you grow into a higher plan without switching provider. You open the business account fully online via video or selfie identification and thereby save yourself the time-consuming trip to a branch.

Vivid’s advantages 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 in several separate programs. What you notice most day to day is the structure, because you open a separate account with its own IBAN for every reserve, every project and every subsidiary without paying per account, while Holvi allots you one to 15 IBANs by plan and bills 1 to 2 € a month for each additional one. Team access comes with no per-seat price, with roles from owner to employee, limits per card and approvals for larger amounts. Your reserves work for you through the built-in investing, and cashback with no monthly limit on all purchases makes real money over the year. Because the account is open to a GmbH and UG just as much as to a freelancer, you spare 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 GmbH and UG. Internationally working teams with a need for cashback and investing are just as right. It is especially worth it if you handle many business expenses through the card, because cashback with no monthly limit on all purchases then shows up directly in your balance. Because the plans scale up from the 0 € Free Start model, the business account grows with you.

Opening an account with Vivid

Opening the account runs fully online and in a few steps. You provide a few details about your company, then identify yourself via video or selfie identification and activate your business account afterwards. Switching from Holvi stays pleasantly straightforward, because you move your existing payments, standing orders and direct debit mandates over bit by bit. You will find all the details on the Vivid business account page.

More Holvi alternatives

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

N26 Business

N26 is the Berlin direct bank with a German focus. You get a German business IBAN and a free standard business plan; Spaces sub-accounts with their own IBAN, up to ten of them, only arrive from the Smart plan at 4.90 €, and the free Standard plan has none. You buy shares and ETFs from 1 € straight out of the business account, regulated as a German bank with a deposit guarantee up to 100,000 €. It gets tighter in the detail: the free N26 Business is aimed at sole traders and freelancers, so a GmbH or UG has to move to a separate, size-limited business account; team members are not provided for on the free plan, and the cashback sits at 0.1 %.

Finom

Finom, like Holvi, focuses on invoicing. Quote, invoice and incoming payment sit in a single tool, and it sends payment reminders on its own if you like. The whole thing is meant for freelancers and small firms, equipped with a German IBAN. It gets tighter with the rest: the Solo plan at 0 € is open only to freelancers and sole traders, a GmbH or UG starts at Basic for 9 €, cashback likewise only starts at Basic and is then capped monthly, team access is limited to one to four users depending on the plan, and investing is missing entirely.

bunq

bunq is a Dutch app bank. You set up to 25 sub-accounts each with its own IBAN, German business customers get a German IBAN, and it brings along a DATEV interface as well as a multi-currency account. As a full bank, your balance is covered by the Dutch deposit guarantee up to 100,000 €. It gets tighter with the free account, which is open exclusively to sole traders and freelancers, so companies start from the Core plan at 7.99 €. There is no cashback, bunq only pays interest on the balance instead, and securities stay reserved for the personal account.

Fyrst

Fyrst is the business account brand of Deutsche Bank and offers, unlike the pure app providers, branches for cash deposits. The BASE plan starts at 0 € for sole traders and freelancers, GmbH and UG pay 6 € a month after six months, COMPLETE sits at 10 € and PREMIUM at 24 €, and along with it you get a German IBAN and a DATEV export via the connected data centre. Billing is per booking: on BASE, after 50 free items, every transaction costs 0.19 €. There is no cashback here, sub-accounts only arrive with PREMIUM, and investing is available only through the connected maxblue depot, not natively in the business account itself.

Qonto

Qonto is a payment institution with a focus on bookkeeping. It delivers a German IBAN across all plans, along with a DATEV and Lexoffice connection, the One Card Mastercard and team management with role permissions. Unlike the free Holvi model, a GmbH or UG is welcome here too without tight limits. The price leaves a but: the free Starter plan covers five transactions a month, Basic sits at 9 € excluding VAT, so 10.71 €, and above that the number of bookings stays tiered. The business account holds euro only, the self-employed plans include the first sub-account with Smart, cashback is available only card-dependent between 0.4 and 0.8 % and capped, and instead of shares Qonto offers merely a money market fund.

Choosing the right Holvi alternative

Which alternative fits depends entirely on your needs: if you want cashback and broad investing from a business account that is open to a GmbH and UG too, the path leads fairly reliably to Vivid, while N26 comes into question as a German bank for the solo self-employed and Fyrst for everyone who wants to deposit cash regularly. If you write a great many invoices, Finom is one option, if you need many sub-accounts and foreign currencies you look at bunq, and for deep financial bookkeeping Qonto is a fit. One rule of thumb helps enormously: never count just the base price, but add the per-transfer fee, extra company cards and foreign transfers on top, because only that total shows what an account really costs you over the year.

Conclusion: which Holvi alternative fits?

Holvi stays in the running if you mainly write invoices and want your bookkeeping inside the account. Anyone who needs a permanently free account with no unit price per transfer, plus as many sub-accounts with their own IBAN as they like, team access without a surcharge, broad investing and cashback, gets further with Vivid, as a GmbH or UG too. The remaining providers cover individual needs depending on their focus. In the end your own profile decides, and the table and the criteria above help you with the choice.

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 invoicing tools in one app, for GmbH and UG too.

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As of July 2026. The details on Holvi, N26, Finom, bunq, Fyrst and Qonto were compiled to the best of our knowledge on the basis of 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. Holvi, N26, Finom, bunq, Fyrst and Qonto are trademarks of their respective companies; there is no business relationship between Vivid and these providers. 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.