In short:
- Qonto at a glance: a payment institution with a German IBAN and seven plans in two ladders. For freelancers and sole traders these are Starter at €0, Basic at €9, Smart at €19 and Premium at €39, and for teams Essential at €49, Business at €109 and Enterprise at €199. Every price is quoted excluding VAT.
- What really sets the bill: transfers and direct debits share a monthly allowance of 5 to 200 items, and each further transaction costs €0.20. The first sub-account arrives with Smart, cashback needs a card at €8 or €20 a month, and the money market fund is open only to a GmbH or UG from Smart upwards.
- Vivid as an alternative: €0 a month on the Free Start plan, open to every legal form including GmbH and UG, SEPA transfers with no per-transfer fee, unlimited accounts each with its own German IBAN, and investing straight from the business account.
The number on Qonto’s pricing page is a base price, and it has only so much to do with the bill at the end of the month. Three questions sit in between: how many payments run through the account, how many people need access, and which card is in your pocket. Look only at the €9 for Basic and you plan around the items that make the difference. This article works them out, for the Qonto business account in Germany and not for a personal account.
If you would rather not do that arithmetic at all: the business account from Vivid does not ask for it. SEPA transfers carry no per-transfer fee, you open any number of accounts each with its own German IBAN, team members cost nothing extra per person, and cashback with no monthly cap applies to all purchases. That sits in the Free Start plan at €0 a month, open to every legal form including GmbH and UG. You open your free business account in a few minutes, and the documents are usually reviewed within 24 hours.
What is the Qonto business account?
Who can open an account with Qonto
Plenty of people search for the Qonto bank. Strictly speaking Qonto is not a bank, and the company says so itself: it is a payment institution supervised by the Banque de France under number CIB 16958, and Qonto Germany operates as a branch of the French Olinda SAS. If you want to know what Qonto is exactly, the short answer is a regulated payment institution whose account number is a German IBAN on every plan.
The list of legal forms is long. Qonto names sole traders with an e. K. entry, freelancers, the GbR and eGbR, GmbH and UG including their formation stages, gGmbH and gUG, AG, oHG, KG, KGaA and PartG, plus combinations such as the GmbH & Co. KG. The account is opened by the legal representative or an authorised person, and that authorisation is ruled out for single-person legal forms. Proof of identity is required from everyone involved. A Qonto personal account does not exist: the offer is aimed at companies and self-employed people.
In the small print, Qonto excludes certain industries regardless of legal form. Investing inside the account, by contrast, stays reserved for a GmbH or UG. Anyone founding a GmbH can start before the commercial register entry is complete and uploads the register application in the app.
Seven plans in two ladders
Qonto does not sort its plans into one ladder but into two. Starter, Basic, Smart and Premium sit under the tab for freelancers and sole traders. Above them are the team plans Essential, Business and Enterprise. Starter is aimed at new freelancers and is the only plan in the range without a base price.
What separates the two ladders is not mainly volume, it is access. Two people work in the account on the solo plans, the owner and one admin, and each further team member costs €10 a month. From Essential the number is unlimited, with individual roles and rights for additional team members. A team of four people therefore pays €20 on top in a solo plan before the first transfer is even booked.
One note on the price display: every amount on the Qonto pricing page is a net price. VAT is added to each plan, which turns €9 into €10.71 on the invoice. Paying annually means a single payment of €108 for Basic, €228 for Smart or €468 for Premium. The paid plans can be tested for one month.
What the Qonto business account costs
The plans for the self-employed compared
The four plans for self-employed people differ along three dimensions: how many transactions a month are included, whether a sub-account comes with it, and how many cards may be issued. Everything else, from the German IBAN through e-invoicing to the DATEV synchronisation, already sits in the entry plan. Qonto prices are quoted net on the page, and Qonto sub-accounts depend on the plan.
| Plan | Price per month | Transfers included | Sub-accounts included | Cards included | Enough for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | €0 net | 5 a month | no sub-account | 1 virtual card | getting started with the basics |
| Basic | €9 net | 30 a month | no sub-account | 1 physical and 2 virtual cards | self-employed people with few transfers |
| Smart | €19 net | 100 a month | 1 sub-account | 2 physical and 50 virtual cards | self-employed people with many transfers and invoices |
| Premium | €39 net | 200 a month | 4 sub-accounts | 50 Instant Cards on top | higher volume and several sub-accounts |
Two points about the table. The five transactions on the Starter plan run out quickly once rent, insurance and a handful of supplier invoices go through. And the step from Basic to Smart costs €10 more a month, but it brings the first sub-account with its own IBAN, which many people need for tax reserves. A worked example makes the difference tangible. Run 60 payments a month on the Basic plan and you pay the €9 base price plus 30 extra transactions at €0.20, so €6 on top and €15 net in total. The Smart plan with 100 included transactions would be €19, this time with a sub-account. The switch is therefore decided less by the price than by the moment the sub-account is needed.
The plans for teams
The second ladder starts at Essential for €49 a month with 250 transfers, five physical and 50 virtual cards and nine sub-accounts. Business costs €109 and covers 500 transfers, ten physical cards and 29 sub-accounts. Enterprise sits at €199 with 10,000 transfers, 30 physical cards and up to 99 sub-accounts. Paid annually that is €588, €1,308 and €2,388, each of them net.
The step from Premium at €39 to Essential at €49 is rarely decided by volume. It is decided by access: from Essential any number of people work in the account with roles of their own, and that is exactly where a solo plan stops once a team has to be managed. The steps in the allowance are large: from 250 to 500 and then to 10,000 transfers a month.
What is charged on top
Alongside the base price, Qonto runs a set of items that no plan card puts in large type, and they move the bill noticeably. These six matter most:
Further virtual cards come at €2 a month on Starter and Basic and €1 from Smart. Work it through once for an ordinary month. A self-employed person on Basic with 45 payments, two incoming foreign transfers and a Plus Card pays €9 base price, €3 for transactions, €10 for incoming payments and €8 for the card. That is €30 net instead of the €9 on the pricing page. The base price answers a different question than the invoice.
At Qonto the monthly price sets an allowance, and the bill grows with two figures: the number of payments and the number of users. Settle thirty invoices in summer and a hundred and twenty in autumn, and you pay two different amounts. At Vivid that calculation disappears: SEPA transfers carry no per-transfer fee, and team members cost nothing extra per person.
Features of the Qonto business account
Payments and the transaction allowance
Instant transfers and standard payments, direct debits, standing orders and bulk transfers all run in the app. What matters is the mechanic behind them, because Qonto keeps one shared counter for transfers and direct debits. Collect a lot of direct debits and the allowance runs down faster than your own payment behaviour suggests, which brings the €0.20 per additional transaction closer.
You can accept card payments through payment links, Tap to Pay and a card terminal, bookable from the Basic plan and charged from 1.4% plus €0.25 per transaction. The account draws a line at currencies: it is a euro account, foreign currency runs as a fee-carrying transfer rather than as a balance, and Qonto names Wise in its own matrix as the provider behind those payments. For planning that means one thing: what counts is not the number of transfers but the sum of all bookings in a month. If you collect direct debits, count them in.
Cards and cashback
The Qonto credit card is a frequent search; what is actually issued are Mastercard cards in three levels. The One Card is included from Basic, the Plus Card costs €8 a month and the metal X Card €20. Virtual cards come on top, and from Premium there are 50 Instant Cards for short-term spending. Apple Pay and Google Pay work on every plan. The card choice therefore sets the cashback rate, not the plan.
Cashback at Qonto is tied to the card, not to the account. The Plus Card pays 0.4% on eligible purchases, capped at €15 a month and €180 a year, and the X Card 0.8% with a limit of €30 a month and €360 a year. The credit arrives automatically on the first of the month, and the monthly cap applies per company. The arithmetic is short: the Plus Card costs €8 a month, its cap is €15, and reaching anywhere near it takes €3,750 of eligible card spending. With the X Card the same arithmetic also lands at €3,750, because the higher rate meets a higher cap.
Bookkeeping, DATEV and invoicing
This is where the operational focus of the product sits. Legally compliant e-invoices and data synchronisation with DATEV and Lexware are included in the €0 plan. Receipt management lives in the app: you attach the receipt to the transaction and add the tax rate, either 7%, 19% or a custom figure, and from Premium Qonto captures the rate and the amount from the receipt automatically.
From Smart, read access for accountants and the accounting integrations come with it. For your own systems there are APIs and integrations, plus an AI agent connected through Claude MCP and a VAT calculator. Because DATEV and invoicing exist at Qonto, they appear nowhere in this article as a gap. They are parity, not a differentiator. E-invoicing is therefore covered from the €0 plan onwards, with no add-on module.
Qonto Investments: a money market fund for GmbH and UG
Idle balance can be invested at Qonto, though in exactly one product: the BlackRock ICS Euro Liquidity Fund, a money market fund. There are no shares and no ETFs. The variable return p. a. comes explicitly without a guarantee and runs, according to Qonto, from 1.16% p. a. on Smart to 1.96% on Enterprise, and new customers receive a 3% bonus for 90 days on up to €100,000. The money is usually back on the account within one to three days.
A double restriction sits here that provider profiles usually leave out. Qonto writes it verbatim: “available for GmbHs and UGs on the Smart, Premium, Essential, Business and Enterprise plans”. Freelancers and sole traders are outside that circle, and the feature is not switched on in Starter and Basic either. So anyone running a solo business and looking to earn interest on reserves will not find it in the Qonto business account.
Formation, capital deposit and credit
Around the account, Qonto lists several building blocks for the formation phase. If you want to set up a UG or a GmbH with Qonto, the capital is deposited online and the deposit confirmation arrives within 24 hours according to Qonto. A formation with a notary appointment through partner firms comes on top, optionally with online notarisation by video. Anyone still waiting for the commercial register entry uploads the application and uses the essential functions of the account beforehand.
On the financing side Qonto names an overdraft of up to €15,000, a business loan and instalment payment for invoices. Terms for these are not on the pricing page, so no interest rate is quoted here. One point remains: these are separate services with their own pricing, and they are not part of the monthly plan.
Limits of the Qonto business account
No account suits every way of working, and at Qonto the limits can be named quite precisely. Seven points show up in everyday use:
These points follow from a pricing model that calculates per plan and per transaction. For an office with a steady payment volume and two people with access, that adds up. With fluctuating volume, several reserve accounts or a growing team, it shifts month by month. Go through the seven points and a pattern appears: almost every limit is a question of the plan, not of the function.
The limits are less a matter of gaps than of fit. Qonto prices a business account per plan and per transaction, which suits a predictable volume and few users. At Vivid, SEPA transfers with no per-transfer fee, unlimited accounts each with its own German IBAN, unlimited team members and cashback on all purchases already sit in the plan that costs €0 a month.
Opening a Qonto business account
Opening the account runs online, from the first entry to activation. The application is made by the legal representative or an authorised person, and Qonto asks for proof of identity from everyone involved. A company still in formation uploads its commercial register application and then works with the essential functions of the account before the entry is through. For a GmbH and a UG the capital deposit runs in the same step.
The paid plans can be tested for one month, and for an existing company the first payment falls due at the end of that test. Paying monthly means the first month is charged pro rata from the opening date. Qonto gives no figure on its public pages for how long the review takes, and it says nothing there about a credit check either. Ask about both directly if it matters to you.
Alternatives to the Qonto business account
Anyone comparing the Qonto business account usually looks at the same points: price, IBAN, what is included without a surcharge and what happens to the balance. The table sets Qonto against a provider that calculates differently at exactly those points. Two questions decide it almost every time: whether the base price is tied to the legal form, and whether every single payment is charged again at the end of the month. Both can be read off the same row of the table.
| 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 |
| Qonto | €0 (Starter), only 5 transactions a month · from €9 (Basic), excl. VAT | German IBAN | 0.4–0.8% (upgrade card only, capped) | money market fund only | 1 sub-account from Smart (self-employed) | EUR only | SMEs & GmbH/UG |
Vivid as an alternative to Qonto
What Vivid Business offers
The entry plan at Vivid is called Free Start and costs €0 a month. It is open to you in every legal form, a GmbH and a UG included, and SEPA transfers inside it carry no price per transfer. That removes the question of how many payments a month can take. Your business account with a German IBAN is there from day one.
The second point is about structure. You open any number of accounts, each with its own German IBAN, and that already applies on the plan for €0 a month. Reserves for VAT, a project budget, the payroll account: everything sits separately without a higher plan being needed for it. Unlimited team members come with it at no price per user, with four roles and card limits per person. This is where a difference to Qonto sits, where every member from the third onwards costs €10 a month on the solo plans.
And third, the balance works inside the same account. You buy stocks, ETFs, iBonds, money market funds and crypto straight from the business account, and an integrated interest account comes with it. A DATEV interface and invoicing tools are built in, and Visa Business cards are available virtually and physically. Vivid Money S.A. is an e-money institution supervised by the CSSF and not a bank.
The Vivid plans at a glance
Three plans cover what you need, from solo to a growing team. The difference is not the number of bookings but currencies, card rules and the cashback rate. All three are open to every legal form.
| Plan | Price per month | Cashback on all purchases | Accounts with own IBAN | Enough for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Start | €0 | 0.1% | unlimited | getting started, for all legal forms including 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 for Basic and Pro apply with annual payment. Paid monthly they are €8.90 and €24.90. In both cases the amount shown is the amount on the invoice, because Vivid adds no VAT on top of the plan price. Set against the €9 net at Qonto, the comparison is therefore €10.71 with €6.90 or €8.90.
What the €0 plan contains
Free Start is not a taster, it is a complete account. It includes SEPA transfers with no per-transfer fee, any number of accounts with their own IBAN, virtual and physical Visa Business cards, the DATEV interface, invoicing tools and cashback with no monthly cap on all purchases. Team members come along at no extra cost. At the cash machine €100 a month comes free of charge, above that the rate is 2%, and receipts for the bookkeeping are uploaded straight in the app.
If you have just started out, that is exactly what counts. In the first year nobody knows whether a month brings five payments or eighty, or whether two people join in the autumn. An account whose price reacts to none of these questions saves you the month-end arithmetic.
Basic and Pro: what comes on top
From Basic you get accounts in 22 currencies and international transfers on top of everything Free Start already contains. From Pro, advanced card limits with rules by category, merchant and country arrive together with corporate cards for the team, plus a higher cashback rate. In concrete terms, Basic carries five international transfers a month with no fee and €200 at the cash machine, Pro ten transfers and €500 at the machine. For a business account for GmbH and UG nothing changes with the legal form: all three plans are open to every one of them.
Investing and interest from the account
From the business account you buy stocks, ETFs, iBonds, money market funds and crypto, and an integrated interest account for idle balance comes with it. Both are available on every plan and apply to every legal form, from a freelancer to a GmbH. You do not need a second securities account with another provider for it. After four months the interest rate is 0.1% a year on Free Start, 0.5% on Basic and 1.3% on Pro.
In practice that means payments, reserves and investments run in the same app and the same bookkeeping. What you invest does not leave the account, it changes form inside it. Investments carry risk, and their value can rise or fall.
Opening an account with Vivid
Opening runs online, with the identity check handled through a selfie alongside your identity document. Signing up takes a few minutes, and the documents are usually reviewed within 24 hours. After that a business account with a German IBAN is ready, and you create sub-accounts in the app yourself. Standing orders and direct debits move across gradually, which can be handled in parallel with the old account.
If your payments, reserves, team cards and investing are meant to sit in one account, Vivid fits: €0 a month on the Free Start plan, open to every legal form up to GmbH and UG, SEPA transfers with no per-transfer fee, any number of accounts each with its own German IBAN, stocks and ETFs straight from the account, and cashback with no monthly cap on all purchases.
Which business account suits whom?
If your payment volume fluctuates, several people need access and reserves should sit separately, the shorter route leads to Vivid: €0 a month for a GmbH and a UG as well, SEPA transfers with no per-transfer fee, any number of accounts each with its own German IBAN, investing and an interest account in the same account, and cashback on all purchases. That holds for the solo trader with two hundred bookings just as much as for the five-person team handing out cards with rules attached.
A company with a predictable number of payments, two people with access and a need for formation services and a capital deposit account finds that at Qonto. Vivid covers the formation side through its account for capital companies and is otherwise built so that payments, cards and investing run in the same system. Anyone who needs both often ends up combining them: a free business account for day-to-day operations and a specialist for the formation itself.
Verdict on the Qonto business account
Qonto prices a business account per plan and per transaction. For an office with a steady volume and two people with access, that adds up. As soon as payments fluctuate, a team joins or reserves are meant to sit on several accounts, the bill moves up and the base price says less and less about the real cost. For a freelancer with few payments a month, Starter stays an option. From the first sub-account or the second person in the account, it tips.
If you would rather not do that arithmetic, Vivid is where you belong: SEPA transfers with no per-transfer fee, any number of accounts with their own IBAN, unlimited team members, DATEV, investing and cashback on all purchases with no monthly cap, all of it in the Free Start plan at €0 a month, open to GmbH and UG. Comparing prices, the difference shows up not in the base price but in what comes without a surcharge.
Ready for a 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 any number of accounts with their own IBAN.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Is Qonto a bank?
No. Qonto states on its own pages that it is not a bank but a payment institution supervised by the Banque de France under number CIB 16958. The German business operates as Olinda SAS, Zweigniederlassung Deutschland. Client money sits apart from company assets, partly at Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and partly in money market funds. The account number is a German IBAN on every plan.What does the Qonto business account cost per month?
Qonto prices are staggered by ladder and plan. For freelancers and sole traders, Starter costs €0 with five transfers a month, Basic €9, Smart €19 and Premium €39. The team plans sit at €49, €109 and €199. All amounts are net prices, so €9 becomes €10.71 with VAT. Above the allowance, each further transaction costs €0.20.Do I get a German IBAN with Qonto?
Yes, on every plan. Qonto’s feature overview lists the account as an account with a German IBAN throughout, from the Starter plan up to Enterprise. The German business is a branch of the French Olinda SAS. Sub-accounts with their own IBAN only arrive from Smart, while Starter and Basic stay at one account.Can I deposit cash with Qonto?
No. Qonto’s price and feature comparison lists no cash deposits, and the provider works digitally without a branch network of its own. Anyone wanting to pay in cash at Qonto has to arrange it another way. For regular cash takings, a step through another account stays necessary.Is there cashback with the Qonto business account?
Yes, only with a paid card: 0.4% with the Plus Card at €8 a month, capped at €15 a month, and 0.8% with the X Card at €20 a month, capped at €30 a month, on eligible purchases. At Vivid, guaranteed cashback with no monthly cap on all purchases is already included in the Free Start plan for €0 a month, the rate is higher in selected categories.Which alternative fits if everything should sit in one account?
Vivid. Free Start costs €0 a month and is open to every legal form including GmbH and UG, SEPA transfers carry no per-transfer fee, and you open any number of accounts with their own German IBAN. You buy stocks, ETFs, iBonds, money market funds and crypto straight from the business account, the DATEV interface and invoicing tools are built in, and cashback with no monthly cap applies to all purchases.
Status: August 2026. The information on Qonto was compiled to the best of our knowledge from the official provider pages and can change at any time, in particular prices, plans and terms. There is no claim to completeness or accuracy. Please check the current terms directly with the respective provider. Qonto is a trademark of Olinda SAS; there is no business relationship between Vivid and Qonto. Vivid Money S.A. is an e-money institution supervised by the CSSF and not a bank; client 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 results are no indicator of future returns. Crypto assets are unregulated and highly volatile; a total loss is possible. This article is not legal or tax advice.
