Qonto vs. N26: which business account fits better?

Two accounts, two very different ideas of what a business account is for. Qonto builds the bookkeeping around the account, N26 wants to be the bank that also holds your personal account. Both advertise a plan at €0 a month. And that is where the arithmetic starts, because free means something completely different at each: Qonto caps the number of transactions, N26 caps the legal form.

This comparison looks at the business accounts from Qonto and N26, not the personal ones. We go through the 2026 plans, the eligible legal forms, sub-accounts, bookkeeping and investing. Vivid appears at the end as an alternative, because several of these points sit in one account there. And you do not need to be planning a switch to read on. The comparison works just as well if your first business account is coming up.

Qonto and N26 at a glance

Qonto: provider and focus

Qonto is a payment institution from France and issues every German customer a German IBAN. Direct debits from suppliers, payments to the tax office and incoming transfers from business clients all run without questions. Practically every German legal form can open an account: freelancers, sole traders, GbR, oHG, KG, UG, GmbH and AG, companies in formation included.

Alongside payments, the focus sits on everything that happens afterwards. You write invoices inside the account, e-invoicing included. Receipts are captured there too, and the DATEV interface passes the data on to your tax adviser. On top of that comes spend management with company cards, card limits and approval flows for the team. Qonto does draw one line across all of it: the feature set depends on the plan, and the zero plan Starter ends at 5 transactions a month. How far 5 transactions get you is worth working out against one of your own months.

N26: provider and focus

N26 comes from the other direction. The Berlin direct bank holds its own German banking licence and gives every customer a German IBAN. The business account is built as a second account next to the personal one, and it is sold that way too. For many self-employed people that is the starting point, because both accounts sit in the same app and one login covers them.

You notice that origin in daily use. The business account stays a payment account: card, app, Spaces, euros. Whatever sits next to it, sits outside it. There is no invoicing tool and no DATEV integration, so you export CSV or PDF and load the files into your own software. If your tax adviser works with DATEV, you organise the handover yourself. It is doable. It is simply work that the interface takes over at Qonto.

Plans and costs compared

Qonto or N26: if you compare the two on the monthly account fee alone, you stop too early. Both work in tiers, but along different logics. Qonto counts transactions and features: more bookings, more sub-accounts, more cards. N26 counts convenience: more free withdrawals, sub-accounts from Smart, a higher cashback rate on Metal. Two details distort every quick price comparison here. Qonto quotes net prices with VAT still to come, N26 quotes final prices. And at Qonto every additional person on a self-employed plan costs extra.

Qonto: plans and fees

The ladder for the self-employed starts with Starter at €0 a month. It includes one virtual card and 5 transactions, after which the next plan takes over. Basic lifts that to 30 transactions and brings the first physical card, Smart to 100 transactions and the first sub-account, Premium to 200 transactions and four sub-accounts. Teams get their own ladder with more cards, more bookings and more seats. Cashback is in none of these prices: for that you add a paid card, and the amount is capped per year.

N26: plans and fees

Business Standard costs €0 a month, and above it sit Smart, Go and Metal. The differences hide in details that do count in daily use: two to eight free withdrawals a month, with every further one at €2. Spaces, meaning sub-accounts, arrive from Smart. Cashback stays at 0.1% on card payments, or 0.5% on the Metal plan. You can pay in cash at partner shops, and N26 charges 1.5% of the amount for it. All four plans apply to self-employed people in their own name.

Who can open the account

In a direct Qonto vs N26 comparison this question often decides things before fees even come up. Eligible legal forms are not a formality here, they are the first hurdle. Qonto accepts sole traders, freelancers, GbR, oHG, KG, PartG, UG, GmbH and AG, and explicitly companies in formation as well. On the pricing page the ladder from Starter to Premium sits under the heading "for freelancers and sole traders", and further legal forms start at €9 a month.

N26 draws the line differently. The business account exists only for self-employed people in their own name. For a GmbH and UG N26 runs a separate company account, and that one comes with size limits: one owner, no more than nine employees, no more than two million euros in turnover. It also requires an existing N26 personal account. For a GmbH that is picking up speed, that is a threshold with an expiry date.

Opening an account runs online and just as smoothly at both. You confirm your identity digitally, submit an ID and, depending on the legal form, documents such as a commercial register extract, and after a few days the account is ready. Neither of them asks you into a branch.

Features compared side by side

On the basics the two sit closer together than their marketing pages suggest. German IBAN, SEPA instant transfers, debit and virtual cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay: all there. The differences sit in a handful of rows in the table. And most of them cost you either money or time.

Accounts, IBANs and sub-accounts

The moment you start setting VAT aside, you need a second account. Not for comfort, but so the money for the return does not blur into everyday spending. At Qonto, Starter and Basic run without sub-accounts. Smart brings one, Premium four, the team plans more. Each of them has its own IBAN.

At N26 they are called Spaces, and the €0 plan does not have them. From Smart you get up to ten, and you can assign each one its own IBAN, up to ten extra per account. Shared Spaces stay without an IBAN. So if you want to keep reserves, projects and salaries properly apart, both providers ask you for the plan upgrade first.

Cards and payments

At both the card is a debit card, virtual and physical, with mobile payments through Apple Pay and Google Pay. After that the paths split. Qonto counts transfers against the plan allowance and sends money abroad in over 30 currencies, while the account itself holds euros only. N26 makes unlimited SEPA transfers and also settles in euros. Withdrawing cash works at both, and the number of free withdrawals depends on the plan. Paying in cash at partner shops is where they part: N26 accepts it, at Qonto it is not a standard route.

Bookkeeping and invoices

This is where the two accounts diverge the most. Qonto brings invoicing into the account, e-invoicing included, lets you capture receipts and pushes the data on through the DATEV interface. On the higher plans your tax adviser gets an access of their own and pulls the documents directly. For many self-employed people that means one tool less and one round of coordination less each month.

N26 delivers numbers, not bookkeeping. There is no invoicing tool and no DATEV integration, so you export CSV or PDF and load the files into your software. That works, but it costs time at the month-end close, and receipts do not match themselves to transactions. Factor that effort in when you put the two zero plans side by side. Subscribing to a separate invoicing tool eats up the price difference quickly.

Investing and interest

Liquid funds just sit on a payment account. Both providers change that a little, in very different ways. Qonto has no securities portfolio but a money market fund product with a variable return that rises by plan. N26 goes the other way: from the business account you buy stocks and ETFs from one euro.

If you think further than the next quarter, the question is not only whether some form of investing exists. It is what you are allowed to hold and whether it sits in the same account as day-to-day business. That is exactly where Vivid covers more ground: a company portfolio spanning five asset classes, plus an integrated interest account. You do not switch apps for it and you do not open a second portfolio at a broker.

Pros and cons at a glance

Whether Qonto or N26 fits better usually comes down to two or three points. So here is the short version of what the two accounts deliver and where they run into limits. The order follows the sections above so you can find single points again quickly.

Qonto pros

Qonto cons

N26 pros

N26 cons

Vivid as an alternative to Qonto and N26

Qonto covers the bookkeeping, N26 the closeness to the personal account. The same thing stays open at both: a plan at €0 a month without a transaction cap that also includes a GmbH and UG, sub-accounts at no extra cost, and investing in the same account. Those four points are exactly what Vivid covers, and it covers them together.

The Vivid business account runs on a German IBAN, opening happens online, and the Free Start plan stays at €0 a month for good. It is open to every legal form, from freelancers through to an AG. Whether you start alone or with a corporation makes no difference to the price.

What Vivid Business offers

The Vivid plans at a glance

The tiering follows a different logic from the other two. The core already sits on the zero plan: a German IBAN, unlimited SEPA transfers, sub-accounts with their own IBAN, team members at no extra cost, a DATEV interface and invoicing tools. The paid plans build on that instead of unlocking basics: from Basic foreign currencies and more receipts, from Pro company cards, card limits by category and country, and approvals.

One detail that often gets lost in a price comparison: the price you see is the price you pay. No VAT on top, unlike providers that quote net. So if you compare Qonto Basic with a Vivid plan, put the gross price next to the gross price.

Who Vivid is built for

For freelancers and sole traders who handle invoices and bookkeeping inside the account and do not want to pay for sub-accounts. For a GmbH and UG that need a plan at €0 a month from day one, the formation phase included. For teams with company cards and limits. And for everyone who invests reserves out of the same account and earns interest on them.

The two needs that Qonto and N26 each cover on their own get an answer here as well: invoicing tools and DATEV sit inside the account, and the business and personal account run in the same app with no second onboarding. So you do not have to choose between bookkeeping and an everyday account.

Opening an account with Vivid

Opening runs entirely online: you confirm your identity with a selfie alongside your identity document, and the check takes only a few minutes. Which documents you need depends on the legal form: as a freelancer an ID is usually enough, for a GmbH a commercial register extract and a shareholder list come on top. If you are coming from another account, standing orders and direct debits move across step by step.

Qonto, N26 or Vivid: which one fits whom?

In an N26 vs Qonto comparison each of the two sets one focus. Qonto puts it on the bookkeeping around the account, N26 on the closeness to the personal account. Both of those focuses cost something elsewhere: at Qonto the transaction cap on the zero plan and the surcharge for every additional person, at N26 the legal form and the bookkeeping that sits outside the account.

Vivid covers both focuses on a plan that starts at €0: invoicing tools and a DATEV interface inside the account, business and personal account in the same app, plus unlimited sub-accounts with their own IBAN, investing and an interest account. Anyone who has founded a GmbH or UG pays just as little as a sole trader. Work out once how many transfers, accounts and users you really need each month, and then compare the gross prices.

A business account with sub-accounts, investing and cashback

Open a Vivid business account entirely online and bring together what other accounts keep apart: unlimited sub-accounts with their own IBAN, investing in the same account and cashback on your business spending.

Open a business account

Status: August 2026. The information on Qonto and N26 was compiled in good faith on the basis of the official provider pages 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. Qonto and N26 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. Capital investments carry risks; the value of an investment can rise or fall, and past results are not an indicator of future returns. Crypto assets are unregulated and highly volatile; a total loss is possible.