Finom vs. N26: which business account fits better?

Two accounts, two very different promises. Finom wants to save you the invoicing software, N26 wants to be the bank that also holds your personal account. Both advertise a plan at €0 a month, and that is exactly where the confusion starts. At both providers the zero plan applies to certain legal forms only. If you have set up a GmbH or UG, you land on a paid plan at Finom and on a different product at N26.

This comparison looks at the business accounts from Finom and N26, not the personal ones. We go through the 2026 plans, the eligible legal forms, sub-accounts, bookkeeping and cashback. 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 you are looking for your first business account.

Finom and N26 at a glance

Finom: provider and focus

Finom is an e-money institution with its own licence from the Dutch central bank De Nederlandsche Bank, registered under the number R180074. The account used to run through the partner bank Solaris SE, and Finom is currently moving away from that. What stays visible for you is mainly one thing: every German customer gets a German IBAN. Direct debits from suppliers and incoming payments from business clients therefore run without questions.

The focus sits somewhere other than plain account management. You write invoices inside the account, e-invoicing included, receipts travel onwards through bookkeeping integrations, and card payments earn cashback. Two things are structurally missing. There is no investing from the account, so a balance stays a balance. And Finom accepts no cash, neither at an ATM nor at a partner shop.

N26: provider and focus

N26 comes from the other direction. German IBAN, debit card, app: 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. The business account itself stays a payment account, and the tools around invoicing and bookkeeping sit outside it.

That origin shows in day-to-day business. The account settles in euro, foreign currency is not its subject. And it brings no bookkeeping with it: no invoicing tool, no DATEV integration, only a CSV or PDF export. If your tax adviser works with DATEV, you organise the handover yourself. It is doable, but it is work that the bookkeeping software takes over at Finom.

Plans and costs compared

Comparing Finom or N26 on the monthly account fee alone stops too early. Both providers tier their plans, only along different logics. Finom sells scope: more free items, more users, higher cashback. N26 sells convenience: more free withdrawals, more Spaces, and from Go also foreign-currency payments without a mark-up. Two details are worth a second look, because they distort the price comparison. Finom quotes net prices with VAT on top, N26 quotes final prices. And on the lower Finom plans you pay extra for every additional user.

Finom: plans and fees

The entry plan is called Solo and costs €0 a month. It is meant for freelancers and sole traders, and there is no cashback here. Only from Basic does the account open up to corporations at all, and from there the cashback of at least 1% applies, though with a monthly ceiling. Smart raises the free items and the number of users. Above that sit plans for larger teams. Finom rebuilt that part of the price list in summer 2026, so check it directly with the provider before you commit.

N26: plans and fees

Business Standard sits at €0 per month, and the physical card costs €10 once. Above it sit Smart, Go and Metal. The difference lives in details you do notice in daily use: two to eight free withdrawals a month, foreign-currency payments without a mark-up from Go, cashback of 0.1% and 0.5% on the Metal plan. Sub-accounts only arrive from Smart. Cash can be deposited at partner shops, for which N26 charges 1.5% of the amount.

Who can open the account

In a direct Finom vs N26 comparison this question often decides things before fees even come up. Eligible legal forms are no formality here. At Finom the Solo plan is reserved for freelancers and sole traders. From Basic, a GbR, OHG, KG, UG, GmbH and AG are added, including companies still being formed. If you are registering a UG right now, you can use the account from day one, but you pay from the first month.

N26 draws the line differently. The business account exists only for self-employed people trading under their own name. For a GmbH and UG, N26 runs a separate company account, and that one is tied to size: one director, a maximum of nine employees, no more than two million euros in revenue. An existing N26 personal account is a prerequisite on top. For a growing GmbH that is a threshold you will eventually cross.

Getting into the account is equally straightforward at both. You verify yourself online by video ID, submit an identity document and, depending on the legal form, evidence such as a commercial-register extract, and after a few days you can use the account. Neither provider asks you to visit a branch.

Features 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 money or time in daily use.

Accounts, IBANs and sub-accounts

As soon as you set VAT aside, you need a second account. Not for comfort, but so the money for the VAT return does not blur into your running expenses. Finom allows as many sub-accounts as you like, even on the Solo plan.

At N26 they are called Spaces, and on the €0 plan they do not exist. From Smart you get up to ten, and you can assign each of them its own IBAN, with a maximum of ten additional IBANs per account. Shared Spaces stay without an IBAN. So if you want to separate reserves, projects and salaries cleanly, at N26 you first pay for the step up.

Cards and payments

Cards are debit cards at both providers, virtual and physical, with mobile payments through Apple Pay and Google Pay. After that the paths split. Finom runs a foreign-currency account next to the euro account, while N26 settles the business account in euro and charges a mark-up on foreign-currency payments outside the higher plans. With cash it is the other way round: N26 accepts deposits at partner shops, Finom accepts none at all. Withdrawing cash works at both, and the number of free withdrawals depends on the plan. If notes regularly pile up in your till, plan for that early.

Bookkeeping and invoicing

This is where the two accounts diverge furthest. Finom brings integrated invoicing, e-invoicing included, lets you capture receipts and pushes the data onwards through a DATEV interface and integrations such as Lexware Office or sevDesk. For many self-employed people that means one tool less and one round of reconciliation 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 own software. That works, but it costs time at month-end, and your tax adviser does not get receipts matched to transactions automatically. Factor that effort in when you put the monthly fees side by side. Subscribing to a separate invoicing tool eats up the price difference quickly.

Investing and interest

On a payment account, spare funds usually just sit there. N26 changes that in part: from the business account you can buy stocks and ETFs from one euro. Finom offers no investing from the account, so a balance stays a balance there.

If you think further ahead than the next quarter, the question is not only whether a securities account exists. It is what may sit inside it, and whether it sits in the same account as your day-to-day business. This is exactly where Vivid covers more ground: stocks, ETFs, iBonds, money market funds and crypto, plus an integrated interest account. You do not switch apps for it and you do not open a second securities account with a broker.

Pros and cons at a glance

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

Advantages of Finom

Disadvantages of Finom

Advantages of N26

Disadvantages of N26

Vivid as an alternative to Finom and N26

Finom covers the invoicing, N26 the proximity to your personal account. What stays open at both is the same thing: a plan at €0 a month that includes a GmbH and UG, sub-accounts without a surcharge, and investing inside the same account. Vivid covers all four of those points, and it covers them together.

The Vivid business account runs on a German IBAN, opening happens online, and the Free Start plan sits at €0 a month for good. It is open to every legal form, from freelancers and sole traders through a GbR and OHG to a UG, GmbH and AG. Whether you start out alone or with a corporation changes nothing about the price.

What Vivid Business offers

The order below is deliberate. First comes what shapes the structure of the account, then what sits on top.

The Vivid plans: Free Start, Basic and Pro

The tiering follows a different logic from the other two. What makes up the core of the account already sits on the zero plan: a German IBAN, unlimited SEPA transfers with no price per transaction, as many sub-accounts with their own IBAN as you need, unlimited team members with no per-seat surcharge, a DATEV interface, invoicing tools and cashback on all purchases. The paid plans build on that instead of unlocking basics.

From Basic, accounts in further currencies come in, international transfers with a free allowance, the DATEV receipt-image service and unlimited receipts for the bookkeeping. From Pro, advanced card limits with restrictions per category, merchant and country come in, plus corporate cards and an approval flow for larger amounts. The cashback rate and the interest rate rise with every step.

One detail that often gets lost in a price comparison: the price shown is the price charged. VAT does not come on top, unlike with providers that quote net. So if you compare Finom Basic with a Vivid plan, put the gross price next to the gross price.

Who Vivid fits

Freelancers and sole traders who handle invoices and bookkeeping inside the account and do not want to pay for sub-accounts. A GmbH and UG that need a €0 plan from day one, formation phase included. Teams that issue cards and set limits per card, category and country. And anyone who wants to do more than park reserves: from the same account you can invest in stocks, ETFs, iBonds, money market funds or crypto and earn interest through the interest account.

The two needs that Finom and N26 each cover on their own also have an answer here: invoicing 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, and you verify yourself by video or selfie ID. Which documents you need depends on the legal form: as a freelancer an identity document is usually enough, while a GmbH also needs a commercial-register extract and a shareholder list. If you are coming from another account, standing orders and direct debits move across step by step.

Finom, N26 or Vivid: which fits whom?

In an N26 vs Finom comparison each of the two sets a focus. Finom sets it on invoicing inside the account, N26 on the proximity to your personal account. Both focuses cost something elsewhere: with Finom the price, as soon as a GmbH or UG stands behind it; with N26 the step up in plan, as soon as you need sub-accounts, and the bookkeeping outside the account.

Vivid covers both focuses on one plan that starts at €0: invoicing tools and a DATEV interface inside the account, the business and personal account in the same app, plus unlimited sub-accounts with their own IBAN, investing and an interest account. Anyone who has set up a GmbH or UG pays as little for that as a sole trader. Work out once how many transfers, accounts and users you really need in a month, 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 stays separate at other accounts: unlimited sub-accounts with their own IBAN, investing inside the same account, and cashback on your business spending.

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Status: August 2026. The information on Finom 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. Finom 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.