Vivid vs Revolut: business account comparison 2026

Two providers, two very different starting points. Vivid comes from the full business account and puts cards, sub-accounts, accounting links and investing into one app. Revolut comes from international payments and built its business offering around currencies and spend control. This comparison looks only at the business accounts of the two, not the personal ones.

It is written for everyone who is choosing right now: founders before their first business account as much as self-employed people who already have one and are unhappy with the fees. Every figure about Revolut comes from the official pages of the provider; the check date sits in the notice at the end.

Vivid and Revolut compared directly

Vivid vs Revolut boils down to about a dozen points, and in practice the decision hangs on them: the monthly account fee, the country of the IBAN, what a SEPA transfer costs, whether cashback and investing are included, and which legal forms are accepted at all. Prices and terms keep changing, which is why the check date sits in the notice at the end and not in the body text.

The Vivid column deliberately comes first and is tinted. Everything in it comes from the fee schedule and the help centre, everything about Revolut from the official pages of the provider. Where a figure is missing there, the row says so instead of smoothing it over.

What is Revolut Business?

Plans, account and cards at Revolut

Behind Revolut Business stands Revolut Bank UAB, a credit institution licensed in the European Economic Area with a German branch in Berlin. The business offering is split into four tiers: Basic, Grow, Scale and Enterprise. Entry sits at €10 a month, and there is no permanently free plan.

The focus is money that crosses borders. More than 25 currencies can be held and exchanged, and the exchange runs at the interbank rate as long as it stays inside the monthly allowance of the respective plan. Transfers are metered per plan: a set number is included, after that each booking is charged. For teams: unlimited users cost nothing extra, and each team member gets physical and virtual cards.

The account comes with virtual and physical debit cards, mobile payments via Apple Pay and Google Pay, instant transfers inside SEPA and SWIFT transfers abroad. For bookkeeping and automation there are interfaces and integrations through an API, plus the link to Lexware Office and around 45 other bookkeeping tools. Support runs through live chat in the app.

The savings account and the money market funds are tied to the middle plan and are not part of the entry tier. So anyone starting on Basic is looking at a pure payment account.

Where Revolut Business runs into limits

The first hurdle sits right at the start. Anyone who registered their business as a sole trader cannot open Revolut Business at all and is pointed to Revolut Pro, a simplified account inside the personal app. For a large share of self-employed people in Germany the comparison ends there, before the price even comes up.

The second hurdle is the account number. The German pricing page says nothing about the country of the IBAN, and the only official statement sits in the help centre: the default is a Lithuanian IBAN, and a German one depends on migration to the branch. If your customers pay by direct debit or your tax adviser expects a German bank detail, that is worth clarifying beforehand.

On top of that come three gaps you notice in daily use. There is no DATEV interface. The business account pays no cashback, which at Revolut exists only in Pro, so in the personal product. And anyone exchanging outside market hours pays a mark-up on the rate, as does anyone above the monthly allowance. Spend management with card limits and approvals, for many teams the actual reason for an account like this, costs extra per person.

Cash works differently at digital providers than at a branch bank. Depositing over a counter is not part of either offering, and ATM withdrawals are capped per plan. If your business runs mostly cashless, you will not notice it day to day.

Vivid Business in detail

What Vivid Business offers

This is exactly where Vivid comes in, and it is why Vivid vs Revolut often ends on the question of how much an account has to be able to do. The business account starts with Free Start at €0 a month, permanently and for every legal form, from freelancers through a GbR to a GmbH, UG and AG. SEPA transfers run without a price per booking, so there is no allowance that eventually runs out.

If you want to keep money cleanly separated, you open as many accounts as you need. Each of them gets its own German IBAN, already on the €0 plan. For VAT reserves, individual projects or a subsidiary this is the most practical difference in the whole comparison, because otherwise you run several accounts at several providers.

The money does not have to sit still. From the same account you can invest: the business brokerage is provided by Vivid Money B.V. and covers stocks, ETFs, iBonds, money market funds and crypto assets, and there is an interest account for the balance that should stay available at short notice. None of that requires a second brokerage account at a second provider, and none of it is tied to a higher plan.

Teams cost nothing extra per head at Vivid. Unlimited team members work with four user roles, with card limits per card and with an approval flow when someone needs more room. Virtual and physical Visa cards cost nothing extra, and mobile payments via Apple Pay and Google Pay are built in. For bookkeeping, invoicing and digital receipt management sit inside the account, along with the DATEV interface and the link to common bookkeeping software. Your tax adviser gets their own access, and the VAT figures sit where they are needed. If you bill internationally, from the Basic plan you run accounts in 22 currencies; Free Start stays on euro.

And on top comes the cashback: guaranteed and with no monthly cap on all purchases, between 0.1% and 1% depending on the plan, and up to 10% in selected categories. Cash withdrawals and SEPA transfers, among others, do not earn cashback; the cashback terms in the price list apply.

Vivid plans: Free Start, Basic and Pro

Paying annually makes it cheaper. More interesting than the prices themselves, though, is what the lowest plan already includes.

Free Start has no monthly base fee, no minimum revenue and no activity condition; beyond that the price list applies. Revolut Business has no free plan; entry there is €10 a month. The difference looks small, but over the first year it adds up to the amount many founders budget for their accounting software.

SEPA transfers are included at Vivid on every plan without a per-item price. Revolut charges bookings individually once a fixed allowance per plan is used up. If you pay a lot of small invoices, you notice that faster than the monthly fee suggests.

Cashback, investing, sub-accounts with their own German IBAN and the DATEV link do not depend on the plan at Vivid, they are there from Free Start. At Revolut, interest and money market funds only start on the middle plan. From the Basic plan onwards, accounts in 22 currencies and transfers abroad come on top. If you move a lot in foreign currency, factor that in. Otherwise the step up to Basic and Pro does not unlock basic functions, it raises limits: higher cashback rates, better interest, more room on limits and cards.

Who Vivid suits

For freelancers and sole traders, who are not even accepted by Revolut Business, the account is open from the start. For small companies that do not yet want to carry a fixed monthly fee, Free Start is the obvious beginning.

A GmbH and a UG get the same free entry account as everyone else, which is rare in the German market for capital companies. Internationally active businesses run accounts in 22 currencies from Basic, rather than opening a separate one at every bank. And for everyone who does not want to look for cashback and investing in a second app, both sit inside the business account itself.

Vivid is built for working cashless: payments, cards, sub-accounts and receipts all come together digitally. Businesses that pay in notes over a counter every day usually combine that with a branch bank.

Opening an account with Vivid

Opening the account runs online and without a branch. You set it up in the app and enter the company profile: name, legal form and registration details. Then comes the identity check, for which a passport or ID card and good lighting are enough; every managing director gets their own link by email for it. There is no appointment on site, because there are no branches. A SCHUFA check does not stand in the way of the business account.

If you are coming from another provider, you do not have to move in a single day: standing orders and SEPA direct debits can be switched over gradually during the account switch, while the old account is still running. As soon as the check is through, the IBAN and cards are ready and the first payment can go out.

Vivid or Revolut: which one fits whom?

Vivid vs Revolut rarely ends in a draw, because the two are optimised for different things. Vivid fits when the account should start without a fixed monthly fee and the legal form must not get in the way. It fits when you split money across several accounts with their own German IBAN, want to invest straight from the account, and want to collect cashback without opening a second product. And it fits when your tax adviser works with DATEV.

Revolut fits when the focus is on foreign currencies and the amounts are large enough for a high interbank allowance to pay off. It also fits when a larger team runs spend with approval workflows and card limits. At Vivid, accounts in 22 currencies and transfers abroad come with the Basic plan, on top of everything Free Start already includes. Vivid and Revolut are regulated differently, and the regulation row in the table above names both models together with the protection that comes with them.

In practice it usually comes down to one question: should the account mainly handle payments abroad, or should it be the place where all the business money sits, works and gets evaluated. Revolut puts its focus on the first. Vivid covers both: accounts in 22 currencies from Basic, plus cashback, investing and sub-accounts with their own German IBAN from €0 in base fees.

One piece of practical advice: do not weigh the monthly fees against each other, work out a typical quarter instead. Count your transfers, the currency exchange, the card payments and what comes back as cashback. At small volumes the entry price decides it, at large volumes the terms behind it do, and both of those are in the table further up this page.

Open a business account with Vivid

Free Start costs €0 in base fees a month, is open from freelancers to a GmbH and UG, and comes with sub-accounts that each have their own German IBAN, cashback and investing from the start.

Open an account

As of 1 August 2026. The business account is provided by Vivid Money S.A., an e-money institution supervised by the CSSF in Luxembourg; investment and interest products are provided by Vivid Money B.V. under AFM supervision. The information about Revolut was compiled to the best of our knowledge from the official pages of the provider 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. Revolut is a registered trademark of Revolut Ltd. and Revolut Bank UAB respectively; there is no business relationship between Vivid and Revolut. The content of this page has been neither reviewed nor approved by Revolut. 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.