Compare The Best Business Bank Accounts 2025
How to choosethe best business bank account?
There’s a huge range of business bank accounts in the UK, so to make things easier, we’ve categorised them by business requirements:
- The cheapest business bank account
- The best value for money
- The best for sole traders
- The best for small businesses
- The best for limited companies
- The best for start ups
- The best for joint business accounts
- The best for cash-heavy businesses
- The best for
international payments
- The best for card payments collections
- The best for accounting and taxes
- The best for cheques
The best online only business bank accounts:
- ANNA business account
- Revolut Business
- Tide
- Monzo Business
- Starling
- Zempler (ex-Cashplus)
The best high street business bank accounts:
- Barclays
- Natwest
- HSBC
- Lloyds
The cheapest business bank account
There are a lot of “free” business bank accounts, but they may not be the bargain you think they are. Pricing plans where you’re not paying a monthly fee usually mean you’re limited on services or features - or you’re hit with higher fees when you do use them. So if you’re looking to save on banking fees, it’s important to understand your financial activity. Ask yourself - what services do I use and how much money will be going through my account?
That’s why ANNA offers the first month free, so you can try it and then choose the package that saves you the most, and it means you’re not paying extra for the features you don't use.
However, if all you need are local UK transactions and you’re not too concerned about customer support, we’d also recommend checking out Monzo.
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The best value for money
Tech developments mean that these days a business account is so much more than just money coming in and going out. The features in your business banking app can help you with everything from chasing invoices, scanning and tidying receipts to automated expense categorisation and bookkeeping and tax calculation. All of this saves you money.
Nowadays, instead of buying additional accounting software you can get everything in a single app. That’s why ANNA pays for itself - in 2024 we helped our customers to save over £1,000,000 on taxes by automating a lot of the everyday admin tasks with our +Taxes service, which costs just £3 for the first 3 months and £24 after (we think you’ll quickly realise how useful it is, but if you disagree it’s easy to cancel).
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The best for sole traders
The main question for the sole traders is - do I actually need a business bank account?
As a sole trader you’re not legally obliged to have one, but it’s highly recommended as it means you can separate your personal and business expenses; it’s vital you keep track of your expenses for legal reasons and because the more expenses you can legitimately claim, the less tax you pay.
Happily, ANNA can help with that. When you open an ANNA business account, you get your own business debit card, and we remind you to snap a pic of all your receipts in the ANNA app, so they’re logged and your expenses are automatically categorised. So you’re always complying with HMRC and can save money on your taxes.
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The best for small businesses
ANNA is a great destination for small businesses. Our business account comes with all the tools needed to grow your business, and our award-winning customer service is available 24/7 when you need us. Got a question? Just ask us in the app.
You can open an ANNA account in under 10 minutes, with just your ID and some basic information about your business plans.
When you’re getting started in business, it can be hard to know where to begin, but ANNA makes things simple: it’s easy to issue invoices, keep track of expenses and stay on top of your tax obligations. And because ANNA is chat-based, if you have any queries, we get back to you straight away in the app.
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The best for limited companies
As a limited company you’re legally obliged to have a separate business account (by the way, if you do choose to start a limited company, you can register it with us).
As a limited company, you need to know all about your tax obligations, such as VAT and Corporation Tax. Fortunately, with ANNA’s +Taxes add-on, you’re always on top of your taxes. ANNA records and categorises every transaction, pairing it up with a receipt or invoice, so everything is accounted for. ANNA will remind you of all your tax deadlines, and you can even file your VAT and tax returns from within ANNA.
If you have any tax questions, you can speak to our tax experts, who can guide you to the best solution or ask your question to our free Tax AI - Tax Terrapin.
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The best for start ups
For most start ups the first big challenge is compliance: you’re a newly registered business that’s about to receive a large amount of money, and that means your first injection of cash is often flagged as a suspicious transaction. Not the best start for your business! And when you want to resolve it all, you have to provide supporting documents confirming the source of the money is legitimate, and this can be a customer service nightmare.
At ANNA we’ve developed the fastest process for making sure our start up customers are compliant, so you can skip unnecessary compliance headaches. Plus, our award-winning Cardiff-based customer support is available 24/7, with an average waiting time of just 40 seconds.
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The best for joint business accounts
In many businesses, more than one person will need access to your business account, whether that’s a fellow director, an employee or a partner. With ANNA you can allow for additional cardholders to have access to your account, by issuing them with their own ANNA card.
Even better, if you’re the main account holder you can place limits on the additional cards that are issued, so you’re empowering others to use the account, but you’re still in control of what’s happening with your business’s money.
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The best for cash-heavy businesses
If you have a cash-heavy business like a pub or a corner shop, it is important to know the cash deposit limits and commissions when you’re choosing a bank. High cash means high risk, so there are usually certain limitations.
For businesses that still use a lot of cash, we think Lloyds are good. They have the cheapest fees of £0.85 for every £100 paid into your account at an Immediate Deposit Machine.
You can read our article about how to open a Lloyds business bank account here.
| ANNA | Monzo | Revolut | Starling | Tide | Zempler | HSBC | Barclays | LLoyds | Natwest | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cash deposit fee | 1% per deposit | £1 | No cash deposits | £3 or 0.7% of the total deposit value, whichever is higher A minimum charge of £3 | £2.50 for deposits up to £500, 0.5% after PayPoint – 3% | £3 minimum fee (or 0.5% fee of the total amount paid in) | First 12 months free, after 1.50% of value deposited | £0.90 (per £100) Mixed payment plan £1.50 (per £100) Online banking plan | ATM, depositpoint, Nighsafe, Post Office - £1.50 for every £100 | Cash deposit limit for NatWest customers is £3,000 per day and £24,000 per year at a Post Office or Cash & Deposit Machine (CDM) |
Cash deposit limit | Up to £1,000 per day Up to £10,000 per month | £5 and £300 in cash at UK Post Offices and PayPoints for £1, up to £1,000 every 6 months. Up to £3,000 per calendar month for sole trader Up to £10,000 per calendar month for limited company | No cash deposits | Up to £5,000 per day Up to £100,000 per calendar year | Up to £500 per single deposit with an option of multiple deposits in a day Up to £25,000 per month Up to £300,000 per year | £5,000 limit per day | £9,000 limit cash per day at a main Post Office £40,000 limit cash per calendar month | Up to £10,000 cash in a single deposit | Up to £4,995 cash in a single deposit Up to £40,000 per month | Up to £3,000 per day at Post Office or Cash & Deposit Machine (CDM) Up to £24,000 per year |
The best for international payments
We think ANNA and Revolut are the best for international payments. In the case of Revolut, you can send money to over 160 countries and the fees are relatively low.
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| Priceyness | Fees | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
💷 | £5 | £5 per SWIFT payment | |
💷 | £5 | £5 per SWIFT payment outside monthly allowance | |
💷 💷 | £15 | in-app, online banking or barclays.net | |
💷 💷 💷 | £17 | by business internet banking | |
💷 💷 💷 | £30 | £15 per transaction, £15 for online payment | |
💷 💷 💷 | £33.45 | Based on Wise rates on 12/12/2024 | |
💷 💷 💷 | £35 | Internet banking £15, correspondent fee £20 | |
💷 💷 💷 💷 | £40 | Transfer fee of 0.4% | |
❌ | — | No SWIFT payments, only SEPA countries in EUR | |
❌ | — | No option available on their website |
The best for card payments collections
Want to get paid quickly and effectively? We recommend that ANNA payment link, which ANNA customers get free with their business account. You can send a link to customers via email, WhatsApp or any other social app, and they can click on it to pay you instantly. You can even pre-fill in an amount to be paid. And if you’re face-to-face with your customer, you can generate a QR code they can scan in person to go straight to the payment page.
To ensure you have the best experience with card payment collection machines, we have partnered with Dojo, Cabcard, and Teya.
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The best for accounting and taxes
The ANNA business account is highly rated by accountants because it allows customers to stay on top of all their transactions and expenses. Customers get instant invoicing, smart receipt scanning and our app automatically pairs invoices and receipts with transactions so everything is logged and accounted for. And with our +Taxes service, limited companies are also able to stay on top of payroll, VAT and Corporation Tax and can even file their taxes through the app.
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The best for cheques
ANNA doesn’t allow customers to pay in cheques and we don’t have any plans to change that at the moment. If you need that type of service we recommend opening a high street business bank account instead. You can check our blogposts with detailed guidance on how to do it below:
- How to open Natwest business bank account
- How to open Barclays business bank account
- How to open HSBC business bank account
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The highest Trustpilot rating
If you want to know which companies are trusted by the public, there’s only one place to go: Trustpilot. It’s the gold standard for assessing what customers think of the brands they’re dealing with. In terms of business banking, the clear message is that the established high street banks are doing far worse than the newer “challenger” banks. The main cause of complaint is customer service - with the traditional banks lagging way behind.
ANNA is close to the top of the Trustpilot ratings with 4.3, and we’re particularly proud of our customer support, available 24/7 from our team in Cardiff.
Summary
Choosing a business bank account depends on the kind of business you run. We know that the free business bank accounts may be tempting, but in the long-term they may not be cost effective. It’s definitely worth trying before you buy - so why not give ANNA a go for free?
| ANNA | Monzo | Revolut | Starling | Tide | Zempler | HSBC | Barclays | Lloyds | Natwest | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trustpilot score | 4.3 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 2.8 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 1.5 |
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| Cashback | ||||||||||
| Receipt scanner | ||||||||||
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| Employee expense cards |
Try ANNA for free
At ANNA we don’t do credit checks, but we do carry out thorough identity checks to comply with UK anti-money laundering regulations.
Business bank accounts are as safe and secure as personal bank accounts. Most business accounts are protected by either the FSCS (which refunds money if your bank runs into trouble) or by ringfencing (where the money in your account cannot be invested by the bank).
Yes, they are, since they are an expense that is a part of running your business. You can ask any tax related question to our free AI Tax Advisor - Tax Terrapin.
You can get a free business bank account, however, we would not recommend doing it. Free business bank accounts will most likely have certain limitations that will cost you much more when you hit them. Instead you can save more efficiently by paying for the product that is right for your business. We at ANNA helped to save over £1,000,000 on taxes with our +Taxes automation product, which is not a part of our free pricing plan. However, we do over first month free on all our pricing plans.
Yes, you can. It is particularly easy if the banks are a part of the Current Account Switch Service.
Yes, you can. Different banks have different requirements for sole traders, but in general it’s fairly straightforward to open a business account. At ANNA many of our customers are sole traders.
Does my limited company need a separate business bank account?
Opening a business account is a straightforward procedure and can be done in less than 10 minutes with ANNA. You’ll need your ID (and the IDs of the other directors if you have them) and answer a few simple questions about your business.
The cost of a business bank account varies depending on the bank and your financial activity. You can find free business bank accounts, but they’ll probably have certain limitations. Most business bank accounts cost under £50 a month, but of course there are premium accounts on the market that cost more than that. You can find ANNA’s business account pricing here.
The FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) is the UK’s compensation scheme that protects consumers if financial firms fail. It ensures people don’t lose money held in savings, investments, insurance, or pensions with authorised firms and covers up to £85,000.
Find out more in our blog about FSCS here.
