Best Small Business Checking Accounts

Our #1 Best Checking Account for Your Small Business
[includes a $300 welcome bonus!]

More people are launching small businesses than ever before in history.

Being an entrepreneur is both exhilarating and exhausting. And it can be overwhelming, too, if you’re not set up correctly.

One of those steps is to open a business checking account to keep your work and personal finances separate. This will save you time during tax season and protect your personal assets in the case of legal trouble.

But how do you choose which bank to partner with when there are so many?

We got you!

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1. Chase: Business Complete Checking®

Best For: Highest sign up bonus, most complete product offering, branch availability

Chase is the largest bank in the US, with more than 4,700 branches nationwide. The bank offers a full suite of business banking products, from accounts and credit cards to business and merchant services.

It’s also one of the bigger small business lenders, offering financing, lines of credit, and small-business loans.

Chase has three business checking accounts, but for small business, Complete Banking is the way to go.

Chase Business Complete Checking® is the best bet for small businesses, with built-in mobile card payment processing from Chase QuickAccept®. The account has a $15 monthly fee, which you can avoid with a $2,000 daily balance, $2,000 in purchases on your Chase Business credit card, or $2,000 in deposits from QuickAccept®.

2. U.S. Bank: Business Checking

Best For: Highest sign up bonus

U.S. Bank is the fifth largest bank in the US, so it’s no wonder business owners consider it for their business accounts. US Bank offers many business bank accounts that are great for new and established businesses.

There are 3 business checking account packages offered by U.S. Bank: Silver, Gold and Platinum. The U.S. Bank Silver Business Checking Package is the most popular account for new business owners.

U.S Bank recently made their business checking product available nationwide and is offering a large signup bonus to attract new businesses.

This is a tiered bonus this time around, offering more money to those that carry higher balances.

3. Axos: Basic Business Checking

Best For: Linked business savings

Axos Bank is an online-only bank that has been around since 1999. Axos has two checking options for small businesses: Basic Business Checking and Business Interest Checking.

We recommend the Basic Business Checking. There’s no monthly maintenance fee, no minimum deposit requirement, a free set of checks, and unlimited ATM fee reimbursements.

You’ll also get unlimited transactions – debits, credits, ACH, etc – each month at not additional cost.

The Business Interest Checking, on the other hand, comes with a $10 monthly fee that can only be waived by maintaining a $5,000 average daily balance. It comes with a couple of extra perks compared to the Basic account, but that’s namely just the return on your balance at up to 1.01% APY.

What’s special about Axos compared to its other online-only competitors is that they also offer business savings accounts (this is rare!).

4. NorthOne: Business Banking

Best For: Creating sub-accounts

NorthOne is an online-only bank that focuses entirely on banking solutions for freelancers and small business owners.

The bank’s product offerings are lean, with just one bank account and the ability to apply for an SBA PPP loan.

NorthOne’s Business Banking offers a level of efficiency that you might not experience with bigger banks. You can sign up online and have your account going in as little as three minutes. The account comes with 24/7 in-app support, free accounting integrations, and a mobile app engineered for busy small business owners.

NorthOne also offers the ability to create sub-accounts to save for expenses like taxes and payroll.

There is a $10 monthly fee here that you can’t get around, but NorthOne is pretty transparent about its pricing model. There are additional small fees for overdrafts, ACH returns, and wire transfers, but you’ll have access to over 300,000 in-network, fee-free ATMs, and unlimited payments, deposits, and transfers.

5. Bluevine: Business Checking

Best For: Earning interest

Founded in 2013, Bluevine is a fintech company that provides online business banking services through its partner, Coastal Community Bank. As a startup, Bluevine’s founder drew inspiration from his father’s cash flow problems as a small business owner.

Today, Bluevine aims to provide a simple, modern banking service, so you can effectively manage your business finances.

Bluevine Business Checking is Bluevine’s sole business account option and comes with high APY, unlimited transactions, and the ability to send money to 26 countries in eight currencies.

There are no minimum deposit or monthly balance requirements, no monthly fees, and no overdraft fees. As a member of the MoneyPass network, Bluevine customers can access over 38,000 ATMs nationwide for free.

The real seller here is that the interest rate of up to 2.00% APY on up to $250,000, which makes Bluevine’s Business Checking one of the top-earning accounts out there.

6. Lili: Business Checking

Best For: Automatic savings tools

The Lili Account is designed with all types of freelancers in mind, from writers to chefs, to graphic designers to housekeepers.

The account aims to make clearer sense of your financial picture and help you avoid instability through insights and automation.

The Lili Account comes with a Visa business debit card, which you can use for everyday purchases, and links to your digital wallet for Apple Pay or Google Pay.

There are no monthly fees and no minimum balance requirements.

For the most part, the Lili account is a pretty standard online checking account, with mobile-driven banking, digital deposits, and modern features like automatic transfers and push notifications.

What sets it apart is its auto-tax savings, where you set a percentage of your incoming deposits or a specific amount to enter each bucket, automatically.

Lili also has a feature where a quick swipe will let you categorize a transaction as either personal or business. We still recommend that you have a dedicated account for your business – even if you’re just starting out – but this feature is helpful if you slip up or otherwise need to make a one-off purchase from your business account.

Like Novo, Lili has limits on your check deposits and outgoing ACH transfers. These can be dealbreakers for well-established freelancers, so verify that the limits will work for you!

7. Novo: Business Checking

Best For: Accounting and invoicing

Novo is an online-only bank that serves small business owners, entrepreneurs, and freelancers.

Technically, Novo isn’t a bank itself. It’s an independent tech company that partners with Middlesex Federal Savings to provide online banking services. This means that even though Novo itself isn’t a bank, its accounts are still FDIC-insured.

Novo only offers one checking account and has no options for savings or CDs.

Novo Business Checking Account is a no-fee, online checking account. There are no balance requirements, no ATM fees, and you won’t pay anything for incoming wire transfers.

All that said, the main draw of working with a tech-driven banking option is the online functionality. Novo integrates seamlessly with tools like Shopify, Quickbooks, and Slack and has an easy-to-use, modern mobile app.

There is one thing to watch out for with Novo, though: If you plan to receive or send significant amounts of money, you might run into limitations. I’m hearing that the max ACH payment you can receive is $1,250, and the most you can send is $5,000.

That’s going to be a deal-breaker for many small businesses, but it’s probably not a concern if you’re just starting.

8. Capital One: Spark Business Basic Checking®

Best For: Unlimited fee-free transactions

Capital One Bank is the fifth-largest consumer bank and the eighth-largest financial institution in the U.S.

The firm is well known for credit cards and their popular slogan, “What’s in your wallet?”

But their product offering spans significantly wider than that, including two small business checking accounts: Spark Business Basic and Spark Business Unlimited.

We recommend the Basic account for most freelancers and entrepreneurs. The monthly fee is only $15 (versus $35 for their Unlimited account), and it’s significantly easier to waive this fee: You need to maintain just $2,000 versus $25,000.

The trade off is that you get higher cash deposits and some free wire transfers with the Unlimited account, but this isn’t compelling enough for most small businesses to outweigh that fee.

What sets Capital One apart is their unlimited fee-free transactions (including on the Spark Business Basic account). This is common from the online-only banks and fintechs, but rare from the brick-and-mortar banks.

Unfortunately, their business checking accounts are only available in eight states: Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Virginia.

Bonus: Best Small Business Credit Cards

In addition to a business checking account, a small business credit card can be a great way to manage business expenses and earn rewards on business-related purchases.

However, with so many options available, it can be difficult to choose the right card for your business. To help you make the best choice, we’ve partnered with CardRatings to compile a list of the best small business credit cards, based on factors like rewards, interest rates, and fees.

What’s more? Most of these cards offer welcome bonuses to new cardholders – meaning you not only benefit from the ongoing perks, but your business can also earn some extra cash to spend on whatever you need right now.

Compare today’s best small business credit card offers at CardRatings.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are answers to some of the most common questions we see about opening a business checking account:

What’s the difference between a personal account and a business account?

Personal accounts cater to an individual’s needs, while business accounts come with features that businesses tend to use (e.g., invoicing and more accessible payment options).

As a rule of thumb, it’s advisable to keep your personal and business bank accounts separate for both accounting and liability purposes.

Do I really need a business bank account?

Yes. You might not need one when you’re first starting, but it becomes essential as your business grows. Business bank accounts make everything easier in terms of taxes and legal protections, and it’s critical to separate your personal finances from your business’s finances.

Do I need an LLC to open an account?

No, but you do need an EIN to open a business checking account. You can apply for one online through the IRS website. For most, the entire process takes just a few minutes and you’ll get your EIN immediately.

What documents do I need to get a business bank account?

You usually need to submit articles of incorporation, an employer ID or Tax ID number, and personal ID documents. From there, it’s relatively similar to the application process for a personal bank account.

With some banks, especially smaller regional banks, you may need to visit a branch to open a business account. It all depends on the bank.

Do business checking accounts charge fees?

Some do, yep. That’s why it’s important to consider your business’s cash flow and needs. You don’t need to know the exact specifics, but you should be able to estimate: Are you just starting out or is your business revenue already pretty high? Will you be working with a lot of cash? Will you make a lot of transactions each month?

Answering these can help you pick an account with fees and limits that match your requirements. You can always switch accounts or banks in the future as your business grows or needs change!

The Final Word

A good business bank account can make the day-to-day operations of running your business easier. Simply put, the relationship you have with your bank or credit union can impact your overall success and hopefully in a good way.

Consider what it is you need to run your business as effectively as you can. Maybe you’re looking for an efficient and free business account option from an online bank. Or, you might feel most comfortable with a big national bank.

Whatever you decide, be sure to keep your business goals at the front of your mind, and don’t be afraid to switch banks if your current provider isn’t cutting it.

Here’s to finding the business bank account that helps your business grow without charging unnecessary fees in the process.