Best online-only business bank accounts

Licensed bank or e-money firm?

This is the distinction that matters most and gets discussed least. “Online business account” covers two quite different regulatory positions.

Licensed banks — Monzo, Starling, Mettle, Zempler, Allica — hold your money as a deposit protected by the FSCS to £120,000 per eligible depositor.

E-money firms — ANNA, Wise, Airwallex — hold it in segregated accounts at partner banks. That is genuine protection, but recovery runs through an administration process rather than an FSCS payout, and there is no statutory guarantee behind it.

Tide and Revolut sit between. Tide’s newer accounts run through ClearBank and are FSCS-eligible; legacy ones are not, and your sort code tells you which you hold. Revolut’s depends on which entity holds your account after its March 2026 authorisation. See FSCS or safeguarded.

What you give up

• Cheques. Mettle, Tide and ANNA take none. Starling images them; Monzo accepts them in-app to £500 and by post above.
• Cash at volume. Everything routes through the Post Office, with per-deposit or percentage charges and the network’s own limits.
• A person across a desk. Support is good — the CMA data says notably better than the high street — but it is chat and phone.
• Serious lending. Starling and Monzo lend modestly. Asset finance, commercial mortgages and large facilities remain a high-street conversation.

Who should not go online-only

Retailers and hospitality banking serious cash. Anyone paid by cheque with any regularity. Businesses that will need substantial credit in the next two years. And anyone whose sector sits outside app-based providers’ risk appetite — the high street is more willing to have a conversation about it.

For everyone else, the case is straightforward: better service on independent evidence, lower cost, and the same statutory protection provided you pick a licensed bank.