Which Is Better for UK businesses choosing between two FSCS-protected app-first accounts?
Monzo wins for GBP-only operations and Revolut wins for anything touching foreign currency. That’s our view once you’ve settled the protection question, and on Revolut you do have to settle it: the two accounts are built differently, and so is the cover behind them.
Monzo is built like a bank, because it’s one. PRA-licensed since 2017, FSCS-protected to £120,000, free unlimited UK transfers, pots for ring-fencing tax. The Pro tier at £9/month adds tax pots and automated cashflow forecasting.
Revolut leans the other way. 25+ currency wallets, interbank FX inside a £1,000 monthly allowance on Basic. Grow lifts that allowance to £15,000 and Scale to £60,000.
Those tiers cost £35 and £125 a month if you pay monthly, and an effective £30 and £90 if you commit to a full year upfront. A Berlin client pays you in euros, a Toronto one in Canadian dollars. You hold both.
We confirmed Monzo is GBP-only at every tier from its published product pages in May 2026.
Revolut vs Monzo Fees and Charges
Monzo Business is £0 a month on the standard tier. Sole trader and limited company accounts both sit at £0/month with unlimited free UK transfers. Pro adds tax pots and automated cashflow forecasting for £9/month, the only paid tier Monzo runs on business.
Revolut Basic is £10 a month, no minimum balance, no annual discount to chase. Beyond that tenner, the only fee you meet on Basic is FX, and only once the £1,000 monthly allowance is gone.
We rate the paid tiers the easiest thing to misread on the whole pricing page. Pay monthly and Grow is £35, Scale is £125. Those are the numbers that leave your account each month.
The £30 and £90 Revolut leads with are the annual-billing rates, payable twelve months upfront at £360 and £1,080 a year. Budget Scale at £90 while paying monthly and you are £420 a year short.
On FX, the gap is structural, and we rate it the single biggest cost difference between the two. Revolut converts at interbank inside plan allowance with a small markup once exhausted.
Monzo handles international payments via the Mastercard rate, which sits a wider margin above interbank. For a business converting £1,000+ a month, that difference shows up on every payment run.
Cash deposits via PayPoint on Monzo carry a small per-deposit fee. Revolut doesn’t offer a comparable cash deposit channel for UK businesses.
Neither account handles physical cash like a high-street branch. If you take cash daily, you’re pairing either of these with a Lloyds or Barclays account, not replacing it.
Entry costs differ where it counts: Monzo Lite is free, Revolut Basic is £10 a month. A domestic sole trader on Monzo pays £0, or £9/month for Pro. An international SME on Revolut Basic pays £10 plus a small FX spread once the allowance runs out.
Note what that does to the old shortcut. Monzo Pro used to cost half of Revolut Basic; at £9 against £10 the gap is a single pound a month. Once you are paying either way, price stops being the tiebreaker and the feature set decides it.
| Cost | Revolut Basic | Revolut Grow | Monzo Standard | Monzo Pro (£9/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | £10 (flat, no annual discount) | £35 billed monthly, or £30/mo billed annually (£360/yr) | £0 | £9 |
| Next tier up | Scale: £125 billed monthly, or £90/mo billed annually (£1,080/yr) | No higher tier | ||
| Domestic transfers | Free within allowance | Free within allowance | Free (unlimited) | Free (unlimited) |
| Eligible business types | Limited companies, LLPs, partnerships (sole traders not eligible) | Sole traders and limited companies | ||
| FX rate | Interbank within £1,000/mo allowance | Interbank within £15,000/mo allowance | Mastercard rate (wider margin) | Mastercard rate (wider margin) |
| Native invoicing in bank app | Yes (card payment needs Merchant account) | Yes (card payment needs Merchant account) | No | No |
| Multi-currency wallets | Yes (25+) | Yes (25+) | No | No |
| Pots / tax ring-fencing | No | No | Pots included | Pots + named tax pots with auto-sweep |
| FSCS protection | Once held by Revolut Bank UK Ltd* | Once held by Revolut Bank UK Ltd* | Yes (since 2017) | Yes (since 2017) |
Revolut vs Monzo Features and Tools
Beyond pricing, the two accounts diverge most on what the app does for you. Monzo leans on domestic banking, pots, tax pots on Pro, automated cashflow forecasting, integrations with Xero and FreeAgent.
Revolut leans on fintech: team cards with spend rules, currency wallets, batch payments, API access.
Monzo pots are the operational tool people actually use. A client payment lands Monday morning, you drag 20% straight into a VAT pot before lunch. Pro adds named tax pots that auto-sweep a fixed percentage. For a sole trader handling self-assessment alone, that’s the workflow saving that matters.
Revolut has nothing equivalent on its business accounts. No envelope budgeting, no auto-sweep tax pots.
The Revolut play is at the team spend level, virtual and physical cards with per-employee spending limits, real-time expense review, batch payroll on the paid tiers. Monzo Business doesn’t match that depth.
Both connect to Xero, QuickBooks, and FreeAgent. Neither integrates natively with Sage.
On invoicing the two part company. Revolut builds it into every plan, Basic included: raise an invoice, set it recurring, chase it with reminders, apply VAT. Monzo has no equivalent, so you bill through separate software and pay for it.
Then comes the catch, and it surfaces on the day a client tries to pay. To take card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay on a Revolut invoice, you must switch on a separate Merchant account. Without one, it is bank transfer only.
API access at Revolut allows your business to automate payment workflows, useful for e-commerce or subscription businesses with recurring programmatic payment needs.
Monzo doesn’t offer API access for payment automation on business accounts. We verified this against both providers’ developer documentation in May 2026.
Revolut vs Monzo International Payments
Invoice in euros on Monday and the payment lands Thursday lunchtime; Revolut lets you hold the EUR rather than convert at whatever rate the day throws up. 25+ currency wallets, near-interbank rates inside allowance. Monzo can’t do any of that.
Monzo Business is GBP-only at every plan tier. No currency wallets, no foreign-currency invoicing.
International payments go out via SWIFT at the Mastercard rate, which sits a wider margin above interbank than Revolut’s plan allowance. Fine for the occasional overseas supplier; expensive for anyone billing abroad regularly.
For an SME converting £8,000 a month, we put the FX gap at roughly five times. Revolut at about 0.4% above interbank inside allowance gives you around £32. Monzo at a typical ~2% Mastercard margin puts you at around £160 for the same volume. That difference compounds every payment run.
Monzo is not worse at multi-currency; it simply does not play there at all. If your business touches a foreign currency more than once or twice a year, Revolut stops being optional and becomes the account you run everything through.
Park a serious balance and Monzo is the one you can stop thinking about: PRA-authorised since 2017, £120,000 of FSCS cover per depositor, no conditions attached.
What you get from Revolut turns on the entity, though we rate the licence itself genuine. Revolut Bank UK Ltd became a fully authorised UK bank on 11 March 2026, when the PRA lifted the mobilisation restrictions on the licence it had held since July 2024.
Don’t yet treat your Revolut cover as a given. The old “Revolut is e-money, Monzo is a bank” gap has mostly closed, and mostly is doing real work in that sentence. New signups are usually onboarded straight to the protected bank entity. Usually isn’t always.
Check your own account rather than assume, because Revolut is still phasing the rollout. Some accounts opened after March land on the older e-money entity for a spell, and long-standing customers migrate across in batches.
So your signup date settles nothing. What settles it is which entity holds the money, and Revolut won’t ring to tell you. We rate that the unfair part: you go digging through your own terms to find out whether your float is covered. Go and dig.
Revolut vs Monzo Customer Reviews and Reputation
When we checked Trustpilot in May 2026, Revolut Business sat at around 4.2 stars across 200,000+ reviews. Monzo sat at around 4.4 stars across 50,000+ reviews. Neither score is a red flag, both reflect large, active customer bases.
The themes diverge. Revolut customers praise the FX, app polish, and breadth of features for the price. Complaints cluster around account freezes during compliance reviews, a known fintech onboarding issue where a flagged transaction can lock the account for days while support catches up.
Monzo reviews skew toward the clean app experience and the speed of in-app chat.
Complaints lean toward account closures with limited explanation under the bank’s risk policies, and slower business account onboarding compared to the personal app. Less account-freeze volatility than Revolut, but not zero.
On support, we rate Revolut’s 24/7 in-app chat as the stronger setup on paper, and review themes point to fast responses on routine queries.
Monzo offers in-app chat with response times that vary by query complexity, usually fast for simple things, slower for compliance-related questions. Both beat a typical high-street bank’s phone queue.
Revolut vs Monzo for Domestic Simplicity vs Multi-Currency Capability
This is the page’s defining trade-off. Monzo gives you the simplest, cleanest UK-only banking app on the market, pots, tax pots on Pro, automated cashflow forecasting, free unlimited UK transfers. For a GBP-only business, nothing else comes close on workflow simplicity.
Revolut gives you multi-currency capability that no UK-only account matches. 25+ currency wallets, interbank FX, the ability to hold and spend in foreign currencies without converting on every transaction.
For a business invoicing or paying in more than one currency, that capability isn’t optional: it’s the product.
Match it to how you actually work. Sole trader doing UK self-assessment alone? Monzo Pro at £9/month with the tax pot does it, and Revolut Business is closed to you anyway.
Before you upgrade, check the free plan is really failing you. Pro is £108 a year, and Monzo Lite already gives you free unlimited UK transfers and manual pots. You are buying the auto-sweep, nothing more.
Ecommerce seller invoicing US and EU clients through a limited company? Revolut Grow and the currency wallets do it, at £35 a month billed monthly or £30 a month on annual billing.
A pragmatic dual setup covers both. Monzo as the primary GBP account, the tax pots, the FSCS-covered cash reserves. Revolut alongside for cross-border invoicing and supplier payments.
You reconcile two accounts at month-end. For most internationally-facing SMEs, that pairing beats forcing one account to do both jobs.
Downsides of Revolut and Monzo
Monzo Business lending is thin: sole-trader overdrafts cap at £3,000 (39% EAR, £20 to £100 annual arrangement fee by borrowing level) and loans at £25,000, both eligibility-gated. Revolut offers no overdraft at all, so neither replaces a bank for larger working capital.
Monzo’s account closure policy is the persistent complaint. Closures happen under the bank’s risk and compliance policies with limited explanation, and reopening takes weeks if it happens at all. For a business running weekly bills through the account, that’s a real operational risk to plan around.
There is regulatory history behind that caution. In July 2025 the FCA fined Monzo £21 million for weak financial-crime controls and for opening accounts for high-risk customers against its orders. It gives the closure pattern a documented backbone, not just grievance.
Revolut Business also has an eligibility wall Monzo does not. In the UK it takes limited companies, LLPs, and partnerships only. Trade as a sole trader and the door is shut; you are pointed at Revolut Pro in the personal app instead.
Revolut’s biggest weakness is the account freeze risk. The compliance engine flags transactions and the account can lock for 24-72 hours.
For a freelancer waiting on an invoice, that’s survivable. For an SME running payroll through the account, it’s a real operational risk worth pairing with a high-street account.
We rate Revolut’s protection as carrying a gap the marketing rather glosses over: cover only bites once your account sits with Revolut Bank UK Ltd. Long-standing customers are still queued for migration, and some newer signups land on the e-money entity for a time.
That leaves you shouldering a risk you didn’t choose and can’t see from the app. A business banking a £40,000 float can believe it’s safe, be wrong, and learn the difference at the worst possible moment. Whenever you opened the account, go and check which entity holds it.
Neither provider replaces a high-street business bank. No physical branches, no relationship managers, limited cash handling (Monzo via PayPoint with a fee; Revolut via partners only).
If your business needs branch access or daily cash deposits, pair either account with a Lloyds, Barclays, or NatWest current account.
Alternatives to Revolut and Monzo
Both Revolut and Monzo are worth considering, but they’re not the only options. Here are the four alternatives we’d weigh first depending on your priorities:
- Starling Business, UK-only, PRA-licensed since 2018, FSCS-protected to £120,000, with overdraft on application and free FreeAgent for sole traders. Pick this if you want a conservative banking relationship with credit access and better accounting integration than Monzo offers free.
- Tide, free UK business account with invoicing tools, expense cards, and accounting integrations built in. Pick this for a UK-focused SME that wants invoicing inside the bank app rather than via separate software.
- Mettle by NatWest, free sole-trader and limited company account from a high-street bank. FSCS-protected. Pick this if you want NatWest’s backing without the legacy bank fees.
- Wise Business, multi-currency account specialist with the tightest published FX margins on the market. Pick this over Revolut if international payments are the primary use case and you don’t need a UK primary current account.
Final Verdict: Revolut or Monzo?
For UK-only businesses billing in pounds, Monzo wins on workflow simplicity and tax-pot automation. For multi-currency businesses or anyone needing currency wallets, Revolut wins on FX capability.
One question then settles the rest: do you touch a foreign currency or not?
I wouldn’t treat the two protections as level yet, though, and nor should you. Monzo’s cover is done and dusted. Revolut’s is real but still rolling out, so on Revolut I’d confirm which entity holds the account before I parked a working balance in it.
Choose Revolut if your business trades in more than one currency. Monzo holds no currency wallets, so anything that is not sterling has to leave the account. Revolut carries 25+ wallets with interbank FX inside the Basic plan allowance.
The same goes if you bill overseas clients, contract for foreign companies, or import stock.
One condition sits in front of all of that. Revolut Business in the UK takes limited companies, LLPs, and partnerships, not sole traders. If you have not incorporated, Monzo wins by default and Revolut Pro is the consolation.
Or choose Revolut if you need team expense cards with spend controls. Virtual and physical cards on the paid tiers with per-employee spending limits, real-time expense review, batch payroll.
Monzo doesn’t offer this depth at any tier. If four people all need expense cards, Revolut is the practical choice.
Need API access for payment automation? Revolut. The published developer API supports automated supplier payments, batch processing, reconciliation workflows. Useful for e-commerce or SaaS businesses with recurring programmatic payment needs. Monzo Business has no equivalent at any tier.
Choose Monzo if your business is UK-only. Free unlimited UK transfers at any volume, pots for ring-fencing VAT and tax, and the cleanest GBP-only app on the market. Pro at £9/month adds tax pots and automated cashflow forecasting.
Choose Monzo if tax-pot ring-fencing matters. Setting aside 20% of every payment into a VAT pot, or auto-sweeping a fixed percentage to a tax pot on Pro, means the money is visible and not accidentally spent before the quarterly bill arrives. Revolut has no equivalent.
Or choose Monzo if you want the most established UK challenger banking relationship for a primary account. PRA-licensed since 2017, FSCS-protected from day one, with a track record longer than Revolut’s bank licence. For a primary GBP current account, that operational track record matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I have both a Revolut and a Monzo Business account at the same time?
Yes. There is no restriction on holding accounts with multiple business banking providers. A common dual setup is Monzo as the primary GBP current account, for the pots, the FSCS-protected cash reserves, and the free unlimited UK transfers, with Revolut alongside for cross-border invoicing and supplier payments. Monzo is free on its base plan and Revolut Basic is £10 a month, so the only real cost of running both is deciding which better fits your main needs.
Is Revolut or Monzo better for a sole trader?
Monzo, and for most sole traders it is not really a choice. Revolut Business in the UK is open to limited companies, LLPs, and partnerships. A UK sole trader cannot open one. Revolut directs sole traders and freelancers to Revolut Pro instead, a fee-free account that sits inside the personal Revolut app and carries a narrower feature set than Revolut Business.
Monzo Business takes sole traders on the free tier: no transfer fees, pots for separating tax reserves, and Pro at £9/month adding auto-sweep tax pots and automated cashflow forecasting. If you incorporate later and start billing in euros or dollars, Revolut Business becomes worth a second look, at £10/month on Basic.
Does Monzo Business support multi-currency accounts?
No. Monzo Business doesn’t offer multi-currency accounts at any plan tier. All balances are held in GBP. International payments are converted at the Mastercard rate, which sits a wider margin above interbank than Revolut’s plan allowance pricing. Confirmed from Monzo’s business account documentation in May 2026. If you regularly send or receive payments in foreign currencies, Revolut is the more cost-effective option.
Is Revolut Business FSCS-protected?
It depends on which Revolut entity holds your account, and that is not something you can take on trust. Revolut Bank UK Ltd launched as a fully authorised UK bank on 11 March 2026, when the PRA lifted the mobilisation restrictions on the licence it had held since July 2024. Eligible deposits with that entity are FSCS-protected up to £120,000 per eligible company depositor.
New applicants are usually onboarded straight to the bank, but Revolut is phasing the rollout, so some new signups may still land on the Revolut Ltd e-money entity temporarily. Existing customers move across in batches, with notice before each move. E-money balances are safeguarded rather than FSCS-protected, which is a weaker arrangement if the firm fails.
So check your terms for the entity name before you rely on the cover, whenever you opened. The signup date alone does not answer the question.
Monzo Business holds a full UK banking licence and has been FSCS-protected since 2017. Eligible deposits are covered up to £120,000 per depositor (limit raised from £85,000 on 1 December 2025).
What are Monzo pots and can Revolut match them?
Monzo pots are named sub-balances inside your Monzo Business account. You can move money into a pot instantly and it sits visibly separate from your available balance. Businesses commonly use pots to ring-fence VAT or corporation tax. Monzo Pro at £9/month adds named tax pots that auto-sweep a fixed percentage of incoming payments. Revolut doesn’t offer equivalent envelope budgeting on its business accounts, confirmed from Revolut’s product documentation in May 2026. If tax reserve ring-fencing matters to your workflow, Monzo is the provider that delivers it.
How we reviewed Revolut vs Monzo
Ranking criteria. We compared Revolut and Monzo on pricing, fees, feature set, eligibility, and contract terms. We also verified regulatory status and deposit protection where applicable.
Data sources. We opened both accounts and ran each through its core job, a GBP invoice into a Monzo VAT pot and a euro balance held and converted in Revolut, then modelled the FX cost at £8,000 a month. Regulatory status checked against the FCA and PRA registers, May 2026.
Correction, 14 July 2026. We had been quoting Revolut’s annual-billing rates for Grow and Scale as if they were the monthly prices. A reader budgeting Scale at £90 a month while paying monthly would have been £420 a year out of pocket.
Every price on this page now carries the monthly-billed figure and the annual-billed equivalent. The same re-check corrected two more errors of ours: Revolut Business does not accept UK sole traders, and it does offer native invoicing.
Update cadence. We re-verify every provider on this page regularly, and whenever a provider changes pricing, eligibility, or terms. The verification date on the page reflects the most recent full review. Some links on this page are affiliate links, see our editorial policy.