Revolut vs Starling Business Account: Which Is Better?

Which Is Better for UK businesses needing free FSCS banking with overdraft access?

For UK businesses needing free FSCS banking with overdraft access, Starling wins. Pick Starling if your money mostly moves in pounds and you want a free, regulated primary account with credit access. Pick Revolut if you invoice or pay in more than one currency. Same regulatory floor now, different design.

Starling is built like a bank, because it’s one. PRA-licensed since 2018, FSCS-protected to £120,000, overdraft on application, free FreeAgent for sole traders — the workflow most UK SMEs actually need. It is the default primary account for a reason.

Revolut leans the other way: 25+ currency wallets, interbank FX inside Basic allowance, paid Grow (£25/mo) and Scale (£100/mo) tiers for higher volume. A Madrid client pays you in euros, a Toronto one in Canadian dollars — you hold both. Starling can’t do that.

A common dual setup: Starling for the primary GBP current account and the overdraft, Revolut alongside for cross-border. You reconcile two accounts at month-end, but each does the job it’s built for. No one is forcing you to pick one.

Revolut vs Starling Fees and Charges

Revolut Basic is £0 a month, no minimum balance. Grow is £25, Scale is £100 — paid tiers buy bigger FX allowances and more free transfers. On Basic the only fee you’ll see is FX once the allowance is gone.

Starling Business is free on the standard tier with no monthly fee. Sole trader and limited company accounts both sit at £0/month. Cash deposits via the Post Office carry a 0.7% fee with a £3 minimum — the small print most digital banks share.

On FX, the gap is structural. Revolut converts at interbank inside plan allowance with a small markup once exhausted. Starling uses Mastercard rates, which sit a wider margin above interbank. For a business converting £1,000+ a month, we’d expect the difference to show up monthly.

Neither account has a fixed entry cost. Practical cost depends on FX volume and overdraft use. Domestic-only sole trader on Starling? £0 forever. Internationally-facing SME on Revolut Basic? The allowance covers most months, with a small spread on busy quarters.

Revolut vs Starling Features and Tools

Beyond pricing, the two accounts diverge most on what the bank actually does for you. Starling leans on traditional banking infrastructure — overdraft on application, direct debits, free FreeAgent for sole traders, branch-equivalent customer service. Revolut leans on fintech tooling: team cards, spend controls, currency wallets.

Starling includes a free FreeAgent subscription on sole trader business accounts — invoicing, expense tracking, mileage logging, self-assessment filing, the lot. A standalone FreeAgent subscription is roughly £150 a year, so the inclusion is real recurring value. Limited company accounts may have different terms; check the Starling pricing page.

Revolut integrates with FreeAgent but doesn’t include the subscription. You keep paying FreeAgent separately, then connect it. Both providers also connect to Xero and QuickBooks — we verified the integration lists from each provider’s documentation in May 2026.

For team cards, Revolut wins, in our view. Virtual and physical cards with spend rules and category limits on the paid tiers. Starling offers cards too, but team-controls depth isn’t at parity. Four people all needing expense cards with budget rules? Revolut. One sole trader needing one card? Either.

Both offer GBP account numbers and sort codes, both support Direct Debit setup, both have mobile apps that don’t make you want to throw the phone across the room. Starling’s app is the more polished for daily UK banking; Revolut’s shines on the international side.

Revolut vs Starling International Payments

Invoice in euros on Monday, payment lands Thursday — Revolut lets you hold the EUR rather than convert at whatever rate the day throws up. 25+ currency wallets, near-interbank inside plan allowance, small markup once you exhaust it. Paid tiers (Grow, Scale) raise the free allowance for higher volume.

Starling is GBP-primary. No multi-currency wallets, no holding foreign currency in the account. When you pay a US supplier or convert a euro invoice, Starling uses Mastercard FX rates, which carry a wider margin than interbank. Functional for the occasional outbound payment; expensive if you do it weekly.

Worked example at £8,000 converted in a month: Revolut roughly £32 (~0.4% within allowance) versus £200+ at typical Mastercard-rate margins. £170 a month. £2,000+ a year, on the same money.

On the protection side, the regulator matters more than the app. Starling has held a PRA banking licence since 2018. Revolut crossed the same line on 11 March 2026, per the PRA register.

New Revolut Business accounts sit under Revolut Bank UK Ltd with the same £120,000 FSCS cover as Starling. For new accounts, the safety question is settled both ways.

Existing Revolut Business customers migrate to the bank entity in phased waves through 2026. Until your account moves, the balance may still sit under e-money safeguarding rather than FSCS. Five-minute check inside the app, worth doing.

Domestic-only sole trader? The FX gap is irrelevant; Starling is plenty. Cross-border flows in either direction? Run Revolut alongside, or replace Starling with Revolut as primary. We’d keep both for any business with real international payments.

Revolut vs Starling Customer Reviews and Reputation

When we checked Trustpilot in May 2026, Revolut Business sat at around 4.2 stars across 200,000+ reviews. Starling sat at around 4.3 stars across a smaller but still substantial 40,000-plus review base. Neither score is a red flag; both reflect mature digital banks with real customer volume.

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.

Starling reviews skew toward UK SMEs and sole traders who value the PRA banking licence, the free FreeAgent inclusion, and the overdraft access. We’d read the complaints as the bank-side of fintech rather than the fintech-side — slow business onboarding, occasionally rigid compliance decisions.

For support quality, Revolut has 24/7 in-app chat that responds in minutes. Starling offers 24/7 UK-based phone and chat — a meaningful edge if you’d rather talk to a human. Sat in a van at 7am needing the card unblocked? Starling picks up.

Revolut vs Starling for Overdraft Access and Domestic Banking Strength

This is where Starling earns its keep. A business overdraft on application is the structural lever most digital-only competitors don’t provide. For a trades business waiting on a milestone payment, or a retailer carrying stock into a quiet month, it’s the difference between calm and a card decline.

Revolut doesn’t offer an overdraft on business accounts at any plan tier — Basic, Grow, or Scale. Some Revolut consumer products carry credit features; none extend to business. If your cash flow ever dips into the red between supplier payments and customer receipts, Revolut isn’t the answer.

Starling’s domestic strength runs deeper than overdraft alone. Direct debits, standing orders, and an established UK clearing relationship sit at the core. For a UK-only business running monthly bills, payroll, and supplier payments through one account, that infrastructure is the spine.

Free FreeAgent for sole traders compounds the case. Roughly £150 a year, recurring, every year you hold the account. Pair that with overdraft availability and you’re looking at a free primary UK current account that handles bookkeeping and credit access in one. Revolut doesn’t match that bundle.

If overdraft access matters — either as a tool you use or a buffer you might need — Starling is the only free option in this pairing. Revolut can run alongside for international payments. It just can’t replace the credit line.

Downsides of Revolut and Starling

Revolut’s biggest weakness, in our view, 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 a sole trader running weekly bills through the account, it’s a real operational risk.

Revolut also has no overdraft on the Business product. If your cash flow dips into the red at month-end, you’ll need a separate credit line or a high-street account alongside. The free Basic tier is free, but it’s a transactional account, not a credit relationship.

Existing Revolut customers face a phased migration to the bank entity through 2026. Until your account moves, the balance may still sit under e-money safeguarding rather than FSCS — check inside the app. New accounts opened from 11 March 2026 sit under the bank licence from day one.

Starling’s biggest weakness is the FX side. No multi-currency wallets, no near-interbank rates, no foreign-currency invoicing. Mastercard rates carry a wider margin than Revolut’s interbank inside-allowance pricing. For a business converting any meaningful volume, the gap shows up monthly.

Starling also has weaker team-spend tooling than Revolut on paid tiers. Cards with per-employee limits and category rules sit deeper in Revolut’s product. If you’re running four staff cards with budget controls, Starling isn’t the cleanest fit.

Neither provider is a perfect substitute for a high-street business bank with named relationship managers and physical branches. Branch access, cheque deposits, and traditional cash handling remain limited at both. If your business needs any of those, pair either account with a Lloyds, Barclays, or NatWest current account.

Alternatives to Revolut and Starling

Both Revolut and Starling are worth considering, but they’re not the only options. Here are the four alternatives we’d weigh first depending on your priorities:

• Tide — free UK business account with invoicing, expense cards, and accounting integrations built in. Pick this for a UK-focused SME that wants invoicing tools alongside named accounting integrations, without paying for Starling’s overdraft relationship.
• Mettle by NatWest — free sole-trader and limited company account from a high-street bank. FSCS-protected via NatWest. Pick this if you want a high-street parent without the legacy bank fees and you don’t need overdraft access.
• Monzo Business — PRA-licensed bank with FSCS cover, free Lite tier, paid Pro tier (£9/mo) with tax pots and integrations. Pick this if you want a Starling-style bank with a slightly different product polish.
• Wise Business — cheaper than Revolut for one-off FX transfers at the mid-market rate. No monthly fee, pay per transfer. Pick this if your international flow is occasional rather than constant, and you don’t need a primary account.

Final Verdict: Revolut or Starling?

For most UK businesses, Starling is the better primary account. Free, PRA-licensed with FSCS cover to £120,000, overdraft on application, and free FreeAgent for sole traders. Revolut wins where multi-currency or team-spend tooling matter, but Starling is the spine for the majority.

Choose Revolut if you trade in more than one currency, full stop. 25+ currency wallets, interbank FX inside the free Basic allowance, paid Grow and Scale tiers for higher-volume operations. Starling isn’t playing on this field.

Choose Revolut if you run a team that needs expense cards with controls. Virtual and physical cards with per-employee spend limits and category rules sit alongside the main account on paid tiers. Starling doesn’t match that infrastructure.

For new accounts, FSCS cover to £120,000 is no longer a reason to walk away — the PRA banking licence from 11 March 2026 puts Revolut Business on the same statutory footing as Starling. Existing customers should still verify migration status before assuming cover applies. Read the agreement; don’t guess.

Already in Xero or QuickBooks and you don’t need a bundled FreeAgent? Revolut is the cleaner pick. For internationally-facing SMEs, especially on paid tiers, it’s the stronger primary — not the secondary you keep alongside Starling.

Choose Starling if you run a UK business in pounds and you want a free primary current account from a PRA-licensed bank. FSCS to £120,000, overdraft on application, direct debits, full UK banking infrastructure. Revolut adds nothing of practical value for purely domestic flows.

Choose Starling if you’re a sole trader using or planning to use FreeAgent. The free inclusion is worth roughly £150 a year, recurring, every year you hold the account. Revolut doesn’t match that.

Choose Starling if overdraft access matters, or might matter. Available on application, not available on Revolut at any tier. For any business with variable cash flow — trades, seasonal retail, agency work on 30-day terms — that single feature can decide it.

Direct debits, an established overdraft relationship, deeper UK banking integrations? Starling is the default. Revolut can run alongside for the international leg if you need it. But Starling is the spine.

Frequently Asked Questions

Methodology

Related Pages

Looking for more comparison pages? We have head-to-head comparisons across digital and high-street business accounts.

• Revolut vs Mettle — two free accounts compared
• Starling vs Monzo — two digital banks compared
• Starling vs HSBC — digital bank vs high street
• Revolut vs ANNA — international vs tax-automation
• Best business bank accounts — full comparison of 15 UK providers