Revolut vs Starling Business Account (2026)

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

For UK businesses needing free FSCS banking, Starling wins on the current account itself; borrowing is closed to new applicants for now.

Starling fits a business that mostly moves pounds and wants a free, regulated primary account with built-in accounting. Revolut makes more sense when you invoice or pay in several currencies.

Only Starling’s FSCS floor comes with no strings attached. The split is otherwise use case, not safety.

Starling is built like a bank, because it’s one. PRA-licensed since 2018, FSCS-protected to £120,000, with free accounting software and the workflow most UK SMEs actually need. Its domestic case rests on the current account itself, not on borrowing. It is the default primary account for a reason.

Revolut leans the other way: 25+ currency wallets, interbank FX inside the Basic allowance, and paid tiers above it. Grow is £35 a month billed monthly, or £30 a month if you pay a year up front. Scale is £125 monthly, or £90 if you pay annually.

A Madrid client pays you in euros, a Toronto one in Canadian dollars, and you hold both instead of converting on the day. Starling cannot do that at any price.

Before you weigh any of this, find out whether Revolut will take you at all. On UK sole traders its own published pages point both ways: the Business Terms effective 28 April 2026 list “new sole traders”, while the Help Centre still files them under unsupported business types.

Treat the sign-up flow as the only reliable test. The Help Centre carries no visible revision date, so the dates settle nothing, and we have not found a definitive answer in Revolut’s current published material.

If Revolut turns out not to take you, Revolut Pro sits inside the personal app with no subscription, and that is where Revolut points unincorporated traders. Starling simply opens the account.

A common dual setup, if you are incorporated, uses Starling for the primary GBP current account and Revolut alongside for cross-border payments. You reconcile two accounts at month-end, but each does the job it was built for.

Revolut vs Starling Fees and Charges

Revolut Basic is £10 a month, flat, no annual discount and no minimum balance. Grow is £35 a month billed monthly, or £30 a month if you pay for the year up front. Scale is £125 monthly, or £90 a month billed annually.

Read those two numbers carefully, because the annual-equivalent rate is the flattering one. Budget off £90 for Scale while you are actually billed monthly and you are £420 short by December. That is a fortnight of a part-timer’s wages, not a rounding error.

On Basic, past the £10, the only charge most readers ever meet is FX once the monthly allowance runs dry.

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, that gap shows up on every statement.

Entry costs now differ: Starling is free, Revolut Basic is £10 a month. Beyond that, cost depends on FX volume rather than borrowing access. A domestic-only sole trader on Starling pays nothing. An internationally-facing SME on Revolut Basic pays the £10, plus a small FX spread once the allowance runs out.

Revolut vs Starling Features and Tools

Past the headline fees, the accounts split on what each one actually does for you. Starling provides the domestic basics directly, including direct debits and accounting software of its own.

Revolut leans on fintech tooling: team cards, spend controls, currency wallets.

On accounting, Starling changed tack. It used to bundle a free FreeAgent subscription, and now ships its own software instead. Accounting Essentials is free on sole trader and limited company accounts: invoicing, automated bookkeeping, receipt matching, real-time tax estimates, and Making Tax Digital submissions for Income Tax.

Only VAT costs extra. Accounting Plus adds automated VAT calculations and files returns directly with HMRC, at £7 a month until April 2027 and £14 after that. Sole traders have to be on the cash basis to use Accounting at all, and an LLP cannot use it.

Revolut bundles no accounting software at all. Both banks connect free to FreeAgent, Xero and QuickBooks, so if you already pay for one of those the two are level; the difference is that Starling hands you a tool if you do not. We read both providers’ own accounting and marketplace pages on 14 September 2026.

For team cards, Revolut wins. 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. For four people all needing expense cards with budget rules, that is Revolut. For one sole trader needing one card, either does the job.

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 is the one to beat 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 raise the allowance for higher volume.

Starling is GBP-primary: no multi-currency wallets, no holding foreign currency. When you pay a US supplier or convert a euro invoice, Starling uses Mastercard FX rates, which carry a wider margin than interbank. Fine for the occasional 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 protection, Starling is the simpler story: a PRA banking licence since 2018, FSCS cover from the day you open, no asterisk.

Open a Revolut Business account today and you will most likely get that same £120,000 cover. 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.

Most likely is not the same as certainly. Revolut is phasing the rollout, so some brand-new signups still get parked on the old Revolut Ltd e-money entity for a while. Same app, same branding, different protection.

Existing customers move across in waves through 2026, and until yours moves the balance sits under e-money safeguarding, not FSCS. Safeguarded is not the same as FSCS-protected.

Check which entity holds your money before you count on the cover, new account or old. It is a two-minute job in the app, and Revolut won’t volunteer it. Starling spares you the errand entirely.

For a domestic-only sole trader the FX gap is irrelevant, and Starling is plenty. For real cross-border flows in either direction, Revolut is the one to hold.

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 towards UK SMEs and sole traders who value the PRA banking licence, built-in accounting and the practicalities of a domestic current account.

Starling’s complaints read as bank problems rather than fintech ones: slow business onboarding, and compliance decisions that can be rigid.

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. Stuck in a van at 7am needing the card unblocked, you want the one that picks up. That is Starling.

Revolut vs Starling for New Overdraft Applications and Domestic Banking Strength

New Starling overdrafts are closed to applicants for now. A trades business waiting on a milestone payment or a retailer carrying stock into a quiet month therefore needs a separate buffer.

Revolut does not 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 is not the answer.

Starling’s domestic strength does not depend on its overdraft, which is closed to new applicants for now. 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.

You get bookkeeping, invoicing and Making Tax Digital submissions on a £0 account, without buying a third-party subscription.

If you pair those accounting tools with direct debits and established UK clearing, Starling still gives you a free primary UK current account without the overdraft. Revolut doesn’t match that domestic bundle.

If overdraft access matters, neither account can provide it to a new applicant today. Revolut can run alongside for international payments, but the credit line has to come from elsewhere.

Downsides of Revolut and Starling

• Revolut: no cash, no cheques. Revolut Business takes neither. Its own workaround for a cheque is to ask the payer to send a bank transfer instead, which is fine until the payer is a council or an insurer who will do no such thing. Starling banks cash at the Post Office for 0.7%.
• Revolut: compliance freeze risk. Flagged transactions can lock the account for 24 to 72 hours. Survivable for a director waiting on one invoice; a real operational risk for a small limited company running weekly wages through the account.
• Revolut: no overdraft. The Business product has no overdraft at any plan tier, Basic, Grow, or Scale. If cash flow dips between supplier payments and receipts, you need a separate credit line or a high-street account alongside.
• Revolut: entity check needed, new or existing. Existing customers migrate to the bank in phased waves through 2026, and because Revolut is ramping that rollout gradually, some brand-new signups still land on the older e-money entity temporarily. Either way the balance sits under safeguarding rather than FSCS until it moves, so check the entity in-app rather than trusting the badge. Starling carries no such caveat.
• Starling: FX rates. No multi-currency wallets, and outbound payments convert at Mastercard rates rather than near-interbank. For any business converting meaningful FX volume monthly, the gap versus Revolut shows up in the bank statement.
• Starling: team-spend tooling. Cards with per-employee limits and category rules are thinner than Revolut on paid tiers. Four staff cards with individual budget controls? Revolut is the cleaner fit.
• Both: no branch or cash handling. Branch access, cheque deposits, and traditional cash handling remain limited at both. Pair either account with a Lloyds, Barclays, or NatWest account if your business needs any of those.

Alternatives to Revolut and Starling

Both Revolut and Starling are worth considering, but they’re not the only options. We weighed four alternatives against both accounts. Which one fits depends 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 those tools together in one free account.

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 to £120,000. Lite is free, Pro is £9 a month for tax pots and accounting integrations, and Team starts at £25 a month if you need expense cards. 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. It is free, PRA-licensed with FSCS cover to £120,000, and includes free accounting software. Revolut wins where multi-currency or team-spend tooling matter, but Starling is the spine for the majority.

Who Should Choose Revolut?

• You are incorporated and you trade in more than one currency. 25+ currency wallets and near-interbank FX inside the Basic plan allowance, with Grow (£35/mo billed monthly, £30/mo paid annually) and Scale (£125/mo billed monthly, £90/mo paid annually) above it. Starling is not in this race. If you are not incorporated, confirm at sign-up that Revolut will open the account before you plan around any of it.
• You run a team with expense cards. Virtual and physical cards with per-employee spend limits and category rules on paid tiers. Starling does not match that infrastructure.
• Your directors or shareholders are not all UK residents. Starling requires every person with significant control and every director to be UK-resident. Revolut has no such rule. We treat this as a hard blocker for Starling.
• You already pay for Xero or QuickBooks and do not need a bundled accounting tool. For internationally-facing SMEs on paid tiers, Revolut can be the better primary rather than the secondary account alongside Starling.

Who Should Choose Starling?

• You are a UK sole trader. Starling takes you without argument and throws in the accounting tools. Revolut is the open question: its Help Centre and its Business Terms disagree, so you would be applying without a straight answer from either.
• You run a UK business in pounds and want a free primary account. FSCS-protected to £120,000, with direct debits and full UK banking infrastructure. Revolut adds nothing of practical value for purely domestic flows.
• You are a sole trader who wants bookkeeping and tax filing in one place. Starling’s own tools are free with the account and file Making Tax Digital returns for Income Tax. Revolut bundles nothing of the kind.
• Overdraft access matters to you, or might. Neither account is open to a new business overdraft application today: Starling is closed for now, and Revolut has no overdraft at any tier. For trades, seasonal retail or agency work on payment terms, that can decide the comparison.
• You want UK-based phone support. Starling offers 24/7 UK-based phone and chat. Sat in a van at 7am needing a card unblocked? Starling picks up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Pages

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• 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

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