Which Is Better for UK small businesses choosing between two free FSCS-protected accounts?
For most UK small businesses, Starling is the better default if you regularly send high volumes of domestic payments and do not need new credit. Monzo Pro is better if VAT ring-fencing and tax-pot automation matter more. Starling is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans.
Starling wins on volume. There is no per-transfer fee on domestic payments, however many you send. If you pay twenty suppliers a month, the maths is simple: Starling costs nothing, Tide costs £3 (five free, then 20p on each of the other fifteen). Monzo matches Starling on free domestic transfers at the entry tier, the differentiation is elsewhere.
Monzo is the only one of the two currently accepting overdraft applications. Sole traders can apply for up to £3,000, and limited company directors can check eligibility in the app for £500 to £5,000, with a personal guarantee. Starling is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans.
Monzo Pro wins on tax-pot automation. The tax-pot auto-sweep sets aside a percentage of every incoming payment to a named VAT pot before you can spend it. If you’ve ever reached quarter-end and found the VAT reserve depleted, that’s the problem it solves. £9 a month, £108 a year.
Starling vs Monzo Fees and Charges
Starling Business: no monthly fee, no domestic transfer fees, no minimum balance. The account is free at every volume level. There are no paid business account tiers for standard current accounts.
Monzo Business: free standard plan with core banking. Pro at £9/month adds named tax pots with auto-sweep and accounting feeds. Domestic transfers are free on both tiers. We confirmed the £9 Pro price at monzo.com on 7 October 2026.
International transfers: Monzo charges a markup over the Mastercard rate plus a fee, and Starling publishes no fee for outbound payments on its multi-currency page. Monzo Business holds GBP only. Starling lets you hold other currencies in the same app, with a 0.4% fee to move money between them. Starling’s euro account adds £2 a month.
Monzo converts at the Mastercard exchange rate plus a fee. For high-volume international payments, consider Wise or Revolut alongside.
Cash deposits: neither takes cash through the app. Starling business customers pay in at a Post Office counter, at 0.7% of each deposit with a £3 minimum, and Monzo lists cash deposits among its plan features. Neither is designed for regular cash-heavy businesses. If you deposit cash daily, you’ll need a high-street account alongside either of these.
| Cost | Starling Business | Monzo Business (Free) | Monzo Business Pro (£9/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | £0 | £0 | £9 |
| Domestic transfers | Free (unlimited) | Free (unlimited) | Free (unlimited) |
| International transfers | 0.4% to move money between currency accounts | Mastercard rate + markup; fee up to £9 + 1.80% | Mastercard rate + markup; fee up to £9 + 1.80% |
| Overdraft | Closed to new applicants | Sole traders to £3,000; companies £500 to £5,000 | Sole traders to £3,000; companies £500 to £5,000 |
| Tax pots | No | Pots (basic) | Named tax pots with auto-sweep |
| FSCS protection | Yes (£120,000) | Yes (£120,000, since 2017) | Yes (£120,000, since 2017) |
| Fees and features verified against provider websites, October 2026. | |||
Starling vs Monzo Features and Tools
The feature difference we’d flag first is where the accounting feeds sit. Starling connects to Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent on its free account. Monzo connects to Xero, FreeAgent, Sage and QuickBooks, but only on Pro and Team, from £9 a month. If your accountant works in Sage, Monzo Pro is the one of the two that connects.
Starling’s FreeAgent integration is a meaningful add-on. FreeAgent is a full accounting package, invoicing, expenses, tax returns, payroll for sole traders. What the integration saves you is the manual export, not the subscription.
There is no bundled FreeAgent deal to go looking for. Starling charges nothing to connect the two, but the feed only runs if you hold a live FreeAgent subscription of your own, and that bill stays yours (Starling’s integrations page, read 7 October 2026).
Monzo Pots are the standout banking feature. A Pot is a named sub-balance inside your account, move money in, see it sitting separate from your available balance. Pro adds named tax pots that auto-sweep a percentage of incoming payments. If VAT gets spent before quarter-end, that’s the fix.
Both let you send invoices from the account. Starling’s invoicing is free, and Online Banking matches incoming payments to invoices and marks them paid. Monzo puts invoicing on Pro and Team, from £9 a month, so on the free Lite plan you’ll need a separate tool.
Starling vs Monzo International Payments
Monzo Business holds GBP only. Starling lets you hold other currencies in the same app, with a 0.4% fee to move money between them. Monzo charges a fee on international transfers; Starling publishes none for outbound payments. If you invoice clients in euros, receive USD payments, or pay overseas suppliers regularly, you’ll want Revolut or Wise alongside either account.
Starling’s euro account sits in the same app as the pound account and costs £2 a month. Its US dollar account costs £5 a month but is not taking new applications for now. Moving money between them carries a 0.4% fee on top of the exchange rate.
Monzo Business is GBP-only at every plan tier, confirmed on Monzo’s international payments page in October 2026. Incoming foreign currency payments are converted to pounds before they land, for a 1% fee capped at £1,000 a payment. There are no currency wallets, no foreign-currency invoicing, and no way to hold a balance in euros or dollars.
For this comparison, international payments is not the decision axis. We’d point you to Revolut or Wise instead, both handle cross-border volume better than either Starling or Monzo.
Starling vs Monzo Customer Reviews and Reputation
We looked at published Trustpilot and app store ratings for both in May 2026. Starling Business sits around 4.3–4.5 stars across tens of thousands of reviews. Monzo Business is comparable. App store ratings for both track above 4.5 on iOS and Android.
Starling complaints have clustered on overdraft eligibility, but the bank is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans.
Monzo complaints cluster on account closures with limited explanation, a small proportion of reviewers, but a consistent pattern.
Automated compliance checks flag accounts; the review that follows isn’t always fast. Neither provider is unusual in this, but it’s worth knowing before you route payroll through either account.
Both run app-first support, with in-app chat as the main route. Both also answer the phone around the clock: Starling lists 020 7930 4450 and says it is there 24/7, and Monzo says you can speak to it 24/7 by phone or in the app. Friday 5pm, payment stuck, you can ring someone at either.
Starling vs Monzo for Domestic Payments vs Tax Pot Automation
The overdraft question is the most specific differentiator between these two accounts. Monzo offers one to sole traders up to £3,000 and to limited companies from £500 to £5,000, while Starling is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans.
If you run a business that needs a credit buffer in its current account, seasonal cash flow, slow-paying clients, occasional stock purchases, this is the deciding question.
Starling is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans.
An overdraft at Starling doesn’t automatically come with the account, and it is closed to new applicants for now, so do not open the account expecting one.
Monzo does lend: sole traders can apply for overdrafts up to £3,000 and loans of £200 to £25,000, and limited company directors can check overdraft and loan eligibility in the app, all subject to status. That matters while Starling is not accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans.
Our view: sole traders wanting a buffer up to £3,000, and limited companies needing no more than £5,000, can consider Monzo. Anyone needing more must look beyond both accounts, because Starling is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans. If your main concern is keeping VAT ring-fenced, Monzo Pro answers that better.
Downsides of Starling and Monzo
Starling does not integrate with Sage, and Monzo only does on Pro and Team, from £9 a month. On Starling or Monzo Lite, your accountant asks for a Sage-compatible bank feed and you export a CSV, every month. If Sage is central to your accountant’s workflow, Monzo Pro or Tide is the better fit.
Monzo’s overdrafts are small: up to £3,000 for sole traders and £5,000 for limited companies, so larger gaps aren’t covered. For more headroom, a separate facility is the answer, since Starling is not taking applications.
Cash deposits cost money at both. Starling business customers pay in at the Post Office, at 0.7% of each deposit with a £3 minimum. It’s usable for occasional cash, not daily trading cash. A market trader banking £400 a day needs a high-street account alongside either of these.
Neither offers relationship banking. There is no branch and no local manager to go and see; support runs through the app and a 24/7 phone line at both.
We read both providers’ support pages in October 2026. Starling lists 020 7930 4450, answered 24/7, and Monzo says you can speak to it 24/7 by phone or in the app.
Alternatives to Starling and Monzo
If neither Starling nor Monzo fits, here are the four alternatives we’d consider before looking further. Each solves a different gap.
Tide, built-in invoicing, expense categorisation, and direct Sage integration. Better than Starling for Sage-based accountant workflows. The free plan covers five bank transfers a month, in or out, and charges 20p on each one after that, so pay twenty suppliers a month and you are on the wrong plan. New accounts are provided by ClearBank, so eligible deposits carry FSCS cover to £120,000.
ANNA Money, AI-powered tax and expense automation with invoicing built into the banking app. Better than Monzo Pro for businesses that want fully automated VAT and tax submissions without a separate accounting tool. The Free plan includes unlimited outgoing transfers, leaves the first £1,000 of incoming payments free each month and takes 0.95% after that, so if you bank £5,000 a month in client money, roughly £38 goes before any other fee.
Revolut Business, 25+ currency wallets, interbank FX inside plan allowances, and team expense cards with per-person spend limits. Better than either for businesses with international payments as a regular need. Revolut Bank UK Ltd has been a fully authorised bank since 11 March 2026, but the rollout is phased, so read the entity named in your terms before you park working capital there.
Mettle by NatWest, free FSCS-protected account with NatWest backing and a FreeAgent subscription included. Worth considering if NatWest’s institutional credibility matters to your business. FreeAgent stays free only while you make at least one transaction a month from the Mettle account, and Mettle does not list an overdraft among its features.
Final Verdict: Starling or Monzo?
Starling is the better default for UK businesses that send high volumes of domestic payments and do not need borrowing. Monzo Pro is the better choice for businesses where tax ring-fencing matters more than credit. Starling is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans.
The overdraft is no longer a reason to pick Starling because it is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans. Monzo caps its overdrafts at £3,000 for sole traders and £5,000 for limited companies, so a business needing a bigger buffer must look elsewhere.
Pay a lot of domestic suppliers and the maths favours Starling too. No fee per transfer means no compounding cost as volume grows: the operational cost stays at £0 whether you pay five suppliers or fifty.
FreeAgent users get a cleaner month-end with Starling. The integration removes a manual step, and FreeAgent is a full accounting package in its own right. There is no discount riding on it, though: Starling charges nothing to connect, and the FreeAgent subscription stays your bill.
Monzo Pro earns its £9/month, £108 a year, only if you genuinely struggle to keep VAT aside. The auto-sweep moves a percentage of every incoming payment into a named VAT pot before you can spend it.
Be honest about which one you are. If you have never once raided the VAT money, Starling or Monzo Lite does the same job for nothing.
If you have raided it, £108 a year is cheap next to a surprise HMRC bill and the scramble to cover it.
Monzo Pro also carries the accounting feeds: Xero, FreeAgent, Sage and QuickBooks connect on Pro and Team, not on the free Lite plan.
Sage users should lean Monzo. Starling connects to Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent but not Sage, so a Sage-anchored workflow saves the export step only on Monzo Pro.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Monzo Business offer an overdraft?
Yes. Sole traders can apply for up to £3,000 at a representative 39% Equivalent Annual Rate (EAR), and Monzo charges no fees for using it. Limited company directors can check eligibility in the app for £500 to £5,000, with a personal guarantee. Monzo also offers sole-trader loans of £200 to £25,000. Starling is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans.
Can I have both a Starling 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 Starling as the primary current account for free transfers, with Monzo Pro alongside for tax-pot ring-fencing. Starling is not currently accepting applications for business overdrafts or loans. Both accounts are free to open on their base plans.
Which is better for FreeAgent users: Starling or Monzo?
Starling, on cost. Starling connects to FreeAgent on its free account. Monzo Business connects to FreeAgent too, but only on Pro and Team, from £9 a month. Neither of them gives you the FreeAgent software free. Mettle and NatWest both include FreeAgent for the life of the account, which Mettle puts at a saving of at least £150 a year, so a FreeAgent business should be comparing all four rather than these two.
Are both Starling and Monzo FSCS-protected?
Yes. Both Starling and Monzo are PRA-authorised UK banks. Deposits at both are protected by the FSCS up to £120,000 per eligible depositor (limit raised from £85,000 on 1 December 2025). Monzo has been FSCS-protected since 2017. Starling holds a PRA banking licence and has offered FSCS protection since its banking authorisation.
Does Starling Business connect to Sage?
No. Starling lists Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent as its accounting integrations, not Sage (checked October 2026). If your accountant uses Sage, you would need to export transaction data manually or use a third-party connector. Monzo Business does connect to Sage, on its Pro and Team plans from £9 a month. Tide also connects to Sage, alongside its built-in invoicing tools.
How we reviewed Starling vs Monzo
Ranking criteria. We compared Starling and Monzo on pricing, fees, feature set, eligibility, and contract terms. We also verified regulatory status and deposit protection where applicable.
Data sources. Every provider’s pricing page, terms, and product docs were checked directly in October 2026. No comparison sites, no press releases, no affiliate material.
Update cadence. We re-verify every provider on this page at least monthly, 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.
Related Pages
Looking for more comparison pages? We have head-to-head comparisons across digital and high-street business accounts.
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- Tide vs Revolut, invoicing depth vs FSCS multi-currency
- Wise vs Revolut, international payment specialists head to head
- Best business bank accounts, full comparison of UK providers