Every account on this list opens at $0, which makes the headline price useless as a way to choose between them. So this page ranks them on five things that differ, and it names those five before showing the order they produce.
All prices and terms were read from the vendors' own pages on September 27, 2026, and the sources are listed at the end.
How These Five Were Ranked
Five dimensions, fixed before the ranking and applied to every account the same way:
- What the $0 tier does. Whether the free plan alone separates business money properly, or whether it is a shell that needs a paid tier to be useful.
- What the paid tier costs, and what it buys. The printed step up from free, and whether the thing it sells is one people actually need.
- What idle cash earns, and under what conditions. The rate, the balance it applies to, and any behaviour required to keep it.
- Who holds the deposits. The partner bank named in the disclosure, because that is the entity the insurance attaches to.
- What the pages print. Whether the fees that decide the real cost are on the page, or only in a calculator or a quote.
Nothing in the ranking depends on an app's design, its support quality, or how the account feels to use, because none of that is evidenceable from vendor documents. That is also the limit of this page: it tells you which account is built most honestly and most completely, not which one you will enjoy opening.
The Five, in Order
1. Relay. The free tier carries the product: 20 separate checking accounts with their own numbers, invoice creation with payment links, QuickBooks and Xero integrations and unlimited users, all at $0, with no minimum balance and, in the vendor's wording, no hidden or overdraft fees. The paid tiers step up on savings rate and team workflow rather than gating the basic job: Grow costs $30 a month for 1.87% APY on savings and 1.25% cash back, and Scale lists at $120 a month, discounted to $90 for a limited time, for 3.21% APY, 50 checking accounts and no fee for same-day ACH. Two things keep it from a clean sweep: the free tier's wire and same-day ACH costs sit behind an "additional transaction fees apply" line rather than a printed schedule, and the larger FDIC coverage through a sweep network is a paid-tier feature.
2. Bluevine. The free tier prints 1.3% APY on checking up to $250,000, with a condition most people will notice: spend $500 a month on the card or receive $2,500 in customer payments. The $30 Plus tier removes the condition and pays 1.75%, which is the clearest example in this group of a paid tier selling the same thing without a string attached. Deposits sit at Coastal Community Bank, and the site states FDIC coverage up to $3,000,000 per depositor through that bank and its program banks.
3. Found. The one account here that folds the tax work into the banking: tax estimates as you get paid, a Taxes Pocket that sets money aside automatically, mileage and home office deduction tracking, Schedule C and 1120-S form generation, and in-app quarterly federal payments, from $0 with paid tiers at $35 and $80 a month. The paid tiers also print the rates the free one does not: 1.50% APY on balances up to $20,000 on Plus, and 2.50% on all balances with no cap on Pro, plus 1% cash back on card purchases. For a freelancer who wants one place where the money lands and the tax is handled, that combination is unique on this list, and it is also the deepest stack of features to verify before trusting it with a year of books.
4. Mercury. The $0 account is a complete business checking account with cards, invoicing, bill pay and expense management, and it earns its place on the fifth criterion alone: Mercury publishes how it makes money, naming interest on deposits, foreign exchange on international wires, and fees on Treasury and venture debt. The steps up are $29.90 a month for Plus and $299 a month for Pro, the second aimed at businesses that want a relationship manager, and neither is priced for a side hustle. Deposits sit with Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., and Treasury, which is where the yield lives, requires a $250,000 balance.
5. Novo. The simplest of the five: no monthly fee, no minimum, no transaction limits, free standard ACH, incoming wires at no cost, ATM fees rebated monthly and more than 40 integrations including Stripe, QuickBooks, Shopify, Square and Xero. It ranks last here because it prints the least: no interest rate on the page read, no sub-account structure for separating tax money, and no paid tier to compare against. Deposits sit at Middlesex Federal Savings, F.A.
The Comparison Table
| Account | Free tier | Paid step up | Idle cash | Partner bank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relay | 20 checking accounts, invoicing, QuickBooks and Xero, unlimited users | $30, and $120 discounted to $90 a month | 1.19%, 1.87% or 3.21% APY on savings by plan | Thread Bank |
| Bluevine | Checking with a conditional yield | $30 a month | 1.3% conditional, 1.75% on Plus | Coastal Community Bank |
| Found | Banking plus tax estimates, Taxes Pocket and form generation | $35 and $80 a month | None on Free, 1.50% up to $20,000 on Plus, 2.50% uncapped on Pro | Lead Bank |
| Mercury | Checking, cards, invoicing, bill pay, expense management | $29.90 and $299 a month | Through Mercury Treasury, at a $250,000 balance | Choice Financial Group and Column N.A. |
| Novo | No-fee checking, free standard ACH, ATM rebates, 40+ integrations | None printed | No rate printed | Middlesex Federal Savings, F.A. |
Read the fourth column with the third: the accounts that pay the most on idle cash are the ones that attach a condition or a subscription to it, and the accounts that pay nothing are the ones that ask for nothing. That is not a flaw in either design. It is the trade the category offers, and it is easier to make when the rate and the condition are printed side by side, which is why they are in the same table here.
What to Check Before You Move Money
Two questions decide more than the rate does, and no pricing page answers either of them.
The first is how the account behaves when a large incoming payment is held for review: how long the review takes, what documents get asked for, and whether outgoing transfers pause while it runs. Every account in this category runs transaction monitoring, and the experience of being asked to verify a deposit is the one that costs a freelancer a week.
The second is what happens to your account and your contact when the company changes hands. That question is not hypothetical in this category, and the way to protect against it costs nothing: keep a second free account at a different provider with a different partner bank, and route one small recurring payment through it so the account stays active.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free business bank account for a side hustle?
Relay, on the criteria below, because its free tier does the most of the job in this category: 20 separate checking accounts under one login, invoice creation with payment links, QuickBooks and Xero integrations and unlimited users, all at $0. The sub-accounts are what make separating tax money automatic rather than a monthly act of will.
Do I need a business bank account for a side hustle?
You need separation more than you need a business account specifically. Mixing personal and business money makes every transaction a judgment call at tax time and weakens the liability protection an LLC is meant to provide. Every account on this list opens at $0, so the cost of separating is close to nothing.
Which one pays the most on cash you leave sitting there?
On checking, Bluevine publishes 1.3% up to $250,000 with a condition attached, or 1.75% on its $30 Plus plan with no condition. Relay pays on savings accounts instead: 1.19% APY on the free plan, 1.87% on the $30 Grow plan, and 3.21% on Scale, which lists at $120 a month and is discounted to $90 for a limited time. Found pays nothing on its free plan but prints 1.50% on balances up to $20,000 on its $35 plan and 2.50% on all balances on its $80 plan. Mercury points to its Treasury product rather than quoting a checking rate, and Treasury requires a $250,000 Mercury balance. Novo does not print a rate on the page this review read.
Are these real banks?
None of them are, and each says so on its own site. Relay deposits sit at Thread Bank, Mercury uses Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Bluevine uses Coastal Community Bank, Novo uses Middlesex Federal Savings and Found uses Lead Bank. The FDIC insurance protects the deposit at the partner bank, not the app on top of it.
What should I ask before moving tax money into one of these?
How the account behaves when a large incoming payment is held for review: how long the review takes, what documents they ask for, whether outgoing transfers pause while it runs, and what happens to your assigned support person when the company changes hands. None of the five documents that on its site, and it is the failure that hurts.
Should I keep two accounts?
Yes, if the business can afford the extra login. Two free accounts at two providers with different partner banks cost nothing and turn a freeze into an inconvenience rather than a missed payroll. It also means the second account has a transaction history if the first one becomes a problem.
Sources
Prices, terms and quoted wording were checked against these pages on September 27, 2026.
- Relay pricing, for the $0 Starter tier, the 20 checking accounts, the integrations, the three savings rates, the $120 Scale price and its limited-time discount to $90, and the Thread Bank disclosure
- Bluevine business checking, for the 1.3% and 1.75% rates and conditions, and the Coastal Community Bank disclosure
- Found pricing, for the Free, $35 Plus and $80 Pro tiers, the tax features in each, the 1.50% and 2.50% APYs, and the Lead Bank disclosure
- Mercury pricing, for the $0 account, the $29.90 and $299 tiers, the Treasury balance requirement, the revenue disclosure and the partner banks
- Novo business checking, for the no-fee terms, the free ACH and incoming wires, the ATM rebate and the integrations
For the full review of the top pick, see the Relay review. For how these four differ on the fine print rather than the ranking, see Mercury vs Relay vs Bluevine vs Novo.
