Revolut Business vs Starling Business

As a business owner, you have plenty to juggle; from managing clients to keeping your financials in check. Finding the right bank account is a key part of being a business owner.  But with so many banks offering products, it can be difficult to pick the right one that suits your needs and budget.

That’s why we’re comparing two popular options that offer digital bank account solutions: Starling Business and Revolut Business. We’ll dive into the features, fees, and benefits of each bank account, so you can make an informed decision about which one is best for your business.

So, to sum up:

• While Revolut offers a safeguarded account, Starling offers FSCS protection for your funds.

• Revolut’s support is primarily in-app with limited phone and email options, while Starling offers phone, email and in-app live chat

• Revolut doesn’t offer savings accounts, while Starling has a fixed saver option.

• Revolut offers around 17 accounting software integrations, lus other integrations, including custom API options, while Starling offers 3 accounting software integrations, plus a marketplace of other software and a separate Banking as a Service (Engine) option.

About Revolut 

Founded in 2015, Revolut is a fintech company that has attracted more than 500,000 business users across the globe after launching its business account in 2017. The company has a European Central Bank licence and has applied for a UK banking licence application. They support 200 countries across 29 currencies.

Their mission is to “simplify all things money” and they have been doing it through a range of personal and business products that have attracted 28 million users around the world.

About Starling 

Founded in 2014, Starling offers a variety of financial products including business, personal, and children’s bank accounts. Starling’s bank accounts are FSCS-protected and offer lots of add-ons that allow customers to manage all their finances in one place.

The bank’s aim is to “fix finance” by using plain language and making financial education accessible. Like other challenger banks, it has no physical branches preferring to rely on digital services instead.

Both bank accounts offer robust safety and security features to keep your funds safe. Let’s take a look at what this looks like.

Deposit protection

While Starling offers FSCS-protection on deposits up to £85,000, Revolut offers safeguarded accounts. What this means is that Revolut keeps your funds separate from their own operational accounts, ensuring that your money is safe from any claims by creditors in the event of insolvency.

Fraud prevention

Revolut and Starling alike offer a range of fraud protection features to keep your funds safe. They offer various channels for reporting stolen cards, such as their in-app chat, dedicated fraud team email, and automated call line. Additionally, Revolut employs an anti-fraud system that includes red-flagging suspicious transactions, requesting extra verification measures, and utilising 3D secure cards. You can also create your custom checkout experience using their Merchant API feature.

Starling offers real-time notifications to help prevent fraud. These notifications keep you informed about incoming and outgoing transactions to help you detect suspicious activity quickly.

For added security, their 3D secure feature acts as two-factor authentication, requiring you to approve specific transactions through the app. You'll never have to worry about unauthorized transactions happening on your account. With Starling's card controls feature, you're in control of how your card is used. You can choose to enable or disable features like contactless and chip & pin payments, as well as ATM withdrawals.

Protecting user data

Starling and Revolut have taken measures to keep your data safe. Starling boasts a highly secure server environment, where your information is immediately encrypted upon being stored.

Revolut also goes the extra mile to protect your data, implementing strict staff policies and establishing contracts with data protection safeguards when your information leaves the EEA. In addition to these measures, both providers take a range of other physical and technical steps to ensure the safety of your information.

Revolut and Starling have high scores across several popular review sites. Their apps are highly rated across the Google Play Store and App Store as well.

Revolut and Starling have an aggregate high score of 4.7/5. They have the same high score which suggests they’re both excellent choices when it comes to business banking.

Revolut was crowned company of the year at the 2020 UK Tech Awards, and previously topped the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 awards in 2019.Meanwhile, Starling has won numerous accolades over the past few years, including Best Business Banking Provider for three consecutive years (2019-2021) at the Smart Money People awards, as well as Best British Bank for the same three-year period. In 2021, it also took home the Moneyfacts Best Banking App award.

More recently, Starling has added more feathers to its cap, being named Bank of the Year at the CityAM awards in 2022, and also scooping up the Which? Banking Brand of the Year award.

Both Revolut and Starling offer free business accounts to get you started. Starling then comes with the option to pay for add-ons like Euro and US business bank accounts or the Business Toolkit, which comes with invoicing, VAT calculations, and estimates for HMRC tax and NI contributions.

If you conduct business abroad, you'll be pleased to know that both providers allow you to use your card and offer international payments too. However, Revolut offers additional features like API integrations and payroll management for paid accounts. Their "Scale" option for £100 per month also offers a dedicated account manager. Larger businesses may want to look into Revolut's customer "Enterprise" options.

Systems appear to be operational at Starling and Revolut alike. While Starling encountered a payment-related incident in April, they quickly resolved the situation. Revolut doesn't provide information on their previous status updates. However, both providers seem to have a similar level of reliability and work efficiently to resolve any issues.

With Revolut, the quickest way to get assistance is through their helpdesk or the in-app live chat function. However, their email support is only available for reporting account access problems, fraud, and lost or stolen cards. Revolut prioritises in-app support for all other queries and does not offer a direct phone line.On the plus side, Revolut allows users to quickly block their cards via an automated phone line if they are concerned about theft or fraudulent activity.

On the other hand, Starling offers multiple support options for their customers. They can reach out for help through phone, email, or the in-app help function. This means that if you need to speak with a human rep for assistance, you can do so fairly quickly.

Overall, choosing between Revolut and Starling may depend on whether you’re happy with the speed and efficiency of in-app support, or whether you’d prefer a more personal touch through phone lines. Regardless of the preferred option, both banks offer a range of support options to help ensure their customers are satisfied and their banking needs are met.

If you deal with international clients, you may wish to have a reliable method for sending and receiving international payments. The good news is that both Revolut and Starling offer international payments. But how do they compare?

Revolut offers the ability to send payments to over 100 countries in 28 different currencies, with transfer times ranging from 3 to 5 working days (unless it's a wire transfer to a US bank account, which can be received on the same day). The flat fee for international payments over the free limit is £3, with an additional charge of £8 per transfer to a US local account through the wire transfer option. A 0.4% foreign exchange fee applies once you've exceeded your free FX allowance, but incoming transfers in USD, GBP, EUR, and CHF are free.

On the other hand, Starling enables you to send international payments from your business account to 36 countries using 20 currencies. However, if your business operates in countries like India or the UAE, you may encounter difficulties as they aren't currently supported by Starling.The transfer fee for Starling is 0.4%, plus a SWIFT fee of £5.50. You can opt for a local network fee where applicable, starting from £0.30, to reduce costs. This option waives the SWIFT fee and incurs only the 0.4% transfer fee, in addition to the lower local network fee.

Overall, both Revolut and Starling offer a range of international payment options, but you may need to consider factors such as supported currencies and transfer fees before deciding which one is right for your business.

Both Revolut and Starling offer easy-to-use, accessible financial platforms. When we ran an accessibility audit on Chrome, Revolut scored 96/100 on mobile, while Starling scored 98/100. Revolut’s desktop score was 98/100 while Starling’s was 100. All in all, both sites scored high for accessibility.

Also, both providers had the same high scores for their apps on Google Play and Apple alike. Revolut and Starling scored 4.5/5 on Google Play and 4.9/5 on Apple. This suggests their apps are easy to use and generally offer a good user experience.

Currently, Revolut doesn't provide any savings accounts for business users.  Starling offers a one-year Fixed Business Saver account with a 2.5% AER gross interest rate.

You can invest a lump sum anywhere between £2,000 and £1,000,000 can be deposited with Starling, guaranteeing a return once the money matures after 12 months. However, it's important to note that these funds cannot be accessed for a year.

If you’re interested in a bank account that can offer overdrafts and business loans, then Starling might be an option.

Starling provides overdrafts ranging from £1,000 to £50,000 with interest charged only on the amount borrowed. Business loans are available from £25,001 to £250,000 with a fixed monthly payment plan. Early repayments come with zero fees, but a personal guarantee is required as security. One-off loan arrangement fees of 4% are payable upon drawdown.

On the other hand, Revolut does not currently offer overdraft or credit options for its customers. Businesses interested in such options will have to explore third-party credit options.

Both Revolut and Starling offer quick and easy account opening processes. With Revolut, you can either apply for a “corporate” business bank account, or a “freelancer” business bank account. The application itself will take approximately 10 minutes. You’ll need some documents and info to hand to complete your application. Some of them include:

• Your business’ address

• A short paragraph describing your business

• Your national ID, passport, driving licence (for verification purposes)

• Proof of right to reside in the country where your business is located (if you’re not a citizen)

• Basic incorporation details, and details about shareholders and directors (if you’re opening a corporate account)

Your application will be reviewed by the Revolut team after you submit it. This shouldn’t take too long if your business isn’t overly complex.

As with Revolut, opening a business bank account is designed to be a straightforward exercise. You’ll need some documentation to ensure the application process goes as smoothly as possible. This could include:

• A valid photo ID, such as your passport or UK driving licence

• Bank statements

• Lease agreements for business premises

• Other business contracts

It’s worth noting that while Starling carries out a soft credit check when you apply for a business account through them, Revolut does not carry out any soft or hard credit checks when you apply for an account. So if your credit score is on the low side and you’re worried about getting accepted, Revolut might be an option.

All in all, both business accounts offer a seamless account opening process that shouldn’t take too long if your business isn’t overly complex.

Cash heavy businesses may need a bank account that makes managing cash as seamless as possible. Revolut does not offer a cash or cheque deposit functionality and instead  promotes digital payments as the safest and most convenient method. This can be a drawback for cash-heavy business owners who rely on cash deposits and cheque payments.

Starling Business, on the other hand, permits cash deposits at the Post Office for a fee of either £3 or 0.7% of the total amount deposited, whichever fee is higher.

If you receive cheque payments, Starling provides an option to deposit cheques of £1000 or less via the app by taking a photo. Otherwise, the daily limit for cheque depositing is £2000 for sole trader accounts and £5000 for business accounts.

When it comes to ATM withdrawals, Revolut offers a higher limit of £3,000 per day for all account-linked cards but charges a 2% fee for cash withdrawals regardless of the amount. In contrast, Starling offers a daily ATM withdrawal limit of £300, which is a little lower. However, there is no withdrawal fee when using Post Office ATMs in the UK, while withdrawing cash using the Post Office Counter incurs a fee of £0.50 per withdrawal.

Overall, if you're a cash-heavy business, Starling's cash deposit option might be more suitable. But if you're looking for a higher ATM withdrawal limit, Revolut could be a better option despite the withdrawal fee.

If you need to make large payments, you’ll be able to do so with both Revolut and Starling alike.  With Starling, you can process payments up to  £1,000,000 per transaction using their Faster Payments scheme. However, if you need to send a payment over £1,000,000, you may need to use their CHAPS payments which come with a £20 charge.

Payment limits may apply to your account with Starling, and they may need to contact you in-app to confirm certain larger payments.

On the other hand, Revolut offers different transaction limits depending on the type of business account you hold. Freelancers typically have lower limits, with a daily limit of up to £500,000 on total payments. For company accounts, the daily limit jumps up considerably to £30 million.

If you need to exceed these limits, Revolut still has a solution for you. You can use a SWIFT transfer, which may take up to three working days to process but allows for higher-value transactions.

All in all, both accounts can cater for larger transactions and have options if you wish to exceed the limits set by the provider.

Both Revolut and Starling offer integrations with popular accounting software providers such as Xero and Quickbooks. Revolut also supports other popular apps like:

• Shopify

• Zapier

• Coconut

Also, Revolut's Business API offering allows small business owners to develop custom integrations that meet their specific business needs. It’s worth noting, however, that this level of customisation is only available to those on paid plans.

Starling offers integrations with POS solutions like iZettle and SumUp, and has a marketplace where users can easily view all available business integrations across a variety of categories.

There is also the Engine by Starling product, which is separate from the business account but offers the possibility to use Starling as a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) solution where businesses can create their own financial products for their customers.

Both Starling and Revolut offer award-winning business bank accounts with high customer satisfaction. Revolut supports more foreign currencies, so if your business works with customers all over the world, they might be a better option.Starling, on the other hand, has a range of overdraft and business loan options, as well as interest-earning bank accounts if this is of interest. Revolut doesn’t have these features yet. Either bank account could work well for your purposes depending on your business needs.

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