Business loan ratings methodology

We give lenders a Finder score to help you make a quick comparison between similar products. Instead of just relying on costs, our scores take into account some of the most important factors you should consider when picking a business loan provider.

What our score can’t tell you is if a lender is right for your specific business. We don’t consider factors like eligibility criteria, state availability or payment frequency. You’ll have to read our reviews to get a fuller picture of what a lender has to offer.

Our ratings

We rate business loan providers using a scale of 1 to 10:

• Minimum loan amount $5,000 or less
• Maximum loan amount of $5 million or more
• Turnaround time of 24 hours or less — including the time it takes to apply
• Rates that start below 10% APR
• Only charges an origination fee — or no fees at all
• Multiple ways to get in touch, including live chat, phone, email and active social media accounts
• Perfect Trustpilot or the Better Business Bureau rating, based on at least 100 customer reviews
• Prequalification with a soft credit check, which doesn’t affect your credit score

Business lenders that receive the highest possible Finder rating meet the following criteria:

11 factors we consider for our scores

We consider these 11 factors equally when rating business loan providers and don’t weight any specific criteria.

• Minimum loan amount
• Maximum loan amount
• Minimum turnaround time
• Starting APR

• Fees
• Transparency
• Customer service options
• Customer reviews

• Online application
• Prequalification
• Bonus features

How we rate minimum loan amounts

— $5,000 and under

— $5,001 to $10,000

— $10,001+

Since lenders offer a wide range of minimum loan amounts, the lowest score we give for this one is a 7-score . It’s hard to find a lender that offers business loans under $5,000, which is why that amount and anything under earns the highest rating. Any loans above $10,000 earn a 7-score rating, since they still likely meet many borrowers’ funding needs — just not all.

How we rate maximum loan amounts

— $5 million+

— $500,001 to $4.99 million

— $100,000 to $500,000

— $99,999 and under

The most common business loan is $100,000. Any business lender that offers loans under that amount gets our lowest rating for this category: 3 stars.

It’s hard to find a loan over $5 million. Any lender that offers loans of that amount or higher scores a full 10 score for this category.

How we rate minimum turnaround time

— Next business day or sooner

— 2 to 4 business days

— 5 business days to 2 weeks

— 2 weeks to 1 month

We define turnaround time as the time it takes to apply for the loan and get your funds. Since it can vary depending on loan amounts and other factors, we look at the minimum turnaround, rather than the whole range.

Lenders that offer funding as fast as the next business day — or sooner — get the best rating. Those that take more than a month get the lowest score. With SBA lenders, we skip this category altogether to avoid penalizing them for a notoriously slow government program.

How we rate starting APR

— Below 10%

— 10% to 19%

— 20% to 29%

— 30% to 39+%

Business loans tend to come with higher APRs than personal loans, and lenders often aren’t up front about them. We consider APRs that start below 10% to be highly competitive. Those starting at 40% and above get the lowest score. We skip this category for lenders that don’t disclose APRs.

How we rate fees

— Origination fee — or no fees altogether

— 1% to 3% fee

— 4% to 5% fee

— 6% to 10% fee

We think fees can be an indicator of a lender’s overall transparency and cost structure, so we take them into account when rating providers. We don’t deduct points for small origination fees but penalize lenders that charge unreasonable fees like prepayment penalties or high interest rates.