Tide vs Revolut business: Which is the best business account?

Learn more about the key differences between the Tide and Revolut business bank accounts and which is likely to suit you better.

Tide and Revolut both offer branchless business accounts. But which account is the best for you? Below, we examine the various features of these two mobile-only business accounts so you can find out.

Best for paying in cash and cheques

Tide allows you to deposit between £10 and £500 per day at Post Office branches, where a £1 fee applies. Alternatively, you can deposit cash at PayPoint locations. The limits are the same, but a 3% fee applies here. Tide doesn’t allow you to make cheque deposits though.

Revolut doesn’t allow you to pay into your account using cash or cheques. Instead, you have to transfer from another bank account.

Our verdict: Tide. A clear winner because Revolut doesn’t allow cash or cheque payments.

Best for overseas spending

With Tide, you can spend on your card overseas with no additional fees. The Mastercard exchange rate will determine the cost, which studies show are better than the Visa rate. You’ll pay a £1 fee when withdrawing cash at an overseas ATM.

With a Revolut business account, you’ll pay £3 for making an overseas transaction and 2% for making an overseas ATM withdrawal.

Our verdict: Tide. The fees with Tide are notably lower.

Best for multiple cards

Tide gives a free card to the main account holder, plus you can buy Team Cards for up to 35 of your colleagues. They cost £5+VAT per month with a free account. With a paid account (starting at £9.99 +VAT a month), you will get 1 or 3 Team Cards for free, depending on your membership level.

Revolut will give 3 physical cards and up to 200 virtual cards per team member. Your first plastic card is free of charge, and any others you order will incur a delivery fee of £4.99. If you upgrade to a Grow membership, you can get 1 free Metal card, and if you updated to a Scale membership, you can get 2. Any additional Metal cards outside of your free allowance costs an additional £49.

Our verdict: Revolut. It’ll costs less to order more cards and you have the option to go virtual.

Best for accountancy software integration

You can integrate Tide with six accounting software packages: FreeAgent, Kashflow, QuickBooks, ReckonOne, Sage and Xero.

Revolut can integrate with Xero, FreeAgent and QuickBooks.

Our verdict: Tide. Double the choices of accounting software integration with Tide.

Best for customer support

You can contact Tide customer service through its app, via email or by requesting a callback.

Revolut has in-app or online customer service only. You can also block your card and receive information using an automated telephone service.

Our verdict: Tide. More customer service options are available with this app.

Best for switching

Neither of these banks are part of the Current Account Switch Service (CASS) and there are no stats available to compare the average speed of the switching processes.

Our verdict: Draw.

Best for set-up

To create a Tide business account, you have to download the app and go through the registration process on your mobile device. You’ll have to provide a form of personal ID and various details about your business, including bank statements, invoices or an HMRC registration. Tide data suggests that 53% of business customers can open an account in under 10 minutes. Some 81% can get up and running within 48 hours, according to this same data.

Revolut asks for the same information during its sign-up process. There is no official information on the speed of sign-up, although Revolut suggests it can take anything from a few hours to 7 days.

Our verdict: Draw.

Best value for money

Tide has a free business account. With this account, it costs 20p to receive or send UK payments. It offers three premium accounts, which come with monthly fees of £9.99 (Plus), £18.99 (Pro) and £49.99 (Cashback) respectively. The latter accounts offer 0.5% cashback on purchases. Payment fees are waived with these accounts, and with transfers between Tide accounts.

Revolut has a free account (Pro). Its premium accounts cost either £25 per month (Grow) or £100 per month (Scale), but you’ll pay less for additional cards compared to Tide.

Our verdict: It’s close, but Tide edges it. Tide will be cheaper if you don’t want to order a lot of extra cards.

Verdict: Is Tide better than Revolut?

While both offer a decent selection of features for business owners looking to manage their finances on the go, Tide ticks more boxes than its competitor.

A Tide account typically takes less time to get up and running, offers integrations with a wider selection of accounting software platforms, and makes more customer service options available via its app.

Tide also allows you to spend overseas with no additional fees, which compares favourably with Revolut’s high overseas transactions fees. Tide is the clear winner.

Promoted
Tide
Get a Free business account
  • Award-winning, smart, simple business account
  • Hassle-free account for your business
  • Get a sort code and account number in minutes
We show offers we can track - that's not every product on the market...yet. Unless we've said otherwise, products are in no particular order. The terms "best", "top", "cheap" (and variations of these) aren't ratings, though we always explain what's great about a product when we highlight it. This is subject to our terms of use. When you make major financial decisions, consider getting independent financial advice. Always consider your own circumstances when you compare products so you get what's right for you.

More guides on Finder

Go to site