Qonto vs Soldo
Side-by-side comparison — pricing, features, ratings, use cases. Find which Business Banking fits you best.
🔍 Independently researched ·
📊 Data-driven
56/100
9 € starting
French and European SMEs and freelancers who want a modern, spend-management-focused digital business account without ph
💰 Pricing
Starting at 9 € (hybrid)
Fee notes:
- Monthly fees: Standard 9 EUR, Business 29 EUR, Premium 99 EUR (approx US$10, $32, $110, converted at 1.10).
- Transaction fees: over plan limits, 1 EUR per transaction (Standard 20/mo, Business 200/mo, Premium 1000/mo).
- Physical card issuance: 10 EUR per card (one free per plan).
- FX markup: 1% above interbank for transactions in foreign currencies (non-EEA).
- Cash deposit fees: 1% of amount (Standard plan, over 500 EUR/month), free up to plan limits for Business and Premium.
⚠ Watch for:
- Card replacement: 10 EUR per card beyond first free.
- EU transfer costs: 0.10 EUR per SEPA transaction after limit.
- Cash deposit fee on standard plan: 1% of amount above 500 EUR/month.
- Outgoing wire fees: 1% of amount for non-SEPA transfers, min 10 EUR.
🔧 Features
✓ French Origin✓ Multi Iban✓ Spend Controls✓ 400k Customers✓ Sme Focus
📋 Assessment
💪 Strengths
- Fast, fully digital onboarding: Qonto lets you open an account in under 10 minutes if you're a French business, and for other countries the process is still quick (usually within a few days). No branch visits required. You can complete everything online, from identity verification to signing contracts. This is a huge time-saver compared to traditional banks, which may require several days or weeks.
- Granular spend controls with team cards: The card management is top-tier. For each physical or virtual card, you can set custom monthly limits, restrict usage to specific merchant categories (e.g., block online gambling or fuel), and enable contactless payments. You can freeze or delete a card instantly from the dashboard — perfect for lost cards or when an employee leaves. Real-time notifications on every transaction keep you in the loop.
- Multiple IBANs for organization: With Qonto, you can create up to 10 IBANs (depending on plan) within a single account, allowing you to separate cash flows by client, project, or entity. This eliminates the need to open multiple bank accounts and simplifies reconciliation. It's particularly useful for freelancers with multiple income streams or businesses with distinct departments.
- Real-time expense tracking with receipt attachments: The expense management workflow is smooth. Connect a per-card to the app, snap a photo of the receipt, and it attaches to the transaction automatically. Admins can approve or reject expenses, and you can export reports to your accountant. This feature alone can save hours of manual bookkeeping each week. It's available even on the Essential plan with limited files.
- Transparent pricing and no hidden fees: Qonto's pricing is straightforward: Essential at $10/month, Business at $50/month, and Premium at $169/month. There are no quarterly fees, no inactivity charges, and no minimum balance requirements. The dashboard clearly shows your plan's limits and what will incur extra costs (e.g., additional cards). This predictability is a relief for small businesses watching their overhead.
⚠ Watch out for
- Not a licensed bank — no loans, overdrafts, or credit lines: As an EMI, Qonto cannot offer credit products. If your business occasionally needs a line of credit or overdraft protection, Qonto won't help. You'll need a traditional bank or alternative lender, which means managing a second relationship. This is a significant limitation for companies with fluctuating cash flow.
- Limited geographic coverage and no multi-currency accounts: Qonto is only available to businesses in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Even within those countries, you must have a registered business. There are no foreign currency accounts — everything is in EUR (or possibly GBP? No, only EUR). If you deal with clients in USD or other currencies, you'll have to manually convert funds and pay FX fees, which could be costly. The lack of multi-currency support is a major gap for international businesses.
- Advanced features gated behind expensive plans: While the Essential plan is affordable, many useful features require the Business or Premium tiers. For example, accounting integrations (like linking QuickBooks, Xero) are only available on Business and Premium. The number of cards, IBANs, and transfer limits are also tiered. If you need more than the basics, the cost jumps significantly — from $10 to $50 or $169 per month, which is steep for a small startup.
- No dedicated mobile app for Android? Actually, Qonto has a mobile app for both iOS and Android, but it lacks some features compared to the web dashboard. For instance, you cannot set up new cards or change merchant restrictions from the app; you must use the web. This can be annoying if you're on the go and need to adjust a limit quickly.
- Customer support can be slow: While Qonto offers in-app chat and email support, response times are not always immediate. Some users report waiting 24 hours or more for a reply, and there's no phone support. For urgent issues (like a lost card), this can be frustrating, though you can freeze cards yourself from the dashboard.
🎯 Best for
French and European SMEs and freelancers who want a modern, spend-management-focused digital business account without physical branches.
🚫 Who should skip
Companies that need credit facilities, overdrafts, or multi-currency accounts, or businesses based outside Qonto's four supported countries.
📚 Learning curve
Minimal — the interface is straightforward and familiar to anyone who has used a modern banking or Fintech app; most users are fully operational within a day.
🧑⚖️ Verdict
Qonto is a top choice for freelancers, startups, and SMEs in France (and now other EU countries) that want fast, digital banking with excellent spend controls. Its multi-IBAN and expense management features make it perfect for teams that rely on card payments. However, if you need loans, overdrafts,
69/100
Free tier
Small and mid-sized UK/European companies that want to control employee spending with prepaid cards and automate expense
★ Best
💰 Pricing
🆓 Free tier available
Free plan (Starter) allows up to 3 users and 3 cards; includes 1% transaction fee on card payments, 0.2% for SEPA direct debit; 1.5% FX on non-EUR currencies; no monthly fee.
Starting at 5 € (hybrid)
Fee notes:
- Transaction fee: 1% per card payment on Starter, 0.5% on Business (reduces with higher plans).
- FX markup: 1.5% for non-EUR transactions on Starter, 0.5% on Business.
- SEPA direct debit fees: 0.2% on Starter, 0.1% on Business.
- Cash deposit fee: 1% of deposited amount.
- Card replacement fee: €5 per card.
⚠ Watch for:
- Transaction fees on card payments: can add up on high-volume spend.
- FX markup on non-EUR transactions: 1.5% on Starter, 0.5% on Business.
- Cash deposit fee of 1% may be charged for ATM or bank deposits.
- Card replacement fee of €5 per card.
🔧 Features
✓ Spend Management✓ Prepaid Cards✓ Spend Controls✓ Receipt Capture✓ Uk Europe✓ Free Tier
📋 Assessment
💪 Strengths
- Real-time card-level controls are the crown jewel. Admins can instantly set spending limits, restrict merchant categories (e.g., block all gambling or alcohol), whitelist specific vendors, disable ATM withdrawals, and even freeze a card with a single tap. This granularity is invaluable for enforcing policy without constant oversight. For example, you can give a sales rep a card that only works at approved restaurants and hotels, or allow a remote engineer a $500 monthly limit on SaaS tools. The controls take effect immediately, so there's no lag between policy change and enforcement.
- The automatic receipt capture is a time-saver that actually works. Employees snap a photo of a paper receipt, and Soldo's OCR extracts the amount, date, and merchant, then automatically attaches it to the matching transaction. This eliminates the classic 'I lost the receipt' excuse and makes VAT reconciliation a breeze. The matching is generally reliable, and if a receipt doesn't auto-match, manual attachment is straightforward. For finance teams, this transforms the monthly expense close from a multi-day chore into a half-hour sanity check.
- Accounting integrations are deep and practical. Soldo syncs transactions directly to Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, NetSuite, and SAP Concur, including custom categorization and VAT codes. This isn't just a CSV export—it's a two-way sync that pushes fully categorized transactions with attached receipts into your ledger. For example, you can set up rules to auto-code Starbucks purchases as 'Client Meetings' and map them to the right expense account. For companies already using these platforms, this saves hours of manual entry and reduces human error.
- The mobile app for employees is clean and user-friendly. Employees can view their available balance, check transaction history, snap receipts, and even report a card lost/stolen instantly. The push notifications for every transaction keep a running audit trail, and the user experience is far better than the clunky expense apps from traditional banks. This reduces friction and increases adoption—employees don't need to be trained on a complex system, just download and go.
- Soldo offers a multi-currency wallet (EUR, GBP, USD) and competitive FX rates for businesses operating across borders. You can top up the wallet in one currency and spend in another, with interbank rates plus a small margin. This is particularly useful for European companies with remote teams or contractors in different countries. The platform also issues both physical and virtual cards, so you can generate a virtual card instantly for a single online purchase—a huge plus for security.
⚠ Watch out for
- The biggest limitation: Soldo is not a bank account. You cannot receive payments from customers, earn interest on balances, or run payroll directly from the wallet. The money you hold is e-money, not bank deposits (so it's not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the UK—though it is safeguarded in an FCA-approved manner). This means companies need a separate business current account for their main banking operations. Soldo is a spending layer, not a banking replacement.
- Pricing is quote-based and can escalate quickly. The $5/mo starting price typically applies per active card, and additional features like advanced integration, invoice capture, or multiple users may incur extra costs. For a company with 100 employees, that's $500/mo just for cards—and if you have many cards that are rarely used, you'll still pay. There's no transparent public pricing, so you have to go through a sales call to get a quote. This lack of transparency can be a turn-off for SMBs that prefer self-serve.
- Prepaid cards can be declined by certain merchants, particularly car rental companies, hotels, and sometimes gas stations. These merchants often place a temporary hold (pre-authorization) that exceeds the purchase amount, and prepaid cards without sufficient backup funds can fail. This can be embarrassing in business settings. While Soldo offers a 'hold' feature to reserve funds, it requires the employee to do it manually, which many may not realize—so friction exists.
- The pooling mechanism can be rigid. Funds are held in a single master wallet, and you allocate budgets to individual cards or groups. If you want to give a department a monthly budget that resets, you need to manually set that up or rely on rules. There's no built-in 'automatic top-up from bank' feature unless you set up a standing order, so someone needs to actively manage the wallet to avoid running out of funds.
- Customer support is decent but not 24/7. Live chat and email support are available during business hours (UK/Europe time), and response times are generally within hours. However, there's no phone support, which can be frustrating for urgent issues. The knowledge base is solid, but the lack of immediate human help is a downside for a platform that handles money.
🎯 Best for
Small and mid-sized UK/European companies that want to control employee spending with prepaid cards and automate expense reconciliation.
🚫 Who should skip
Companies that need a full business bank account, want a credit card with revolving credit, or have significant non-UK/EU operations should skip Soldo.
📚 Learning curve
Minimal — most employees need only the mobile app, and a finance admin can set up card rules and accounting syncs in a few hours; configuring complex approval workflows takes a bit more time.
🧑⚖️ Verdict
Soldo is an excellent choice for European SMBs that need to give employees controlled spending power and have a strong finance automation need. It shines with real-time controls, receipt capture, and deep accounting integrations. However, if you need a full bank account or have simple expense needs
📊 Use Case Suitability
Higher score = better fit. Scores from editorial review.
Use CaseQontoSoldo
Team Expense Management95—
Real-time expense tracking, customizable spend limits, and instant transaction f
Startup Banking85—
Fast onboarding, multiple IBANs, and collaborative access are ideal for startups
Freelance / Independent Work80—
Simple invoicing, expense categorization, and accounting integrations reduce adm
Multi-entity Cash Flow Separation75—
Multiple IBANs allow you to separate client funds, project budgets, or subsidiar
Employee Expense Management—94
Soldo gives each employee a reloadable prepaid card with real-time limits and au
Department Budget Controls—90
Cards can be grouped by team or cost centre with separate budgets and approval r
Remote Team Payments—85
Virtual cards can be issued instantly to remote employees across the UK/Europe,
Accounting Reconciliation—88
Soldo syncs transactions and receipts to Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, and NetSuite, d
🧭 Which One Should You Pick?
Choose Qonto if...
- You are: French and European SMEs and freelancers who want a modern, spend-management-focused digital business account without ph
- 👍 Fully digital and fast to set up — most French businesses can open an account in under 10 minutes fr
- 👍 Excellent spend control features: custom card limits, merchant-level restrictions, and instant card
- 👍 Multiple IBANs per account let you organize financial flows by client, project, or entity without ex
- 💰 From $10/mo
- ⚠ Trade-off: Not a licensed bank — Qonto is an EMI, so it doesn't offer overdrafts, loans, or
Choose Soldo if...
- You are: Small and mid-sized UK/European companies that want to control employee spending with prepaid cards and automate expense
- 👍 Real-time transaction controls at the card level — restrict merchant categories, individual merchant
- 👍 Automatic receipt capture via the companion mobile app: employees photograph receipts, and Soldo mat
- 👍 Deep accounting integrations with Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, NetSuite, and SAP Concur reduce manual dat
- 💰 From $5/mo
- ⚠ Trade-off: Not a bank account — you can't receive customer payments, earn interest, or run
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Qonto cost and is there a free plan?
Qonto offers a limited free plan, but most businesses choose paid plans starting around €9–€29/month (excluding VAT) depending on features and number of users. Pricing scales with transaction volumes and advanced options like spend controls and accounting integrations.
Who can open a Qonto account?
Qonto is available to businesses registered in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. You'll need proof of business registration and identity for all account owners and cardholders. It's not available to sole proprietors without a VAT number in some cases, and it's not open to personal users.
Does Qonto provide a French or European IBAN?
Yes, Qonto provides a local IBAN per country of operation (e.g., French IBAN for French businesses, German IBAN for German businesses). You can request multiple IBANs in the same account, useful for separating client payments or cash flows.
Can I control team spending and issue virtual cards?
Yes, Qonto lets you issue physical and virtual cards with custom limits per team member, categories, and merchant types. You can freeze or delete cards instantly, and get real-time notifications on every transaction.
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