4 Best Banking Software in 2026

• No monthly fees or minimums
• Excellent UI/UX
• Powerful sub-account automation
• Fast, simple invoicing and bill pay
• Strong integrations

• No physical branches
• No physical checkbooks
• Customer support is not instant

We all remember the days of spending an afternoon in a stuffy bank with folders full of paperwork just to open a business account. With Mercury, you can open an account online in only a few minutes, for free. There are no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements, and no fees on USD payments or transfers, so even if your business is just getting off the ground, Mercury's tools and features are accessible.

If you're someone who uses the "envelope method," you'll love Mercury's sub-accounts. Once your primary account is created, you can set up as many additional checking or savings accounts as you'd like.

Having this option shifts money management from reactive to automatic. Instead of budgeting in spreadsheets or creating reminders to set aside funds for taxes, use Mercury to create separate accounts for things like payroll and taxes, then let automatic transfer rules do the rest. It's simple, but it completely changes the way you think about cash management.

I actually enjoy creating invoices in Mercury, and I'm not exaggerating. It just has a simple, clutter free interface, that isn't distracting or doesn't make me jump though hoops just to get the task done.

Time to pay a vendor? Literally drag and drop the bill into your dashboard or forward it to your bill pay inbox, and Mercury automatically populates and scans it. Then, in just a few clicks, you can take care of sending the payment, categorizing the expense, and even setting up recurring payments. Invoices are similarly smooth and will have you on your way to getting paid in minutes

Mercury is not a traditional bank, but all checking and savings deposits are safe, sound, and FDIC-insured up to $5M through partner banks and sweep networks. Plus, your idle cash can earn interest instead of sitting at near-zero in a traditional bank.

Unlike a lot of the other high-yield investment options, Mercury Treasury makes transfers actually fast, even same-day.

We've been Mercury personal account users for a while now, and even paid their $240 annual fee for a while because we just wanted the same Mercury banking experience for personal use too.

But now, any Mercury business account user can get a free personal account, which is a huge bonus. Remember those quick, intuitive features and tools we mentioned earlier? You can use those to simplify your personal finances, too. Plus, with everything under one roof, transfers between your business and personal accounts are almost instant.

• Simple interface
• Multiple-account setup makes it easy to see what money is actually available to spend
• Automatic transfer rules remove manual tasks required to manage cash flow

• May feel limiting as you scale
• Limited vendor onboarding, doesn't automatically collect W-9s
• Interest earnings are stronger on paid plans, the free tier is constrained compared with others

Relay's #1 feature is the ability to automatically move money between accounts the moment revenue arrives.

A common setup might route part of each deposit into a tax account, another portion into payroll, and another into operating expenses. Owners who have struggled with this before often describe the relief of finally reaching tax season and realizing the money has been sitting there all year instead of disappearing into day-to-day spending.

Relay allows businesses to create a large number of checking accounts within the same workspace. This becomes a simple way to visualize exactly how money is distributed across the business.

For founders who previously relied on a single account and spreadsheets, this can make the financial picture much clearer.

Relay includes basic tools for paying vendors and managing bills.

Invoices can be uploaded or forwarded into the system, which then creates draft bills and helps organize outgoing payments. It's a convenient way to handle routine expenses although Relay's vendor payments are quite limited if you are paying many contractors (e.g. it doesn't automatically collect W-9s for you, which puts a ton of admin on your plate if you work with a lot of freelancers or contractors).