We believe there are better options available in this category, read below to learn what this software does well, and what they could do better. ⤵
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The modern business bank built for teams of all sizes. What if you could actually enjoy your bank? With Mercury, you will.
I have tried literally every single business bank out there over the years. Not the boring big banks with an awful banking experience (I've tried those too), I mean the modern business banks when the advent of Neo banks started to exist (think tech layer atop a traditional bank).
I first started my journey with Seed.co bank in 2016—and it was amazing. No fees, modern banking experience, integrations. It was the closest thing to Simple Bank but for business (for anyone that remembers Simple). I'll cut to the chase though, 2 years later I was greeted with this email (and no—you don't lose your money when this happens) 😅
So then the search began again, unable to settle on a traditional business bank after what I experienced with Seed. A few days after Seed announced they were closing, I came across Azlo. The promise was everything that Seed was, and more. And to that they delivered. I loved them. Over the years even built a close relationship with their product and API team—and yes, modern banks especially have proper product teams—blew my mind 🤯
Got just over a couple years out of them before they were acquired by one of their largest investors (the traditional bank they were built atop—BBVA Compass). Not a huge deal right? Wrong. They trashed all of their tech (genuinely no idea why), before ultimately selling them off a second time to PNC. I somehow just went from having a modern business bank back to having an awful, tech-challenged business bank again.
While it was a lot to go through, these 2 faithful banks got me from 2016–2021, and all I knew for certain is that banks could do better. So alas my search began again. 👋 Hello Bank Novo. They were pretty good, I used them for 6 some odd months, but was constantly frustrated with their non-standard QuickBooks Online integration, which was different from what Azlo had to offer (it didn't use the QBO bank feed, just synced over directly to chart of accounts, so all the smart auto-matching features of QBO no longer worked).
I was fed up, I missed Azlo. And then I ended my journey with Bank Novo in the tail end of 2021 after finding Mercury. They were barebones: no mobile app, basic web app, and QBO integration coming soon 👀 (I was skeptical, but gave them a shot nonetheless). Lo and behold, they managed to do everything, well, better...
Their QBO integration is top-notch, their UI/UX is the best of any bank I've used, and their feature-set is incredible. Baked in treasury accounts where you can get high-interest on the funds sitting in your account, quick spinning up of additional checking accounts, virtual and physical credit cards (still way prefer Divvy for this), streamlined bill pay. It just does everything. Incredibly well.
They are lightyears ahead of what Seed and Azlo ever were, and a completely different category than Brex (please... Don't use Brex as your business bank—they aren't in any way a proper bank...)
That said, if you're on the edge, look no further. This is the best business bank available regardless of if you're a small business or large enterprise. Don't believe me? Go check it out for yourself with their interactive demo page (I mean... how cool is that?! And why don't more companies do this??)
A spend management (virtual credit card) platform for venture-backed startups and large teams. They also have a barebones checking account product called Brex Cash.
Brex has run into a bit of an odd situation in recent years—while focusing on growth, they apparently took on too many small-mid size businesses, which led to them axing accounts of many of their customers out of nowhere. They are now only allowing venture-backed startups onto their platform, or mid-size businesses doing at-least $400k/mo in revenue ($4.8m/yr).
We actually had a Brex account for many years when first evaluating it (checking in on how it evolved over the years), and recently, we were actually one of the many that were pulled into the axing account mess (luckily we ultimately decided on Divvy after initial evaluation of Brex, and have been happily using Divvy for 5+ years now). That said, when trying to log back into my account to add some screenshots to this post, I was met with a redirection loop and the following message from support upon reaching out:
While they have a "banking" component, it's more of just a simple checking account, and their banking features are not as robust as that of a full-fledged business-focused bank like Mercury.
All-in-all, they seem to be relying quite heavily on their YC network, getting most YC companies to use them by offering as many perks to them as possible. When actually comparing Brex against the competitors though when it comes to automatic reconciling of your expenses in your accounting software, and just overall UI/UX, there's a lot to be desired—Divvy and Ramp are far superior in many of those areas.
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