Best-in-Class Freelancer Bank Accounts

Recent research suggests that as a freelancer, you are likely to feel somewhat underbanked. Choosing a bank account feels like going for "the lesser evil" due to inadequate service you are likely to receive. The reason is simple: banks are way more interested in large scale enterprises or even SMEs as customers. For them, the hassle of dealing with an individual entity incurring a lot of overhead and bringing in negligible revenue is not exactly a lucrative option.

This, however, is rapidly changing as digital-only mobile-first banks continue disrupting the business banking space. Almost immediately, a few neobanks started targeting freelancers as their core audience. Why? Well, because they can afford to! Neobanks are generally more efficient in their operations: for example, providing customer support via an in-app chat is significantly cheaper than maintaining a dedicated phone line. In the same vein, having a slim product portfolio that does not include complex products (like mortgages) helps the company stay focused on their core offering. As such, these banks have learned to service so-called "digital nomads", frequently offering specific products exactly for this market segment.

We previously selected our best banks for personal banking in 2024. Today, we will dive deeper into the specific requirements freelancers and self-employed professionals have, then present our curated list of the best options available today so you can choose the one that suits your needs best.

What Freelancers Need From Their Bank

Self-employed workers, entrepreneurs and digital nomads have very specific needs when it comes to assessing bank accounts. We will list the features, banking products and other requirements of freelancers below - we used these as a frame of reference when selecting the best freelancer bank accounts we present in our curated list at the end of this article.

1. Accepting multiple payment methodsYour customers may be paying you in a lot of different ways, with some of them having a strong preference for a specific payment method. It's in your best interest to facilitate an easy payment experience for your customers and employers.
2. Receiving transfers in multiple currenciesSimilarly, being able to provide your services for Australian Dollars as well as for Polish Zloty helps expand the audience you could service in the future, and it might win you a contract you'd otherwise never get.
3. Cash flow overview, budgeting and transaction categorizationThis is especially important if you have multiple income streams on varying schedules. Having an ability to create separate sub-accounts for recurring costs, VAT or per-client is extremely convenient as well, and might just save you from the Google Sheets hell.
4. Easy bank account statements in a legally approved formatThis is a fairly basic feature, but you need to ensure that the exported document's format would be accepted by the party requesting it - be it your mortgage broker, tax services or immigration authorities.
5. Personal bank account right next to the business oneAn ability to manage your personal finances right next to, but both legally and UI-wise separately, is extremely convenient. This is especially true in case you frequently claim parts of personal costs as business expenses. Being able to have a one-stop-shop for all your finances is invaluable for people who are self-employed.
6. Automation options and other integrationsIt might be possible either natively through the bank's app, or by using tools like Zapier, or even using the bank's Open API to write a script yourself - needless to say, automating recurring payments or setting aside VAT on sales is an invaluable time-saver.
7. Bookkeeping software integrationAccounting software can save you a lot of trouble when dealing with the tax services, and connecting services like Xero or Quickbooks to your bank account can save you even more time on boring money admin tasks.
8. Easy InvoicingAs a self-employed professional, you frequently need to invoice someone. It makes sense to want this functionality from your bank directly, without having to rely on some third-party service.