Relay vs. NorthOne: What’s best for entrepreneurs?

If you’re reading this article, you’ve probably narrowed it down to two alternatives, Relay vs NorthOne. So, let’s now take a closer look at how the two compare, and which one’s the best fit for your business

Here at Relay, we work with both small businesses and their advisors — accountants and bookkeepers — to build the best platform that helps you gain clarity into your day-to-day finances. As a result, we regularly run into businesses that bank with all types of institutions, often holding more than one account for their business. As NorthOne is a popular choice among many freelancers and sole proprietors, we wanted to dive into a feature comparison at a deep level and discuss some of the things new businesses may overlook (especially if you’re just starting out or just forming your LLC).

So, let’s first take a closer look 🔎 at each platform, and then compare them side by side.

🏦 What is Relay?

Relay is an online banking and money management platform built for small businesses that want greater cash flow clarity. 

At Relay, we help small business owners solve some of the most painful parts of business banking, like high account fees, messy banking data, a lack of visibility into cash flow and unhelpful customer service. We do this by providing business owners up to 20 checking accounts, 50 Visa® debit cards and payments and deposits via ACH, wire and check — all without monthly fees or minimum opening deposit requirements.

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At the core of Relay’s platform is the belief that a crystal-clear picture of your cash flow lets you make more intelligent, more informed decisions about your money. In other words, no more overspending or overextending! Plus, all Relay checking accounts are true checking accounts. This means they come with unique account and routing numbers, which allows you to automate and schedule transactions between accounts in case you ever need to implement an envelope budgeting system.

What is NorthOne?

NorthOne is an online business banking platform designed for freelancers, sole proprietors and startups. It offers low account fees, unlimited sub-accounts (also known as envelopes), and the convenience of a mobile app. With NorthOne, you can also deposit cash at over 90,000 Green Dot ATM locations across the United States.

While offering a lot of convenience thanks to its mobile banking solution, NorthOne does have some gaps when it comes to processing check payments and sending international wire transfers. This leaves some business needs unmet, making it a less attractive option for some. Other than domestic wire transfers, NorthOne has no transaction fees and doesn’t require you to keep a minimum balance. However, to access to NorthOn’es banking features, businesses do need to pay $10 per month, and are required to deposit $50 when first signing up. 

Differences between Relay vs. NorthOne 

The main difference between Relay and NorthOne is that Relay comes with no account fees and is an online business banking platform that’s best suited for businesses with 2 - 100 employees, whereas NorthOne is best suited for solopreneurs and freelances, and comes with a $10 monthly fee. 

📊 Relay vs. NorthOne: Small business banking comparison chart

To figure out what you need in a business bank account, which platform — Relay or NorthOne — is better suited to manage your business finances, and how pricing and service fees stack up, review the comparison chart below:

*FDIC-insured via Thread Bank.

💰 Cash flow management

Cash management features help businesses stay on top of their budgets. One of the most popular and effective ways to manage cash is the multiple bank account budgeting method. To help you stay on the money using this approach, Relay lets you open up to 20 free business checking accounts and set up unlimited transactions to automate your money management. With multiple checking accounts, you can set up cash reserves for expenses — like operations and marketing — or set aside money for critical needs like taxes and payroll.

NorthOne, on the other hand, offers one primary checking account, as well as envelopes (or sub-accounts) to help with budgeting. While envelope sub-accounts let you virtually divide your funds into separate folders, the account options are more limited — since you can’t actually use envelopes as if they were full-fledged checking accounts. Before you make a payment, you’ll first need to move the money back from a sub-account into the main account; only then will you be able to spend it. Accounts that have their own account and routing numbers can skip this step.

💳 Debit cards

Multiple debit cards give you control over team spending. Relay lets you issue up to 50 physical or virtual Visa® debit cards for you and your team. NorthOne, on the other hand, gives you one physical and one virtual debit card per account. 

A single debit card may be enough for one-person businesses — but it may become a limiting factor if your team ever expands, or if you want to create dedicated cards for certain types of expenses (for example, a card just for managing software subscriptions).

📩 Accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR)

Your business checking account is often the best place to manage all your accounts payable and accounts receivable — after all, it’s what you open daily to check your account balance and make payments. If you bank with Relay, you have the option to upgrade to Relay Pro, which unlocks you built-in AP automation features for your business. As the payments in your business become more complex, this can help you manage bill pay, set up approval rules, and — in Relay’s case — unlock perks like same-day ACH payments and unlimited international wires.

Compared to this, NorthOne’s feature set has a smaller emphasis on accounts payable automation. This is likely because the platform is built mainly for freelancers, who may not be dealing with so many payments. However, NorthOne offers businesses a second app for managing their invoices. Here, you can send quotes, estimates and invoices to customers, and also save customer contact information for easier invoicing in the future. This makes it a good fit for those who want some basic AR features with their banking solution. 

If your AP needs are more robust, however, Realy will be the better option — as it will automatically sync any unpaid bills from Xero or QuickBooks Online back into the banking platform. From here, businesses can review, approve and pay bills while they bank. And if you ever want to delegate the AP function, you can still maintain internal controls with single- or multi-step approval rules based on payment amounts.

🔄 App integrations

Both Relay and NorthOne offer helpful app integrations to streamline your accounting, payroll and payment needs. 

Relay provides integrations for easier bookkeeping and payroll. This includes Gusto, a full-service payroll platform for small businesses, and an expansive collection of money apps through integrations with Plaid and Yodlee. With Relay, you can also directly integrate your bank feed with QuickBooks Online and Xero for faster, more meticulous bookkeeping.

Similarly to Relay, NorthOne also offers integrations with major back-office tools, so business owners should expect to have easy access to bookkeeping and payment processing integrations. These integrations include tools like QuickBooks Online and Expensify, as well as Paypal and Stripe for payment needs, and Shopify for those running an ecommerce store.

🏧 ATM Access

When it comes to ATM fees and access, there are some important differences between the two business checking accounts offer.

Both Relay and NorthOne offer a large network of fee-free ATMs that support cash deposits. NorthOne's network includes over 90,000 Green Dot ATM locations across the United States, whereas Relay has a network of 55,000 Allpoint ATMs nationwide.

💸 Deposits and withdrawals

Relay and NorthOne both stand out as some of the few online banks that offer cash deposits. With NorthOne, you have a Deposit Account that lives on your phone or computer. With it, you get a maximum of 4 cash deposits a day, for a total of $1,500 per day, $3,500 per week and $5,000 per month. With Relay, business owners can deposit and withdraw cash, surcharge-free, at any AllPoint+ ATM nationwide using their Relay Visa debit card.

🤝 Collaboration features

Most businesses aren’t a solo operation — whether it’s your outsourced accountant, your lawyer, or your in-house administrative team, chances are you’ll need to collaborate with someone on banking. Relay lets you bank collaborate with team members while keeping your account secure with unique role-based user permission levels. Your options include giving team members complete access, restricting them to read-only access, assigning them to card bill pay management, as well as other options. NorthOne, on the other hand is designed for freelancers and solopreneurs, so it doesn’t offer user permissions at a granular level, meaning any user who is added gets full administrative access to banking. 

🧑‍💼Banking experience

The difference between a good bank and a great bank is the ease of banking experience. As a business owner, you don’t have time to track down processing issues or visit a physical bank in person to complete a simple request. 

Both Relay and NorthOne offer support via email, chat and phone. With Relay, you get 24/7 access to knowledgeable support specialists dedicated to understanding what you need to achieve your goals. Relay’s support is available through phone and chat during regular business hours, and Relay’s support is also reachable by email during the weekend. NorthOne’s customer support is available Monday to Friday, 8AM to 9PM ET, and Saturday to Sunday, 9AM to 6PM ET.

Best business checking account: Relay or NorthOne?

So which is better, Relay or NorthOne? The answer will depend on your business type and the banking services you need. While Relay is a better all-encompassing option for small businesses that are looking for greater clarity into their cash flow, NorthOne might be a better option for freelancers and businesses looking to have unlimited envelopes.

The biggest drawback to NorthOne is their monthly account fees and lack of international wire capabilities. On the other hand, they do offer a more extensive ATM network for cash deposits.

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When it comes to Relay, you not only get access to basic banking capabilities for free, but you also get a crystal-clear picture of your cash flow. With Relay, you can use up to 20 business checking accounts to organize expenses and categorize payments for a crystal-clear picture of your cash flow.

• ✅ No monthly maintenance fees, overdraft fees or minimum deposit requirements

• ✅ Up to 20 individual checking accounts

• ✅ 50 virtual or physical Visa® debit cards

• ✅ Payments and deposits via ACH, wire and check

• ✅ Cash deposits and withdrawals at Allpoint+ ATMs

• ✅ Deposits from payment processing providers like PayPal, Stripe and Square 

• ✅ Direct integrations with accounting software like QuickBooks Online and Xero

If you’re looking for an online banking solution that puts you in control of your cash flow, check out Relay — you can sign up here!