Tide vs Monzo Business

Bank licence and FSCS

Monzo holds a UK banking licence; Monzo Business deposits are FSCS-eligible up to £120,000 on the main account. Tide partners with ClearBank (a licensed UK clearing bank) for business bank accounts that are also FSCS-eligible; some Tide accounts are e-money, which is safeguarded but not FSCS-protected. If you'll hold large balances, confirm which Tide account type you're issued — or default to Monzo for licence simplicity.

Plans and pricing

Monzo Business runs two plans: Lite (free, basic) and Pro (£9/month with invoicing, multi-user, tax pot and integrations). Tide runs four: Free (£0), Smart (£12.49/mo), Pro (£27.49/mo) and Max (£69.99/mo). For sole traders on the free tier of either, the day-to-day experience is comparable. Monzo Pro is slightly cheaper than Tide Smart on the headline fee, but Tide currently adds the £200 REFER200 cashback — which more than covers the difference for the first year or so.

Tax pot

Monzo Pro's automatic tax pot — siphoning a configurable percentage of incoming payments into a pot earmarked for VAT or Corporation Tax — is genuinely useful and one of the cleanest features in UK business banking. Tide doesn't replicate it exactly; the equivalent workflow is moving a fixed amount into Tide Instant Saver each month. Both work, Monzo's is more automatic.

Built-in tooling

Tide's invoicing is more capable across plans and is included in the Free tier, where Monzo gates it behind Pro. Expense categorisation is strong in both. Accounting integrations are at parity. Tide adds integrated company formation; Monzo doesn't.

The sign-up offer

Monzo Business does not currently run a sign-up cashback offer. Tide does — REFER200, worth up to £200 split across a card-spend reward and an Instant Saver hold. If everything else feels close, the cashback is the tie-breaker.

Cards, ATMs and spending limits

Monzo Business issues a Mastercard debit card on both Lite and Pro. UK ATM withdrawals are free up to a monthly cap (typically £400/30 days on Lite, higher on Pro) and chargeable beyond that. Tide issues a Mastercard debit on its Free plan and adds Expense Cards for staff on paid tiers — useful if you need multiple cards with categorisation and per-card limits. Tide charges a flat per-withdrawal fee on UK ATMs from day one. For a solo operator who barely withdraws cash, Monzo is cheaper on ATMs. For a small team that needs multiple cards with controls, Tide's Expense Cards are the cleaner answer.

Cash deposits in detail

Monzo Business accepts cash via PayPoint only, with a percentage fee and a monthly cap. Tide accepts cash via both PayPoint and the Post Office, with similar percentage fees and slightly higher monthly caps in aggregate across both networks. Neither is suited to high cash volume — if you take more than a few hundred pounds of cash a week, a high-street bank or Cashplus is the right answer. For occasional cash, both are workable.

Pots, savings and the tax-pot workflow

Monzo's Pots concept is best-in-class — multiple named pots, automated transfers, the tax pot that siphons a configurable percentage of every incoming payment, and savings pots with rates that change over time. Tide's equivalent is Tide Instant Saver, a single savings account paying a market-leading rate at the time of writing (rates are variable). Tide doesn't offer multiple sub-pots within the current account; if you want to ring-fence cash for VAT, payroll and Corporation Tax separately, Monzo's structure handles it more naturally. If you only need one savings bucket earning interest, Tide Instant Saver is simpler.

For specific business types

Sole traders: both work; Monzo Lite is free and clean, Tide Free adds invoicing and the REFER200 cashback. Limited companies: Tide is the broader platform with integrated company formation; Monzo Pro is cleaner if you want the tax pot and don't need Tide's tooling. Freelancers and contractors: Tide's invoicing on Free is the deciding factor for many; Monzo Pro is the answer if you'd rather pay £9/month for the same and the tax pot. Partnerships: Tide accepts them, Monzo Business currently only supports sole traders and Ltd companies.

Support, reliability and switching

Both are in-app chat by default; neither offers 24/7 phone support like Starling. Reliability is broadly comparable — both publish incident histories and both have had occasional outages, though nothing structurally different from any other UK digital bank. Both support the Current Account Switch Service for eligible businesses, and a CASS switch is designed to complete in seven working days; otherwise you move standing orders and Direct Debits manually. Both can run alongside each other indefinitely with no charge.

Pick Tide if…

You want the £200 REFER200 cashback, you'd benefit from integrated company formation, or you want invoicing inside a free plan. Tide is the more SME-tooled option out of the box.

Pick Monzo if…

You want a fully licensed UK bank with full FSCS, you expect to use the automatic tax pot, or you prefer Monzo’s business workflow after checking its current plan terms.