Revolut vs Airwallex: compare on fees, features and benefits

If you run a growing business, you’ll need a payment platform that will allow you to open local accounts in several currencies, seamlessly accept payments from international customers , and send money across borders without excessive fees.

Both Revolut and Airwallex offer these services, but which solution is right for your business? Read on to find out how Airwallex compares against Revolut on price, features and benefits. 

What is Revolut?

Revolut, established in 2015, is a financial technology company offering digital financial services to consumers and businesses. 

Revolut’s budget pricing plans can be an affordable option for freelancers, gig workers and micro businesses for domestic payments and simple foreign exchange and global payment needs. 

However, Revolut may be less equipped to meet sophisticated cross-border financial needs of more sophisticated high-growth companies.

What is Airwallex?

Founded in 2015, Airwallex is an all-in-one financial platform to simplify global business management and facilitate international expansion.

Our core features include:

• Multi-currency accounts to collect, hold and transact balances in 23+ major currencies and accept payments from 180+ currencies

• Fast and cost-effective cross border payments 

• End-to-end tools for expense management

• Integrations with popular business platforms

• Yield, our high-rate business saver  

Compare Revolut with Airwallex

Revolut fees explained 

Specifically designed for startups and small companies, Revolut for Business offers current accounts tailored to basic financial needs.¹

Revolut uses an incremental subscription-based model for its business accounts comprised of three tiers³:

• Grow (AUD$21/month)

• Scale (AUD$79/month)

• Enterprise (custom pricing)   

Revolut’s core capabilities include:  

Multi-currency accounts: Open currency accounts in 25+ currencies to store money in like GBP, EUR, USD and AUD².

Online payments: Payment acceptance is not currently available for customers in Australia as Revolut is a UK-based company. 

Debit cards: Provide teams with payment cards to spend account funds up to defined monthly limits based on the pricing plan. Fees apply above allocated card spending thresholds³.

Accounting sync: Sync Revolut transaction descriptors into leading platforms like Xero, QuickBooks and Zoho to eliminate manual data entry⁵.

Airwallex features and fees explained

Offering a total Business Account built for growth, Airwallex aims to make domestic and international expansion easy with our advanced but easy-to-use tools. 

Our products are bundled to fit business’ budget and needs. These include;

• Explore; ($29/month or $0/month if users meet the modest waiver requirements) For small businesses to manage, move, and grow funds globally

• Grow; ($99/month) For growing businesses to track and control company and employee spend

• Accelerate; ($499/month) For large businesses that require customised workflows and support

• Custom pricing; For high-volume businesses, custom API, and embedded finance use cases

Every bundle has access to these advanced features;

Multi-currency accounts: Create multi-currency business accounts with local bank details in 23+ widely-traded currencies like EUR, GBP, USD, AUD, HKD and more.

Online payments: Accept customer multi-currency payments including cards and 160+ local payment methods in 180+ countries via no-code payment links, through integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento, or a customisable checkout via API.

Worldwide payments and FX conversion: Make large volume batch transfers to staff, contractors and overseas vendors to 150+ countries. Pay zero transaction fees when sending via 110+ countries using Airwallex’s local payment rails. For major currencies, including USD, HKD, CNY, AUD, EUR, GBP, CAD, SGD, CHF, NZD, JPY, Airwallex charges 0.5% above the interbank rate, and for all other currencies we charge 1.0%.⁴

Controlling spend: Create physical and virtual debit cards restricting employee expenses through granular policy guardrails.

Compare additional features between Revolut and Airwallex

Expenses

Both platforms allow businesses to issue cards and report on team expenditure. Revolut provides limited custom accounting system integration, configurable spend policy creation and flexible real-time analytics. Airwallex provides automation to eliminate manual expense oversight.  

Support

All Airwallex customers receive customer support and hands-on account managers can be assigned to eligible Airwallex customers for personalised assistance navigating the global finance intricacies enterprises face daily. Revolut offers in-app chatbots during business hours with some limited human escalation.  

Global growth

Beyond basic multi-currency transactions, Revolut supplies a narrow set of expansionary financial services tailored to global markets. Airwallex offers specialised solutions around revenue stream management, optimised global fund flows, multi-entity account grouping and centralised reporting.

Final thoughts: Revolut vs Airwallex

For scaling companies targeting worldwide clients and opportunities overseas, Airwallex has a clear edge over Revolut in sophistication of international capabilities.

While Revolut sufficiently services starter sole proprietorships, critical constraints emerge for sophisticated global organisations who need robust, configurable and flexible financial systems.

Airwallex has been uniquely constructed to solve complex multi-currency transaction challenges for innovative businesses worldwide. From holding balances globally to moving money instantly with real-time oversight – Airwallex’s advanced financial infrastructure supports every business ambition. 

Sources

1. https://www.revolut.com/business/

2. https://www.revolut.com/en-AU/business/multi-currency-accounts/

3. https://www.revolut.com/en-AU/business/business-account-plans/

4. https://help.revolut.com/business/help/receiving-payments/transfers-info/international-iban

5. https://www.revolut.com/en-AU/business/cards/

6. https://www.revolut.com/en-AU/business/partner-apps/

Disclaimer: We wrote this article in Q1 2024. The information was based on our own online research and we were not able to manually test each tool or provider. The information is provided for educational purposes only and a reader should consider the specific requirements of their business when evaluating providers. This research is reviewed every six months. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [email protected].

This information doesn’t take into account your objectives, financial situation, or needs. If you are a customer of Airwallex Pty Ltd (AFSL No. 487221) it is important for you to read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) for the Direct Services, which is available here.