Top 5 Revolut alternatives: compare fees, features & 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.

Whilst Revolut may be one of your options, you may like to consider its alternatives to see which one suits your needs best.

What is Revolut?

Revolut, established in 2015, is a UK-based financial technology company offering digital financial services to consumers and businesses. Revolut has, as of June 2023, amassed over 30 million customers across personal and business accounts.

However, Revolut has not yet launched their business accounts in New Zealand. In other countries where business accounts are offered, Revolut can be a handy option for freelancers, gig workers and micro businesses for domestic payments and simple foreign exchange and global payment needs. 

New Zealand businesses currently only have access to Revolut’s personal accounts, which may not be suitable for business needs. 

The top alternatives to Revolut 

Here are the top alternatives for Revolut.

• Airwallex: Founded in 2015, Airwallex is a global financial platform to collect, hold, convert and send multi-currency payments, designed for businesses only.

• Stripe: Offers a point-of-sale (POS) system for bricks-and-mortar retailers to accept in-person payments, and an online payment gateway for eCommerce businesses to accept credit and debit card payments. 

• Payoneer: A payments platform designed for marketplace sellers and freelancers to collect, hold and send payments.

• PayPal: A well-established payment gateway that’s been operating globally for over 20 years. eCommerce brands use it to process payments from credit cards, debit cards, and bank transfers. 

• Wise: Launched in 2011 as a consumer-focused international money transfer service which offers multi-currency accounts to hold, convert funds and make payments.

Compare the top 5 alternatives to Revolut

Why choose Airwallex over Revolut?

What questions should I ask when choosing alternative providers to Revolut?

Here are the top 10 most important questions for you to consider when choosing an alternative to Revolut. Use these as a handy guide when doing your research.

1. What is your fee structure?

2. Are there any additional costs for large transactions?

3. What are the charges for international transactions and currency conversions?

4. What level of payment volumes do you support?

5. What is the speed of transaction processing, particularly for large and international transfers?

6. Can you facilitate automated payments?

7. What security measures do you have in place to protect sensitive financial data?

8. What accounting software integrations do you offer?

9. Do you provide dedicated account management support?

10. Do you offer corporate and employee cards? 

Final thoughts on alternatives to Revolut

While both Airwallex and Revolut offer global payment services and multi-currency accounts at good rates, there’s a clear distinction between their offerings in New Zealand.

Revolut offers a good option for individuals moving some money abroad, as well as those dealing in crypto and stock investments. 

If you’re a scaling company expanding into new markets and targeting worldwide customers, Airwallex’s sophisticated multi-currency business account capabilities are designed to help you grow.

From holding balances globally to moving money instantly with real-time oversight, Airwallex’s features were developed to solve multi-currency transaction challenges. 

If you’re a large organisation, you’ll benefit from 0% domestic transaction fees and 0% international transaction fees when sending to 150+ countries where Airwallex has local payment rails. Airwallex also has multiple accounting software integrations and advanced expense management tools, simplifying all of your businesses financial operations.

Sources & references

1. https://stripe.com/payments/payment-methods

2. https://stripe.com/nz/pricing

3. https://www.payoneer.com/manage-currencies

4. https://www.payoneer.com/about/pricing/#pay-your-supplier

5. https://www.paypal.com/nz/enterprise/payment-methods

6. https://www.paypal.com/nz/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees

7. https://wise.com/nz/business/receive-money

8. https://wise.com/nz/pricing/business

9. https://www.revolut.com/en-NZ/

10. https://www.revolut.com/en-NZ/international-transfers/

11. https://www.revolut.com/en-NZ/payments/

12. https://www.revolut.com/en-NZ/best-budget-planner/

13. https://www.revolut.com/en-NZ/cards/

14. https://www.revolut.com/en-NZ/our-pricing-plans/

Disclaimer: We wrote this article in Q4 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]. Airwallex (New Zealand) Limited is registered on the NZ Financial Services Provider Register (FSPR) with number FSP1001602. All product timelines are provisional only and subject to change.