Revolut vs Airwallex: compare on fees, features and benefits

As a business owner, choosing the right financial services partner is crucial. You need a provider that offers the features to support your growth, at a fair and transparent price. This article compares two popular choices: Airwallex and Revolut’s business accounts. Read on to discover the key differences, and decide which option best suits your business financial needs.

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.

Revolut can be a handy option for freelancers, gig workers and micro businesses for domestic payments and simple foreign exchange and global payment needs. The budget pricing plans and debit cards make Revolut an affordable choice for sole traders who need to invoice international clients.

However, Revolut may be less equipped to meet the more sophisticated cross-border financial needs of larger high-growth companies. Revolut charges monthly account fees for some plan allowances, and also charges transaction fees once plan allowances are exceeded.

What is Airwallex?

Airwallex enables seamless global business payments and money management. It offers an all-in-one platform for businesses to easily manage finances across borders. Unlike Revolut, Airwallex only provides its platform to businesses.  

Key elements of Airwallex’s offering include:  

• Multi-currency accounts held in 23 currencies

• Collect in 180+ countries and send payments to 150+ countries

• Fast, low-cost international transfers   

• Borderless debit cards to spend in multiple currencies

• Global payment acceptance capabilities   

• Integrated domestic and cross-border expense management and accounts payable  

• Accounting platform integrations

Compare Revolut vs Airwallex

Revolut fees, explained

Specifically designed for startups and small companies, Revolut for business offers current accounts tailored to basic financial needs(8).

Revolut uses an incremental subscription-based model for its business accounts comprised of four tiers:

• Free 

• Premium (£7.99/month)

• Metal (£14.99/month)

• Ultra (£74.99/month)   

Core capabilities include:  

• Multi-currency accounts: Open currency accounts in 25+ currencies to store money in like GBP, EUR, USD and AUD(4). It is worth noting that customers receive the same IBAN for each currency(11).

• Online payments: Accept payments in 25+ currencies via payment gateway and payment links from 1% + £0.20 for UK consumer cards and 2.8% + £0.20 for international cards. Accept payments in-store from 0.8% + £0.02 for UK consumer cards, and 2.6% + £0.02 for international cards(7). 

• 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 thresholds(10).

• Invoicing: Simple invoicing software to send invoices from your account(5).

• Accounting sync: Sync Revolut transaction descriptors into leading platforms like Xero, QuickBooks and Zoho to eliminate manual data entry(11). 

While base features are usually available for free, limitations apply per month on complementary transactions, cross-border transfer amounts, withdrawal sums and currency – negating the initial zero cost.

Once usage allowances are exceeded, further fees incurred span:  

• Currency exchanges

• Overseas transfers  

• Cash withdrawals

• Accepting client invoice payments  

Airwallex fees, explained

Enabling smooth international expansion and multi-region operations, key aspects of Airwallex for business encompass tools for:  

• Simple and transparent: Customers can choose from the Explore, Grow, and Accelerate pricing plans from £19 p/m.

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

• Getting paid online: 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.

• Paying worldwide & 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: pay out to 85 countries same-day, and pay out to 65 countries instantly. 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 they charge 1.0%.

• Controlling spend: Create physical and virtual debit cards restricting employee expenses through granular policy guardrails. Airwallex charges a transparent FX conversion margin of 0.5-1% when actively trading currencies in-app. So, robust core cross-border money management capabilities are bundled for convenience – only paying a fraction above interbank rates when explicitly needing currency swaps.

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.

• Regulation: Airwallex UK accounts are secured under Electronic Money Institution (EMI) directives mandating stringent safeguarding and FCA governance. Both firms are authorised EMIs in the UK and subject to the safeguarding requirements, as detailed in the E-Money Regulations 2011.  

Final thoughts: Unlock global business efficiency with 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 hampering sophisticated global organisations who need robust, configurable and extensible financial systems.

Conversely, Airwallex has been uniquely constructed since its inception to solve complex multi-currency transaction challenges innovative enterprises face expanding worldwide. 

From holding balances globally to moving money instantly with real-time oversight – Airwallex unlocks the hybrid human and software-supported capabilities necessary to confidently accelerate cross-border at enterprise pace.

Sources

For more information on Airwallex, visit Airwallex Business Account and Airwallex pricing.

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

2. https://www.revolut.com/business/expenses/

3. https://www.revolut.com/business/accept-payments/

4. https://www.revolut.com/business/multi-currency-accounts/

5. https://www.revolut.com/business/invoices/

6. https://www.revolut.com/business/savings/

7. https://www.revolut.com/business/accept-payments-pricing/

8. https://www.revolut.com/business/business-account-plans/

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

10. https://www.revolut.com/business/cards/

11. https://www.revolut.com/business/partner-apps/

12. https://www.revolut.com/business/money-transfers/

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].

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