Top 5 Wise 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 Wise may be one of your options, you may like to consider its alternatives to see which one suits your needs best.

What is Wise?

Wise is a UK-based financial technology company focused on simplifying global money transfers. Its platform is designed to help consumers and businesses send funds overseas easily at a low cost.

With a Wise multi-currency business account, customers can accept and hold payments in nine currencies and transfer funds to over 70 countries at competitive rates. Additional payment options are available for vital markets. 

Best known for supporting consumers and micro-businesses, Wise offers a simple, fast but basic service at low costs.

The top alternatives to Wise

Here are the top alternatives to Wise.

Airwallex is a global financial technology company that offers a range of financial services, including online payment acceptance and processing (checkouts), international payments, multi-currency accounts, and Corporate Cards. We strive to simplify cross-border transactions for businesses of all sizes.

Payoneer: Specialises in cross-border payments, offering business accounts that facilitate global transactions, with capabilities for mass payouts and receiving funds from international marketplaces.

HSBC: A global bank offering a wide range of business banking solutions, including current accounts, savings accounts, loans, and trade finance services.

PayPal is a leading payment gateway that's been serving customers worldwide for 20 years. It enables eCommerce brands to facilitate payments from credit cards, debit cards, and bank transfers.

Revolut: Provides business accounts with features like multi-currency wallets, corporate cards, and expense management tools, catering to both SMEs and larger enterprises.

Compare the top five alternatives to Wise

The top Wise alternatives: key features and fees

Airwallex, HSBC, Payoneer, PayPal, and Revolut are all alternatives to Wise, each catering to different business needs. Airwallex distinguishes itself with a comprehensive global financial platform, while others focus on specific niches.

Below, we summarise the key features and fees of each Wise alternative. For detailed product and fee information, including other charges, please visit each provider’s official website.

Airwallex

Airwallex is a global financial platform designed for businesses to collect, hold, convert, and send multi-currency payments. It supports over 160 payment methods for collections and sends payments to 150+ countries, with trading in 60+ currencies.

Airwallex fees:

• UK card payments: 1.3% + 20p

• Currency conversions: 0.5%−1% above the interbank rate

Pros:

• Extensive global payment capabilities

• Competitive currency conversion rates

• Designed for businesses

Cons:

• Exclusively for businesses

HSBC

HSBC is a traditional international bank offering business accounts with global transaction capabilities. It supports bank transfers, including SEPA and SWIFT payments, and direct debits.

HSBC fees:

• Annual fee for international business accounts: £96 - £180

• Currency conversions: Up to 3.5% above the interbank rate

Pros:

• Established international banking services

• Comprehensive business account features

Cons:

• Higher fees compared to fintech alternatives.

• Currency conversion rates can be high

Payoneer

Payoneer is a payment platform tailored for marketplace sellers and freelancers. It allows users to collect, hold, and send payments, supporting Visa, Mastercard, Amex cards, and bank transfers (varies by region). It provides multi-currency accounts in nine currencies.

Payoneer fees:

• Payoneer to Payoneer payments: Free

• UK card payments collection: 3-5%

• Currency conversions: 0.5%−3%

• Pricing varies

Pros:

• Designed for freelancers and marketplace sellers

• Multi-currency account options

Cons:

• Variable and potentially higher fees

• Higher fees on card processing than some competitors

PayPal

PayPal offers an international business account for collecting and sending funds, supporting card payments, PayPal transactions, and numerous local payment methods from over 200 countries.

PayPal fees:

• International payments reception: 2.49%−4.89% + 30p

• Currency conversions: 3% above the base exchange rate.

• Complex fee structure

Pros:

• Wide global reach

• Versatile payment options

Cons:

• Complicated and potentially high fees

• Higher currency conversion rates

Revolut

Revolut provides a business account designed for freelancers and startups, supporting payments from 100+ countries using Revolut Pay, major credit and debit cards, instant bank transfers, and mobile payments.

Revolut fees:

• UK Visa and Mastercard consumer card transaction fee (Basic plan): 1% + 20p

• Currency conversion fees vary by plan

• Multiple plans with varying features

Pros:

• Flexible plans for different business sizes

• Modern and user-friendly platform

Cons:

• Currency conversion rates vary by plan

• Fees can add up depending on the plan chosen

Why choose Airwallex over Wise?

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

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

• What are the transaction fees?

• What is the currency exchange markup?

• Are there any account set up or management fees?

• How extensive is the geographical coverage?

• What currencies can be held in your business account?

• What funds management services do you provide?

• What security measures do you have in place?

• What integration capabilities do you offer?

• Do you provide dedicated account management support?

• Do you offer corporate and employee cards?

Final thoughts on alternatives to Wise

Airwallex and Wise are both known for offering competitive cross-border money solutions for businesses. But if you compare the key features and cost of each platform, there are some important differences.  

For global reach, Airwallex is hard to beat. With a multi-currency business account, businesses can accept and hold 23 currencies and handle transactions to 150+ countries.

Wise only supports holding nine currencies and global payout coverage to 70 countries. Plus, it charges a £45 account set up fee⁸.

If you want to send payments internationally, with Wise, you’ll pay a fee. How much depends on the currency. With Airwallex, customers enjoy 0% international transaction fees to 110+ countries using our local payment rails⁹.

Beyond offering multi-currency accounts and debit cards, Wise’s services may be limited depending on the size of your business. In contrast, Airwallex’s full-featured account gives businesses everything they need to simplify and scale financial operations.

It includes account management services, payment links, and plugins, and expense management capabilities. For accounts payable solutions, Wise offers a basic offering, integrating with a few software providers¹⁰.

A more holistic platform, Airwallex is designed to free up your finance team. It’s easy to pay invoices from one place within the Airwallex dashboard and automate reconciliation with multiple accounting software integrations available.

Our verdict? Wise offers simple, easy, low-cost global money transfers for consumers and smaller businesses, but larger enterprises may struggle.

As an end-to-end financial solution, Airwallex is built to solve sophisticated cross-border payment challenges helping with fast, cost-effective international money transfer services. It supports more currencies, software integrations and offers important services like account management, online payments, and expense management.

Sources & references

1. https://www.airwallex.com/uk/blog/best-business-bank-accounts-uk

2. https://www.payoneer.com/get-paid-by-clients/#:~:text=Payment%20request%20%E2%80%93%20sent%20payment%20requests,bank%20debit%2C%20direct%20bank%20payment

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

4. https://www.paypal.com/uk/enterprise/payment-methods

5. https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees

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

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

8. https://wise.com/gb/business/

9. https://www.airwallex.com/uk/blog/comparison-wise-vs-airwallex

10. https://wise.com/gb/business/app-marketplace

11. https://wise.com/gb/pricing/business

12. https://wise.com/gb/pricing/business/send-money

13. https://wise.com/gb/pricing/business/receive

Disclaimer:  

We updated this article in Q1 20525. 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. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [email protected].

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