Top 5 Wise alternatives: compare fees, features & benefits

David Beach•25 March 2024•6 minutes

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Top 5 Wise alternatives: compare fees, features & benefits

In this article

•
What is Wise?
•
Compare the top 5 alternatives to Wise
•
Why choose Airwallex over Wise?
•
What questions should I ask when choosing alternative providers to Wise?
•
Final thoughts on alternatives to Wise

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.

For businesses, Wise’s products include:

Multi-currency accounts
Virtual debit cards
Batch international transfers
Accounting software integrations
Payment requests (UK/EU only).

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 with low costs.

Compare the top 5 alternatives to Wise

	Type	Payment methods	Cost
Airwallex	Global financial platform to collect, hold, convert and send multi-currency payments. Designed for businesses only	Collect via 160+ payment methods including cards, send payments to 150+ countries. Trade in 60+ currencies	1.3% + 20p to collect UK card payments. Currency conversions at 0.5-1%
HSBC	International bank with business account	Bank transfers, including SEPA and SWIFT payments, direct debits	£96 - £180 annual fee for international business accounts, currency conversions at up to 3.5% above interbank rate¹
Payoneer	Payments platform designed for marketplace sellers and freelancers to collect, hold and send payments	Accepts Visa, Mastercard, Amex cards & bank transfers (varies by region). Multi-currency account in 9 currencies	Pricing varies. Free Payoneer to Payoneer payments, 3-5% to collect UK card payments. Currency conversion at 0.5-3%³
PayPal	International business account for collecting and sending funds	Varies on size of business; enterprises can accept card payments, PayPal and 10+ local payment methods from 200+ countries⁴	Complicated fee structure that varies by transaction type. To receive international payments, 2.49 - 4.89% + 30p. Currency conversion at 3% above the base exchange rate⁵
Revolut	A business account designed for freelancers and startups	Accepts payments from 100+ countries using Revolut Pay, major credit and debit cards, instant bank transfers and mobile payments⁶	Multiple plans available. Free Basic plan offers 1% + 20p transaction fee for UK Visa and Mastercard consumer cards⁷. Currency conversion rates vary between plans⁷

Find out for yourself how Airwallex compares to Wise.

Why choose Airwallex over Wise?

	Airwallex	Wise
Account set up fee	No	£45¹¹
Multi-currency account	23 currencies	9 currencies⁸
Global payout coverage	150+ countries	70 countries⁸
Speed of payout	85 countries - same day 65 countries - instant	Some same day, some instant⁸
0% domestic transaction fees	✅	❌¹³
0% international transaction fees	Yes, when sending via local payment network	No, fixed and variable fees, starting at ~0.33%¹²
FX rate	0.5-1%	As above¹²
Account management	✅	❌
Online payment acceptance	✅	❌
Debit cards	✅	✅
Earn interest	❌	✅
Expense management	✅	✅
Bill Pay / Accounts Payable	Yes, invoice upload, approval flows, payment execution and accounting reconciliation	Basic, via integrations with Quickbooks and Xero invoices¹⁰
Accounting integrations	Xero, NetSuite, Quickbooks and more	Quickbooks and Xero¹⁰

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.

Find out for yourself how Airwallex compares to Wise.

Sources & references

https://www.airwallex.com/uk/blog/best-business-bank-accounts-uk
https://www.payoneer.com/get-paid-by-clients/#:~:text=Payment%20request%20%E2%80%93%20sent%20payment%20requests,bank%20debit%2C%20direct%20bank%20payment
https://www.payoneer.com/about/pricing/#pay-your-supplier
https://www.paypal.com/uk/enterprise/payment-methods
https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees
https://www.revolut.com/business/accept-payments/
https://www.revolut.com/business/accept-payments/
https://wise.com/gb/business/
https://www.airwallex.com/uk/blog/comparison-wise-vs-airwallex
https://wise.com/gb/business/app-marketplace
https://wise.com/gb/pricing/business
https://wise.com/gb/pricing/business/send-money
https://wise.com/gb/pricing/business/receive

Disclaimer:

We wrote this article in Q2 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. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [email protected].

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