Monzo gives away a free business tier, which immediately raises the question of what the £9 one is for.
The answer turns out to be fairly specific, and for a sole trader it comes down to one feature. Here is what each plan actually gets you, where Monzo beats the obvious alternative on cash handling, and who should not open one.
Disclosure: the Monzo link below is a commercial one and we may earn a commission if you open an account through it. It costs you nothing extra and it has not shaped the verdict — the monthly cash cap below is stated as plainly as the good bits. See our affiliate disclosure.
The three plans
| Plan | Price | The point of it |
|---|---|---|
| Lite | Free | A working business account. Pay, get paid, mobile and web access. |
| Pro | £9/month | Tax Pots, accounting integrations, MTD filing for sole traders. |
| Team | From £25/month | Everything in Pro, plus expense cards with limits and team access. |
All three are open to sole traders and limited company directors, and all three carry FSCS protection up to £120,000 — Monzo holds a full UK banking licence, so this is deposit protection rather than the safeguarding arrangement e-money providers use. Our explainer on e-money accounts versus bank accounts covers why that distinction matters more than the marketing suggests.
Is Pro worth £9 a month?
For a sole trader, the case rests almost entirely on the MTD filing capability and the Tax Pots.
Tax Pots automatically set money aside from what comes in. It is a simple idea and it is the single most effective thing an undisciplined sole trader can do about the January bill, the money is gone before it feels spendable. You can replicate this manually. Most people do not.
The MTD angle is the more interesting one. If Pro genuinely handles your quarterly submissions, £9 a month is competing directly against accounting software costing two or three times that. Whether it does depends on your income sources — check it against HMRC’s own list rather than the marketing, using our guide to HMRC-recognised MTD software, and read what MTD for Income Tax actually requires before assuming a banking app covers it.
Pro also connects to Xero, FreeAgent, Sage and QuickBooks. If you already pay for one of those, you are paying twice for overlapping functions — in which case Lite plus your existing software is the cheaper combination.
Cash: where Monzo quietly wins
Free digital business accounts are usually poor for cash. Monzo is less poor than most, and the numbers are worth knowing if you take notes.
| Sole trader | Limited company | |
|---|---|---|
| Fee per deposit | £1 | £1 |
| Monthly limit | £3,000 | £10,000 |
| Per deposit — PayPoint | up to £300 | up to £300 |
| Per deposit — Post Office | up to £3,000 | up to £4,000 |
A flat £1 is a meaningfully better deal than a percentage-based fee with a £3 floor, which is what several competitors charge — paying in £40 costs you £1 here against £3 elsewhere.
The monthly cap is the constraint. £3,000 a month for a sole trader works out at £36,000 a year, and Monzo states these limits cannot be increased even temporarily. For a genuinely cash-heavy business that is a hard ceiling, and no amount of good app design gets round it. Our comparison of UK business accounts covers the alternatives if cash is central to how you get paid.
Who Monzo Business suits
A sole trader paid by transfer or card. Lite covers it at no cost, with real deposit protection behind it. Hard to argue with free.
Someone who hoards their tax money badly. Pro’s Tax Pots are worth £9 a month purely as a behavioural device if the alternative is a January panic.
Anyone taking modest amounts of cash. A few hundred pounds a month at £1 a deposit is genuinely competitive.
Existing Monzo personal customers. Same app, one login, and the friction of keeping business and personal money separate drops close to zero, which matters, because keeping them separate is the thing sole traders are worst at. See whether sole traders need a business account for why it is worth doing at all.
Who should look elsewhere
Cash-heavy trades. £3,000 a month, no exceptions. A market trader or a busy mobile business will hit it.
Anyone who wants free accounting software bundled. Monzo charges for its Pro features. Some competitors give you full accounting software free with the account, which changes the arithmetic completely if you would otherwise be paying for it.
Businesses needing branch access or heavy international payments. Neither is Monzo’s strength.
The single-account risk
Worth saying about Monzo and every one of its competitors equally: digital banks freeze and close accounts when compliance systems flag something, sometimes with little explanation and no useful timeline.
A sole trader with one account and no fallback is one automated decision away from not being able to pay anyone. Keep a second account open somewhere, with anyone. It costs nothing and it is the cheapest insurance in small business.
Verdict
Lite is an easy recommendation for a sole trader paid electronically, free, FSCS-protected, and pleasant to use.
Pro is worth £9 only if you would use the Tax Pots and the MTD filing, and only if you are not already paying for accounting software that does the same job. Check the MTD position for your specific situation first — that is the feature the price hangs on, and assuming it works is the mistake to avoid.
Team is for businesses with staff spending money, which most readers of this site are not.
Common questions
Is Monzo Business free?
The Lite plan is free. Pro is £9 a month and Team starts at £25 a month. Cash deposits cost £1 each on any plan.
Can a sole trader open a Monzo Business account?
Yes. All three plans are available to UK sole traders as well as limited company directors.
Is money in a Monzo Business account protected?
Eligible deposits are FSCS protected up to £120,000, because Monzo holds a full UK banking licence rather than operating as an e-money institution. See our guide to FSCS protection on business accounts.
How much cash can I pay into a Monzo Business account?
£3,000 per calendar month for sole traders, £10,000 for limited companies, at £1 per deposit. Monzo states these monthly limits cannot be raised, even temporarily.
Does Monzo Business connect to accounting software?
Integrations with Xero, FreeAgent, Sage and QuickBooks come with the Pro plan rather than Lite.
Lite or Pro: a straight comparison
Most of this decision comes down to what you already pay for elsewhere.
Already paying for accounting software? Take Lite. Your software handles the tax side and the integrations you would be paying Pro for are things you can live without. Free plus your existing subscription beats £9 plus your existing subscription.
Paying for nothing and dreading Making Tax Digital? Pro is worth pricing seriously. £108 a year against the £200-plus that dedicated software costs is a real saving — provided it genuinely covers your quarterly submissions, which is the bit to verify rather than assume.
Struggling to keep tax money separate? Take Pro for the Tax Pots alone and treat the rest as a bonus. £9 a month is cheap against the cost of reaching January with the money spent.
You can start on Lite and move up. There is no reason to buy Pro on day one before you know how you actually work.
Weighing Monzo against the alternatives? See our reviews of Starling, Mettle and Revolut Business.
Want to pay yourself a salary from irregular income?
Freelancer Money System 2026/27. Seven modules and five working sheets that pay you a predictable monthly amount out of unpredictable income: the account structure, the percentages, and where every pot should sit.
- A salary set from your trailing twelve-month low, not the average, with the calculator that finds it
- The day-it-lands allocation split, so tax and costs are moved before you can spend them
- The written drought plan for a bad quarter, the FSCS licence checker, and the surplus waterfall for a good year
Normal budgeting assumes a payday. Freelance income does not have one. The fix is not discipline, it is structure, and structure is a one-afternoon job.
Buying more than one? All ten 2026/27 courses for £107, against £328 at full price.
Sources
- Monzo — business banking (checked 26 August 2026)
- Monzo Help — making a cash deposit into a Business account (checked 26 August 2026)
- Monzo Help — cash deposit limits for Business accounts (checked 26 August 2026)
This is general information about Monzo Business, not financial or tax advice. Every price and limit above links to the provider’s own page, with the date it was checked; terms change, so confirm on the live page before you sign up. For your own circumstances, speak to an accountant.