Lili vs Found Business Checking 2023: Which Is Best?
This article is part of a larger series on Business Banking.
Lili and Found are two of today’s best digital banking providers. They reduce the cost of business paperwork by providing a single platform for your banking, accounting needs, and other cash management needs.
When comparing Lili vs Found business checking accounts, Found is more affordable. Unlike Lili, which locks most of its digital business tools behind paid plans, Found provides bookkeeping, tax preparation, and invoicing at no additional cost. However, Lili’s paid plans also offer exclusive features that are unavailable with Found, such as priority customer support, cash back on debit card purchases, and free overdraft protection.
Here is a summary of what each provider is best for:
- Lili Lili is a financial technology company, not a bank. It provides Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) insurance through a supporting bank partnership with Choice Financial Group. is best for businesses that need built-in accounting tools plus access to overdraft protection, and cash back rewards
- Found Found is a financial technology (fintech) company, not a bank. It provides FDIC insurance on deposits up to $250,000 through a supporting bank partnership with Piermont Bank. is best for businesses seeking free access to built-in bookkeeping, tax preparation, and invoicing tools
Lili vs Found Business Checking Quick Comparison
When To Use
Comparison of Found vs Lili Business Checking Features
Lili | Found | |
---|---|---|
3.08 stars | 3.83 stars | |
Check Deposits | ★★★★ | ★★★ |
Cash Deposits | ★★★ | ★★★★ |
Automated Clearing House (ACH) | ★★★★★ | ★★★★ |
Debit Card, ATM Network & Fees | ★★★★ | ★★★ |
Additional Debit Cards | 0 | ★★★★ |
Direct Deposit | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
APY | ★★★★ | ★★★ |
Bookkeeping Tools | ★★★ | ★★★★★ |
Tax Preparation Tools | ★★★ | ★★★★★ |
Invoicing | ★★★ | ★★★★★ |
Contractor Management | 0 | ★★★★★ |
Overdraft Protection | ★★★ | 0 |
★★★★★ 5: This feature enhances your banking experience at little to no cost.
★★★★ 4: This feature has a few minor drawbacks/limits or comes at a slight cost.
★★★ 3: This feature has a few drawbacks/limits or comes at a slightly high cost.
★★ 2: This feature has a few major drawbacks/limits and comes at a high cost.
★ 1: This feature has major drawbacks/limits.
0: This feature is unavailable.
Most of Found’s best features are available even if you don’t upgrade to Found Plus. Meanwhile, most of Lili’s best features are only available with paid plans. However, these paid plans provide premium features (such as cash back and overdraft protection) that neither of Found’s account types offer.
Lili: 4 out of 5
You can deposit checks into your Lili account through mobile check deposit. The feature is available to the following business types:
- Single-member limited liability companies (LLCs)
- Multimember LLCs
- General partnerships
- Limited liability partnerships (LLPs)
- S corporations (S-corps)
If you’re a sole proprietor, you are only eligible for Lili’s check deposit feature if you meet both of the following criteria:
- Your account has been open for at least 30 days
- You receive $200 or more in ACH direct deposits from a nongovernmental source per calendar month
Found: 3 out of 5
Found also offers mobile check deposits. However, it is only available to eligible users. The website has not published the eligibility criteria.
Lili: 3 out of 5
Lili lets you deposit cash at Green Dot retail locations. Typically, you pay $4.95 or less per deposit.
Found: 4 out of 5
You can deposit cash into your Found account through select retail establishments, which you can locate on the Found app. There is a flat fee of $2 per deposit, which makes Found slightly cheaper than Lili.
Lili: 5 out of 5
Lili lets you send payments via ACH. You have two transfer time options:
- Standard ACH, which has no fee but takes longer
- Express ACH, which costs 1.5% of the transaction amount (for a minimum of 50 cents and a maximum of $20) and sends the payment within a same-day or next-day timeframe.
Found: 4 out of 5
Found lets you send unlimited ACH transfers.
Lili: 4 out of 5
You will receive a free Visa debit card with your Lili business checking account, regardless of your plan type. However, paid Lili plans also pay cash back on debit card purchases with partner retailers.
Lili charges no fees for MoneyPass ATM transactions. Out-of-network transactions cost $2.50 plus third-party operator fees (if applicable).
Found: 3 out of 5
Your Found business checking account will come with a complimentary Mastercard debit card. Aside from giving you the ability to make purchases anywhere Mastercard is accepted, the card lets you make transactions at any ATM.
Lili: 0 out of 5
You only get one debit card per Lili account.
Found: 3 out of 5
With Found, you can create up to 10 additional virtual debit cards. Each card gets its own customizable spending limit, which is useful if you plan on issuing employee cards.
Lili: 5 out of 5
All of Lili’s plans provide access to direct deposit, which lets you receive client payments faster.
Found: 5 out of 5
Found also offers direct deposit with no fees.
Lili: 4 out of 5
Lili savings accounts earn 4.15% APY on balances of $100,000 or less. However, as mentioned above, these are only available for paid plans.
Found: 3 out of 5
Upgrading to Found Plus gives you access to 1.5% APY on balances up to $20,000.
Lili: 3 out of 5
If you’re enrolled under one of Lili’s paid plans, you gain access to Lili’s bookkeeping features. Lili Pro lets you manually categorize your banking transactions. The plan comes with a receipt scanner, which lets you attach receipts to transactions. Lili uses this information to generate monthly expense reports.
Meanwhile, Lili Smart and Lili Premium automatically organize debit card transactions into different tax categories. Lili will then use the data to generate financial reports, such as cash flow statements and profit and loss reports.
Found: 5 out of 5
You can access most of Found’s bookkeeping features without subscribing to Found’s paid plan. Like Lili, Found records and categorizes your debit card transactions automatically, then uses the data to generate income, expense, and profit and loss (P&L) reports. The platform comes with a receipt capture function, which lets you attach photos of physical receipts to transactions.
If you upgrade to Found Plus, you can also import transaction data from third-party sources, such as your bank, credit card, Venmo, and PayPal accounts. You can also use receipt capture to pull expense data from receipt photos automatically.
Lili: 3 out of 5
Paid Lili plans let you open a dedicated tax bucket. Whenever you earn money, Lili sweeps a percentage of your income into that tax bucket. Although the process is automatic, it’s on you to determine how much money you want to set aside.
Lili also uses its expense categorization feature to help you track tax write-offs. If you upgrade to Lili Smart or Lili Premium, you get access to prefilled tax forms, such as Form 1065, Form 1120, and Schedule C.
Found: 5 out of 5
Compared to Lili, Found’s tax preparation tools are more affordable and comprehensive. Not only does it use its expense tracking feature to identify tax write-offs, but it also pulls real-time tax estimates from your banking data.
Like Lili, the Found account also comes with a tax savings account. Whenever you mark a deposit as income, Found automatically sweeps a percentage of your earnings into this account. Rather than leaving you to choose this percentage on your own, Found uses your tax profile to calculate how much it needs to save.
If you upgrade to Found Plus, you can pay quarterly federal taxes directly through the app.
Lili: 3 out of 5
Lili Smart and Lili Premium plans provide access to a number of useful invoicing tools. You can create, customize, and send unlimited invoices and accept payments via:
- Debit or credit card (Amex, Mastercard, and Visa)
- ACH
- Venmo
- Cash App
- PayPal
The platform lets you track unpaid invoices and send automatic payment reminders to clients. You can also reuse invoices for recurring payments.
Found: 5 out of 5
Found comes with free invoicing features. You can create, customize, and send (instant or scheduled) invoices and accept payments from the following channels:
- Found to Found transfers
- ACH transfers
- Domestic wire transfers
- Credit or debit card (processed through Stripe)
- Cash App
- Venmo
- PayPal
Note that Found uses Stripe to process credit card and debit card invoice payments, which means you need to create a new Stripe account or link your existing Stripe account to accept card payments. You also need to pay a 2.9% plus 30 cents fee per processed transaction.
The feature notifies you when your invoices have been viewed or paid. Found also sends payment reminders to your clients.
Lili: 0 out of 5
Lili does not offer contractor management software.
Found: 5 out of 5
Found provides access to contractor management tools. These tools let you send unlimited contractor payments. It also helps your contractors report their taxes by collecting W-9s and generating their 1099 forms automatically.
Lili: 3 out of 5
Paid Lili plans provide up to $200 worth of fee-free overdraft protection. Note that this only applies to debit card transactions.
Found: 0 out of 5
You are not allowed to overdraw your Found account.
Lili vs Found Reviews From Users
Lili | Found | |
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Trustpilot Rating | 4.7 (based on more than 2,200 reviews[1]) | 4.6 (based on 200-plus reviews[2]) |
Users Like |
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Users Dislike |
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Lili and Found earned high average user ratings. However, more users left reviews for Lili than Found, which gives it a slight edge. Both providers received praise for providing intuitive UI.
Customers who left written reviews tended to single out the features they liked best. For Lili, these were automatic expense categorization, cash back, and overdraft protection. For Found, tax preparation assistance, virtual debit cards, and receipt capture were mentioned.
Lili users also praised the provider’s customer service team for being polite, knowledgeable, and quick to respond. However, customers often complained that check deposits took too long to clear. Additionally, a few users disliked that there are no ways to waive the monthly fee for paid plans. Meanwhile, Found customers typically criticized the bank’s customer service, particularly the lack of communication channels between customers and representatives.
Bottom Line
Comparing Found vs Lili business checking, Found provides better value for money than Lili. While Lili limits some of its best features (such as automated tax savings, unlimited free invoicing, and smart bookkeeping) to its paid plans, Found offers many of the same features for free. However, Lili’s paid plans are still worth considering if you want access to priority customer support, fee-free overdraft coverage, and debit card cash back.
User review references:
1Trustpilot | Lili
2Trustpilot | Found
Lili is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group, Member FDIC.
Found is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Piermont Bank, Member FDIC.