Novo vs Lili Business Checking 2023: Which Is Better for You?

Novo and Lili are two of the best business banking providers for small businesses and freelancers. Both are fee-free and integrate with popular business software, such as QuickBooks, PayPal, and Shopify. Novo is particularly suitable for businesses that need rapid access to payment funds. With Novo Boost, it lets you access revenue earned from the payment processing platform, Stripe, within hours instead of days.

Meanwhile, Lili’s biggest selling point is that it offers built-in accounting and tax planning tools. Its Tax Optimizer feature lets users set aside income for taxes automatically, track tax write-offs, and use their banking data to auto-fill their Schedule C forms.

Here’s a summary of what each provider is best for:

Novo* is best for rapid access to funds and faster payments
Lili* is best for digital tax preparation assistance

*Providers are financial technology (fintech) platforms backed and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC)-insured by a supporting bank partnership (Middlesex Federal Savings for Novo and Choice Financial Group for Lili)


Required Opening Deposit	$0	$0
Required Balance Minimum	None	None
Transaction Limit Before Fees	None	None
Automated Clearing House (ACH) Fees	$0	$0
Domestic Wire Transfer Fees	Incoming: Free Outgoing: N/A	N/A
International Wire Fees	Incoming: Free Outgoing: Available through Wise	N/A
ATM Fees	All fees refunded at the end of the month	Free at MoneyPass locations; $2.50 for nonnetwork
Cash Deposits	None	$4.95 per transaction via Green Dot retail locations
APY	N/A	N/A
Review	Read our Novo Business Checking review	Read our Lili Business Checking review
Open an Account	Visit Novo	Visit Lili

*Third-party operator fees may apply.
^†Cash can only be deposited through money orders.


Debit Card	Virtual debit card available immediately, one free physical debit card per user	Free Visa debit card
Physical Checks	Paper checks can be sent straight from the app	None
Accounting Software Integrations	QuickBooks and Xero	Built-in expense tracking, QuickBooks, and FreshBooks
Business Software Integrations	Stripe, Square, PayPal, Wise, and Shopify	CashApp, PayPal, Venmo, Uber, Lyft, and Shopify
Customer Service	Live customer support from dedicated professionals	Monday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern time
Invoicing Products	Free unlimited invoicing	Unlimited invoicing available for Lili Pro users
Other Products Available	Small business incorporation services	Lili Pro
Review	Read our Novo Business Checking review	Read our Lili Business Checking review
Open an Account	Visit Novo	Visit Lili

When To Use

You should choose Novo over Lili in the following scenarios:

You want faster access to funds from payment channels: The Novo Boost feature speeds up cash flow by giving you access to payments received from Stripe within hours instead of days. In the future, Novo intends to expand Boost to cover Shopify and PayPal.
You want fee-free ATM withdrawals: Lili users have access to approximately 38,000 MoneyPass ATMs. However, they also have to pay an additional $2.50 nonnetwork fee plus operator fees for every out-of-network transaction. Novo users can withdraw from any machine of their choice fee-free since Novo reimburses all ATM fees by the end of the month.
You want fee-free access to invoicing software: Lili’s invoicing software is only available to Lili Pro users. Lili Pro charges a $9 monthly fee. Novo users can access its invoicing software for free.
You want access to business discounts: Novo Perks offers discounts and credits on popular business tools, including Stripe, Google Cloud, Google Ads, Gusto, QuickBooks, and HubSpot.

You should choose Lili over Novo in the following scenarios:

You want help with tax planning: Although Novo provides cash reserves that you can use to set aside tax funds, Lili takes tax planning a step further with its Tax Optimizer. Through Tax Optimizer, you can set aside a percentage of your income for taxes automatically. It also uses your banking data to prefill your annual 1040 Schedule C form.
You want to streamline bookkeeping processes: The Lili platform offers an expense categorization tool that lets you categorize every debit card transaction with a swipe of your finger. Through Tax Optimizer, you can create quarterly and yearly expense reports that summarize your business spending.
You want to earn interest on balances: Novo’s business checking account doesn’t earn interest. Upgrading to Lili Pro, which has a monthly fee of $9, will give you access to Lili’s 1.50% APY savings account.
You want to earn cash back on debit card purchases: The Novo business debit card doesn’t earn cash back on purchases. Lili Pro provides a Premium Business Visa Debit Card that earns cash back rewards.

You want to earn interest on checking deposits: Neither Novo nor Lili offers interest-earning checking. The best checking account for high APY is Bluevine, which offers 2.00% APY on qualifying balances of $250,000 or less, provided you meet its activity requirements.
You rely on cash deposits: Novo users can only deposit cash by purchasing and depositing money orders through the app. Lili users can deposit cash through Green Dot retail locations, where deposits cost $4.95 per item. Businesses that want a hassle-free cash deposit experience should choose Bank of America, which has a fee-free cash deposit allowance of $7,500.
You want physical bank branches: As digital-exclusive banking solutions, neither Novo nor Lili has brick-and-mortar banking stores. Businesses needing in-person banking should look into Chase, which has 4,700 branches across the country.
You need additional lending products: Neither Novo nor Lili offers lending products. First Internet Bank has an extensive selection of digital banking products, including lines of credit, term loans, Small Business Administration (SBA) loans, and real estate financing.
You need support for wire transfers: Novo’s partnership with Wise lets it provide international outgoing wire transfer services at an affordable cost. However, neither Novo nor Lili lets you send domestic wire transfers. Under Mercury, all wire transfers are free.

If your business fits any one of these scenarios, you can also look into our list of the best checking accounts for small businesses.

Novo vs Lili Business Checking Account

Novo only offers one type of checking account. Lili has a free account called Lili Basic and a premium account called Lili Pro. The Lili Pro account charges a monthly fee of $9 and offers features such as cash back rewards on debit card purchases, high-yield savings accounts, fee-free overdrafts, and advanced expense tracking for tax optimization.

Both accounts support cash deposits indirectly. Novo users can only deposit cash by purchasing a money order from a bank or a United States Postal Service (USPS) location. Lili users can deposit cash at Green Dot retail locations for a fee of $4.95 per deposit.

Neither account has a minimum balance nor opening deposit requirements.

Novo vs Lili Account Overview

	Novo	Lili
Best For	Best for businesses that need rapid access to funds from payment channels	Best for businesses that need digital tax preparation assistance
Opening Deposit	N/A	N/A
Interest on Balances	N/A	N/A
Bank Network & ATMs	All fees refunded at the end of the month	Free at MoneyPass locations; $2.50 for nonnetwork
Accounting Software Integrations	QuickBooks and Xero	QuickBooks and Xero
Business Software Integrations	Stripe, Shopify, Square, Slack, Wise, WooCommerce, eBay, Etsy, Amazon, and Zapier	CashApp, PayPal, Stripe, Venmo, Uber, Lyft, Shopify, and Etsy
Reserve Accounts	Up to 10 reserve accounts	Buckets for tax and emergencies
Open an Account	Visit Novo	Visit Lili

As digital-exclusive banking solutions, Novo and Lili offer similar selling points. Both aim to streamline business banking operations by offering budgeting tools, invoicing tools, and integrations with popular business software.

However, Novo is slightly more affordable than Lili. Novo reimburses all ATM fees at the end of each month, including third-party operator fees—unlike Lili, which charges a $2.50 fee plus operator fees for every non-MoneyPass ATM transaction.

Novo also offers a feature called Novo Boost, which aims to reduce friction in your cash flow by providing rapid access to funds earned from the payment processing platform Stripe. Novo plans to include payments from other platforms in the future.

Lili’s biggest standout feature is its Tax Optimizer. This feature helps you prepare for taxes by sweeping a set percentage of your income into a dedicated tax bucket automatically. Additionally, the app lets you categorize expenses in real time and track tax write-offs. It then uses your transaction data to pre-fill your Schedule C form.

If you upgrade to Lili Pro, you can gain access to savings accounts, cash back, and fee-free overdrafts up to $200. Lili Pro’s savings account earns 2.0% APY on balances of 1 cent and above. Meanwhile, you can receive cash back rewards by using your Lili Pro Business Visa Debit Card for purchases with Lili’s partner merchants.

Both accounts come with invoicing software that let users create, send, and organize official business invoices on the go. However, Lili’s invoicing software is only available to Lili Pro customers.

Through Novo, you can create up to 10 reserve accounts, which you can earmark to separate income into business expense categories, such as taxes, payroll, and inventory. Meanwhile, Lili offers dedicated buckets for emergencies and taxes.

Novo vs Lili Account Costs

	Novo	Lili
Monthly Fee	None	None
Transaction Fee	N/A	N/A
Cash Deposit Fee	$2.20 for money orders	$4.95 at Green Dot retail locations

Both Novo and Lili were designed to reduce day-to-day banking fees. Neither account has monthly fees and transaction limits.

Although Lili itself doesn’t charge fees for cash deposits, customers can only deposit cash through Green Dot retail locations. At Green Dot, cash deposits cost $4.95 per transaction. Novo customers need to purchase money orders, which cost $2.40, to deposit cash.

Novo vs Lili Account Sample Scenario

	Novo	Lili
Possible Cash Deposit Fees	10 cash deposits x $2.40 = $24.00	10 cash deposits x $4.95 = $49.50
Out-of-Network ATM fees	$0	5 transactions x ($2.50 + $3.14†) = $28.2
Possible Total Fee	$24.00	$77.70

*Money order fees for dollar amounts between $500.01 to $1,000.00 cost $2.40, per the USPS website.

†The average ATM surcharge from the ATM owner in 2022 was $3.14, per Bankrate’s 2022 checking account and ATM fee study.

Although Novo users would have to pay $2.40 in money order fees when depositing cash through USPS money orders, they’ll still save more in fees compared to Lili users, who would have to pay $4.95 in fees to deposit cash through Green Dot retail locations.

Novo users also save a significant amount in ATM fees thanks to Novo’s reimbursement policy. Meanwhile, Lili users have to pay a $2.50 nonnetwork fee and operator fees.

Novo vs Lili User Reviews


Trustpilot Rating	4 out of 5 stars (based on 1,800-plus reviews)	4.7 out of 5 stars (based on 1,500-plus reviews)
Users Like	Intuitive university experience (UX) Few fees	Easy-to-navigate platform Helpful and friendly customer service
Users Dislike	Slow response time from customer service Rejects mobile check deposits without explanation	Low daily cash deposit limits Takes a long time for mobile check deposits to clear

Both Novo and Lili are well-rated on Trustpilot. Novo received a rating of 4 out of 5 stars, based on a total of 1,800-plus reviews, while Lili received a rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars, based on a total of 1,500-plus reviews. Both are praised for having intuitive and easy-to-navigate user interfaces (UIs).

Novo users like that the platform charges very few fees. However, many complained that it’s difficult to reach Novo’s customer service team. It doesn’t have phone customer support options, which is especially inconvenient for customers who want to speak to human representatives live. The team is also slow to respond via chat.

Meanwhile, many reviewers praised Lili for its helpful and responsive customer service. Complaints were rather minor, with larger businesses having said that there were low limits for depositing cash—Lili requires you to upgrade to Lili Pro to raise the daily cash deposit limit from $500 to $1,000. Additionally, many customers complained that it takes too long for mobile check deposits with Lili to clear.

Bottom Line

When opening a business bank account, it’s important to take all options into consideration. Though Novo and Lili may appear similar at a glance, they have small differences in pricing and features. Novo is slightly more affordable, providing invoicing tools, reserve accounts, and rapid access to payments for free. While Lili’s great free account includes tax planning assistance and expense categorization, it limits some of its best features, such as savings accounts, invoicing tools, and cash back, to its $9-per-month premium account. However, between Novo and Lili, Lili has a better reputation among past customers, with positive reviews praising its UI and customer service.