Qonto
QONTO SA, Paris, with a German branch (Zweigniederlassung) in Berlin ·qonto.com/de· As of: 2026-08-14
Work through this tool with an AI
Our verdict
Any savings bank runs a business account, and a competitor can open the same one within a week. What this adds is a closed chain from the card purchase through the receipt into the accounting system, plus a role model that sits in a contractual annex rather than a product page. That saves days in the monthly close and questions to the tax adviser. It does nothing for market position: no customer buys because receipts get coded faster.
Evidence:Legal form, registered office, branch registration numbers, payment institution licence and supervision by ACPR and BaFinOpen sourceIndependent controllership instead of processing, storage locations, third-country transfers and the quantified retention periodsOpen sourceAI fields of use, named model providers, training exclusion and the reference to the European AI RegulationOpen sourcePlans, user limits, FX and transfer fees for the German market including the staggered effective datesOpen sourceRole and permission model in the contractual annex, the statement as evidence, terminationOpen sourceAbsence of a data processing agreement and of a sub-processor list across the entire legal document libraryOpen sourceScope of the ISO 27001 certification and the supervisory regimes that apply insteadOpen sourceEBICS connection, plan-bound payment initiation from the ERP from October 2026 and the exception for the classic DATEV routeOpen sourceApplication for a full banking licence with the ACPR, earnings position and customer count per the companyOpen sourceEquity round of EUR 486 millionOpen sourceRegister status of QONTO SA in FranceOpen sourceScope of the German Payment Accounts Act, limited to consumersOpen source
Who it fits
Solo
suitable
The Starter plan is free and open to registered sole traders and freelancers, while Basic costs eleven euros a month excluding VAT. A separate accountant login only starts at Smart for twenty-three euros, and the full DATEV connection hangs off that same threshold. Anyone staying on Basic gets only the PIN and TAN connection there.
Mid-market
suitable
This is where the use case sits. Essential costs fifty-nine euros a month, Business one hundred and nineteen, Enterprise two hundred and forty-nine, each excluding VAT, and from Essential upwards administrators, employees, manager roles and accountant logins are all unlimited. Price therefore follows function and does not grow with headcount, which sets it apart from the usual per-seat models.
Enterprise
not suitable
What procurement checks is missing. No login through the company directory service is described anywhere in the help centre, nor is a log of access and role changes that the customer can export. The EBICS connection explicitly does not cover the classic signature-based DATEV route. Pooling liquidity across several legal entities is outside the design anyway, since sub-accounts hang off a single contract and are capped at ninety-nine.
Buy, switch or build
Off-the-shelf
Account at the house bank, accounting in DATEV
The savings bank or cooperative bank runs the account, DATEV carries the accounting, the tax adviser sits in between. Larger mid-sized firms and corporates stay with this because the bank brings a credit line, guarantees and liquidity pooling across several legal entities, and because a relationship manager is reachable. The price is paid at the seam between the two: receipts get chased, card limits run through an authorised signatory, and there is no approval chain per person.
AI-native
Agents on the account
The young class promises that an agent assigns receipts, flags deviations and prepares payments, so that humans only see exceptions. Switching vendors purely for that rarely pays, because the established houses are adding the same agents. Qonto described its two in a dedicated legal document on 1 May 2026, and Pleo announced its own on 11 June 2026. Whoever switches also swaps the payment licence, and that is where the real risk sits.
Build it yourself
Self-building pays off one level above the account
Running a payment account requires a licence as a payment or e-money institution, anti money laundering processes and ongoing supervision. No software company between one and fifty million euros in revenue builds that. The sensible build sits one layer above: your own liquidity and contract view that joins the account export with subscriptions, contracts and cost centres. As a build tool, n8n from this catalogue handles collection over EBICS or an interface, with the accounting in DATEV as the building block. Something like this is built in a few days. It fails later in operation, because the account mapping has to be maintained and nobody remembers how it came about once the person who built it has left the company.
Our advice
- Solo: Take it, the entry costs nothing and receipt discipline comes with it.
- Mid-market: Buy, after weighing the international payment costs against your own volume.
- Enterprise: Settle first how login and access logging are meant to be handled.
Who is behind it
Staying power: Established
Ten years in market, a licensed payment institution under French supervision and active in Germany through the European passport, with an application for a full banking licence filed with the same authority in July 2025. Profitability since 2023 and more than 600,000 business customers are the company’s own figures and cannot be verified in any register.
- Legal entity and register status in France: QONTO SA, SIREN 819 489 626, registered on 4 April 2016, listed as activeRegister status of QONTO SA in FranceOpen source · As of 2026-08-14
- German branch: Qonto Zweigniederlassung Deutschland (German branch), Berlin, Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, HRB 213261 BLegal form, registered office, branch registration numbers, payment institution licence and supervision by ACPR and BaFinOpen source · As of 2026-08-14
- Licence and supervision: Payment institution licensed by the French supervisor ACPR, licence number 16958 granted on 21 June 2018, additionally supervised by BaFin in GermanyLegal form, registered office, branch registration numbers, payment institution licence and supervision by ACPR and BaFinOpen source · As of 2026-08-14
- Last reported equity round: EUR 486 million, announced on 11 January 2022Equity round of EUR 486 millionOpen source · As of 2022-01-11
- Application for a full banking licence: filed with the ACPR in July 2025 in order to offer lending, savings and investment products in its own nameApplication for a full banking licence with the ACPR, earnings position and customer count per the companyOpen source · As of 2025-07-07
- Earnings position and reach, per the company: profitable since 2023, more than 600,000 business customers across eight European countriesApplication for a full banking licence with the ACPR, earnings position and customer count per the companyOpen source · As of 2025-07-07
Cost of leaving: High
The data comes out easily. A full export as Excel or CSV including attachments is available on every plan, statements can be pulled individually, and closing the account is self-service in the settings. The expensive part is moving the account itself: the IBAN drags along direct debit mandates, standing orders, customer payments, payroll and the details filed with the tax office. The statutory account-switching aid (Kontowechselhilfe) is no help here, because the German Payment Accounts Act (Zahlungskontengesetz) applies to consumers under its section 1.
Regulation and data
| Data processing agreementdocumented, no condition attached: Auftragsverarbeitungsvertrag öffentlich abrufbar und ohne weitere Bedingung Bestandteil des Vertrags; oder er entfällt nachvollziehbar begründet, weil kein Anbieter Kundendaten verarbeitet.documented, tied to a condition: Vertrag existiert, ist aber an einen Tarif gebunden, nur nach Anfrage einsehbar oder allein in den Nutzungsbedingungen geregelt statt als eigenes Dokument.documented, but unfavourable: Kein Auftragsverarbeitungsvertrag im üblichen Sinn: entweder weil der Anbieter für das Kerngeschäft eigenständig Verantwortlicher ist und stattdessen eine andere Konstruktion gilt, oder weil öffentlich offen bleibt, ob überhaupt einer angeboten wird.open on a point that decides usability: Weder ein Vertrag noch ein dokumentierter Weg zu einem Vertrag; der Einkauf hätte nichts, worauf er sich stützen kann. | documented, but unfavourablenot applicable, the vendor is an independent controllerIndependent controllership instead of processing, storage locations, third-country transfers and the quantified retention periodsOpen sourceThe privacy notice states explicitly that Qonto processes its customers’ data as an independent controller and does not act as a processor, and it grounds this in its own anti money laundering duties. Neither the German nor the English legal document library contains a data processing agreement. Anyone in procurement demanding one is negotiating past the legal position. What remains to be settled is responsibility for the data of employees set up as users.As of 2026-06-01 |
|---|---|
| Storage locationdocumented, no condition attached: EU-Speicherort ohne Zusatzkosten und ohne Tarifbindung, oder der Ort ist vollständig selbst bestimmbar, weil das Werkzeug im eigenen Betrieb läuft.documented, tied to a condition: EU-Speicherort möglich, aber an einen Tarif, einen gesondert zu aktivierenden Zusatz oder einen Umzug in eine getrennte Umgebung gebunden; oder die EU-Region ist nicht die Voreinstellung.documented, but unfavourable: Kein EU-Speicherort, der Ort ist aber eindeutig benannt, sodass die Folgen bewertbar sind.open on a point that decides usability: Der Speicherort ist öffentlich nicht benannt oder vom Kunden nicht steuerbar, sodass sich die Verarbeitung nicht verorten lässt. | documented, no condition attachedAmazon AWS in France and GermanyIndependent controllership instead of processing, storage locations, third-country transfers and the quantified retention periodsOpen sourceThe privacy notice names Amazon AWS as the storage provider and France and Germany as the storage locations for data arising in the Paris, Milan, Berlin, Barcelona and Belgrade offices. Customers have no say over the location, which is not envisaged for a supervised payment account either.As of 2026-06-01 |
| Subprocessorsdocumented, no condition attached: Vollständige öffentliche Liste der Unterauftragnehmer mit Zweck und Land; oder es gibt keine, weil das Werkzeug im eigenen Betrieb läuft.documented, tied to a condition: Liste existiert und ist benannt, aber nur nach Anfrage oder nach Zugang zu einem Vertrauensportal einsehbar, oder sie nennt Zweck und Land nicht vollständig.documented, but unfavourable: Keine geführte Liste; namentlich stehen nur einzelne Dienste in der Datenschutzerklärung, überwiegend solche der eigenen Website.open on a point that decides usability: Weder eine Liste noch eine Nennung der Verarbeiter des Produkts, und kein dokumentierter Weg, sie zu erfahren. | documented, but unfavourableno maintained listIndependent controllership instead of processing, storage locations, third-country transfers and the quantified retention periodsOpen sourceThe only name in the legal documents is Amazon AWS. Further recipients are described in the privacy notice as technical service providers under the outsourcing guidelines of the European Banking Authority, EBA/GL/2019/02, without naming them, their purpose or their country. The single place with names is the artificial intelligence document, which lists OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.As of 2026-06-01 |
| Third-country transferdocumented, no condition attached: Keine Übermittlung in ein Drittland, oder die Übermittlung findet statt und die Grundlage ist benannt und im Vertrag verankert, etwa Standardvertragsklauseln, Angemessenheitsbeschluss oder EU-US-Datenschutzrahmen.documented, tied to a condition: Übermittlung findet statt, eine Grundlage ist genannt, aber ohne Zuordnung, welcher Empfänger auf welcher Grundlage arbeitet.documented, but unfavourable: Übermittlung findet statt und die eigenen Unterlagen widersprechen sich, oder die genannte Grundlage bezieht sich erkennbar nur auf einen Randbereich wie die Marketing-Website.open on a point that decides usability: Übermittlung findet erkennbar statt und eine Grundlage wird nirgends genannt. | documented, tied to a conditionadequacy decision, otherwise standard contractual clausesIndependent controllership instead of processing, storage locations, third-country transfers and the quantified retention periodsOpen sourceThe privacy notice commits to both routes and refers anyone wanting the transfer instrument itself to a request with the data protection officer. Which recipient operates on which basis does not emerge from the public documents. For the AI features, Google and Anthropic are named as recipients whose parent companies sit outside the European Union.As of 2026-06-01 |
| Training on customer datadocumented, no condition attached: Vertraglich oder in der Datenschutzerklärung ausdrücklich ausgeschlossen, mit Erstreckung auf die eingesetzten Modellanbieter; oder es gibt keine Datenübertragung an einen Anbieter.documented, tied to a condition: Ausschluss ab einem bestimmten Tarif, oder die Zusage steht nur auf einer Dokumentationsseite statt im Vertrag, oder die Frage stellt sich für das Werkzeug sachlich kaum und der Anbieter schweigt dazu.documented, but unfavourable: Nutzung ist die Voreinstellung und nur ein Widerspruch beendet sie; oder der Anbieter trainiert eigene Modelle auf bereinigten Kundendaten.open on a point that decides usability: Keine Aussage, obwohl das Werkzeug KI-Funktionen auf Kundeninhalten betreibt. | documented, no condition attachedexcluded, model providers namedAI fields of use, named model providers, training exclusion and the reference to the European AI RegulationOpen sourceThe artificial intelligence document in its version of 1 May 2026 prohibits using customer data to train or improve third-party models and names the providers in use: OpenAI for the company name and logo generator as well as the plan recommendation, Google and Anthropic for the Operator and Analyst agents. Qonto improves its own models solely with publicly available content from the help centre.As of 2026-05-01 |
| Retention and deletiondocumented, no condition attached: Löschfristen nach Vertragsende beziffert und die Löschung oder Rückgabe zugesagt; oder die Fristen bestimmt der Betreiber selbst, weil das Werkzeug im eigenen Betrieb läuft.documented, tied to a condition: Löschung ist zugesagt, die Fristen sind aber nur teilweise beziffert, oder Sicherungskopien sind ausdrücklich ausgenommen.documented, but unfavourable: Nur der Grundsatz der Erforderlichkeit ohne jede Frist nach Vertragsende, oder Fristen sind allein für Randbereiche wie Website-Protokolle genannt.open on a point that decides usability: Keine Aussage zu Aufbewahrung und Löschung. | documented, no condition attachedquantified per purpose, five years for transactions after the account closesIndependent controllership instead of processing, storage locations, third-country transfers and the quantified retention periodsOpen sourceThe privacy notice quantifies each period separately: transaction data five years after the account closes, accounting records ten years, contact data three years after the last contact, call recordings six months. A deletion request runs against these duties while they last, which is what one expects from a supervised institution.As of 2026-06-01 |
| Certificationsdocumented, no condition attached: Mehrere anerkannte Nachweise, benannt mit Norm, Fassung und Geltungsbereich, und bezogen auf den Anbieter selbst.documented, tied to a condition: Ein anerkannter Nachweis für den Anbieter belegt, der Bericht aber nur auf Anfrage, oder der Nachweis hängt an einem Tarif, oder der Geltungsbereich bleibt teilweise offen.documented, but unfavourable: Nur pauschale Nennung ohne Norm-Fassung und Geltungsbereich, oder bloße Selbstauskunft, oder die Nachweise gehören dem Infrastrukturanbieter statt dem Anbieter, oder der Prüfzeitraum ist erkennbar veraltet, oder die eigenen Angaben widersprechen sich.open on a point that decides usability: Kein Nachweis genannt und keine Sicherheits- oder Vertrauensseite vorhanden. | documented, but unfavourableISO 27001 for the e-invoicing solution onlyScope of the ISO 27001 certification and the supervisory regimes that apply insteadOpen sourceThe help centre answers the ISO 27001 question with a qualification: what is certified is the e-invoicing solution under the requirements of the French tax administration, and what is certified further are the platforms of the operators AWS and Outscale. For the vendor itself the same text names no attestation, but ongoing supervision by the ACPR alongside PCI DSS, the Payment Services Directive, the European Banking Authority guidelines and DORA. The article carries the date 5 April 2024.As of 2024-04-05 |
| EU AI Act, Article 50documented, no condition attached: Der Anbieter macht eine belegte Aussage, die die eigene Pflicht trägt, etwa Modelldokumentation und Zertifizierung nach ISO/IEC 42001; oder das Werkzeug enthält nachvollziehbar begründet kein KI-System im Sinne der Verordnung.documented, tied to a condition: Der Anbieter äußert sich zur Verordnung oder ordnet die eigene Funktion ein, eine benannte Zusage zu den Transparenzpflichten aus Artikel 50 fehlt aber; oder das Werkzeug enthält kein KI-System, das gegenüber Menschen auftritt, und der Anbieter schweigt.documented, but unfavourable: Das Produkt enthält KI-Funktionen, der Anbieter schweigt dazu oder trägt ein Selbstetikett ohne Nachweis; die Kennzeichnung ist vom Betreiber aber selbst setzbar.open on a point that decides usability: KI spricht im Produkt unmittelbar mit Endkunden und der Anbieter sagt zu Artikel 50 nichts; die Kennzeichnung lässt sich ohne Zusage des Anbieters nicht sicher setzen. | documented, no condition attacheddedicated artificial intelligence document, version of 1 May 2026AI fields of use, named model providers, training exclusion and the reference to the European AI RegulationOpen sourceThe document names the European AI Regulation explicitly, describes four fields of use together with the model providers, and states that the Operator and Analyst agents neither decide nor act without explicit consent. The privacy notice commits to informing users when they interact with artificial intelligence, which carries the transparency duty under Article 50. No certification under ISO/IEC 42001 is named.As of 2026-05-01 |
| Audit loggingdocumented, no condition attached: Nachvollziehbares Protokoll über Zugriffe und Änderungen in allen Tarifen enthalten, mit benannter Frist und Ausleitung in eigene Systeme; oder die Nachvollziehbarkeit liegt vollständig in eigener Hand, weil das Werkzeug im eigenen Betrieb läuft.documented, tied to a condition: Protokoll vorhanden, aber an einen höheren Tarif oder einen kostenpflichtigen Zusatz gebunden, oder die Ausleitung fehlt in den unteren Stufen; Reichweite und Frist sind benannt.documented, but unfavourable: Protokolle sind nur anbieterseitig beschrieben, oder Reichweite und Frist bleiben offen, sodass sich Nachweispflichten nicht planen lassen.open on a point that decides usability: Öffentlich nicht belegt, ob der Kunde überhaupt ein auswertbares Protokoll erhält. | open on a point that decides usabilitynot publicly describedRole and permission model in the contractual annex, the statement as evidence, terminationOpen sourceThe framework contract anchors a five-level role model in its own annex and makes the account statement the legally valid evidence of payment transactions. A log of access, role changes and approvals that the customer can inspect and export into its own systems is described neither in the contract nor in the help centre. The reach and retention period of any such log therefore remain open, and evidence duties cannot be planned around it.As of 2026-06-17 |
What it really costs
Entry price
For sole traders and micro-businesses, Starter is free, Basic costs eleven euros, Smart twenty-three and Premium forty-five a month excluding VAT. For small and medium-sized companies, Essential starts at fifty-nine euros, Business at one hundred and nineteen and Enterprise at two hundred and forty-nine a month. The Starter plan is open only to registered sole traders and freelancers.Plans, user limits, FX and transfer fees for the German market including the staggered effective datesOpen source
As of 2026-08-03
What gets expensive
The payment side. An incoming SWIFT transfer costs five euros on every plan once it reaches five hundred euros. Outgoing international transfers run at 0.56 percent in the four standard currencies and 1.56 percent in all others. On the lower plans a 2 percent FX fee applies to each card payment, dropping to 1 percent from Smart, and every additional administrator there costs ten euros a month. The price list of 3 August 2026 applies to new customers immediately and to existing customers from 1 October 2026.
What it displaces
- Paper statements and a folder full of receipts
- A single company card held by the managing director for everyone
- Handing receipts to the tax adviser as a monthly folder
Interfaces
- DATEV with Belegbilderservice, Rechnungsdatenservice 1.0 and RZ-Bankinfo from the Smart plan, PIN and TAN through FinAPI only on Basic
- EBICS for accounting and treasury software, without the classic signature-based DATEV route
- Full export of transactions as Excel or CSV including attachments, on every plan
- More than 80 integrations from the Essential plan, per the vendor
Matching methods
- Cash Flow TroughThe trough describes how deep the account falls between upfront cost and incoming payment, and that depth can only be read continuously when payments in and out, including their due dates, sit in one place.
- Client-Financed Acquisition (30-Day Cash Rule)The calculation stands or falls on whether the customer’s money arrives within thirty days, and nobody measures that period reliably from a statement posted only after the monthly close.
- Value Creation Plan (Lever Categories and Execution Rate)The plan reports a quarterly implementation rate per lever, and cost-side levers can only be evidenced when every outlay carries its receipt and cost centre at the moment of payment.
Sources
- 1.Legal form, registered office, branch registration numbers, payment institution licence and supervision by ACPR and BaFin (opens in a new tab)qonto.com/de/imprint · As of 2026-08-14
- 2.Independent controllership instead of processing, storage locations, third-country transfers and the quantified retention periods (opens in a new tab)qonto.pactsafe.io/versions/6a1dc4e59770d520dd1be18f.pdf · As of 2026-06-01
- 3.AI fields of use, named model providers, training exclusion and the reference to the European AI Regulation (opens in a new tab)qonto.pactsafe.io/versions/69f893dc3da14116fe89a9ac.pdf · As of 2026-05-01
- 4.Plans, user limits, FX and transfer fees for the German market including the staggered effective dates (opens in a new tab)qonto.pactsafe.io/versions/6a6a1afe563f29aaabe8d4bd.pdf · As of 2026-08-03
- 5.Role and permission model in the contractual annex, the statement as evidence, termination (opens in a new tab)qonto.pactsafe.io/versions/6a325d541b4d50fa59bd1418.pdf · As of 2026-06-17
- 6.Absence of a data processing agreement and of a sub-processor list across the entire legal document library (opens in a new tab)legal.qonto.com/de · As of 2026-08-14
- 7.Scope of the ISO 27001 certification and the supervisory regimes that apply instead (opens in a new tab)support-de.qonto.com/…/23949214506385.json · As of 2024-04-05
- 8.EBICS connection, plan-bound payment initiation from the ERP from October 2026 and the exception for the classic DATEV route (opens in a new tab)support-de.qonto.com/…/40191465029393.json · As of 2026-07-30
- 9.Application for a full banking licence with the ACPR, earnings position and customer count per the company (opens in a new tab)it-finanzmagazin.de/… · As of 2025-07-07
- 10.Equity round of EUR 486 million (opens in a new tab)qonto.com/…/series-d-rekordfundraising-fuer-qonto · As of 2022-01-11
- 11.Register status of QONTO SA in France (opens in a new tab)annuaire-entreprises.data.gouv.fr/entreprise/qonto-819489626 · As of 2026-08-14
- 12.Scope of the German Payment Accounts Act, limited to consumers (opens in a new tab)gesetze-im-internet.de/zkg/__1.html · As of 2026-08-14
Last reviewed: 2026-08-14 by Dr. Oliver Gausmann, Convios GmbH
Details out of date? Let us know.