Wise alternatives & competitors | Airwallex
David Beach
Senior Fintech Writer
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.
Formerly known as TransferWise, the business was established in 2011 by two friends from Estonia as a consumer-only transfer service.
Today, it facilitates the transfer of over £30 billion per quarter for both consumer and business customers, including growing SaaS company TalentDesk. It also now offers some additional financial services.
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.
Priced differently to many competitors, the company charges a combination of fixed and variable transaction fees, and FX rates, for international payments, starting at ~0.4%.
Top alternatives to Wise
What questions should I ask Wise alternatives?
Choosing a new payment processing provider is an important decision. There’s a lot to consider, with different platforms better suited to different types and sizes of businesses.
Wise offers a low-cost, simple money transfer service, but it won’t be the best fit for everyone.
If you’d like to find out more information from alternative providers about their fees, features and support, read on as we walk through our top 10 questions to ask their sales team.
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?
Why choose Airwallex over 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 competitive, transparent pricing on 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. It supports more currencies, software integrations and offers important services like account management, online payments and expense management.
Sources & references
1 https://www.airwallex.com/uk/blog/best-business-bank-accounts-uk
2 https://www.payoneer.com/get-paid-by-clients/#:~:text=Payment%20request%20%E2%80%93%20sent%20payment%20requests,bank%20debit%2C%20direct%20bank%20payment
3 https://www.payoneer.com/about/pricing/#pay-your-supplier
4 https://www.paypal.com/uk/enterprise/payment-methods
5 https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees
6 https://www.revolut.com/business/accept-payments/
7 https://www.revolut.com/business/accept-payments/
8 https://wise.com/gb/business/
9 https://www.airwallex.com/uk/blog/comparison-wise-vs-airwallex
10 https://wise.com/gb/business/app-marketplace
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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The material presented here is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, regulatory, taxation, or investment advice. Readers should engage their own advisors or counsel for advice unique to their circumstances.
David Beach
Senior Fintech Writer
David is a former senior Fintech writer at Airwallex with over a decade of experience in finance, business, and accountancy journalism, including senior roles at a leading financial services company and a business and finance media group. At Airwallex, he wrote practical content helping businesses manage payments, banking, and international growth.
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