Found vs Lili (2026): Banking for the Self-Employed Compared

Found wins when you want bookkeeping, invoicing and tax estimates without paying a subscription; Lili wins when your cash should earn interest on a free plan. Found's free plan includes all three tools and pays no interest; Lili Core is free, pays 2.25% APY on savings up to $500,000, and charges $15 a month for tax tools and $35 a month for invoicing and accounting.

That split decides most cases. A freelancer with $8,000 in the account and twenty invoices a month gets more from Found for nothing. A consultant holding $60,000 between quarterly tax payments earns about $1,350 a year on Lili Core and would need a paid Found Pro plan to earn interest at all.

Toolradar data: of the 42 tax software tools on the Toolradar tax software ranking we run, Lili is the most cross-shopped as of October 17, 2026, listed as an alternative to 13 other tools, and the most compared, with 62 side-by-side comparisons in 90 days. Buyers who land on Lili are already weighing it against bookkeeping-first accounts like Found, which is why the choice comes down to fees and plan design rather than brand. Prices below were read on 17 October 2026 and checked again on 18 October 2026 on Found's pricing page, the Found fee schedule, Lili's plans page and the Lili account agreement and fee schedule.

At a glance

Plan	Monthly fee	Interest	What it adds	Who it fits
Found (free)	$0	None	Checking, up to 20 Pockets, expense categorization, real-time tax estimates, unlimited invoicing, 1099 e-filing, Schedule C and 1120 forms	Freelancers who want the tax and invoicing stack free
Found Plus	$35, or $315 a year	1.50% APY on balances up to $20,000	Unlimited auto-categorization rules, custom tags, transaction imports from other accounts, in-app quarterly tax payments	Owners who keep several accounts and want one ledger
Found Pro	$80, or $720 a year	2.50% APY on all balances, no cap	1% cash back on card purchases, free checks, $10 wires, metal card, dedicated account manager	Six-figure balances and card-heavy spenders
Lili Core	$0	2.25% APY on savings up to $500,000; 4.00% above that to $1 million	Checking, Visa debit, savings, sweep-extended FDIC coverage, standard ACH, bill pay by ACH, check and wire	Anyone who wants yield on idle cash for free
Lili Pro	$15, or $144 a year; $9 a month for the first 3 months	Same as Core	Tax categories, receipt capture, quarterly and annual expense reports, automatic tax savings	Sole proprietors who want tax set-asides without accounting
Lili Smart	$35, or $336 a year; $21 a month for the first 3 months	Same as Core	Accounting with Lili AI categorization, unlimited invoicing, bill management, P&L and cash flow reports, external account sync	Owners replacing a separate bookkeeping app
Lili Premium	$55, or $528 a year; $33 a month for the first 3 months	Same as Core	Priority support from a dedicated specialist seven days a week, metal debit card	Owners who want a named support contact

A business checking account, for a self-employed person, is the operating account that receives client payments and pays the quarterly tax bill. Neither company is a bank. Found's deposits sit at Lead Bank, Member FDIC, insured up to $250,000 per depositor, and Lili's at Sunrise Banks, N.A., Member FDIC, with a sweep network that Lili says extends coverage to $3 million.

Where each one wins

Question	Found	Lili	Edge
Interest on a free plan	None	2.25% APY on savings up to $500,000	Lili
Invoicing on a free plan	Unlimited, with scheduling, estimates and recurring invoices	Only on Smart and Premium	Found
Bookkeeping and tax estimates free	Yes, with Schedule C and 1120 form generation	Tax categories need Pro; accounting needs Smart	Found
Outgoing domestic wire	$15, or $10 on Pro	Same fee as Found's standard rate, on every plan	Found on Pro, tie otherwise
Cash deposits	$2.00 per deposit	No Lili fee at designated retailers; the retailer may charge its own	Depends on the retailer
ATM withdrawals	No Found fee; operator fees may apply	$0 at MoneyPass ATMs, $2.50 elsewhere, $5.00 abroad	Tie in network
Faster payments	Instant Payment 1.75% (cap $50), express transfer 1% (cap $25)	Express ACH 1.5% (minimum $0.50, cap $20)	Lili on large amounts
FDIC coverage	$250,000 through Lead Bank	Up to $3 million through a sweep network	Lili
Credit	No credit line published on the pricing page	Line of credit up to $250,000 and a BusinessBuild credit-reporting add-on at $18 a month for 3 months, then $30	Lili
Paid-plan trial	30 days of Plus or Pro, one per user	30 days on Pro, Smart and Premium	Tie

Does Lili's APY beat Found's free tools?

At most balances a freelancer actually holds, yes, if you would otherwise pay Found for interest; no, if you would pay Lili for invoicing. We multiplied each published APY by a balance that never moves for twelve months and subtracted the yearly plan price. Rates are variable, so treat this as a snapshot of 17 October 2026, not a forecast.

At $15,000 held all year, Lili Core earns $337.50 and costs nothing. Found Plus on annual billing earns $225 and costs $315, a net loss of $90, so the Plus subscription has to be justified by its bookkeeping features, not its yield. Found's free plan earns nothing but gives you invoicing that Lili reserves for its Smart tier. A freelancer who needs invoicing and holds $15,000 is better off on Found free and about $1.50 a year worse off on interest than a Lili Smart customer, which is a rounding error.

At $60,000, the gap opens. Lili Core earns $1,350. Found Plus is capped at $20,000, so it still earns $300 against a $315 price. Found Pro earns $1,500 but costs $720 on annual billing, netting $780. Lili Core beats Found Pro by $570 a year at this balance, before counting Pro's 1% cash back, which would need $57,000 of card spend to close the gap.

At $300,000, Found Pro's uncapped 2.50% finally pulls ahead: $7,500 of interest less $720 leaves $6,780, against $6,750 on Lili Core. Below roughly $288,000, holding both APYs constant, Lili Core out-earns Found Pro after the subscription. Above it, Found Pro wins on yield and adds the cash back. Very few self-employed owners hold that much in checking, and Lili's 4.00% band above half a million would flip it back.

Plans, trials and the three-month discount

Found's paid plans are about tools first and yield second. Plus, which is 25% cheaper on annual billing, adds unlimited auto-categorization rules, custom tags, imports from other bank and card accounts, and in-app quarterly federal tax payments. Pro at $80 a month, or $720 a year, adds the uncapped 2.50% APY, 1% cash back on card purchases, free checks, $10 wires, a metal card and a dedicated account manager. Every Found user gets one free 30-day trial of Plus or Pro, and the subscription is deducted from the Found balance when the trial ends.

Lili prices by feature tier and discounts the first quarter. Pro, Smart and Premium step up in $20 increments, with the first three months at $9, $21 and $33 on monthly billing, and a 30-day free trial before any charge. Annual billing is $144, $336 and $528, which is 20% below twelve monthly payments. Lili notes the paid plans are tax-deductible business expenses, which is true of Found's as well.

The design difference matters for a sole proprietor who only wants tax set-asides. On Lili that means paying for Pro. On Found it is free: the Taxes Pocket, real-time tax estimates, mileage and home office deduction tracking and Schedule C generation all sit on the free plan, and only the in-app quarterly payment needs Plus. If you want more detail on either plan ladder, read the Found review and the Lili review.

Wires, cash and ATMs: the fee lines that decide it

Both charge $15 to send a domestic wire, and only Found Pro cuts it. Incoming domestic wires are free at Lili. A consultant who sends two domestic wires a month pays $360 a year on Found free, Found Plus or any Lili plan, and $240 on Found Pro. Wire fees alone can cost more than a Lili Pro subscription, so a vendor-heavy business should switch suppliers to ACH on either account. Standard ACH is free on both.

International wires are a Lili feature, with a catch. Lili sends them for $25 and charges a smaller fee to receive them, adds a 1% commission when the wire is converted to another currency, and limits the service to LLCs, corporations and partnerships. Found's fee schedule covers domestic wires and does not list an international service, so an owner paying contractors abroad should compare Mercury and Wise before choosing either.

Cash costs a little on both. Found charges $2.00 per cash deposit. Lili takes cash through designated retailers with no Lili fee, though the retailer may add its own, and Lili's account agreement caps cash deposits at $1,500 a day and $5,000 a month per cardholder, so a business that banks real cash weekly will hit that ceiling. On ATMs, Lili charges nothing at MoneyPass machines, $2.50 out of network and $5.00 abroad. Found says it does not charge for ATM withdrawals and that operators may.

Faster money has a price on both. Found's Instant Payment to an outside account costs 1.75%, capped at $50, and its express transfer 1%, capped at $25. Lili's Express ACH costs 1.5% with a $20 cap. On a $5,000 same-day transfer, Found's express transfer costs $25 and Lili's $20. Mailed checks cost $1 at Found, free on Pro, and $3.00 at Lili. Neither charges overdraft fees, and Found adds a $10 dormancy fee after twelve months without activity.

Invoicing, bookkeeping and tax filing

Found's free plan is the fuller tool stack. It categorizes expenses, scans receipts, shows a P&L, estimates tax in real time, tracks mileage and the home office deduction, generates Schedule C and 1120 or 1120-S forms, sends unlimited invoices with recurring schedules and estimates, collects W-9s and e-files 1099-NECs. It also gives an accountant access, which is the feature a tax preparer will ask about in February. For a freelancer leaving a spreadsheet, that is the whole job on one free account; our AI bookkeeping ranking covers the standalone tools it replaces.

Lili ships the same jobs across three tiers. Core moves money. Pro adds the tax layer: categories, receipts, quarterly and annual expense reports and an automatic tax savings bucket. Smart adds the accounting layer, with predictive categorization by Lili AI, unlimited invoicing with payment acceptance, bill scanning and payment, P&L and cash flow reports and sync of external bank accounts. Premium adds support, not features. An owner who needs invoicing on Lili pays $336 a year on annual Smart for what Found includes free.

Neither files your return. Found generates the Schedule C and 1120 forms and lets Plus and Pro users pay federal quarterlies in-app; Lili produces the reports. A filer who wants the return prepared inside the app should compare Keeper Tax or QuickBooks Solopreneur and keep the bank account separate. Our guide to paying yourself from an LLC covers the owner-draw question both apps leave to you.

Deposit insurance, credit and support

Lili's sweep reaches further. Lili says balances are FDIC-insured up to $3 million through Sunrise Banks and its sweep network, and that its savings rate rises to 4.00% only on the portion between half a million and $1 million, effective 13 January 2026 and variable. Found states the standard single-bank limit per depositor through Lead Bank. Both rely on pass-through insurance, which covers a bank failure and not the fintech's.

Credit is a Lili-only line. Lili advertises an embedded line of credit, with approval that does not touch personal credit, and a BusinessBuild add-on that reports the monthly fee and a second card as tradelines to Dun & Bradstreet at $18 a month for three months and $30 after, following a one-month trial, for legal entities only. Found's pricing page lists no credit product, so a sole proprietor building business credit has a reason to pick Lili even if Found's tools fit better. The corporate card ranking covers cards that work alongside either account.

Support splits by plan. Lili offers seven-day support on every plan and a dedicated specialist on Premium. Found offers 24/7 virtual assistance on the free plan and a dedicated account manager on Pro. Both offer human support: Found by phone and email on every plan, with priority phone support from Plus.

Who should open which account

Open Found if invoicing, bookkeeping or tax estimates are the reason you want a business account and you hold less than about $20,000 most of the year. Upgrade to Plus only for the imports and in-app quarterly payments, and to Pro only once the balance is large enough that the uncapped rate on all of it beats the Pro subscription, which in our model means well into six figures.

Open Lili if idle cash is the asset, you already invoice from another tool, or you want a credit line and a credit-building add-on under the same login. Stay on Core and let the savings rate work; add Pro if you want the tax bucket automated, and skip Smart unless you are replacing a paid bookkeeping app.

Running both is reasonable: Found as the operating and invoicing account, Lili savings as the tax reserve earning interest. For other shortlists, see business bank accounts, free business checking, Bluevine vs Mercury and Mercury vs Novo.

How we compared

We read Found's pricing page and fee schedule, last updated 13 July 2026, and Lili's plans page and the Master Fee Schedule in its Sunrise Banks account agreement, on 17 October 2026. Every yield figure in the scenarios is our multiplication of the published APY by a flat balance for twelve months, less the annual plan price, with no compounding beyond the APY. We did not open either account.

Finpresso data: Beehiiv's export for this newsletter, refreshed October 25, 2026, counts 30,000+ active subscribers, with an average open rate of 33%.

FAQ

Is Found or Lili better for freelancers in 2026?

Found is better for a freelancer who needs invoicing, bookkeeping and tax estimates and holds a modest balance, because all of that is free on Found and needs Lili Smart, the second paid tier. Lili is better for a freelancer whose main asset is idle cash, because Lili Core pays 2.25% APY on savings for free while Found pays interest only on its paid plans.

Does Found pay interest?

Only on paid plans. Found Plus pays 1.50% APY on balances up to $20,000 and Found Pro pays 2.50% APY on all balances with no cap, as published on Found's pricing page on 17 October 2026. The free Found plan pays no interest.

How much does Lili cost per month?

Lili Core is free. Lili Pro costs $15 a month or $144 a year, Smart $35 a month or $336 a year, and Premium $55 a month or $528 a year, with the first three months at $9, $21 and $33 on monthly billing and a 30-day free trial. Prices were read on Lili's plans page and fee schedule on 17 October 2026.

What are the wire fees on Found and Lili?

Both charge $15 for an outgoing domestic wire, and Found Pro cuts it to $10. Lili receives domestic wires free, sends international wires for $25 and receives them for $15, adds a 1% commission on wires converted to another currency, and offers international wires to LLCs, corporations and partnerships only. Found's fee schedule lists no international wire service.

Can I deposit cash with Found or Lili?

Found charges $2.00 per cash deposit. Lili accepts cash through designated retailers with no Lili fee, though the retailer may charge one, up to $1,500 a day and $5,000 a month per cardholder under its account agreement. A business that deposits more cash than that needs a traditional bank alongside either account.

Which has better FDIC coverage?

Lili states coverage up to $3 million through Sunrise Banks, N.A. and a sweep network. Found states $250,000 per depositor through Lead Bank. Both are pass-through arrangements that apply only if the program's conditions are met, and neither covers the failure of the fintech itself.

This page is general information, not personalized financial advice. Confirm current rates, fees and eligibility with Found and Lili before you open an account.

Cite this: Finpresso, "Found vs Lili (2026): Banking for the Self-Employed Compared", October 2026.

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