Relay Review

Relay is an envelope system with a routing number on each envelope. It is built for a bookkeeper who already splits tax, profit, and operating cash in a spreadsheet, and the free plan does that split.

The paid plans are a bet that a higher savings rate, or fewer per-payment fees, will beat the subscription.

That pays off only when idle cash sits in savings, or when the priced payments add up.

Toolradar data: the finance directory we maintain listed 1,040 tools in September 2026.

This page is the multi-account banking slice of that directory, not a ranking of every finance product in it.

Read Relay's directory page beside this review, then the Xero review if the feed into the ledger is the actual close problem.

Subscribe free when you want the next fee note in the Finpresso brief.

How we compared: Relay, Mercury, Bluevine, Novo, and Rho, priced in US dollars on 24 September 2026. Nobody paid for a slot, and we did not submit an application.

Plan math below multiplies the published savings APY by a balance that stays put for a year.

Thread Bank, Member FDIC, holds the deposits and issues the Relay Visa debit card and the Relay Visa credit card, while the login is built by Relay Financial Technologies, Inc.

Relay's pricing page says it is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank, so the app and the charter are different companies.

The deposit agreement, last updated 1 September 2026, calls the checking account a non-interest-bearing demand deposit.

Yield sits on savings, so the checking you pay vendors from earns nothing on any plan.

Every plan includes two savings accounts, so a five-bucket Profit First layout can earn on two of those buckets and on none of the checking accounts.

Pass-through coverage is described as up to $3,000,000 when Thread Bank places deposits at program banks, at the standard $250,000 per bank, per ownership category, and only when the sweep conditions are met.

A balance above one bank's cap is insured only to the extent the sweep actually spreads it, so the headline figure is not automatic.

Relay's Profit First page calls the product the official banking platform for that method and says incoming money can split by percentage, by dollar amount, or by a built-in preset.

Those transfer rules are marked on every plan, including Starter, so you do not buy Grow to give a tax account its own number.

QuickBooks Online, Xero, Gusto, Plaid, and Yodlee are on the comparison table for every plan, and six months of Xero, for new Xero accounts only, is marked on Scale.

A rename inside Relay does not rename the matching account in Xero or QuickBooks. The Gusto review and the ledger still need a human to keep the names aligned after you add a bucket.

Relay boards US-registered businesses, and you must be at least 18 with a Social Security number, with owners of 25% or more listed. A sole proprietorship uses an SSN, while an LLC or corporation brings an EIN, and a non-US owner can apply if the business operates in the United States.

Personal accounts, escrow, trusts, and 401(k)s are out, and Thread Bank blocks some industries, among them cannabis and cryptocurrency.

Approval opens one checking account and one savings account, and an administrator adds more, nicknames them, and chooses who can see each one.

Starter and Grow allow 20 checking accounts, or 10 for a sole proprietorship, while Scale's cap is 50 checking accounts and savings stay at two.

A checking bucket cannot be flipped into savings later, so a tax reserve that should earn has to be opened as savings while a slot remains.

Standard ACH and incoming wires are not charged, while outgoing domestic wires, same-day ACH, local international wires, and SWIFT are priced by plan.

That grid is how a free sticker becomes a bill when you pay in a hurry.

International payments run through Community Federal Savings Bank, with Nium facilitating, and exchange is listed as little as 1%, so a dedicated FX desk belongs in the Wise review.

Cash comes in on a physical debit card, and an Allpoint+ ATM takes up to $1,000 a transaction with no Relay fee before 3:00 pm Eastern on a business day.

A Green Dot retailer can charge up to $4.95, and a virtual card cannot make that deposit, so a shop that takes cash should budget that retailer fee.

Employees get seven permission levels and advisors get five, with no per-seat fee, so headcount does not change the sticker.

Canceling a paid plan returns you to Starter and keeps the accounts, a mid-cycle upgrade is prorated, and Grow and Scale each offer a 14-day trial. Live phone agents are listed Monday through Friday, 11am to 4pm, and Scale promises faster phone and email, not a longer clock.

Relay does not charge per person, so a two-person shop and a twenty-person shop pay the same sticker.

Headcount shows up as how many people can approve a bill, which is a Grow feature, and as how many same-day payments and wires the month actually sends.

The yield test uses only savings: multiply the 17 September 2026 APY by a balance that sits there all year, which is the flat-balance idea behind Relay's own calculator.

Checking is left out because the deposit agreement says it does not earn, so vendor cash should stay out of the yield math.

On $100,000 in savings, a year is $1,190 on Starter, $1,870 on Grow, and $3,210 on Scale. Grow's extra $680 against a year of subscription at $360 leaves $320.

That is the case where the higher rate pays for Grow and you still have the batch payments and recurring invoices.

On $40,000 the same method produces $476 on Starter and $748 on Grow. The gap is $272, short of that $360 year, so Grow at this balance is a workflow purchase.

You are buying approvals and a lower wire fee, not a profit on the interest.

A year of Scale at the discounted sticker is $1,080, and against Starter at $100,000 the extra yield is $2,020, so the discount still leaves the rate ahead.

At the published list price the same year costs $1,440, and the rate still leads until Relay ends the discount, which the pricing page labels limited-time.

Ten outgoing domestic wires come to $80 on Starter and $50 on Grow, before the subscription.

If wires are weekly, Mercury does not bill a domestic wire, and Plus is $29.90 a month.

Pro is $299, while a waiver through 31 December 2026 still leaves the FAQ opener at $35 a month.

Treasury waits on a large combined balance, and that sleeve is securities, not a deposit.

Bluevine can pay 1.3% APY on free checking, up to the cap in the table, in a month when you spend $500 on the debit card or take in $2,500.

That is yield on the account you pay from, which Relay checking does not offer.

Plus matches Grow's sticker at 1.75% on that cap, and Premier is $95 at 3.0% on the full balance.

Bluevine says those two fees can be waived, and a quiet Standard month is the month the checking rate does not apply.

Novo's fee schedule, revised 26 February 2026, prints 0% APY and no monthly service charge, so the free sticker holds until you pay for speed.

Express ACH is 1.5%, with a small floor and a cap, and an outgoing domestic wire is listed at up to $45.

Rho shows no subscription and no per-user fee, does not charge for ACH or wires, then lists optional SWIFT at $15 and conversion at 1%, so the free sticker is a domestic claim.

Relay fits a US company whose books already think in buckets, and whose bookkeeper wants each bucket on the bank feed.

An LLC that parks idle cash in one of two savings slots, and pays vendors from checking, can stay on Starter.

Move to Grow when the APY gap covers a year of the plan, or when batch payments and recurring invoices are the reason even if the rate falls short.

Move to Scale past 20 checking accounts, or when same-day ACH should be included instead of billed per payment.

A sole proprietor who needs a dozen client accounts hits the cap of 10 on Starter and Grow and should not plan on the LLC limit.

Skip it when checking itself should earn, which is the Bluevine review, when domestic wires are weekly, which is the Mercury review, or when one account is enough, which is the Novo review.

Cards and payables as their own purchase are the corporate cards guide, the Ramp review, the Brex review, and the BILL review.