Relay is one of the cleanest business banking products built for cash flow discipline. If you run on the Profit First method, it is hard to beat. But Relay is banking for a company you already have. If you have not incorporated yet, or if you want payments, accounting, and tax filing bundled with your accounts, the comparison changes. This post maps it honestly, including where Relay clearly wins.
Both looch and Relay are financial technology companies, not banks. looch is operated by Simplicity Fintech Inc. Account services are provided in partnership with Stripe, with funds held at Fifth Third Bank N.A., Member FDIC. looch Smartcards are Visa Commercial Cards powered by Stripe and issued by Celtic Bank (source: looch.money). Relay is also a fintech company, not a bank: its banking services are provided by its partner bank, Thread Bank, Member FDIC (source: relayfi.com).
What Relay is (and what it is not)
Where Relay is strong
Relay is genuinely good at what it does. It is built for business owners who want to organize money, not just hold it.
Multiple no-fee checking accounts are its signature feature. You can open up to 20 individual checking accounts on the Starter and Grow plans (up to 50 on the Scale plan), each with its own name and its own account and routing number, with no monthly maintenance fee, no minimum balance, and no overdraft fee on the base plan (source: relayfi.com). For an owner who wants to split income, profit, taxes, and operating expenses into separate buckets, this is the cleanest way to do it.
Relay is the official banking platform for Profit First (source: relayfi.com). It supports automated transfers between accounts by dollar amount or percentage, so you can allocate income across your accounts on a schedule without moving money by hand (source: relayfi.com). If you follow Profit First, this is a real, purpose-built advantage that looch does not match feature for feature today.
Role-based team permissions are another genuine strength. Relay lets you assign different permission levels to employees, accountants, and bookkeepers, so people can do specific banking tasks without full access to everything (source: relayfi.com). For a growing team that needs delegated, controlled access to banking, this is well done.
Relay also issues a large number of cards. You can issue up to 50 debit cards per cardholder per checking account, plus up to 5 credit cards per cardholder per credit account, all with merchant and spend controls (source: relayfi.com), which works well for teams that run on cards.
For higher balances, Relay states up to $3,000,000 in FDIC insurance coverage when Thread Bank places deposits at program banks in its deposit sweep program, with coverage up to $250,000 per program bank (source: relayfi.com). That matters once you are holding meaningful cash.
Where Relay has gaps
Relay does not offer company formation. To open a Relay account, your business must already be legally formed, and you upload your existing formation documents and your EIN confirmation letter from the IRS (source: relayfi.com support). Relay does not create the entity or obtain the EIN for you. You still need a registered agent, a state filing, and an EIN through separate vendors before you bank.
Relay does not provide in-person card acceptance. It supports invoices and payment requests where customers can pay online by card, ACH, or wire (card payments are processed through a third-party processor) (source: relayfi.com support). What it does not offer is tap to pay or card-present checkout for selling in person.
Relay does not include a built-in accounting ledger. It provides expense and receipt tools and syncs to QuickBooks Online and Xero, but the books live in the accounting software, not in Relay (source: relayfi.com). And Relay does not file 1099s for you. It is a banking and bill pay platform, not a tax filing tool.
The gap Relay does not fill: Formation to banking in one flow
Most business banking guides assume you already have a company. That assumption leaves out a large share of founders, particularly international founders, who are at the very beginning.
Forming the entity, getting the EIN, opening accounts, issuing cards, accepting payments, and keeping the books are typically separate steps across multiple providers. looch closes them into a single app.
What looch Start includes
looch Start forms your entity and hands you a financially operational company. Entity options are Delaware C corp, Delaware LLC, Wyoming LLC, and Florida LLC. The all-in price is $249, which includes state filing fees (source: looch.money/start).
Filing takes one business day with the state. The EIN is obtained at formation. If you do not have an SSN or ITIN, looch still gets your EIN. That path takes approximately four days (source: looch.money/start).
That is the answer many banking products sidestep: yes, you can go from zero to incorporated without having an SSN. looch explicitly supports it. Relay can open an account once the entity and EIN already exist, but it does not build the company for you.
What opens up after formation
Once your entity is formed, your looch financial accounts are ready. These are no-fee accounts with account and routing numbers, with funds held at Fifth Third Bank N.A., Member FDIC, and FDIC pass-through deposit insurance up to $250,000 per depositor where eligibility conditions are met (source: looch.money). looch itself and its technology partners are not FDIC-insured institutions.
Smartcards are Visa Commercial Cards powered by Stripe and issued by Celtic Bank. You issue them directly from the app with per-card daily and monthly spending limits, merchant category restrictions, GL category restrictions, weekend and auto-cancel settings, foreign transaction alerts, and the ability to block mobile wallet or manually keyed transactions. See looch's full financial stack for the complete card controls.
Payment acceptance covers cards online and in-person via tap to pay, and pay by bank via Request for Payment, where your customer approves a payment directly from their bank account with no card required. looch charges 1% (minimum $1, maximum $10) for pay by bank on inbound invoices (source: looch.money/pricing).
Card acceptance is 3.3% + 30c for online card payments and 3% + 15c for in-person tap to pay (source: looch.money/pricing).
Real-time accounting runs in the background with automatic transaction tagging, and looch Pay is the in-app payment experience that ties acceptance to your books. AI-powered 1099 calculation and filing is built in: looch AI scans your transactions and payment methods to determine what to include. Instant 1099 filing costs $2 per filing (source: looch.money/pricing).
Payroll is coming soon, not yet live (source: looch.money/features). Until it launches, do not count on payroll as an available feature.
looch vs Relay: A side-by-side comparison
| Feature | looch | Relay |
|---|---|---|
| Company formation | Yes, included at $249 (DE C corp, DE LLC, WY LLC, FL LLC) | Not offered |
| EIN without SSN/ITIN | Yes, gets your EIN even without SSN/ITIN (approximately 4 days) | Not offered. You must already have an entity and EIN before opening an account |
| Monthly account fee | $0 primary business account | $0 Starter plan; Grow $30/month, Scale $90/month |
| Multiple no-fee checking accounts | Yes, multiple no-fee accounts with account and routing numbers | Yes, up to 20 (up to 50 on Scale), each with its own account and routing number |
| Profit First style auto-allocation | Not a built-in feature today | Yes, official Profit First platform with automated transfers by amount or percentage |
| Role-based team permissions | Team members get cards from the app with per-card spend controls; looch does not document a granular role-based access model | Yes, granular role-based access for staff, accountants, and bookkeepers |
| Smartcards with spend controls | Yes: per-card daily and monthly limits, merchant and GL category restrictions, weekend and auto-cancel controls, manually keyed and foreign transaction alerts, mobile wallets | Yes: up to 50 debit cards per cardholder per checking account (plus up to 5 credit cards per credit account) with merchant and spend controls |
| Pay by bank via RfP | Yes, through looch Pay | Not offered as looch RfP. Customers can pay invoices and payment requests by card, ACH, or wire |
| In-person card acceptance | Yes, tap to pay | Not offered (online invoices and payment requests only) |
| Real-time accounting built in | Yes, real-time accounting with automatic tagging | Integrations only (QuickBooks Online, Xero); no built-in ledger |
| 1099 filing | Yes, AI-powered, $2 per filing | Not offered |
| Cash deposits | Not a stated feature | Yes, supports cash and processor payouts into accounts |
| FDIC coverage | Pass-through up to $250,000 per depositor at Fifth Third Bank N.A. (eligibility conditions apply) | Up to $3,000,000 via Thread Bank's program bank sweep network |
Some items in this table favor Relay. Multiple no-fee checking accounts, Profit First auto-allocation, role-based permissions, and a higher FDIC sweep ceiling are real advantages. The table does not hide that.
Who should use Relay
Relay is the right call if:
- You already have a formed US entity with an EIN and just need business banking
- You run on the Profit First method and want automated allocation across multiple named checking accounts
- You want several no-fee checking accounts to separate income, profit, taxes, and expenses cleanly
- You have a team and need role-based permissions so staff and bookkeepers get controlled access
- You are holding a larger balance and want the higher FDIC coverage a sweep network can provide
- Your primary needs are checking, bill pay, wires, and cash flow organization, not in-person payments or built-in accounting and tax filing
If you are already incorporated and your priority is disciplined cash flow management, Relay is an excellent, legitimate product. This post is not arguing otherwise.
Who should use looch
looch is the right call if:
- You have not incorporated yet and want to go from idea to financially operational in a single app, without stitching together a registered agent, a formation service, and a separate bank application
- You are a foreign founder who needs an EIN without an SSN or ITIN, and you want entity formation handled at the same time as your financial accounts
- You sell in person and need tap to pay card acceptance, not just online invoicing
- You want built-in real-time accounting and AI 1099 filing instead of exporting to a separate accounting tool at tax time
- You need to accept payments by bank through Request for Payment in addition to card payments. See how pay by bank via Request for Payment works for small businesses
- You want the full financial stack, formation, accounts, cards, payments, accounting, and tax filing, under one login
The core difference is scope. Relay is a banking and cash flow product. looch is a formation-to-banking platform. If you need both the company and the financial stack built at once, looch covers more of that path in one place.
The honest decision framework
Five questions that clarify the decision quickly.
1. Do you have a formed US entity and an EIN already? No: form your company with looch and open your accounts in the same flow. Yes: either platform is worth evaluating on other criteria.
2. Do you need to form the company and get an EIN without an SSN or ITIN? looch forms the entity and gets your EIN even without an SSN or ITIN, in approximately four days, then opens your accounts in the same flow. Relay does not form companies and requires an existing entity and EIN.
3. Do you run Profit First or need many separate no-fee checking accounts? This is Relay's strength. It is the official Profit First platform with automated allocation across multiple named checking accounts. If that is your core workflow, Relay likely fits better today.
4. Do you sell in person, or want accounting and 1099 filing built in? looch offers tap to pay in-person card acceptance, built-in real-time accounting, and AI 1099 filing. Relay does not offer in-person card acceptance, a built-in ledger, or 1099 filing.
5. Do you need FDIC coverage above $250K on a large balance? Relay states up to $3,000,000 through Thread Bank's program bank sweep network, which is higher than the $250,000 pass-through coverage on a looch account at Fifth Third Bank N.A. (eligibility conditions apply). If you are sitting on a large balance, this favors Relay today.
Bottom line
Relay is a strong banking and cash flow product for a startup that already exists, and the best option going if you live by Profit First. looch is the right choice when you need to build the company and the financial stack at the same time, especially if you are outside the US or need in-person payments, accounting, and tax filing bundled in.
Ready to go from zero to financially operational? looch Start forms your entity and opens your accounts in one app, $249 all-in, including state filing fees. Or explore looch's full financial stack if you are already incorporated and evaluating your options.
