# What a French business account really costs, by trade

> Source : chiffrepro.fr — https://chiffrepro.fr/en/comparisons/real-cost-french-business-account-by-trade
> Mise à jour : 25/09/2026
> Réutilisation : CC BY 4.0, attribution « chiffrepro.fr ».

A monthly subscription tells you almost nothing about what a French business
account will cost you over a year. What decides the bill is how you get paid, and that is the one thing no
pricing page prices for you.

We applied **26 offers to 7 explicit usage profiles**. The result is a market
split in two, and the split is not the one the advertising suggests.

## The headline number

A retail business depositing €8,000 of cash a month pays around **€320 a year**
at a French network bank, and **€4,056 a year** on the cheapest neobank plan
that can actually handle the cash. That second offer is advertised at €0 a
month.

That is a factor of twelve, between an offer that charges nothing and one that
charges a subscription.

## Why the gap exists

Two pricing models that have nothing in common.

**Network banks** charge a subscription and process cash as part of the service,
sometimes with a flat fee per deposit beyond a monthly allowance. CIC, for
instance, charges €6.25 per deposit from the 9th in a month, free below that.

**Neobanks** charge a percentage of every euro deposited, up to 4 %, with a
monthly ceiling. At €500 a month that is trivial. At €8,000 it is the entire
bill.

The crossover arrives far earlier than most people expect:

Tipping point · Shine Free vs BNP Paribas Pro

Shine Free is cheaper up to €266 in cash a month. Beyond that, BNP Paribas Pro takes the lead.

| Monthly volume | Cheaper |
| --- | --- |
| up to €266 in cash | Shine Free — ≤ €128 a year apart |
| from €267 in cash | BNP Paribas Pro — within a few cents |

Caveat: movement commission (de 0,06 % à 0,10 % par mois, plafond 230 € par mois) cannot be modelled from the volumes entered. Totals are floors.

Calculated on published fee schedules surveyed on 25 September 2026. Fixed assumptions: 5 cheques a month, 20 transfers a month.

Add cheques to the profile and the crossover collapses further, because the
per-cheque fee eats the margin before cash even enters the calculation:

Tipping point · Shine Free vs BNP Paribas Pro

Shine Free is cheaper up to €16 in cash a month. Beyond that, BNP Paribas Pro takes the lead.

| Monthly volume | Cheaper |
| --- | --- |
| up to €16 in cash | Shine Free — ≤ €8 a year apart |
| from €17 in cash | BNP Paribas Pro — within a few cents |

Caveat: movement commission (de 0,06 % à 0,10 % par mois, plafond 230 € par mois) cannot be modelled from the volumes entered. Totals are floors.

Calculated on published fee schedules surveyed on 25 September 2026. Fixed assumptions: 10 cheques a month, 20 transfers a month.

## How many offers can actually serve you

This is the figure we have not seen published anywhere else.

| Profile | Offers that can serve it | Cheapest usable |
|---|---|---|
| Freelance, paid by transfer | 24 of 26 | €0 |
| Established freelance, some cheques | 17 of 26 | ≥ €174 |
| Retail, €8,000 cash a month | **10 of 26** | ≥ €320 |
| Craftsman, mixed payment | **10 of 26** | ≥ €320 |
| Association, cash and cheques | **10 of 26** | ≥ €320 |

An offer that cannot do what your business needs is not cheap, it is unusable.
We remove it from the ranking and say why, rather than letting a €0 sit at the
top of a table for a business it cannot serve.

## The "≥" on these figures, and why it stays

Several French network banks charge a *commission de mouvement*, a percentage
of debit flows, that cannot be derived from the three volumes we ask for.
Rather than guess it, or silently treat it as zero, we list it and put a "≥" on
the total.

This matters because it works against the conclusion we are drawing. Network
banks come out cheapest on cash-heavy profiles, and their totals are the
incomplete ones. Showing only fully-priced offers would have buried the right
answer under a veneer of rigour.

## What to do with this

Averages are not your business. [The calculator](/observatoire) applies the
surveyed fee schedules to your own volumes and flags, for each offer, the items
the institution does not publish.

## Limits

Published fee schedules surveyed on a stated date, one source URL per
observation. Onboarding times, support quality and application handling are not
tested. This compares public offers; it is not advice on which product suits
your situation, and for tax or accounting questions you should use a
professional.

## Sources

- chiffrepro survey of 25 September 2026: [observatoire.json](/observatoire.json).
- Cost by usage profile: [cout-par-profil.json](/cout-par-profil.json), CC BY 4.0.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is a traditional French bank always cheaper?

No, and the reverse conclusion would be just as wrong. For a freelance paid by
transfer, several online accounts cost €0 a year against a subscription at a
network bank. The ranking flips entirely on whether you handle cash.

### Why do your totals carry a "≥"?

Because some published fees cannot be calculated from the volumes we ask for.
The *commission de mouvement* is the main one. We list them instead of estimating
them. A fee that is not published is never counted as zero.

### Are these figures checkable?

Yes. Every observation carries the URL of the fee schedule it came from and the
date it was read. The full dataset is open under CC BY 4.0.

### How many French business accounts accept cash?

Ten of the twenty-six offers we survey. Qonto, Indy and Finom accept none in any
plan.