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Accounting · head to head

Mercury vs Modern Treasury

Mercury logo

Mercury

Accounting

Banking for startups

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Modern Treasury logo

Modern Treasury

Accounting

Payment operations and ledger infrastructure that sits between your product and your own bank accounts

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Mercury has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Mercury treasury access requires a $250,000 balance held with Mercury; Modern Treasury you must already have or be able to obtain your own bank accounts with the right connectivity, so early stage companies without a banking relationship cannot use it and are pushed towards a sponsor bank model instead.
  • They diverge on capability: Mercury covers Business checking, Modern Treasury covers Multi-rail payment initiation.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Mercury and Modern Treasury actually diverge.

Attributes where Mercury and Modern Treasury differ
AttributeMercuryModern Treasury
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelfreemiumquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb
Founded2019Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Mercury

  • Business checking
  • Savings accounts
  • Virtual cards
  • Team management
  • API access
  • QuickBooks
  • Xero
  • Stripe

Only in Modern Treasury

  • Multi-rail payment initiation
  • Bank connectivity
  • Ledgers
  • Automatic reconciliation
  • Approval workflows
  • Virtual accounts
  • Compliance tooling
  • Return and exception handling

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Mercury

  • Business banking and payments for startupsnot Modern Treasury
  • Managing treasury, invoicing and corporate cards from one accountnot Modern Treasury

Modern Treasury

  • A marketplace paying out to thousands of sellers that needs a ledger its application can trust rather than reconciling a payments dashboard by handnot Mercury
  • A lender originating and servicing loans that must track disbursements, repayments and returns against its own bank accountsnot Mercury
  • A company that wants to move off a banking as a service provider and hold its own bank accounts after seeing sponsor banks offboard fintech programmesnot Mercury
  • An insurer handling premium collection and claims payment across several rails with approval controls and an auditable trailnot Mercury

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Mercury

  • Treasury access requires a $250,000 balance held with Mercury
  • Non USD international wires carry a 1% conversion fee
  • Choosing OUR wire coding, which covers intermediary bank charges, costs $15 per wire
  • ACH invoicing is $1 per transaction on Mercury Plus and only free on the $299 a month Pro plan
  • Advanced and recurring invoicing require Mercury Plus at $29.90 a month

Modern Treasury

  • You must already have or be able to obtain your own bank accounts with the right connectivity, so early stage companies without a banking relationship cannot use it and are pushed towards a sponsor bank model instead.
  • Pricing rests on an annual minimum commitment, and companies that miss their volume forecast pay the minimum regardless, which makes the headline per-transaction rate close to irrelevant in year one.
  • Supported bank connectivity is a finite list, so if your bank is not on it you are either waiting for an integration or changing banks, which is a far larger project than adopting the software.
  • It is software over banking, not banking, so it does not solve card issuing, deposit accounts or the licensing questions that a company embedding financial products still has to answer elsewhere.
  • The ledger is genuinely good but adopting it properly means making it the source of truth for balances in your product, which is a significant application change rather than a payments integration and is where implementations run long.

Pricing, plan by plan

Mercury

Free
  • Mercury (Free)Free
    • ACH payments
    • Domestic wires
    • Real-time payments
  • Mercury Plus$29.9/month
    • Invoice ACH debits
    • Recurring invoices
    • Invoicing API (500/month)
  • Mercury Pro$299/month
    • All Plus features
    • Relationship manager
    • Free ACH invoice debits

Modern Treasury

On request
  • Modern Treasury Platform$undefined/year
    • Platform access fee covering API, dashboard, infrastructure and support
    • Usage-based fees across ACH, wires, RTP, FedNow, push to card, cheques and stablecoins
    • A single annual minimum commitment that both platform and usage fees count towards

Which should you pick?

Choose Mercury if

  • You need business checking.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want savings accounts.
Mercury review

Choose Modern Treasury if

  • You need multi-rail payment initiation.
  • You also want bank connectivity.
Modern Treasury review

Questions people ask

Is Mercury or Modern Treasury better?
Neither clearly leads. Mercury starts at Free and Modern Treasury at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Mercury or Modern Treasury?
Mercury has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Mercury and On request for Modern Treasury.
Does Mercury or Modern Treasury run on more platforms?
Mercury runs on Web, Ios, Android. Modern Treasury runs on Web.
Can I use Mercury for free?
Yes. Mercury has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Modern Treasury starts at On request.
What is Mercury best used for?
Mercury is most often used for business banking and payments for startups, managing treasury, invoicing and corporate cards from one account. Of those, business banking and payments for startups and managing treasury, invoicing and corporate cards from one account are not what Modern Treasury is typically brought in for.
What can Mercury do that Modern Treasury cannot?
Mercury covers Business checking, Savings accounts, Virtual cards, Team management. Modern Treasury covers Multi-rail payment initiation, Bank connectivity, Ledgers, Automatic reconciliation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Mercury: Is Mercury business banking free?

Mercury's base banking tier is free and includes ACH payments, domestic wire transfers, real-time payments, Bill Pay, and QuickBooks/Xero automations at no monthly cost.

Source
Modern Treasury: Is Modern Treasury a bank or a banking as a service provider?

Neither. You hold your own bank accounts and it is software over them. That avoids sponsor bank concentration risk but means you need the bank relationship yourself.

Mercury: What does Mercury Plus add beyond the free tier?

Mercury Plus costs $29.90 per month and adds invoice ACH debits, recurring invoice capabilities, invoicing API with 500 calls per month, unlimited 1099 filings, and access to partner benefits.

Source
Modern Treasury: What does it cost?

Not published. A platform access fee plus usage fees across rails, on an annual term with a single minimum commitment. Negotiate the minimum, not the per-transaction rate.

Mercury: Does Mercury charge monthly account fees?

No, Mercury states there are no minimum account balance requirements, overdraft fees, required monthly fees, or account opening fees. The free tier includes essential business banking, with paid tiers available for additional features.

Source
Modern Treasury: Which rails are supported?

ACH, wires, RTP, FedNow, push to card, cheques and stablecoin payments, subject to what your bank supports.

Modern Treasury: Do we still need our own compliance programme?

Yes. KYB, KYC and transaction monitoring are included in the platform, but you are the one holding the accounts and the regulatory obligation sits with you and your bank.

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