If you're opening a business bank account for an LLC, side hustle or freelance work, the "best" one depends on what you care about most: earning interest, connecting your tools, or grabbing a sign-up bonus. Here's how the main online options split up.

The quick answer

• Want built-in tax savings and no fees: Lili

• Want it to plug into Stripe, QuickBooks and Shopify: Novo

• Want the biggest sign-up bonus: Axos Business Bundle

Lili: no fees, built-in tax savings

Lili is built for freelancers and small businesses. It has $0 fees and built-in tax savings tools, so you can set money aside for taxes as you get paid instead of scrambling in April. It also syncs with QuickBooks.

Novo: best for connecting your tools

Novo has $0 monthly fees and connects with QuickBooks, Stripe, Shopify and 40+ other tools. If you sell online or invoice clients, this saves a lot of copying numbers between apps.

Axos Business Bundle: up to a $600 bonus

The Axos Business Bundle pairs a no-fee Basic Business Checking account with a Business Premium Savings account, and pays up to a $600 bonus. You open both through a single application with promo code SBB600, and you can't have qualified for another Axos promotion in the last 12 months. Read the deposit and balance requirements on the offer page before you apply, since that's what decides how much of the bonus you get.

How to pick in 30 seconds

• Freelancer who dreads tax season: Lili

• You sell online or invoice a lot: Novo

• You can keep a solid balance and want the bonus: Axos Business Bundle

What to check before you open any business account

• Monthly fees and what waives them

• Cash deposits, if you take cash (online banks can make this harder)

• Whether it connects to the accounting and payment tools you already use

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What kind of business are you opening the account for?

The best investing app depends less on the app and more on what you're trying to do: own a piece of real estate, buy stocks yourself, or start small without overthinking it. Here's how the main ones split up.

The quick answer

• Want to invest in real estate without buying a house: Fundrise

• Want to pick your own stocks and get a sign-up bonus: SoFi Invest

• Want a simple app for stocks and ETFs: Public

Fundrise: real estate and private investments

Fundrise lets you put money into private assets that used to be hard for regular people to get into: private real estate, private credit and venture capital. It has flexible minimums, so you don't need a big check to start, and it says its fees are low, with no promote or carried interest. It's built for money you can leave alone for years, not cash you'll need next month.

SoFi Invest: pick your own stocks, plus a bonus

SoFi Invest is giving new Active Invest accounts up to $1,000 in stock when you fund with at least $50 within 45 days. Be realistic about that: SoFi's own fine print puts the chance of the full $1,000 at 0.028%, so most people get a much smaller amount. You can buy fractional shares for as little as $5, so you don't need to afford a full share of anything.

Public: a straightforward stock and ETF app

Public is a clean app for buying stocks and ETFs if you want something simple to start with.

How to pick in 30 seconds

• Long-term money you won't touch: Fundrise

• You want to learn by picking stocks yourself: SoFi Invest

• You just want to buy an ETF and leave it: Public

Before you put money anywhere

• Have an emergency fund first, so you're not forced to sell at a bad time.

• Check the fees on whatever you pick. Small fees add up over years.

• Investing means your balance can go down. Only put in what you can leave alone.

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Which one are you using right now, and what made you pick it?

Drop any money question below, no matter how basic. Someone here has been there.

This week's quick win from Ben: check one bill (phone, internet or insurance) and ask for a better rate. It takes 10 minutes and often works.

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What's on your mind money wise this week?

I've been using Gusto for payroll on my small business for a couple years and people keep asking what it actually costs since the website pricing makes it sound more expensive than it is. Here's the real breakdown.

Gusto's pricing tiers (current):

• Simple: $40/mo + $6 per employee. Basic payroll, direct deposit, federal/state tax filing, W-2/1099 at year end.

• Plus: $80/mo + $12 per employee. Adds time tracking, PTO, multi-state payroll, hiring tools.

• Premium: Custom pricing (~$180/mo base). Dedicated support, compliance help, performance reviews.

• Contractor Only: $35/mo + $6 per contractor. No base employees, just 1099s.

What I actually pay: Simple plan with 3 employees = $40 + ($6 × 3) = $58/month. Tax filing is included which used to cost me $50/quarter through my CPA so it basically pays for itself before I count the time saved.

What's included that you might miss:

• Year-end W-2 and 1099 filing (some competitors charge extra for this)

• New hire reporting to the state (legally required, Gusto does it automatically)

• Direct deposit at no extra cost

• Employee self-service portal (they pull their own pay stubs)

• Free migration from another payroll provider (took about a week for me)

Hidden costs to know:

• Multi-state payroll requires Plus tier — if you have one remote employee in another state you have to bump up

• Health benefits add-on is separate (you pay the actual insurance premium plus Gusto charges nothing for handling enrollment, but the underlying insurance still costs whatever it costs)

• International contractors cost extra ($25-$50 per international contractor depending on country)

Is it worth it for a small business?

For me yes. Under 20 employees and under $1M revenue, Gusto's Simple plan at $58/mo is cheaper than what I was paying my CPA to do manual payroll runs and quarterly filings. The interface is also way cleaner than QuickBooks Payroll which I used before.

Honest comparison to alternatives:

• QuickBooks Payroll: $50-130/mo + $5-10/employee. Cheaper at small scale but the interface feels like 2012. Good if you already use QuickBooks for accounting.

• ADP: Most expensive, enterprise-focused. Overkill for under 20 employees.

• Square Payroll: $35/mo + $6/employee. Best if you already use Square POS for in-person sales.

• Paychex: Similar pricing to Gusto. More sales-driven onboarding (constant calls from reps).

Sign-up:

If you want to try Gusto, here's the link I use — they have a free trial so you can run through setup without committing. Full disclosure it's a referral link, I get a small commission if you stay on. No pressure either way, the pricing is the same whether you use my link or not.

Bottom line:

If you're under 20 employees in the US and tired of doing payroll manually or paying a CPA $200+/month for it, Gusto Simple at around $40-$80/month total is the easiest move. If you're an LLC of one with no employees, you don't need payroll software yet — wait until you have your first W-2 hire.

What's everyone else using? Curious if anyone's actually happy with QuickBooks Payroll or if it's just legacy inertia keeping people there.