Found vs Melio Comparison 2026
Both cover accounting & tax and creator finance. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
At a glance
- Melio starts cheaper, at $25.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Found | Melio | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $35 | From $25 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 30 days | 30 days |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Not stated | Web |
| Covers |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Found
Banking, bookkeeping and tax in one account
Found is a business account for self-employed people with the bookkeeping and the tax set-aside built into it, so expenses categorise themselves as they land and the quarterly estimate is on screen rather than in April. It invoices, pays contractors and files 1099s. The free plan has no monthly fee and no minimum balance, which is the reason to look at it before a bank.
Our note
Wave is free and does the books without touching the banking, so Found only makes sense if you want the account itself to do the categorising. Anybody happy with their existing bank should stay with Wave and keep the $35.
Melio
Pay the people who work for you, free
Melio is bill payment for a business too small to have an accounts payable department and too busy to keep writing bank transfers by hand. You schedule what goes out, pay by bank transfer at no cost or by card for a fee, and the recipient gets it however they want it. The free tier is not a trial and covers one user. Batch payments and approval rules are what the paid plans are actually selling.
Our note
Count your monthly payments before upgrading, because the paid tiers are mostly buying ACH volume and seats, and a solo creator paying five people has neither problem. Melio's genuinely useful trick is paying by card when the recipient only takes bank transfers, which buys you thirty days of float for a fee.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.