The three frictions nobody mentions at incorporation
Most guides skip the awkward part. A French company only gains legal personality at registration. The registry will not register you until the share capital is frozen with an authorised holder. And a bank will not open an account for a company that does not legally exist yet. That loop catches nearly every first-time founder, and it catches non-residents hardest. For a SAS with €10,000 of cash capital, at least half must be paid up before you file; for a SARL, one fifth of the cash shares is enough on day one. Founders who wire the whole amount lose nothing, but founders who wire less than the legal fraction get their filing bounced. The way through is a capital deposit certificate from a notary or another approved holder, then filing on the Guichet unique, then the Kbis. Once you hold a SIREN, providers stop treating you as a hypothetical.
The second friction is the IBAN itself. A French IBAN matters more than the app's design, because French clients pay by SEPA direct debit mandate, URSSAF and the tax office pull from account details, and procurement teams check the RIB before they release a payment. A non-French IBAN can work, yet it slows receivables and complicates mandate setup. Several fintechs serving France issue Belgian or Irish account details, so read the fine print before you commit.
Third, the micro-entrepreneur rule surprises people. A dedicated business account is not compulsory while turnover stays under €10,000 across two consecutive calendar years. Cross that line and a separate account for professional flows becomes required. Plenty of freelancers use a second current account rather than a full compte pro, which is legitimate until the threshold arrives.
Cost is the fourth gap. Branch banking bundles account maintenance, movement commissions, and SEPA transfers priced at roughly €2 to €5 per item on many published schedules. Online providers sell a monthly plan with a transfer allowance inside it. Neither model is wrong, but they price very different things.
What the market looks like on paper
| Provider | Entry list price (excl. VAT) | Best fit | Strengths | Watch-outs |
|---|
| Qonto | from about €9/month | SAS, SARL, mixed teams | French IBAN, invoicing module, 30 transfers at entry, 7/7 support | No overdraft facility; card reader hardware billed separately (around €149 one-off) |
| Shine | entry tier with no monthly subscription | Sole traders, very small firms | RIB typically within 24 hours, e-invoicing built in, human support | Card and transfer allowances tighten on the entry tier |
| Indy | entry tier with no subscription; Anytime around €9.50/month | Freelancers, professions libérales | Accounting sync, simple onboarding | Lighter on team and multi-card features |
| Blank | from about €6/month | Micro-structures wanting a French IBAN cheaply | Low entry cost, French IBAN | Fewer integrations at the lower tiers |
| Propulse by Crédit Agricole | from about €8/month | Founders who want a branch behind the app | Regional branch network, relationship manager | Pricing varies by regional caisses |
| Revolut Business | tiered plans | Non-resident founders with a French entity | French IBAN, fast review target, multi-currency | Support is in-app; plan limits on transfers |
| Wise Business | pay-per-use transfers | Exporters, multi-currency traders | Transparent FX, EUR details available | Account details are not French; no credit line |
Prices come from provider price pages and shift with promotions, so treat the column as orientation, not quotation. The real decision points sit elsewhere: whether cheques and cash can be deposited, what a card reader costs per month, whether instant SEPA is included, and whether the account exports clean statements your accountant can ingest without retyping.
Three situations, three different answers
Sarah, a 34-year-old consultant in Lyon, ran her activity through a second personal account for two years. When turnover passed the €10,000 mark in consecutive years, she moved professional flows to an online plan and stopped paying unit fees on every incoming transfer. Her point was simple: she wanted the accounting connection to Tiime to work without manual entry.
Mehdi, 41, arrived from Algiers and set up a SAS in Paris with a small software team. Two branches declined to open the account before registration. He obtained a capital deposit certificate through a notary, filed on the Guichet unique, received his Kbis, and then applied with a SIREN in hand. If a bank refuses even at that stage, French right-to-account rules allow a request to the Banque de France to designate an institution for you. Few founders know this exists, and fewer use it.
Thomas, 29, sells online from Bordeaux into the UK and the US. One French-IBAN account handles URSSAF and local suppliers, while a multi-currency account collects pounds and dollars. Two accounts, one bookkeeping export, no FX surprises.
The document set that decides your timeline
Identity document, proof of address, Kbis or an avis de situation SIRENE, the company statutes, the capital deposit certificate, and a beneficial owner declaration. Higher-risk activities sometimes trigger a request for a business plan or supplier contracts. Prepare these as a single PDF folder; incomplete files are the main reason onboarding stalls.
A sequence that saves weeks
Register the entity and settle the capital question before shopping for accounts. Asking a notary for the deposit certificate after you have chosen a bank reverses the order and costs you time.
Download your avis de situation SIRENE from the INPI portal so the SIREN and legal form are verifiable in one file.
Shortlist two providers rather than five: one French-IBAN primary account for tax and payroll flows, one backup for multi-currency receipts if you sell abroad.
Test the boring features before you move money. Deposit a cheque, run one instant SEPA transfer, export a statement, and check that your accounting tool pulls transactions without duplicates.
Re-read the fee schedule around month three. Cost drift almost never comes from the subscription, it comes from add-ons you enabled and forgot.
One last practical note for founders outside France: eligibility rules usually require a company registered in France, not merely a French customer base. Verify that the entity is registered, immatriculée, before you count on a French IBAN.
Start with the certificate, not the app store. Pick one primary account, move a token amount through it, and let a real client payment prove the setup works. If you are weighing two providers, compare their statements side by side and ask each one how they handle a direct debit mandate rejection. That answer tells you more than any comparison table.
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