GoDutch vs Wise
We have listed the main differences for you, so that you can make the best choice.
€0 fixed costs per month
NL IBAN active in 1 day
Up to 1% cashback on every payment, unlimited
24/7 real people on the phone
4.8/5
More than 23,000+ customers are already managing their finances smarter with GoDutch.
Which of the two to choose?
Which business account is better: Wise or GoDutch? I started GoDutch because entrepreneurs deserve a fully-fledged local account, not just currency exchange like with Wise: no Dutch payment account, limited automation, no cashback. With GoDutch, as a modern entrepreneur, you get a fully-fledged business account in 1 day, free, with cashback and automatic bookkeeping. Below, we compare both options for you.
Account
Dutch IBAN
Extra (virtual) IBANs
Free card
Free customer and company research
Open account / onboarding
Fully digital registration process
Registration time
Processing time KYC/KYB
Costs
Fixed costs p/m (starting price)
Cost per SEPA payment
Cost of additional payment account (IBAN)
Cost of additional payment card
Features
Real-time balance insight
Automated invoice processing
Automatic VAT recognition
Access for accountant / bookkeeper
Accounting integrations
Team card and expenditure management
International
Currency exchange at mid rate
Countries available
Currencies available
Security & Support
Deposit guarantee (covered up to)
24/7 telephone support
Multilingual customer support
Rewards
Cashback on card transactions
Unlimited
3 minutes
1 day
€0
€0.12
Free with Unlimited
Free
At cost
150+
20+
€100,000
Unlimited up to 1.0%
❌
5-10 minutes
3 to 10 working days
€0
€0 to €1
€60 one-off
€4 per extra card
✅
✅
~0.47% storage
70+
40+
❌
❌
✅
Deze vergelijking is gebaseerd op openbaar beschikbare informatie per 14 juli 2025. Prijzen, functies en voorwaarden kunnen wijzigen. Raadpleeg altijd de website van de aanbieder voor de meest actuele informatie.
More than just a payment account
Useful features
Everything you need to manage your finances as a business owner wisely — from payments to insights.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Discover answers to frequently asked questions about our products and services.
What are the differences between GoDutch and Wise for Dutch entrepreneurs?
The differences between GoDutch and Wise for Dutch entrepreneurs lie in the banking licence, the IBAN country, the fee model and target positioning. GoDutch operates under a Dutch banking licence with a Dutch IBAN and the Dutch deposit guarantee scheme up to €100,000 per account holder. Wise is a European payment institution supervised by the National Bank of Belgium; customers receive a Belgian IBAN and the balance is not covered by a deposit guarantee scheme.
At pricing level, Wise charges no fixed monthly fees but does apply a one-off activation fee of €60 for the business account, plus variable transaction fees and foreign exchange mark-ups from 0.47%. GoDutch starts from €0 per month with no activation fee, with a fixed SEPA rate of €0.12 per transaction, cashback of up to 1% on all card spending and currency exchange at the official mid-market rate.
At target audience level, Wise positions itself primarily around international business, with strong currency functionality (40+ currencies) and worldwide payments at competitive rates. GoDutch combines a Dutch focus (Dutch IBAN, Dutch accounting integrations, Dutch customer service) with international functionality (outgoing to 60+ countries, incoming from 150+). For entrepreneurs who primarily work in the Netherlands and also have international ambitions, GoDutch offers a broader overall package; for entrepreneurs for whom international work is the core process, Wise may be complementary.
What IBAN prefix do I get with Wise compared to GoDutch?
At Wise, as an entrepreneur you get a Belgian IBAN (BE prefix), because Wise Europe SA operates as a payment institution under Belgian supervision. GoDutch provides Dutch IBANs (NL prefix) under a Dutch banking licence. For most Dutch business partners, this makes no legal difference, but in practice a foreign IBAN regularly leads to questions or even refusals from Dutch customers and suppliers.
In recent years it has been laid down in law that IBAN discrimination within the SEPA zone is not permitted: a Belgian IBAN must be accepted by Dutch businesses and authorities. Nevertheless, in practice it still happens regularly that customers or automated direct debit systems demand Dutch IBANs, or that customer payments are wrongly refused. This can lead to delays in payments and require extra administrative communication.
For entrepreneurs whose customer base is mainly in the Netherlands, a Dutch IBAN with GoDutch offers practical benefits: direct acceptance by all Dutch banks, no questions from customers or suppliers, and a smooth connection to Dutch accounting packages. More details about Wise's structure are on the page about the Wise business account.
Does my money with Wise fall under the same deposit guarantee as with GoDutch?
No, the legal protection regime differs fundamentally. GoDutch operates under a Dutch banking licence with the Dutch deposit guarantee scheme (DGS): balances up to €100,000 per account holder are protected by De Nederlandsche Bank in the event of insolvency. Wise is an electronic money institution (EMI) under Belgian supervision and does not fall under a deposit guarantee scheme. Customer balances are instead held separately via safeguarding at external banks, separate from Wise's working capital.
The practical difference: with GoDutch, your money is directly protected by DNB up to €100,000, without depending on the operational practice of a safeguarding partner. With Wise, your money is legally separated from Wise's own funds, which means Wise's creditors cannot access it in the event of insolvency, but the actual safety depends on the bank where Wise has placed the funds and on the implementation of that separation.
For entrepreneurs who structurally hold large balances in their business account (for example, holding companies with liquid reserves or SMEs with working capital), the Dutch DGS offers a more direct guarantee than Wise's safeguarding model. For entrepreneurs who primarily use their account for transactions without large balances, the difference in practice is smaller, but the legal certainty remains a significant distinction.
How long does it take to open an account with Wise compared with GoDutch?
With GoDutch, your account is operational within three hours of the digital application; registration itself takes three minutes and KYC processing is completed within one working day. With Wise, the verification process takes three to ten working days, depending on the complexity of your business and the documentation provided. For entrepreneurs who want to be able to invoice or make payments immediately, that difference is significant.
With Wise, the process works as follows. You register online via wise.com (around 5 to 10 minutes), provide business documents and identification, and wait for manual verification by the Wise compliance team. For more complex structures such as private limited companies with multiple directors, holding companies or non-European shareholders, processing can take several weeks. Only after approval does your Belgian IBAN become active and you can receive or make payments.
With GoDutch, KYC is fully automated via passport or driving licence identification in front of the camera, followed by automatic verification within three hours. The Dutch IBAN and virtual Mastercard are active immediately afterwards. For entrepreneurs who want to get started straight away or switch in parallel, the difference in onboarding time means the difference between doing business the same day or waiting two weeks for your account.
How much does a Wise account cost compared with GoDutch?
Wise does not charge fixed monthly fees, but there is a one-off activation fee of €60 for the business account. On top of that, you pay per transaction: from €0.28 for euro payments within the same currency up to €1 for specific routes, plus a variable exchange-rate markup from around 0.47% for international payments. GoDutch charges no activation fee and starts from €0 per month on the Free plan, with a fixed SEPA fee of €0.12 per transaction.
For an entrepreneur who mainly processes Dutch payments, GoDutch is cheaper at transaction level: 100 SEPA payments cost €12 with GoDutch, around €28 with Wise plus the one-off €60 activation fee in the first year. For entrepreneurs who work internationally on a structural basis with substantial currency conversions, Wise’s exchange-rate markup of 0.47% may work out favourably compared with traditional banks, but still higher than GoDutch’s mid-market rate model.
There is also the cashback difference. GoDutch pays out up to 1% cashback on all card spending; Wise offers no cashback. For an entrepreneur with €5,000 in monthly card spending, that means a €600 difference per year in GoDutch's favour. In the overall cost comparison, GoDutch remains the more economical choice for most Dutch entrepreneurs. The full GoDutch fee structure is transparently listed on the pricing page.
What cashback does GoDutch offer compared with Wise?
GoDutch offers unlimited cashback of up to 1% on all card spending, increasing by package: 0% on Free, 0.1% on Starter, 0.4% on Pro and 1% on Unlimited, with no upper limit. Wise offers no cashback on business card spending; there is no card rewards programme within Wise Business.
In practice, this means that an entrepreneur with €4,000 of monthly card spending via GoDutch Unlimited earns €480 cashback per year (1% × €48,000). The same entrepreneur via Wise Business receives €0 cashback, regardless of spending volume or number of cards. For SMEs with multiple employees making expenses, the difference is substantial.
For a GoDutch BV offering where a lot of business expenditure goes through the card (software, hardware, travel expenses, online advertising), the cashback alone can offset a significant part of the subscription costs. With Wise, card use remains purely transactional without reward. The structural cashback difference clearly weighs in GoDutch's favour on an annual basis, especially for entrepreneurs with outgoing card spend above €1,000 per month.
What automations does GoDutch offer compared with Wise?
GoDutch offers a number of automations for Dutch accounting practice that Wise does not offer: automatic invoice processing, automatic VAT recognition, direct links with Dutch accounting packages and integrated expense management. Wise does have API connections with international platforms such as Xero, but lacks the Netherlands-specific automation and VAT functionality.
The automations that GoDutch includes as standard, where Wise falls short:
Automatic VAT recognition: GoDutch recognises the VAT amount on transactions for your accounts; Wise does not offer this function
Automatic invoice processing: incoming invoices are recognised by GoDutch and prepared for approval; with Wise this must be done manually
Dutch accounting integrations: direct API integrations with Moneybird, e-Boekhouden, Exact, Visma and 25+ other packages; Wise mainly connects with international tools such as Xero
Real-time VAT overview: built-in dashboard with VAT position per period; Wise does not offer a Dutch VAT return dashboard
Integrated expense management: overview of all business expenses with automatic categorisation
For entrepreneurs who want to automate their Dutch administration without using external tools, GoDutch offers a broader platform that is a better local fit. Wise excels in currency transfers, but lacks the Dutch administration automation that saves time in day-to-day operations. A complete overview can be found on the page with the GoDutch integrations for bookkeeping.
How does GoDutch's customer service differ from that of Wise?
GoDutch is available 24/7 via chat, email and phone through its own staff, in both Dutch and English. Wise offers customer service primarily via in-app chat and email, mainly in English, without a Dutch telephone helpdesk. For entrepreneurs who expect Dutch-language and telephone support, that is a practical difference.
At Wise, contact is entirely digital and response times vary; complex queries are handled in English by an international team. For entrepreneurs with day-to-day Dutch-language business traffic, that does not match everyday reality. Resolving a failed payment or blocked card via English email can take days, whereas Dutch banks deal with the same problem in a five-minute phone call.
GoDutch combines digital ease of use with traditional accessibility in Dutch. Pro and Unlimited customers receive priority support, and Unlimited customers also get a dedicated account manager. For entrepreneurs who do not want to depend on chat response times and who want to speak directly to a Dutch-speaking member of staff when urgent questions arise, GoDutch fits the reality of Dutch entrepreneurship better.
How international does Wise work versus GoDutch?
Wise is strongly positioned for international payments with 40+ currencies available and favourable exchange rate mark-ups from 0.47%. GoDutch supports 20+ currencies in 60+ outgoing countries and 150+ incoming countries, at the official mid-market rate without a markup. Wise has the advantage in currency breadth, GoDutch in geographic coverage and in rate transparency.
For entrepreneurs who structurally work in foreign currencies (for example, a software company with dollar customers or a trading company with Asian suppliers), Wise offers an efficient platform for multi-currency management. The Belgian IBAN, combined with local account details in EUR, USD, GBP, AUD and NZD, makes it possible to invoice in those markets as a local business.
GoDutch's mid-market rate model without a margin and broader geographic coverage (150+ countries for incoming payments) makes the platform more attractive for entrepreneurs who work internationally but primarily run a Dutch business. For a GoDutch offer for holding companies with foreign operating companies worldwide, the combination of a Dutch IBAN, broad country coverage and cashback provides structurally more flexibility than Wise's specialist multi-currency focus.
Which accounting integrations does Wise offer compared with GoDutch?
Wise primarily connects with international accounting platforms such as Xero, QuickBooks Online and FreshBooks, plus direct API access for custom integrations. GoDutch offers direct API connections with more than 30 Dutch accounting packages including Moneybird, e-Boekhouden, Exact, Visma, Asperion, Clearbooks and DigiBTW.
For Dutch entrepreneurs who work with a typical Dutch accounting package, the Wise offering in practice means that many of those connections are not available directly. An entrepreneur with a Moneybird or e-Boekhouden administration cannot get automatic transaction synchronisation with Wise without an external bridge tool or manual import.
With GoDutch, the bank account synchronises in real time with your Dutch accounting package, including automatic VAT recognition and categorisation. For self-employed professionals and small business owners who want to streamline their administration without extra tools, the ZZP package at GoDutch offers direct value through this integrated approach. For SMEs with enterprise tools such as Exact or Visma, the same direct connection works, while Wise mainly serves entrepreneurs who work in an international Xero ecosystem.
Which legal entity types does Wise accept, compared with GoDutch?
Wise accepts sole proprietorships, private limited companies, public limited companies, general partnerships, foundations and associations via the standard Wise Business application, with additional verification depending on complexity. GoDutch accepts the same legal forms plus holding companies, owners' associations and cooperatives, with a special 0% VAT rate on the subscription for non-profit legal forms (foundations, associations, owners' associations).
For boards of non-profit organisations, GoDutch offers practical advantages. A GoDutch foundation offer falls under the 0% VAT regime, whereas Wise applies standard VAT rates to transaction fees and activation costs. At a ZZP volume of a few dozen transactions per month, that is a structurally measurable difference.
Additionally, GoDutch offers dedicated functionality for specific legal forms, such as self-service for changes to board members for owners' associations and shared access for general partnership partners. For general partnership partners, a GoDutch general partnership offer can provide equivalent access for both partners by default. With Wise, this happens via the general application process without legal-form-specific functionality, and changes to board members usually require renewed verification.
What is the one-off activation fee of €60 with Wise?
The one-off activation fee of €60 at Wise is a mandatory charge for opening a Wise Business account with full functionality. The fee is paid once on activation and is non-refundable, even if the entrepreneur closes the account later. At GoDutch there is no activation fee or start-up costs, regardless of the package chosen.
What the €60 fee at Wise includes: access to the business account, multi-currency functionality, local account details in selected countries (EUR, USD, GBP, AUD and NZD), first batch payments and API access. After activation, you pay no monthly fixed costs, but you do pay per transaction according to Wise's pricing model. For entrepreneurs who only work internationally occasionally, this threshold fee can influence the choice.
At GoDutch, all basic functionality is included free of charge in the Free package: Dutch IBAN, virtual Mastercard, automatic accounting integration, real-time balance insight and 24/7 support. There are no one-off fees, no hidden costs and no lock-in. For entrepreneurs who want to get started with a low barrier and without first investing €60, GoDutch offers a more direct entry.
How do I switch from Wise to GoDutch?
Switching from Wise to GoDutch is arranged in four steps. You will have an operational account with GoDutch within one working day and only close your Wise account as the final step, so you can switch over calmly without missing payments.
Step-by-step plan for the switch:
Open your account with GoDutch: complete the online application (three minutes), verify your identity with a passport or driving licence and wait for KYC processing (three hours). Your Dutch IBAN and virtual Mastercard are active immediately afterwards, and your account is covered by the Dutch deposit guarantee scheme.
Inform your contacts about your new IBAN: send customers and suppliers a short email with your new Dutch account number (NL prefix instead of BE). In the GoDutch app, download a bank statement with your IBAN for your records.
Move direct debits and subscriptions: update recurring payments for utilities, software subscriptions, suppliers and periodic invoices. Wise does not offer a switching service; you have to amend all direct debits yourself with each party.
Close your Wise account: transfer the remaining balance to GoDutch (taking into account any currency conversion fees) and close your Wise account via the Wise app under account settings. A comprehensive complete guide to closing Wise Business will guide you through the process.
Keep both accounts running in parallel for the first month so that any forgotten direct debits are not declined. If you have questions during the switch, GoDutch's support team can help you by phone 24/7, something that with Wise is only available via English-language chat. Ready to switch to a Dutch provider with NL IBAN, deposit protection, unlimited cashback and 24/7 telephone support? You can open a GoDutch business account straight away and get started today.
