Melio review: the only bill payment tool with a genuinely free tier
Melio Go is free forever with five ACH transfers a month, where BILL starts at $45 per user. Beyond the allowance ACH is $0.50, cards are a flat 2.9 percent, and checks cost $1.50.
Verdict
Melio has a genuinely free tier with five ACH transfers a month, where BILL starts at $45 per user. Beyond the allowance ACH costs $0.50. Card payments are a flat 2.9 percent.
Melio at a glance
- Starting price
- Free, then $25/mo
- Free plan
- Yes
- Prices checked
- August 30, 2026
Pros and cons
What works
- The free Go plan includes five ACH transfers a month permanently, which is a real product rather than a trial
- ACH beyond the plan allowance is $0.50 a transfer, which is cheap against the staff time of paying manually
- Pricing is per account rather than per user, so a second approver does not double the bill
- The 30-day trial gives unlimited ACH, so you can test at real volume before choosing a tier
What does not
- Card payments cost a flat 2.9 percent, which is expensive on any large supplier bill
- International ACH carries a flat $20 fee, or 2.9 percent plus $20 if funded by card
- Truly unlimited free ACH only arrives on the $80 Unlimited plan
- Expedited payments add 1 to 1.5 percent, which is easy to trigger without noticing
The thing that makes it different#
Free, permanently
Five ACH transfers a month on the Go plan
The nearest comparable product starts at about $45 per user.
Bill payment software is normally sold to businesses large enough to have an accounts payable problem. Melio starts below that.
Five bank transfers a month, free, with no expiry. For a small business paying rent, an accountant, and two suppliers, that is the entire requirement.
What each tier buys#
The tiers are not feature tiers. They are ACH allowance tiers.
| Plan | Cost | Free ACH a month |
|---|---|---|
| Go | Free | 5 |
| Core | About $25 | 20 |
| Boost | About $55 | 50 |
| Unlimited | About $80 | Unlimited |
Beyond the allowance, each transfer is $0.50.
That makes the tier decision arithmetic rather than judgement. At 30 ACH payments a month you are paying $25 plus 10 extra transfers at $0.50, which is $30 on Core. Boost at $55 does not pay for itself until you are well past 50.
Where the real money is#
Not the subscription. The payment method.
| Method | Cost |
|---|---|
| ACH within allowance | $0 |
| ACH beyond allowance | $0.50 |
| Mailed check | $1.50 |
| Card | Flat 2.9 percent |
| International ACH | Flat $20 |
| International ACH by card | 2.9 percent plus $20 |
| Expedited | Extra 1 to 1.5 percent |
There is a legitimate reason to use it. Paying by card while your supplier receives a bank transfer keeps cash in your account for another billing cycle. That flexibility has a price, and 2.9 percent is it. Use it deliberately, not by default.
Against BILL#
The two get compared constantly, and the honest split is simple.
Melio starts free and prices per account. BILL starts around $45 per user and prices per seat.
BILL is stronger on layered approval workflows, which matters once several people authorise payments under different rules. Melio is stronger on cost at low volume, which is most small businesses.
The full picture on BILL, including its own per-transaction fees, is in our BILL review.
The verdict#
Worth it if you pay suppliers by bank transfer and want that automated without committing to a subscription. The free tier means testing costs nothing.
Not worth it if you pay mostly by card or pay overseas suppliers regularly. Both routes carry fees that quickly exceed what any subscription would have cost.
The same lesson runs through every payment tool we look at: the subscription is rarely where the money goes. We work through that arithmetic in QuickBooks payment processing fees.
Melio pricing
| Plan | Price | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Go | Freeforever | 5 free ACH transfers a month, then $0.50 each | A small business paying a handful of suppliers monthly |
| Core | About $25per month | 20 free ACH transfers a month, then $0.50 each | A business paying suppliers weekly |
| Boost | About $55per month | 50 free ACH transfers a month, then $0.50 each | Regular payables across a larger supplier list |
| Unlimited | About $80per month | Unlimited free ACH transfers | High payment volume where per-transfer fees would exceed the plan |
Prices in US dollars, checked on August 30, 2026. Vendors change pricing without notice.
Who Melio is for
Buy it if
- You pay a small number of suppliers by bank transfer and want it automated without a subscription
- You want to keep cash longer by paying a supplier by card while they receive a bank transfer
- Several people approve payments, since pricing is per account rather than per seat
Skip it if
- You pay most suppliers by card, where a flat 2.9 percent on every bill adds up fast
- You pay overseas suppliers often, where the $20 international ACH fee lands on every payment
- You need deep approval hierarchies, which is where BILL is genuinely stronger
Frequently asked questions
- Is Melio really free?
- The Go plan is free permanently and includes five ACH transfers a month. Beyond that each ACH costs $0.50. It is a working product rather than a trial, which makes it unusual in bill payment software where the main rival starts at about $45 per user.
- How much does Melio cost?
- Go is free, Core is about $25 a month with 20 free ACH transfers, Boost about $55 with 50, and Unlimited about $80 with no ACH limit. There is also an invite-only Platinum tier with custom rates and API access.
- What fees does Melio charge on top?
- ACH beyond your plan allowance is $0.50. Card payments are a flat 2.9 percent. Mailed checks are $1.50. International ACH is a flat $20, or 2.9 percent plus $20 when funded by card. Expedited payments add 1 to 1.5 percent.
- Melio or BILL?
- Melio if payment volume is modest and you want to start free. BILL if you need layered approval workflows and are already paying enough in staff time to justify about $45 per user. The free tier is the clearest difference between them.
Written by
Nizam Uddin
Founder and pricing researcher
Nizam started Tested AI after noticing how often published software prices are simply wrong. Most articles copy a vendor's pricing page once and never look again. He checks every figure against the vendor's own page, cross-references independent trackers, and states plainly when they disagree rather than picking whichever number reads best. He does not claim to have run these tools in production, and the reviews say so at the top of every page.
- Checks every price against the vendor page
- Reports source conflicts instead of hiding them
- No vendor has paid for placement