Wise Business vs Sokin

Wise Business pips Sokin at the post due to the number of local accounts, and a few additional features. These include card use. This being said, Sokin offers a second product, in Sokin Pay. This is a payment gateway which makes Sokin the better option for ecommerce stores.

When considering cost, there’s not a huge amount of difference between them. Wise offers costs of 0% markup on currency conversion and fees starting at 0.33%. Sokin on the other hand offers no fees, but exchange rates starting at 0.3%.

Platform Details

Wise Business has more local accounts (10) to offer than Sokin (4). This is important if you need local bank details in particular markets.

Sokin offers 75 IBAN accounts which will allow you to store and send in each of the supported currencies. This is a nice offering, and with UK, US and EUR covered with local accounts, makes Sokin's offering stronger.

As an aside, Airwallex offers the most local accounts on the market, with 12 in total to choose from.

Local accounts

Other Features

Outside of local accounts there’s plenty on offer which could be deciding factor when choosing Wise or Sokin.

For businesses making regular, batch payments, Sokin offers up to 5,000 payments per batch, to Wise’s 1,000. Sokin actually offers the most on the market for this feature.

Both offer a lot of the other benefits you find across most multi-currency accounts. Of the two, only Wise Business offers card access.

Neither option offers forward contracts. If you need access to currency risk tools we’d recommend a strategic currency partner instead.

Making and receiving cross border payments

Sending money

Both companies offer access to multi-currency accounts. With these, sending funds is simple, and pricing is competitive for both.

Sokin has the cheaper starting point of 0.3% overall, vs 0.33% with Wise. Both have price increases based on the currencies and countries involved.

If making a one-off transfer, we’d recommend searching for cross border transfer rates. It may be the case a specific company would benefit your needs.

Receiving money

Receiving money into a Sokin or Wise Business account is easy and cost effective. Receiving into an IBAN or a local account through either means you won’t pay a conversion charge.

This also means you can store and use the funds at later date to make a cross border payment. With Wise, you use it for card spending.

For unsupported currencies you’ll need to pay the respective costs starting at 0.33% (Wise Business) and 0.3% (Sokin).

It is also possible to integrate with accounting software, like Xero, to receive and send payments. So payment from customers, or to suppliers, can be synchronized with the correct currency.

Card use

Card use is only available with Wise Business. Costs are the same as sending money, and if you use the card and a balance in the corresponding currency, you won’t pay a fee.

ATM fees, like with any account, are high. Avoid withdrawing cash where possible.

Also, if no cash is used all transactions can generally be synced by card and into the appropriate account software.

Customer Service

Both accounts offer similar levels of service. The main difference is, Wise Business has an online chat which Sokin does not offer.

While account management doesn’t come as standard, it is possible to work with people within each business depending on the needs at the time.

For example, development or API support is available.

For the most part, we found going through email the fastest way to get a response.

Regulations

For regulation, there’s a lot on offer from both. Jurisdictions covered include the US and UK. Although while Sokin offers accounts in the Eurozone, these aren’t fully regulated at the time of writing.

Choosing a Winner

Use cases for Airwallex and GoCardless

Alternative options and comparisons

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