# Nickel > Free ACH invoicing and bill pay for US businesses Nickel handles both sides of business payments: it sends invoices and payment links that customers pay by ACH or card, and pays vendors and contractors by ACH, card, wire or check. ACH payments carry no fee on any plan, and money can sit in a Nickel Balance that earns interest. Paid plans add recurring invoices, autopay, an AI assistant called Penny and higher payment limits. - **Category:** Spend & Bill Pay - **Made by:** Nickel Technology Inc. - **Website:** https://www.nickel.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026 ## Pricing Nickel has a free plan. Paid plans start at $35 per month, billed annually ($45 billed monthly). - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Nickel Core: 3 users, unlimited invoices and bills, free ACH, payment links and one payment page, QuickBooks sync and 2% APY on Nickel Balance, with a $25,000 limit per payment. - **Free trial:** 14-day free trial of Nickel Plus. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Nickel Core | $0 | 3 users, $25,000 per-payment limit, invoices, bill pay, vendor onboarding, free ACH and QuickBooks Online and Desktop sync. | | Nickel Plus | $35 per month, billed annually ($45 billed monthly) | Unlimited users, $1M per-payment limit, faster payouts, recurring invoices, autopay, 1099 filing and the Penny AI assistant. | | Nickel Pro | $300 per month, billed annually ($375 billed monthly) | Adds API access, vendor verification, single sign-on, the option to turn off card payments and a dedicated account manager. | | Enterprise | Custom | Multi-entity support, custom ERP and data warehouse integrations, custom per-payment pricing and a dedicated support line. | Read from https://www.nickel.com/pricing on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Nickel before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Save 20% with yearly billing** (Annual discount): Nickel Plus costs $35 a month billed yearly instead of $45 monthly, and Nickel Pro $300 instead of $375. Source: https://www.nickel.com/pricing ## Key features - **Free ACH both ways:** Sending and receiving standard ACH costs nothing on any plan; payments clear in two to three business days, a day faster on paid plans. - **Invoices and payment pages:** Branded payment links, hosted payment pages, QR codes and reminders. Plus adds recurring invoices, saved cards and banks, and autopay. - **Bill pay:** Unlimited bills a month, scheduled ahead or paid in batches, with approval workflows and a secure link that collects vendors' bank and tax details. - **Nickel Balance:** Money received can be held in a Nickel Balance earning 2% APY, where incoming ACH and card payments arrive instantly and expedited ACH is free. - **Penny AI:** From Plus, an AI assistant works from your email inbox, follows up on unpaid invoices and keeps the books reconciled. - **QuickBooks sync:** Native two-way sync with QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop on every plan, including the free one. ## Good for - US businesses that collect large invoices by ACH - Teams that want to stop paying card fees by moving customers to bank payments - QuickBooks users who want free bill pay and receivables ## Worth knowing - Card payments cost 2.9% (another 1% for international cards), and you choose whether you or the customer pays; mailed checks cost $2 and wires $25. - The free plan stops at 3 users and $25,000 per payment; Plus lifts that to unlimited users and $1 million. - Native sync is QuickBooks Online and Desktop only; Xero, NetSuite or Salesforce need custom integration, included on Pro. - Nickel says it is not a bank: banking services and its Visa commercial card are provided by Grasshopper Bank, N.A. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.8 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. Nickel sends invoices your customers pay by ACH or card, and pays your own vendors the same way, with ACH free on every plan. The free Core plan does all that for 3 users, with QuickBooks sync. It's web only, though, QuickBooks is the only native sync, and each payment tops out at $25,000 until you pay $35 a month. - **Value for money: A.** Graded against its bill pay alternatives. A ten-person company paying 20 supplier bills a month by ACH pays $0 on the free Core plan, since ACH carries no fee on any plan. Checks are $2 and wires $25 if you need them, and Plus is $35 a month billed yearly. - **Free plan and trial: B.** Core is free with 3 users, unlimited invoices and bills, free ACH, payment links and QuickBooks sync. A small business could live on it. The walls are 3 users and $25,000 a payment, and Plus has a 14-day trial. - **Features: C.** Bill pay and getting paid are done fully, with batch payments, approvals and vendor onboarding. But it's a smaller job than the category's: no expense reports or receipt tools are listed, and Xero or NetSuite need custom work on Pro. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. Paying and getting paid by ACH is simple, but there's QuickBooks to connect and vendors to onboard first. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, with native sync to QuickBooks Online and Desktop on every plan. Xero, NetSuite and Salesforce need the custom integration that comes with Pro at $300 a month, and so does the API. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Nickel's own pages on 18 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among spend and bill pay tools - Nickel's GPA of 2.8 is higher than 5 of the 13 other spend and bill pay tools we grade, and level with 3. - It stands best on value for money (A, above 9 of 13) and worst on features (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $35 a month, against a middle price of $12 for the category: 10 of the 11 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 8 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/expenses ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Nickel you would be making money moved between bank accounts, which takes a licensed payments partner. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $420 a year. - You could make: Invoicing: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: Money moved between bank accounts, which takes a licensed payments partner. - You could not: It plugs into other products, QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop among them, and has an API. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop **Tags:** Bill pay, Invoicing, AI features, Public API ## Alternatives - [Melio](https://toolgpa.com/tools/melio): Bill pay and invoicing for small US businesses, with a free plan. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/melio-vs-nickel) - [BILL](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bill): Bill pay, invoicing and free company cards for small businesses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bill-vs-nickel) - [Plooto](https://toolgpa.com/tools/plooto): Bill pay and receivables for businesses in Canada and the US. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/nickel-vs-plooto) - [Ramp](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ramp): Corporate cards, expenses, travel and bill pay, with a free plan. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/nickel-vs-ramp) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026: - https://www.nickel.com/pricing - https://www.nickel.com/about - https://www.nickel.com/integrations Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/nickel Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).