Melio Startup Credits: $200 gift card

Deal Highlights

Melio is a US bill pay and accounts payable tool built for small businesses. You add a bill, pick how to pay it, and Melio sends the money to your vendor. You can pay by bank transfer or by credit and debit card, even when the vendor only takes paper checks. Starting is free. The Go plan costs $0 per month and includes 5 free ACH payments every month, so a young company can run its first vendor payments at no cost. This page explains what Melio does, what it costs in 2026, and how to claim the offer through SaaSOffers.

What Melio Is

Melio handles accounts payable for small businesses. Accounts payable is the money you owe vendors, contractors, and suppliers. Instead of writing checks by hand or logging into five different bank portals, you manage every bill in one place and pay it the way that suits your cash flow.

The core idea is flexible delivery. You choose how you pay, and your vendor chooses nothing. A vendor who only accepts paper checks still gets a check in the mail, while you fund that payment from your bank account or a card. That split matters for founders. You can put a $4,000 invoice on a business card to keep cash in the bank for payroll, and the vendor still receives the check they expect.

Melio covers the full payables workflow. You capture bills by photo, by forwarding them to a dedicated email address, or by manual entry, and Melio's AI auto-fills the vendor, amount, and due date. You schedule one-time, recurring, or batch payments. You set up approval workflows with roles for viewers, approvers, and admins. Payments sync two ways with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, and NetSuite, so your books stay current without double entry.

Melio also has a receivables side called Get Paid. You can send invoices and custom payment links and collect by ACH or card. When a customer pays by card, you can absorb the fee or pass it to them.

What You Get With Melio

Melio gives a small finance team the tools a larger one would expect, without a setup project. The main capabilities:

• Pay any vendor, any way. Fund payments from your bank account or a credit or debit card. Deliver by ACH, instant transfer, or mailed check. Vendors do not need a Melio account.
• Card payments to non-card vendors. Put a bill on your card even when the vendor does not accept cards. This frees up cash and can earn card rewards.
• Bill capture with AI. Snap a photo, forward an email, or upload a PDF. Melio reads the invoice and fills in the details.
• Approvals and roles. Build multi-level approval rules by team member, amount, or vendor. Assign viewer, approver, and admin permissions.
• Batch and recurring payments. Schedule many bills at once or set recurring payments for rent, retainers, and subscriptions.
• Accounting sync. Two-way sync with QuickBooks, Xero, and NetSuite keeps your ledger matched to what you paid.
• Contractor tax forms. Request and collect W-9s and organize 1099 data for filing season.
• International payments. Pay vendors abroad in USD or local currency, with cross-border transfers provided by Wise US Inc.
• Mobile app and AI assistant. Approve and pay bills from your phone, and ask the built-in assistant, Agent Mel, about bills, vendors, and payments.

Melio Pricing and Fees in 2026

Melio uses a subscription plus per-payment model. The subscription sets how many free ACH payments you get each month and how many users you can add. Fees apply to payments beyond your allotment and to faster or card-based methods.

Core, Boost, and Unlimited are free for the first 90 days. Once you use your free monthly ACH payments, each additional ACH payment costs $0.50.

Here are the published payment fees when you pay from a bank account:

When you pay by credit or debit card, the card fee is 2.9 percent. Faster delivery adds its own cost on top, so a card-funded overnight check is 2.9 percent plus $50. International payments start at $20 flat for a Global ACH to USD, and 2.9 percent plus $20 for a card-funded international payment. On the Get Paid side, collecting by bank transfer is free, and collecting by card is 2.9 percent, which you or your customer can cover.

The takeaway for a founder is simple. ACH within your plan allotment is free. Card payments cost 2.9 percent, which is the price you pay to keep cash on hand or earn rewards. Speed costs extra, and standard mailed checks are cheap at $1.50.

How to Get Started

1. Open Melio through the SaaSOffers referral link and create an account. Setup takes under two minutes and no credit card is needed to open an account.
2. Connect your bank account as your funding source. Add a business card too if you plan to pay bills by card.
3. Connect your accounting software. Link QuickBooks, Xero, or NetSuite for two-way sync.
4. Add your first bill by photo, email forward, or manual entry and let the AI fill in the details.
5. Choose how to pay and how to deliver. Pick ACH for free delivery within your allotment, or card to keep cash on hand.
6. Schedule or send the payment. Track its status in the dashboard and let it sync back to your books.

A Worked Example

Consider a five-person startup on the free Go plan. In a given month it owes four vendors: a $1,200 design contractor, an $800 software vendor, a $3,500 agency retainer, and a $450 office supplier that only accepts checks.

The founder pays the contractor and the software vendor by ACH. Both are free because the Go plan includes 5 free ACH payments each month. The agency retainer goes on a business credit card, because the founder wants to keep $3,500 in the bank for payroll. That costs 2.9 percent, or about $101.50, and the agency receives an ACH deposit on Melio's side. The office supplier gets a mailed check funded from the bank account, at $1.50.

Total fees for the month are about $103. The founder paid two bills for free, kept $3,500 of cash available, and sent a check to a vendor who does not take cards, all from one dashboard that synced back to QuickBooks. If the startup grew and needed more than 5 ACH payments a month, it would either pay $0.50 per extra ACH payment or move up to a paid plan with a larger free allotment.

Melio vs Alternatives

Melio stands out for being free to start and for letting you pay card-averse vendors with a card. Bigger platforms add more automation and controls but come with a required subscription and more setup.

Who Should Use Melio

Melio is US-focused. It is built for US-based businesses paying US vendors, with international payments as an add-on through Wise US Inc. If your company is registered in the US and you pay contractors, suppliers, rent, or software bills, Melio fits.

It suits founders and small finance teams who want to stop writing checks by hand, keep cash on hand by paying some bills on a card, and keep their books synced automatically. Accounting firms also use Melio to manage client payments at scale. If your business is based outside the US and pays mostly non-US vendors, another tool may fit better.

Real Startup Use Cases

Early-stage SaaS startup. A two-founder team pays its hosting bill, a design contractor, and a legal invoice each month. They use the free Go plan, pay by ACH within the free allotment, and put the larger legal invoice on a card to protect runway.

Agency with recurring vendors. A small agency sets up recurring ACH payments for subcontractors and software, uses approval rules so the ops lead approves anything over $2,000, and batches end-of-month vendor payments in one run.

E-commerce brand paying a check-only supplier. A product company has a manufacturer that only accepts checks. The founder funds the payment with a rewards card and Melio mails the check, so the brand earns points on cost of goods and keeps cash in the bank.

Growing team adding approvals. A company that outgrew its free ACH allotment moves to a paid plan for more free payments and added users, and sets role-based permissions as the finance function grows.

How to Claim the Deal

1. Click through to Melio using the SaaSOffers referral link on this page.
2. Create your business account. Setup takes under two minutes and no credit card is required.
3. Start on the free Go plan at $0 per month with 5 free ACH payments included, or try a paid plan free for the first 90 days.
4. Connect your bank, your card, and your accounting software, then pay your first bill.

Tips

• Use ACH for routine bills to stay inside your free monthly allotment and pay nothing for delivery.
• Reserve card payments for bills where keeping cash on hand or earning rewards is worth the 2.9 percent fee.
• Pick standard mailed checks at $1.50 for check-only vendors unless you genuinely need fast or overnight delivery, which cost far more.
• Connect QuickBooks or Xero on day one so payments reconcile automatically and you avoid double entry.
• Set approval rules early. They are easier to build before you have a backlog of bills than after.
• Watch your monthly ACH count. If you regularly exceed your free allotment, compare the $0.50 per extra payment against the cost of moving up a plan.

Who Is This Deal For?