The Comparison Site Now Competing With the Products It Compares
Sam Griffin
MoneySupermarket launched its own business bank account on 12 August 2026. Not a new entrant they are comparing. Not a promoted listing from a partner. Their own branded product, sitting on their own comparison page, competing directly with the accounts they are helping small business owners evaluate neutrally. This is worth paying attention to, whatever you think of the product itself.
What is the account?
The account is the product of a partnership between Counting Up and Griffin Bank [no affiliation]. Counting Up has been around since 2017 as a business banking and accounting app aimed at sole traders and micro-businesses. It has built a base of more than 100,000 small business customers on the strength of its integrated bookkeeping tools. What it has not had, until now, is a full banking licence.
Griffin Bank provides that. Griffin is a UK-regulated bank operating as a Banking as a Service platform, which means other businesses can build banking products on top of its infrastructure. That infrastructure comes with the thing that matters most for anyone depositing money, Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection, covering eligible deposits up to £120,000 per person. That is the new higher FSCS limit that came into force in December 2025.
The Counting Up account launched with the following features. There is no monthly fee. Payments run on Faster Payments. The account is Open Banking compatible. There is a Tax Pot that earns 1.2% AER variable on savings held within it. And the integrated accounting layer, which is Counting Up's core product, comes with it. That means automated bookkeeping, tax estimates, and categorisation built into the app.
MoneySupermarket is distributing this product. Whether it is a white-label arrangement or a distribution partnership, the effect is the same. The account now appears on MoneySupermarket's business bank account comparison page.
How It does the account compare?
The business banking market for small businesses has matured considerably over the last five years. Before evaluating the MSM-distributed Counting Up account, it is worth understanding what a small business owner can already access for free.
Starling Bank Business offers a free current account with no monthly fee, no transaction fees on UK payments, full FSCS protection as a licensed bank, and direct integrations with Xero, QuickBooks, and FreeAgent at no extra cost. It also offers an overdraft facility to eligible businesses. Monzo Business offers a similar proposition, with a free tier and paid Pro plan, also FSCS protected as a licensed bank.
Tide operates as an e-money institution rather than a bank. It does not carry FSCS protection in the same way, though client funds are safeguarded separately. It has a large user base among sole traders and small businesses and has developed credit products alongside its current account.
Zempler Bank holds a full banking licence and offers an account with flexible underwriting, which makes it accessible to businesses or directors with a less straightforward credit history.
Against this field, the Counting Up product's differentiation rests on the integrated accounting layer. The argument is that a business account with bookkeeping built in removes friction and saves time. That is a genuine value proposition for a sole trader who does not want to pay for separate accounting software. The 1.2% AER Tax Pot is a reasonable feature, though it is a modest rate compared to dedicated business savings accounts currently paying 3.9% or higher on easy access balances.
Whether the integrated accounting justifies the choice over other comparable products depends on what the business already uses for accounting. For someone who would otherwise pay for accounting software, the combined offering has real value. For someone who already uses Xero and integrates it with Starling, there is no obvious reason to switch.
The More Interesting Question
The product itself is not what I keep coming back to. The product is competitive. Griffin's banking licence makes it credible. The FSCS protection is real. Counting Up's accounting tools have a genuine user base. For some sole traders, it will be the right account.
What is harder to look past is the distribution.
The entire premise of a price comparison website is neutrality. The reason a small business owner goes to MoneySupermarket to compare business bank accounts, rather than just Googling individual banks, is that they trust the platform to show them a fair picture of the market. They are outsourcing the comparison work to someone they believe has no stake in the outcome.
MoneySupermarket now has a stake in the outcome.
The comparison market has been moving in this direction for a while. Promoted listings, sponsored placements, and favourable positioning for higher-commission products have been part of the comparison landscape since the beginning. But there is a meaningful difference between a promoted listing from a third party and a product that the comparison site itself has a direct commercial interest in seeing chosen.
The analogy that comes to mind is Amazon listing its own private-label products at the top of category searches. The platform and the seller are the same entity. The comparison and the commercial interest are the same entity & the consumer, relying on the platform's neutrality.
MoneySupermarket is a listed company with obligations to shareholders. Counting Up and Griffin are commercial partners. The account appearing on the comparison page is not an accident of the algorithm. It is a business decision. None of this is illegal or even improper. But it does change what MoneySupermarket is, and it changes what small business owners should understand about the comparison they are looking at.
I am interested in how others in the industry are reading this. Is a comparison site launching its own product the natural next step in the evolution of the market? Or does it cross a line that comparison platforms should be careful about? And for the small business owners who use these platforms to make financial decisions, does it matter whether the site that tells you which account is best has its own account in the running?
If you want to compare business bank accounts, you can compare business bank accounts on HowMuch. We are, for the record, just a comparison site.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always seek independent advice before making financial decisions.
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