Rating
What is the best neobank in Switzerland?
Yuh takes the top spot with 4.8/5 (84.8%). CHF 0 per month, a free debit card, one free ATM withdrawal per week, and stocks, ETFs, crypto and pillar 3a built into the same app you use to pay rent. Nothing else in the Swiss field packs that much into a free account.
Switzerland has more than a dozen digital banks chasing your salary, yet most people still park it at a traditional bank and pay CHF 50 to CHF 200 a year for a branch they never visit. The comparison table above ranks every neobank account we hold verified data on, sorted by score rather than marketing budget.
Neon still wins on foreign currency among Swiss-licensed accounts. Its 0.35% markup is roughly a third of what Yuh charges, but cash is what holds neon free down to fifth at 4.6/5 (80.4%): every ATM withdrawal costs CHF 2.50 in Switzerland and 1.5% of the amount abroad. Revolut Standard goes further on currency, with no exchange fee at all on weekdays inside a monthly limit, and that is most of the reason it enters the ranking straight at third.
The top five are separated by 4.4 percentage points, from Yuh's 84.8% down to neon free's 80.4%. That is a much narrower spread than the order suggests, so which account is right for you depends on how you actually spend rather than on who happens to sit one row higher.
How we rank Swiss neobanks
Our score is built from five weighted pillars, and the weights explain why the table looks the way it does:
- Cost of ownership (31%): monthly account fee, debit card fee, and what it costs to reach your own cash.
- Everyday digital banking (22%): app quality, QR-bill and eBill handling, TWINT, standing orders, and extras like investing or savings pots.
- Foreign currency (20%): the card markup on non-CHF spending plus withdrawal costs abroad.
- Access and flexibility (16%): web banking, joint accounts, sub-accounts, branch fallback, and how painlessly you can leave.
- Swiss integration (11%): deposit protection, whether the CH IBAN is native or virtual, eBill, and TWINT.
Swiss integration is new, and Revolut is the reason we added it. The original four-pillar model was built when every product in this category was a Swiss-licensed bank with a Swiss IBAN, so there was nothing to distinguish. Once a cross-border EU bank entered the category, we needed a way to price that difference in rather than pretend it did not exist. We would rather say that out loud than quietly reweight the model: the pillar is worth 12 points that Revolut currently cannot earn, and it is the main reason it finishes third instead of near the top.
Cost still carries the most weight, which is why the free accounts finish above the paid tiers. Foreign currency matters a lot but never dominates, and that is precisely why Neon's 0.35% markup is not enough on its own to lift neon free above the accounts that also make cash cheap.
Every figure comes from published fee schedules, not from what the banks say about themselves in their app stores.
Yuh: the best neobank overall (4.8/5)
Yuh scores 84.8% because it wins the two heaviest pillars at once. The account costs CHF 0 per month, the Mastercard debit card is free, and you get one free ATM withdrawal every week. Most free accounts make you pick between no fees and useful features. Yuh refuses to make you choose.
The investing layer is the real differentiator. Yuh is a Swissquote subsidiary, so buying stocks, ETFs or crypto happens inside the same app that receives your salary, and pillar 3a sits alongside it. Trading costs 0.50%, which is not the cheapest in Switzerland, but you are paying for one login instead of three.
The catch is foreign currency. Yuh charges a 0.95% markup on non-CHF card payments, nearly triple Neon's 0.35%. On CHF 5,000 of annual spending abroad that difference is CHF 30 a year. Real money, but not enough to overturn a free account with investing baked in.
Yuh also supports 13 currency accounts, useful if you are paid in EUR, USD or GBP. Deposits sit at Swissquote Bank and are protected to CHF 100,000 through esisuisse.
Best for: anyone who wants one free app for banking, investing and their third pillar.
Zak by Bank Cler: best for budgeting and savings pots (4.7/5)
Zak scores 82.1% and is the highest-ranked account here that is not a standalone fintech. It is Bank Cler's digital banking app, and Bank Cler belongs to Basler Kantonalbank. That matters: your money sits inside a traditional Swiss bank with branch access, full payment infrastructure and esisuisse protection.
The base account is free with a free Visa debit card and pays 0.05% interest, tiny but still more than the 0% you get at Neon and Yuh. The "Töpfli" savings pot system is the best budgeting tool of any Swiss neobank. Withdrawals at Bank Cler and Basler Kantonalbank ATMs are free, then CHF 2 elsewhere.
Its weakness is obvious: a 2.00% FX markup, the worst in the ranking and almost six times Neon's. If you spend abroad regularly, Zak is the wrong free account.
Zak Plus: the fix for that FX problem (4.7/5)
Zak Plus also scores 82.1%, but it gets there by a completely different route. You pay CHF 96 a year (CHF 8 per month) and in exchange the FX markup drops to 0% and worldwide ATM withdrawals become free. It scores identically to free Zak because what it gains on foreign currency it gives back on cost of ownership.
The maths is simple: Zak Plus pays for itself somewhere around CHF 5,000 of annual foreign currency spending, once you include the withdrawals. Below that, take Neon free and keep the CHF 96.
Revolut: the cheapest way to spend abroad (4.7/5)
Revolut Standard enters the ranking at third with 81.3%, and it gets there almost entirely on cost and foreign currency. The account is CHF 0 per month, CHF 0 to open, CHF 0 annual card fee, and virtual cards are free. The first physical card is free too, though delivery costs CHF 5.99 standard or CHF 19.99 express, and a replacement is CHF 5.99.
The exchange deal is the best of any free account in this comparison. Revolut charges no exchange fee on weekdays, up to a monthly limit of CHF 1,250 of currency exchange, with a 1% fair usage fee above it. Weekends carry 1%, from Friday 5pm to Sunday 6pm New York time. Set that against 0.35% at neon free, 0.95% at Yuh and 2% at Zak, applied to every single conversion, and the gap is obvious.
Cash is tighter than the free headline suggests: five withdrawals or CHF 200 per rolling month, whichever comes first, then 2% with a CHF 1 minimum. The same allowance covers Switzerland and abroad, so one cash-heavy holiday week can eat the whole month. Local CHF payments, incoming payments, standing orders, SEPA transfers in euros and instant transfers to other Revolut users are all free. Other international payments cost 0.15% with a corridor-dependent minimum, for example CHF 1.60 to send USD to the United States, or a flat CHF 4.00 to send USD, EUR, GBP or CHF outside that currency's home country.
Then the part that costs it the ranking. Swiss clients bank with Revolut Bank UAB, a Lithuanian bank licensed by the European Central Bank and supervised by the Bank of Lithuania. Deposit protection comes from the Lithuanian guarantee scheme up to EUR 100,000, not esisuisse's CHF 100,000. Revolut (Switzerland) AG is a FINMA-authorised representative office, not a Swiss banking licence. There is no eBill, no QR-bill invoicing, no TWINT and no Swiss LSV direct debit, and CHF balances earn 0%. That adds up to 0 out of 12 on Swiss integration, against 12 for Yuh and Zak.
The Swiss IBAN is real, but it is virtual. Revolut issues it through a partnership with PostFinance and runs it on PostFinance payment infrastructure, while Revolut Bank UAB holds your balance. It is not a native CH IBAN issued under Revolut's own banking licence, and that distinction is exactly what the Swiss integration pillar exists to measure.
Scale is firmly on its side. Around 1.3 million people in Switzerland use Revolut, against roughly 400,000 at Yuh and 250,000 at neon, which makes it the largest neobank in the country by customer count. Visa and Mastercard debit cards are issued to Swiss customers by Revolut Switzerland Payments AG, contactless and multi-currency. No minimum deposit, no withdrawal limit, minimum age 18, and statements are PDF only.
In September 2026 Revolut applied to FINMA for a full Swiss banking licence and committed more than CHF 150 million to the Swiss market over five years. The application is under review with no published timeline. If it is granted, native Swiss IBANs, eBill and esisuisse cover all become possible and the score moves. Until then, treat all three as pending rather than coming.
Best for: anyone converting currency regularly, as a second account beside a Swiss main bank rather than a replacement for one.
neon free: the cheapest Swiss account for foreign currency (4.6/5)
neon free lands at 80.4% in fifth and is still the account I recommend to anyone whose card sees a lot of foreign currency and who wants that inside a Swiss-licensed bank. The 0.35% markup is the lowest of any Swiss neobank and beats plenty of paid premium cards.
The account is CHF 0 per month with free domestic and SEPA transfers, eBill, Apple Pay and Google Pay. The debit card carries a CHF 20 one-off fee when it is issued, which is the only upfront cost you will meet.
One gap people miss: neon has eBill but not native TWINT. You can use TWINT Prepaid or the UBS TWINT app next to it, but neither debits your neon account directly, so you are topping up a separate balance every time. Yuh and Zak both run full TWINT straight off the account. That single difference is why neon scores 10 out of 12 on Swiss integration where Yuh and Zak take 12 out of 12.
Cash is what holds it back, and it is the reason the account sits fifth rather than higher. Every ATM withdrawal costs CHF 2.50 in Switzerland and 1.5% of the amount abroad (Sonect cash-back points are free), there is no built-in trading platform, and interest on your balance is 0%. Withdraw cash twice a month and you have handed back CHF 60 a year, which is most of what you saved on FX.
Neon also offers a joint account, Neon Duo, which is genuinely rare in this category and makes it a strong pick for couples. Deposits are held at Hypothekarbank Lenzburg under full FINMA supervision. For a direct head-to-head with the number one, read our Neon vs Yuh comparison.
Best for: people who spend abroad or shop from EU retailers and rarely touch cash.
Is Neon metal worth CHF 180 a year? (4.3/5)
Neon metal is the most expensive account in our ranking at CHF 180 a year, and it finishes sixth on 72.3%. It buys you a 0% FX markup with no monthly cap, five free ATM withdrawals a month in Switzerland and then CHF 2.50 each, no neon fee on withdrawals abroad, and a metal card.
Two things hold it back. It costs twice what Zak Plus does for a broadly comparable foreign currency benefit, and Neon still has no web banking at all. Everything runs through the phone, which is fine until you need to reconcile a year of statements or your phone is in a repair shop. It now also has to justify CHF 180 against a free account: Revolut converts at no charge on weekdays inside its CHF 1,250 monthly limit.
Best for: heavy travellers who already like Neon's app and withdraw cash abroad often enough to burn through CHF 180 in fees.
Which Swiss neobanks are missing from the ranking?
Two Swiss providers you would reasonably expect to see are covered here in the text but do not appear in the table above, and I would rather explain that than quietly leave them out.
Alpian holds its own Swiss banking licence and offers multi-currency accounts in CHF, EUR, GBP and USD plus human investment advice, which is a genuinely different proposition. We do not yet hold enough structured, verified fee data on it to score it against the others fairly, so ranking it would mean guessing. It stays in the prose until that changes.
Yuh's savings account is the same story. It is a real product from a top-ranked provider, but our current dataset covers Yuh's private account, and mixing a savings product into a ranking of everyday accounts would compare two different things.
Radicant is simply gone. It ceased all operations in November 2025, and its closure is why the free end of the Swiss market no longer has a 0% FX option.
Why is Revolut ranked but N26 and Wise are not?
Revolut used to sit in this section alongside N26 and Wise, on the simple grounds that none of them gave you a Swiss IBAN. That is no longer true of Revolut, so it is now scored on the same model as everything else in the table. It finishes third.
Revolut gives Swiss customers a Swiss IBAN, but a virtual one. It is issued through a partnership with PostFinance and runs on PostFinance payment infrastructure, while your balance sits with Revolut Bank UAB in Lithuania. Salary payments and CHF transfers work. What does not is eBill, QR-bill invoicing, TWINT and LSV direct debit, and your deposit protection is the Lithuanian scheme up to EUR 100,000 rather than esisuisse. That combination is precisely what the Swiss integration pillar measures, and it is why Revolut lands on 81.3% rather than higher.
N26 offers a Mastercard, free withdrawals and decent rates, but your IBAN is German. That is still genuine friction for Swiss payroll and QR-bills, and it is why N26 stays out of the table.
Wise is outstanding for international transfers and multi-currency balances, with genuinely transparent pricing. It is not a bank though. No Swiss IBAN, no domestic payment infrastructure, and it was never designed to be your main account.
How to choose the right neobank for you
The Swiss neobank market is competitive enough that none of the ranked accounts is a mistake. Your usage pattern decides which one is right.
Daily Swiss Banking
Live in Switzerland, earn in CHF, spend mostly in CHF? Yuh at 4.8/5 is the default answer. CHF 0 per month, free card, one free ATM withdrawal per week, and investing you can ignore until you want it. Neon free is the equally valid alternative if you would rather have the lowest FX markup than the free cash.
Frequent Travellers
Revolut is the cheapest way to convert currency anywhere in this comparison, with no exchange fee on weekdays up to CHF 1,250 a month, and it costs nothing to hold. Run it next to a Swiss account rather than instead of one, because it has no eBill, QR-bill invoicing or TWINT. If you want it all inside one Swiss-licensed app, neon free's 0.35% is the cheapest free option, and Zak Plus at CHF 96 with a 0% markup and free worldwide withdrawals overtakes it past roughly CHF 5,000 of annual foreign spending. Neon metal matches the 0% markup for CHF 180, but its free withdrawals stop at five a month in Switzerland, so only choose it if you are already committed to Neon's app.
Investors
Yuh is the only ranked Swiss neobank where salary, budget, investments and pillar 3a live in one app. Trading runs at 0.50%, so it is not the cheapest broker in Switzerland. If costs matter more than convenience, pair a free neobank with a dedicated broker instead.
Budgeters and Savers
Zak's Töpfli pots are the best goal-based budgeting tool in the category, and the account pays 0.05% interest where Neon and Yuh pay nothing. Just keep your foreign currency spending off the card, because the 2.00% markup is the worst here.
Live in Switzerland, earn in CHF, spend mostly in CHF? Yuh at 4.8/5 is the default answer. CHF 0 per month, free card, one free ATM withdrawal per week, and investing you can ignore until you want it. Neon free is the equally valid alternative if you would rather have the lowest FX markup than the free cash.
Revolut is the cheapest way to convert currency anywhere in this comparison, with no exchange fee on weekdays up to CHF 1,250 a month, and it costs nothing to hold. Run it next to a Swiss account rather than instead of one, because it has no eBill, QR-bill invoicing or TWINT. If you want it all inside one Swiss-licensed app, neon free's 0.35% is the cheapest free option, and Zak Plus at CHF 96 with a 0% markup and free worldwide withdrawals overtakes it past roughly CHF 5,000 of annual foreign spending. Neon metal matches the 0% markup for CHF 180, but its free withdrawals stop at five a month in Switzerland, so only choose it if you are already committed to Neon's app.
Yuh is the only ranked Swiss neobank where salary, budget, investments and pillar 3a live in one app. Trading runs at 0.50%, so it is not the cheapest broker in Switzerland. If costs matter more than convenience, pair a free neobank with a dedicated broker instead.
Zak's Töpfli pots are the best goal-based budgeting tool in the category, and the account pays 0.05% interest where Neon and Yuh pay nothing. Just keep your foreign currency spending off the card, because the 2.00% markup is the worst here.
Are neobanks safe in Switzerland?
This is the question that stops most people, and it deserves a straight answer. Five of the six accounts in our ranking are, or sit on top of, a FINMA-regulated Swiss bank. Those deposits are covered by esisuisse up to CHF 100,000 per depositor per bank, exactly the same protection you get at UBS or any cantonal bank.
The fintech layer is the interface. The licence underneath is what protects your money:
- Yuh deposits sit at Swissquote Bank (FINMA-regulated)
- Neon deposits sit at Hypothekarbank Lenzburg (FINMA-regulated)
- Zak deposits sit at Bank Cler (FINMA-regulated, BKB group)
- Alpian holds its own Swiss banking licence (FINMA-regulated)
- Revolut deposits sit at Revolut Bank UAB in Lithuania (ECB-licensed, supervised by the Bank of Lithuania)
Revolut is the exception in the table, and it is worth being precise about it. Revolut Bank UAB is a real bank, licensed by the European Central Bank, and your money is protected up to EUR 100,000 under the Lithuanian deposit guarantee scheme. That is genuine protection from a genuine regulator. It is simply not esisuisse: it is denominated in euros, and a claim would run through a cross-border process. Revolut (Switzerland) AG is a FINMA-authorised representative office, not a Swiss banking licence, and the pending FINMA application does not change that today. N26 runs on Germany's BaFin on the same principle. You can read FINMA's own register to check who holds a Swiss licence.
Bottom line: a Swiss neobank is as safe as a Swiss high street bank for balances up to CHF 100,000. Revolut is safe too, under a different regulator and a different scheme. Only the app looks different.
Common neobank mistakes to avoid
Revolut converts for free on weekdays and still finishes third. Foreign currency is 20% of our score, not 100%. The same trap runs the other way at Neon: 0.35% is the best markup of any Swiss-licensed free account, but withdraw cash twice a month at CHF 2.50 a time and you hand back CHF 60 a year.
Revolut gives Swiss customers a CH IBAN, but a virtual one, issued through a PostFinance partnership while Revolut Bank UAB in Lithuania holds the money. Deposit protection is the Lithuanian scheme up to EUR 100,000 rather than esisuisse, and there is still no eBill, QR-bill invoicing, TWINT or LSV. N26 and Wise do not even get you the IBAN. Keep a Swiss-licensed account as your primary either way.
Zak Plus (CHF 96/year) and Neon metal (CHF 180/year) both drop your FX markup to 0% with no monthly cap. Zak Plus also makes withdrawals free worldwide, while Neon metal gives you five free withdrawals a month in Switzerland and CHF 2.50 after that. That is worth it above roughly CHF 5,000 of annual foreign spending, and a straight loss below it. Check Revolut's free weekday allowance first, because CHF 1,250 of conversion a month at no charge covers most people outright. Add up last year's card statements before upgrading.
Only Yuh gives you a full trading platform with stocks, ETFs, crypto and pillar 3a inside a Swiss-licensed account. Neon offers limited ETF access. Zak has none at all. Check before you switch, or plan on a separate broker.
Neon, including the CHF 180 metal tier, is phone-only. No desktop access. That is a genuine problem at tax time or when your phone is being repaired. Zak and Yuh both give you a browser option.
My recommendation: which neobank should you pick?
After testing every Swiss neobank and running my own spending through them, here is what I actually tell people: open Yuh unless you have a specific reason not to. It tops our ranking at 4.8/5 (84.8%) because it is free, the card is free, you get a free weekly ATM withdrawal, and the investing side means you are not opening a brokerage account later.
The one specific reason to go elsewhere is foreign currency. If a decent slice of your spending is in EUR or USD, take neon free instead and accept the CHF 2.50 withdrawals. Spend more than about CHF 5,000 a year abroad and Zak Plus at CHF 96 with 0% FX becomes the cheaper answer, which is why it scores level with free Zak despite the fee.
What I would not do is pay CHF 180 for Neon metal. You are paying nearly double Zak Plus for the same FX benefit, on a platform that still has no web banking in 2026.
And Revolut? It is honestly the cheapest thing here for converting currency, and I keep one. It finishes third because it cannot do eBill, QR-bills or TWINT, and because your deposits sit under a Lithuanian scheme rather than esisuisse. None of that shifts unless FINMA grants the licence Revolut applied for this month, so do not price it in yet. Use it the way I do: a Swiss account for your Swiss life, Revolut for everything in another currency. That pairing costs CHF 0. The genuinely expensive mistake is none of these. It is staying at a traditional bank paying CHF 200 a year for services you never use.
Want the full category overview beyond this ranking? Start at our Swiss neobanks hub. To weigh these accounts against traditional banks feature by feature, use the bank account comparison tool. And if you only care about the zero-fee options, our free bank accounts guide covers every one of them.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best neobank in Switzerland?
Yuh, at 4.8/5 (84.8%). It combines a CHF 0 monthly fee, a free debit card, one free ATM withdrawal per week and built-in investing including pillar 3a. Bank Cler's Zak and Zak Plus follow, tied at 4.7/5 (82.1%), then Revolut Standard at 4.7/5 (81.3%), then neon free at 4.6/5 (80.4%) with the cheapest markup of any Swiss-licensed account (0.35%). The top five sit within 4.4 percentage points of each other.
Which Swiss neobank has the lowest foreign currency fees?
Revolut Standard, which charges no exchange fee at all on weekdays up to CHF 1,250 of conversion per month, then 1%, and 1% at weekends. Among Swiss-licensed free accounts, neon free at 0.35% is the cheapest. If you are willing to pay, Zak Plus (CHF 96/year) and Neon metal (CHF 180/year) both charge 0% with no monthly cap. Zak Plus adds free worldwide ATM withdrawals, while Neon metal gives you five free withdrawals a month in Switzerland, then CHF 2.50, with no neon fee abroad. Zak charges 2.00% on its free tier, the highest in our ranking.
Is it safe to keep money in a Swiss neobank?
Yes, with one distinction worth knowing. Yuh, neon, Zak and Alpian are all FINMA-regulated or held at a FINMA-regulated bank, with deposits protected to CHF 100,000 through esisuisse, the same scheme covering UBS and every cantonal bank. Revolut is ranked but sits outside it: Revolut Bank UAB is licensed by the European Central Bank and your deposits are covered up to EUR 100,000 by the Lithuanian scheme instead. N26 runs on a German licence on the same principle.
Is Revolut in the ranking, and what about N26 and Wise?
Revolut is, at third of six with 81.3%. It now gives Swiss customers a Swiss IBAN, though a virtual one issued through a PostFinance partnership while Revolut Bank UAB holds the balance, so we score it like every other account. It wins on cost and foreign currency and loses on Swiss integration: no eBill, no QR-bill invoicing, no TWINT, and Lithuanian deposit protection rather than esisuisse. N26 and Wise stay out, because N26 still issues a German IBAN and Wise is a payments provider rather than a bank.
Why are Alpian and Radicant not in the table?
Alpian is a licensed Swiss neobank, but we do not yet hold enough verified structured data on its fees to score it fairly against the others, so we cover it in the text instead. Radicant ceased all operations in November 2025 and no longer exists.
Can I use a neobank as my only bank in Switzerland?
Yes, provided it gives you a Swiss IBAN issued by a Swiss-licensed bank. Yuh, Zak and Alpian all work as a sole account, supporting salary deposits, QR-bills, eBill, standing orders and TWINT. neon covers everything except native TWINT: you can only use TWINT Prepaid or the UBS TWINT app, neither of which debits your neon account directly. Revolut is not a substitute here, with no eBill, QR-bill invoicing or TWINT at all. The other limitation is cash deposits, which need a workaround such as Sonect for Neon or a Bank Cler branch for Zak.
Next steps
Use the comparison table above to filter by the fee that actually affects you, then open the detailed review of your shortlist. Still weighing digital against traditional banking? Our best private bank accounts guide covers both sides.
