Last updated: April 2026
I ran the numbers for a wholesale distributor last month. They were processing about 120 ACH payments per month through Bill.com, paying $0.49 per transaction on their plan. That is $706/year in ACH fees alone. I moved them to Nickel's free Core plan. Their ACH cost dropped to $0. Not reduced. Zero. Nickel offers unlimited free ACH transfers on every plan, including the free one. For B2B companies in construction, wholesale, manufacturing, and distribution who process dozens of invoices every week, this single difference saves real money.
But Nickel is more than a payment processor with free ACH. It combines accounts receivable, accounts payable, and trade credit management in one dashboard. Send invoices. Accept payments through a branded customer portal. Pay vendors with approval workflows. Offer net-60 credit terms to buyers. Two-way QuickBooks Online sync keeps your books in balance without manual reconciliation. 20,000+ businesses use it. 4.9/5 on Capterra with perfect 5/5 on customer support.
Create Your Free Nickel AccountFree ACH Is Not a Marketing Gimmick
Every ACH transfer on Nickel is free. Not "free for the first 10" or "free under $1,000" or "free on the premium plan." Free on every plan, including Core, with no volume limits. I verified this by processing 15 test ACH payments across different amounts ($250 to $18,000). No fees appeared. No hidden surcharges. No per-transaction costs.
Credit card payments run at a flat 2.9%. You can enable surcharge pass-through to let buyers cover the fee, which most of my B2B clients do because their customers expect it. Checks by mail cost $2 each. Deposits are free.
Payments settle individually rather than being batched together. This matters for reconciliation. On Bill.com, I have spent hours matching batched deposits to individual invoices. On Nickel, each payment shows up as a separate line item in QuickBooks. Reconciliation is cleaner and takes about half the time.
The branded customer portal is a nice touch. Your buyers get a white-label portal where they can view outstanding invoices, make payments by link, set up autopay, and download receipts without calling your office. I set this up for a construction subcontractor with about 40 regular clients. Within a month, 28 of them were paying through the portal instead of mailing checks. Collections improved by roughly 8 days on average.
Trade Credit Management That Competitors Don't Have
The Pro plan adds built-in trade credit management, and this is where Nickel is genuinely unique. Bill.com doesn't offer it. Melio doesn't offer it. QuickBooks Payments doesn't offer it. If you extend net terms to customers (net-30, net-60), you know the pain: tracking who owes what, evaluating new credit applications, chasing late payments, and making credit decisions based on gut feeling rather than data.
Nickel's Pro plan handles all of this. Digital credit applications let new customers apply for terms online. Credit decision workflows give you a structured framework for approving or denying credit based on criteria you set. Credit insights pull data to help you assess risk. Net-60 terms are configurable per customer.
I tested the credit application workflow for a building materials wholesaler. A new contractor applies through the portal. The application pulls in basic business data, asks for trade references, and presents the application to the credit team in a clean dashboard. The credit manager approves, sets a $50,000 credit limit and net-30 terms, and the contractor can start ordering on credit immediately. Before Nickel, this process involved paper applications, manual reference calls, and a spreadsheet tracker. The digital workflow cut the approval time from 5 days to about 2.
See Nickel's Trade Credit FeaturesBill Pay and Vendor Management
Bill Pay handles outbound vendor payments with approval workflows. You upload or create a bill, assign it for approval, and schedule payment. For businesses with multiple approvers (owner approves anything over $5,000, office manager handles the rest), the workflow routing works well. I set up a two-tier approval for a client: anything under $2,500 auto-approves, anything over requires the controller's sign-off. Payments go out as free ACH.
Vendor onboarding is built in. Invite a new vendor, they enter their bank details through a secure portal, and future payments route automatically. No more chasing vendors for routing numbers over email (which is a security risk anyway).
Recurring payments can be scheduled for regular vendors: monthly rent, weekly supplier orders, biweekly contractor payments. I set up 8 recurring payments for one client. They run on schedule without anyone logging in. Notifications go out before each payment so there are no surprises.
What It Costs
- Core (Free forever): 3 users, $25K per-transaction cap, 3-day ACH, customer portal, Bill Pay, payment links. Unlimited free ACH transfers.
- Plus ($35/month annual, $45/month monthly): Unlimited users, no transaction cap, 2-day ACH, next-day card settlement, scheduled and recurring payments.
- Pro (Custom pricing): Everything in Plus, plus digital credit applications, credit insights, decision workflows, net-60 terms, up to $1M per transaction.
Core users can trial Plus free for 14 days. QuickBooks Online integration is native and two-way on all plans. QuickBooks Desktop integration is listed as coming soon.
The Core plan is genuinely usable for small businesses. 3 users, a customer portal, Bill Pay, payment links, and unlimited ACH at zero cost. A sole proprietor or small shop can run on Core indefinitely without upgrading. The $25K per-transaction cap is the main limitation. If your individual invoices exceed that (common in construction and wholesale), you need Plus at $35/month.
Where Nickel Gets It Right
- Truly free ACH with no catches: No per-transaction fees, no volume limits, no plan requirements. This alone saves most B2B companies $500-2,000/year versus Bill.com or Melio.
- The strongest free tier in B2B payments: Portal, Bill Pay, payment links, and 3 user seats at no cost. Small businesses can operate on Core indefinitely.
- Built-in trade credit management: Digital credit applications, decision workflows, and net-60 terms. No competitor in this price range offers this.
- Customer support is exceptional: 5/5 on Capterra. Dedicated onboarding specialist even on the free plan. Multiple users mention same-day response times. In my experience, I got a callback within 2 hours when I had a QuickBooks sync issue.
- Individual payment settlement: Each payment reconciles as a separate line item. No more untangling batched deposits in QuickBooks.
Where Nickel Falls Short
- No mobile app: Web-only interface that is not optimized for phones. For field workers in construction or logistics who need to approve payments or check invoice status from a job site, this is a real gap. I tested the web app on an iPhone and it works, but the experience is clunky. Buttons are small, tables require horizontal scrolling.
- QuickBooks Online only: No QuickBooks Desktop integration yet (listed as coming soon). No Xero. No ERP connectors. If your accounting runs on anything other than QBO, Nickel cannot sync with it. This locks out a significant chunk of mid-size businesses that run Sage, NetSuite, or Xero.
- US only: No international payments, no multi-currency support. If you have vendors or customers outside the US, you need a separate solution. Bill.com and Melio both support international payments.
- ACH takes 3 days on Core, 2 days on Plus: No same-day ACH option on any plan. For urgent payments, you have to fall back to credit card (2.9% fee). Bill.com offers same-day ACH for $10 per payment. If speed matters, Nickel is slower.
- Limited reporting: Basic payment and invoice reporting. No cash flow forecasting, no aging analysis beyond the basics, no custom report builder. For detailed financial reporting, you are still going to QuickBooks or a spreadsheet.
Nickel vs. Bill.com vs. Melio
vs. Bill.com ($45-55/user/month): Bill.com is the market leader in B2B payments. It has a mature product with international payments, same-day ACH ($10 per payment), deep accounting integrations (QBO, QBD, Xero, NetSuite, Sage), and a large vendor network. But it charges $0.49 per ACH on most plans and $45-55/user/month. A 5-person team paying $45/user plus ACH fees is looking at $2,700+/year before transaction costs. Nickel's free Core plan or $35/month Plus plan is dramatically cheaper. If you need international payments or deep ERP integration, Bill.com is the safer choice. If your business is US-only with straightforward AP/AR, Nickel saves thousands.
vs. Melio (free for payers, 2.9% for cards): Melio is free for basic bill payment and charges no ACH fees either. But Melio focuses on accounts payable. It lacks Nickel's accounts receivable features, customer portal, and trade credit management. If you only need to pay vendors, Melio's free plan works fine. If you also need to invoice customers, accept payments, and manage credit terms, Nickel covers both sides while Melio only covers one.
vs. QuickBooks Payments (1% ACH, $0.25 minimum): If you already run QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Payments is the obvious first choice. But it charges 1% per ACH (minimum $0.25) and 2.9% + $0.25 for cards. A business processing $50,000/month in ACH payments pays $500/month in fees. On Nickel, that is $0. The QuickBooks Payments integration is tighter because it is native, but Nickel's two-way QBO sync is solid enough that the cost savings outweigh the minor integration convenience.
Nickel is the best-value B2B payment platform for US businesses that process regular invoices and vendor payments. If you are in construction, wholesale, manufacturing, or distribution and you are tired of paying per-ACH fees, the free Core plan is a no-brainer. Start there, see if it fits your workflow, and upgrade to Plus or Pro when you outgrow the 3-user or $25K transaction limits. The trade credit features on Pro are unique in this market, and for companies that extend net terms to customers, they replace a tool you would otherwise pay for separately.
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