Business Banking · France (FR)
Qonto
French neobank for SMEs and freelancers — invoicing, expenses, IBANs in one app.
The switch
PayPal→Qontoalso replaces QuickBooks
About
French business finance platform offering business accounts, payment cards, expense management, and invoicing — all in one app. Licensed as an EU payment institution. Designed for European SMEs and self-employed.
Why we recommend it
- EU payment institution licence
- Real French IBAN + local IBANs in DE, ES, IT
- Team expense cards with spend limits
- Built-in invoicing + accounting integrations
- 500,000+ European businesses
EU vs USA
Qonto vs PayPal
Side-by-side on jurisdiction, data residency, and the rules that decide who can actually read your data.
Criteria
🇪🇺 Qonto
🇺🇸 PayPal
Headquarters
Paris, France
San Jose, CA, USA
Jurisdiction
France (GDPR + ACPR regulated)
USA (CLOUD Act, FISA 702)
Data location
EU (France)
Global, US-controlled
GDPR-native
Yes
No
CLOUD Act / FISA exposed
No
Yes
Ad tracking
No
Yes
End-to-end encryption
No
No
Open source
No
No
Ownership
Qonto SAS (private, €5B valuation)
PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL)
Founded
2016
1998
Compare head-to-head