Bills wait in someone's inbox for sign-off and suppliers get paid late. Or you only pay a few suppliers a month and do not want a subscription for it. If you are comparing these two, you are probably a small business owner or a finance lead working out how much accounts-payable software you really need. One charges per seat plus per payment. The other starts free.
Both tools are affiliate partners of ours: we may earn a commission if you sign up through a button on this page, at no extra cost to you. That is why we also say when to pick neither.
| Bill.com | Melio | |
|---|---|---|
| Price we read | From $49 per user per month (Team $65, Corporate $89), plus per-payment fees (read 30 Oct 2026) | Free (Go, 5 free ACH/mo); Core $20/mo billed annually ($25 monthly) (read 7 Oct 2026) |
| Entry price | Essentials $49 per user/mo (read 30 Oct 2026) | Go free, 1 user; Core $25/mo or $20 billed yearly (read 7 Oct 2026) |
| How you pay | Per user per month, plus a fee per payment: ACH $0.59, mailed check $1.99 | Flat plan plus $10 per extra user ($8 yearly); ACH $0.50 past allowance, check $1.50 |
| Free plan or trial | 30-day trial before production billing, per BILL's developer docs | Free Go plan; paid plans start with 90 days free, no card |
| Best for | Growing finance teams with approval chains and accounting sync | Small businesses paying bills by bank transfer or card, starting free |
| Main catch | Seat price plus fees on every payment; NetSuite sync, API and SSO only on Enterprise | Each extra user adds $10/mo; if you do not subscribe after 90 days, paid-feature data is deleted |
Your accounting software already has bill pay built in and you pay only a few bills a month. Bill.com's seat price is overkill at that volume, and Melio's own dossier says a second tool adds little.
The bill-pay feature inside the accounting software you already run covers that need without another subscription.
Three people paying 30 suppliers a month by ACH, monthly billing. Bill.com Essentials: 3 × $49 = $147, plus 30 × $0.59 = $17.70, so $164.70 a month. Team, the first plan with automatic sync: 3 × $65 = $195 + $17.70 = $212.70 a month (read 30 Oct 2026). Melio Core: $25 + 2 × $10 = $45, with 20 ACH free and 10 more at $0.50: $45 + $5 = $50 a month. Boost: $55 + 2 × $10 = $75 a month, with 50 ACH free (read 7 Oct 2026).
Team: $65 per user a month (read 30 Oct 2026), the first plan with automatic 2-way sync to QuickBooks Online and Xero. Payment fees come on top.
Start with Bill.com →Go: free for one user, 5 ACH payments a month, then $0.50 each (read 7 Oct 2026). Move to Core, $25 a month or $20 billed yearly, when a teammate joins.
Start with Melio →Bill.com: $0.59 per ACH payment, $1.99 per mailed check, $19.99 per international USD wire and 2.9% when you pay by card (read 30 Oct 2026). Melio: ACH free up to your plan's allowance, then $0.50 each, $1.50 per paper check, $10 per wire and a flat 2.9% for card payments (read 7 Oct 2026).
If you have not subscribed, the account drops to the free Go plan, you lose the premium features, and data from those features is deleted. Note what you set up before day 90.
On Bill.com every plan charges per user; Corporate adds lower-cost approver-only seats, but the page does not price them. On Melio, Unlimited includes unlimited users; whether an Approver or Viewer counts as a paid user on Core or Boost is not stated in its help centre.
Bill.com syncs both ways with QuickBooks Online, Pro, Premier and Xero from the Team plan; NetSuite, Sage Intacct and others need Enterprise. On Melio's Go plan, Xero and QuickBooks Online sync is limited to the first 10 payments.
Bill.com: bill.com/product/pricing, re-read 30 Oct 2026, its accounts-payable page (29 Oct 2026) and its developer documentation. Melio: melio.com/pricing and its help-centre articles on plans and user roles, re-read 7 Oct 2026. We have not used either ourselves. Prices change: each one carries the date we read it, and our reviews are re-checked against the vendor pages. How we review.