10 Best Fundbox Alternatives of 2023

So you’re a small-business owner in need of funding, but you don’t think Fundbox is quite the right lender for you. No problem―we’ve rounded up 10 Fundbox competitors that might work better for your business.

We researched dozens of business lending companies to find lenders with similar (or lower) borrower requirements to Fundbox. Then we looked at loan options, rates and fees, funding times, and more to find the 10 best options.

So whether you want a lender that can fund you quickly or that has flexible borrower requirements like Fundbox―or a lender with lower loan costs―we’ve found a lending company for your business.

As a business owner, choosing the right financing option for your company can feel daunting. Let’s talk about some ways to narrow things down.

First, think about what kind of loan or non-loan funding you want. Fundbox, for example, offers just lines of credit (LOCs). LOCs offer revolving financing that you can use over and over again, making them great for day-to-day cash flow needs. But if you need cash while you wait for customers to pay their invoices, invoice factoring might be the better option. When you know the loan type you want, you can start looking just at lenders who offer that type of funding.

To further narrow down your options, look at your qualifications. What kind of revenue does your business earn? How long has your business been around? And how high of a credit score do you, the business owner, have? These all influence what kinds of lender and loans you can qualify for.

You can also think about factors like these:

• Financing costs (including interest and fees)
• Application approval timeline
• Funding timeline (when money appears in your bank account)
• Repayment term (how long you have to repay your loan)

So if, for example, you need funding ASAP and you can afford to pay a little more, you’ll know to focus on lenders that offer same-day funding rather than lenders that offer the lowest loan fees.

Put simply, there are plenty of ways to evaluate potential lenders and loans. Before you know it, you’ll find the perfect financing option for your business’s specific borrowing needs.

Our favorite Fundbox alternative for most businesses is Lendio.

Lendio works as a lending marketplace, which means it doesn’t extend its own loans. Instead, it works with lending partners (including Fundbox and some of the lenders on this list) to offer a variety of loan options.

Here’s how that works: You submit one application to Lendio, and a loan specialist uses your info to shop around for relevant loan offers. After a day or two, you get a list of those offers and get to pick the one you like best. You’ll finalize your loan application with the lender you chose, and then get funded and repay your loan through that lender.

In other words, Lendio is a loan matchmaker of sorts. And since it lets you compare offers, Lendio can help you pick the cheapest loan or the biggest one you qualify for―or whatever factor matters most to you―without having to individually apply with lots of lenders to shop around.

The only real downside? Matchmaking can take time. While Lendio can sometimes get your offers within 24 hours, the process can easily take two or three days. Then you have to factor in approval time from the lender itself and then the time to actually get your cash―making Lendio one of the slower options on this list.

Still, with more than 75 lending partners that offer all types of funding (from lines of credit to term loans to invoice financing), Lendio makes it easy to find top-notch funding―making it a great Fundbox alternative.

If you like the marketplace concept but aren’t quite sold on Lendio, Fundera offers a great alternative.

In fact, Fundera works pretty much the same way Lendio does. You submit your one application, and Fundera does some personal shopping for you. Then you get loan offers just for your business, pick the one you like, and finalize everything with your chosen lender―easy peasy.

So why pick Fundera over Lendio? Mostly it comes down to lender preference. There’s a lot of overlap between Fundera and Lendio’s lending partners, but they do have some differences. If there’s a lender you’re very interested in, it makes sense to choose the lending marketplace that lender partners with―which may be Fundera. Plus, Fundera offers the chance to get matched with personal loans for your business, if that’s a thing that interests you.

Of course, since Lendio and Fundera have so much in common, Fundera has similar drawbacks to Lendio―namely the approval and funding timeline. Again, loan matchmaking doesn’t happen instantly. If you need cash right away, Fundera’s lending marketplace could be too slow.

But if you’ve got a little patience, Fundera’s lending marketplace can help you find a perfect loan for your business.

Need money today or tomorrow? Take a look at Bluevine.

Bluevine is one of the fastest lenders on this list. Depending on the type of financing you get and the funding method you choose, Bluevine can get money in your bank account the same day you apply―or a day or two after at most. (Even Fundbox offers just next-day funding.)

For the fastest funding, you’ll want a Bluevine line of credit. Your application can get approved within five minutes. Then, if you choose a wire transfer (which does come with a small fee), you can get funds in your bank account just a few hours later. If you opt for Bluevine’s invoice financing or to get funded via ACH transfer, you can expect things to take a day or two more.

Keep in mind, though, that Bluevine’s very fast line of credit comes with slightly higher borrower requirements than Fundbox does. Bluevine wants a minimum of $120,000 in annual revenue (compared to Fundbox’s $100,000), and it’s not so willing to flex on the six month minimum time in business like Fundbox is. Sure, Bluevine’s invoice financing has lower requirements―but it isn’t quite as fast.

Either way, though, Bluevine offers faster funding than most lenders out there, making it ideal for businesses that can’t get cash fast enough.

OnDeck works great for business owners that plan to borrow again and again.

That’s because OnDeck offers some incentives to repeat borrowers. Take its origination fee. For new borrowers, that’s a flat 5% fee. But repeat borrowers can get discounts on that origination fee, ending up with a loan fee as low as 0%. Not bad, right?

Likewise, OnDeck offers repeat lower interest rates to many repeat borrowers, giving you another way to save money on your next loan. And if you apply for a new loan while you’re still paying off your old one, OnDeck may even waive the remaining interest on your first loan.

That said, even OnDeck’s incentives for repeat borrowers don’t make it a super affordable lender. APR (annual percentage rate) on its business loans and lines of credit starts at 35.2%. Sure, that’s not a worse deal than you’d get from Fundbox, but it does make OnDeck more expensive than lenders like Bluevine and Backd.

But while it may not be the cheapest lender out there, OnDeck can at least make your next loan cheaper―and that can be worth a lot.

Backd is a direct lender that specializes in helping more established businesses get financing. It has the highest borrower requirements of any lender on this list. But what does that mean for you? Put simply, good loan options and great rates. Backd offers lines of credit and working capital.

So if you’re a small business owner who can meet Backd’s stricter borrowing criteria (a minimum of two years in business, for starters), this lender can offer you a loan as big as $2 million. 

Something we also love is that Backd has the most flexible repayment requirements we’ve seen for a line of credit. Backd allows for terms of six months or 12 months. As you need funds, your credit automatically reloads when you pay your balance. There is no need to contact an agent each time you need more funds.

Now, we’ll be honest, Backd has intense restrictions on which industries it will work with.  Some industries Backd will not work with include financial services, real estate services, government or non-profit agencies, cannabis, and adult entertainment to name a few. If you are in an industry they are open to, you are in luck.

Wish Fundbox lines of credit came with a longer repayment term? Then let us introduce you to Kabbage.

Kabbage works a lot like Fundbox, with a similar automated (and near-instant) approval process on its business lines of credit. But unlike Fundbox (which gives you a maximum repayment term of 24 weeks) or even Bluevine (which gives you up to 12 months), Kabbage has repayment terms of up to 18 months―giving you more time to repay your credit draws.

That said, not every business can qualify for an 18-month term (you may end up with a 6- or 12-month term instead). And like Fundbox, Kabbage uses a pricey fee structure instead of traditional (and usually cheaper) interest.

But if you want a long time to pay your credit line, Kabbage has the terms you need.

Looking for a merchant cash advance instead of Fundbox’s line of credit? Meet Lendr.

Lendr offers both invoice factoring and merchant cash advances (MCAs). And while we don’t routinely recommend MCAs for most businesses, Lendr is one of the better cash advance companies out there. It has excellent customer reviews and transparent fees, so we’re more comfortable recommending Lendr than other cash advance companies.

But do keep in mind that Lendr MCAs have all the drawbacks of any merchant cash advance. They’re pricey with a potentially confusing fee structure, so you need to make sure you understand what you’re signing up for.

If you’re confident you want a merchant cash advance, though, Lendr offers one of the better places to get one.

If you use PayPal to accept credit card payments, you might prefer PayPal Working Capital to Fundbox.

PayPal Working Capital uses financial data from your PayPal account to determine whether or not you qualify for a business loan. There’s no credit requirement or anything―PayPal just wants to see that you have consistent credit card sales. If you do, you can get pre-approved for a PayPal Working Capital loan. And after finalizing your application, you can get funded in minutes.

Unfortunately, you can’t manually apply for a PayPal Working Capital loan―you have to wait for PayPal to offer you one. And while PayPal doesn’t publish loan rates and terms, we’ve seen reports that it charges high fees.

Even so, PayPal Working Capital loans offer tons of convenience for business owners that actively use PayPal already.

Square Capital works just like PayPal Working Capital, except for Square users.

That means that you need to have a Square account that you use to process credit card payments. If Square likes the volume and value of your credit card transactions over time, it may reach out to offer you a working capital loan. If you accept, you can get money the next day.

But as with PayPal, you can’t choose to apply for a Square loan―Square chooses you. And as with most working capital loans out there, Square loans come with high fees that make them an expensive option.

For Square users, though, Square Loans may be the easiest and fastest way to get business financing.

Stripe Capital, as you can guess, offers working capital to small-business owners that process credit cards through Stripe.

So just like PayPal Working Capital and Square Loans, Stripe Capital looks at your creditworthiness based on credit card sales rather than your credit score or other factors. That can make Stripe Capital easier to qualify for than lenders like Fundbox. And with next-day funding, Stripe is still plenty quick.

As with other credit card processors, though, Stripe doesn’t offer manual loan applications. And again, while Stripe doesn’t advertise its loan costs, you should expect it to be one of the more expensive financing options out there.

Still, if you already use and like Stripe for payment processing, you may find it simple and convenient for your business loan needs too.

If a business line of credit from Fundbox isn’t quite what your business needs, you can turn to one of our alternative lending options instead.

Lendio and Fundera offer the best way to compare loan options and get the perfect deal for your business. If you need funding right away, though, Bluevine can get you money sooner. For business owners who care more about saving money on future loans, OnDeck has the best incentives for repeat borrowers. 

Our honorable mention lenders also offer strong alternatives to Fundbox, with fast funding and approval processes and relatively loose borrower requirements.

Want to see even more business lender options? Check out our list of the best small-business loans.

To qualify for a Fundbox line of credit, your business needs to be at least six months old with $100,000 in annual revenue, and you need to have a 600 personal credit score. 

Keep in mind, though, that these are minimum qualifications. Meeting them is not a guarantee that you’ll get approved.

To get our list of the best alternatives to Fundbox, we researched more than 50 lending companies. From those 50, we chose lenders that offer similar borrower requirements, lending products, and funding timelines as Fundbox does. We then ranked those lenders based on factors including loan amounts, interest rates and fees, and accessibility.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.