Bluevine vs. Kabbage Loans 2023

Bluevine and Kabbage are two fintech lenders (also called online lenders or alternative lenders) that offer convenient business financing. They have a couple obvious differences―like how Bluevine offers larger credit lines than Kabbage―but if you’re looking for a business line of credit, it may be hard to figure out which online lender you ought to borrow from.

In this lender comparison, we’ll help you determine exactly that. We’ll look at some key factors, including your loan options, borrower requirements, and financing costs from each lender.

So by the end, you’ll see why we recommend Bluevine for most businesses―and why you might choose Kabbage instead.

As we’ve said, Lendio and LendingTree are both loan marketplaces (or lending marketplaces, if you prefer).

Since you’re interested in these two companies, you probably already have a pretty good idea of what that means―that they partner with lenders rather than extending loans themselves, that they let you compare your personalized loan options, and so on. You can think of them as business loan brokers, really.

To begin with, let’s look at the big picture.

Both Bluevine and Kabbage offer a business line of credit. If you’ve ever used a credit card, you already have a pretty good idea of how a business line of credit works: You get approved for a certain credit limit, and then you can borrow against that limit. As you repay what you borrowed, those funds become available to borrow again.

As you can imagine, that makes a business line of credit one of the more versatile financing options. After all, you don’t have to reapply for funding over and over―so you can use your funds for whatever working capital needs come up: 

• Buying inventory
• Covering a cash flow gap
• Launching a marketing campaign
• Making payroll
• Other working capital needs

But given that both lenders have the same product, how do you choose between them? Let’s talk about the differences between them.

Now, with a Bluevine line of credit, you can get a higher potential credit limit than with a Kabbage line of credit: $250,000 at Bluevine compared to $150,000 at Kabbage. Depending on what you need working capital for, that extra $100,000 could make a big difference.

Of course, applying with Bluevine doesn’t guarantee you a quarter-million credit limit. Your actual credit limit will depend on your borrower qualifications (your credit score and so on), so the maximum credit limit possible may not matter too much.

But if you’ve got stellar qualifications and want a bigger credit limit, Bluevine may be the better lender.

Whether you want a line of credit or invoice factoring, you’ll have to meet certain borrower requirements. 

Bluevine is much more transparent about its requirements than Kabbage. To get a Bluevine line of credit, your business needs to make $10,000 in monthly revenue ($120,000 in annual revenue). You’ll also need to have a 600 personal credit score, and your business needs to be at least six months old.

But Bluevine’s invoice factoring has much looser requirements than its line of credit. Even business owners with bad credit (a 530 credit score) can qualify for Bluevine factoring, as can very young businesses (just three months old). You’ll need a better credit score (600) and an older business (six months) to qualify for a line of credit.

Unfortunately, like we said, Kabbage isn’t upfront about what it expects from borrowers. Your business does have to be at least one year old―much older than Bluevine―but Kabbage doesn’t list a minimum credit score. (It used to accept poor credit, but that was before it overhauled its financing.)

Kabbage’s parent company, American Express, offers business loans to businesses that earn at least $100,000 in revenue. We suspect Kabbage has similar requirements, but we don’t know for sure. (For the record, we tried calling Kabbage to find out, but we were unable to get in touch with a human.)

Since we don’t know otherwise, we have to call a draw when it comes to borrower requirements―but we strongly prefer Bluevine’s transparency to Kabbage’s secrecy.

Let’s assume you get approved for your line of credit or invoice financing. How much will you pay for it?

Bluevine has very low starting interest rates on its credit lines: 6.2%. With a Kabbage line of credit, however, you pay a monthly fee rather than interest. These fees start at 2% for 6-month terms, 4.5% for 12-month terms, and 6.75% for 18-month terms. (These are total monthly fees, not individual monthly fees.)

So say you borrowed $10,000 from your credit line and you had the lowest possible rate from each lender. How would costs compare?

• For a six-month term, you’d pay Kabbage $200 in fees, while Bluevine would charge you $140.46 in interest.
• For a one-year term, you’d owe Kabbage $450 in fees, and Bluevine would take $261.90 in interest
• For an 18-month term, Kabbage would charge $675 in fees. Bluevine doesn’t offer 18-month terms.

As you can see, Bluevine's line of credit is the cheaper option―though your specific rate will, again, depend on your personal and business qualifications. 

One area Kabbage does better than Bluevine? It has longer repayment terms.

With a Kabbage line of credit, you can get up to 18 months to repay your Kabbage loan. That’s a solid six months more than you can get from Bluevine. And while a longer repayment term isn’t always better (after all, you’ll pay more in monthly fees if you have more months), it can mean a lower, more doable monthly payment.

That said, you do have to qualify for an 18-month repayment term―Kabbage doesn’t hand them out to just anyone. So even if you want a longer repayment term, you need to make sure you meet Kabbage’s standards and then some.

Still, Kabbage offers the longest repayment term between the two lenders.

As we noted earlier, both Kabbage and Bluevine work pretty quickly when compared with a traditional bank. 

Kabbage and Bluevine use automated algorithms to approve (or deny) your loan application. Basically, you’ll hook your lender of choice up with your business bank account (your business checking, more specifically). The lender will then use the algorithm to analyze your account and determine whether or not you qualify for funding―all in a matter of minutes.

That means that Kabbage and Bluevine can approve you the same day you apply.

Of course, you still have to get your money after you’re approved. Both lenders will deposit funds into your business checking account. With Kabbage, this takes up to three days. Bluevine says you can expect next-day funding if you choose an ACH transfer, or you can get same-day funding by paying a wire transfer fee. 

So either lender can get you money within a few days, but Bluevine’s same or next-day funding makes it the faster of the two.

One final thing to consider? Other financial products from these lenders.

Bluevine and Kabbage both offer business checking accounts―and pretty good ones at that. Neither charges a monthly fee (or most usual banking fees), and you can earn interest on your bank account balance. (You can learn more in our guide to the best online business bank accounts.)

Now, you don’t need to use Bluevine or Kabbage for lending in order to use their banking services―or vice versa. But it can be convenient to keep your financial products in one place, so we thought the banking was worth mentioning.

Bluevine’s bank account gets better reviews than Kabbage’s account does, but Kabbage also offers credit card processing in addition to its bank account. So we’re calling this one a tie.

While both Bluevine and Kabbage offer a convenient way to get a business line of credit, we think most business owners are better off going with Bluevine. That’s because Bluevine offers larger credit limits, has moderate and clear borrower requirements, and has more affordable starting costs.

Still, Kabbage is a perfectly viable choice―especially if you’d prefer a longer repayment term on your line of credit.

Want to see how Bluevine stacks up against another Kabbage competitor? Check out our comparison of Bluevine vs. Lendio.

To compare Bluevine and Kabbage, we scored each lender on its loan costs (interest and fees), borrower requirements (like minimum credit scores and business ages), customer reviews, and more. After calculating overall scores for the two lenders, we used those scores to form the basis of our comparison.

No, Kabbage and Bluevine are not the same lender. They are both online lenders that offer lines of credit―so they do have quite a bit in common―but they’re two different companies.

We think Bluevine is the better lender, since it offers more loan choices, more transparency with borrower requirements, and lower starting costs.

Bluevine was approved to offer SBA PPP loans, but that program has ended. It’s not approved to offer normal SBA business loans, though. (If you’re interested in SBA loans, we suggest looking at Fundera.)

Yes, Bluevine is a legit company. Thousands of satisfied customers have given it very positive reviews on Trustpilot.¹

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.