Count the bills a hypothetical one-person HVAC business pays in a month: the supply house a few times, two subcontractors, an equipment rental, a parts order or two. Say they add up to 12 payments, all sent by bank transfer.
Run those 12 through Melio’s free Go plan. The first 5 ACH payments cost nothing and the other 7 cost $0.50 each, so the month comes to $3.50. The number to watch, if you keep your books in QuickBooks Online or Xero, is 10: Go syncs only the first 10 payments to either one.
Go is free for one login, the owner, with 5 free ACH payments a month and $0.50 for each one after that. Its QuickBooks Online and Xero sync is limited to the first 10 payments, and it has no W-9, 1099, batch-payment or approval tools. A second login, sync past those 10 payments or W-9s and 1099s for your subs all start at Core: $25 a month, or $20 a month billed annually, plus $10 a month for each extra user ($8 billed annually).
The bigger free-payment allowances on Core and Boost don’t cover the step up in price that comes with them. Only Unlimited, a flat $80 a month with unlimited users and ACH payments, can undercut the plans below it, and whether it does depends on your logins and payment count together. Annual billing is about 20% cheaper, but Melio’s subscription fees are non-refundable.
Prices are Melio’s US list prices per account, before tax, from its pricing page, its Help Center plan comparison and the Melio Payments Terms of Service (last revised June 24, 2026), checked October 19, 2026. Nothing here comes from using a Melio account, and every business below is a hypothetical example.
Running your month through Go’s three limits
Melio calls Go “free forever,” and there’s no subscription fee. What the plan limits is who can sign in, how many payments go out free, and how much of your payment history reaches your books.
One login. Go is limited to the owner, and if a Go account had admins, Melio disables their access. Core and Boost include one user and charge $10 a month per additional user ($8 billed annually). Unlimited includes unlimited users at no extra cost.
Melio doesn’t say whether an outside bookkeeper added with its Accountant role counts as a paid user, so ask before you budget for one.
Five free ACH payments a month. After that, each standard bank-transfer payment costs $0.50. The allowance covers ACH payments only; paper checks and faster delivery have their own fees, on every plan.
QuickBooks Online and Xero sync for the first 10 payments. That’s the wording in Melio’s plan table, and its pricing FAQ describes Go as including up to 10 QuickBooks/Xero syncs. Melio doesn’t say whether that count ever resets, so don’t count on it resetting. Payments past it won’t sync automatically on Go.
Go also has none of the bill-pay tools that start on Core: W-9 collection from contractors, 1099 e-filing, scheduling several bills at once and approvals. For the HVAC owner above, the $3.50 month is cheap. The sync limit is the part to weigh.
Why 20 or 50 free payments don’t pay for the plan
| Plan | Free ACH payments a month | Price a month (billed annually) |
|---|---|---|
| Go | 5 | $0 |
| Core | 20 | $25 ($20) |
| Boost | 50 | $55 ($44) |
| Unlimited | Unlimited | $80 ($64) |
Core’s 20 free payments are 15 more than Go’s. At $0.50 each, those 15 are worth at most $7.50 a month, against a $25 fee. So for a single login, on payment fees alone, Core costs $17.50 to $25 a month more than Go: $25 if you send 5 or fewer payments, $17.50 once you send 20 or more.
Boost’s 50 free payments are 30 more than Core’s, worth at most $15 against a price that’s $30 higher. For the same logins, Boost always costs at least $15 a month more than Core.
Unlimited is the one plan whose price doesn’t grow with logins or payments: $80 a month, or $64 billed annually, however many of either. That makes it the only paid plan that can undercut the cheaper ones, and the point where it does depends on both numbers at once, as the examples below show.
Which plan matches the way your office pays bills
Here is the lowest plan for each thing a small service business might need from Melio’s bill pay, from Melio’s plan table.
| If you need… | Lowest plan | Price a month |
|---|---|---|
| One login, a few ACH payments, no sync past the first 10 payments | Go | $0, then $0.50 per ACH payment after 5 |
| QuickBooks Online or Xero sync past the first 10 payments | Core | $25 ($20) |
| A second login | Core | $25 + $10 per extra user ($20 + $8) |
| W-9 collection and 1099 e-filing for subs | Core | $25 ($20), plus Tax1099’s standard fees |
| Several bills scheduled at once, or approvals by amount | Core | $25 ($20) |
| QuickBooks Desktop sync, or classes and locations on bills | Boost | $55 + $10 per extra user ($44 + $8) |
| Unlimited logins and unlimited ACH payments | Unlimited | $80 ($64) |
Core is where the bill-pay tools start. Besides unlimited QuickBooks Online and Xero sync and extra logins, it collects W-9s from your contractors and e-files 1099s through a sync with Tax1099. Melio’s 1099 help page notes that standard Tax1099 fees apply, so filing isn’t free on Core.
Core also lets you schedule several bills at once, combine bills to the same vendor into one payment, require approval by amount with more than one approver, add line items to bills, and get priority support.
Boost adds QuickBooks Desktop sync, classes and locations on bills, approval rules by vendor or by who scheduled the payment, gradual approvals, applying vendor credits (QuickBooks Online only) and a phone callback. For a small service business, it’s the plan for a Desktop user or a shop that tracks bills by class or location, not the automatic next step after Core.
If QuickBooks Desktop is the only thing pointing you at Boost, our QuickBooks Desktop to Online breakdown for small contractors covers which Online plan fits and what the move costs, which tells you whether Core’s Online sync could be enough.
Unlimited has everything in Boost, plus unlimited users, unlimited ACH payments and NetSuite sync.
What three example offices would pay each month
Your monthly cost comes from two numbers, standard ACH payments a month and logins, plus the billing choice. On monthly billing:
- Go (owner only): $0.50 × (payments − 5), when you send more than 5.
- Core: $25 + $10 × (logins − 1) + $0.50 × (payments − 20), the last part only above 20.
- Boost: $55 + $10 × (logins − 1) + $0.50 × (payments − 50), the last part only above 50.
- Unlimited: $80, for any number of logins and payments.
Billed annually, use $20, $44 and $64 for the plans and $8 per extra login. The $0.50 per payment over the allowance stays the same.
Example A: a solo HVAC owner, 1 login, 12 payments a month
This is the hypothetical business from the top, with its books in QuickBooks Online. On Go, 0.50 × (12 − 5) = $3.50 a month, but QuickBooks sync stops after the first 10 payments.
On Core, it’s $25 a month on monthly billing, since 12 payments fit inside the 20 free ones, or $20 a month billed annually, $240 for the year. Core costs this owner $21.50 a month more than Go, and that buys the sync and the W-9/1099 tools, not cheaper payments.
Example B: a remodeler, 2 logins, 45 payments a month
A hypothetical remodeler where the owner and an office manager both log in, sending 45 ACH payments a month. Core: $25 + $10 + 0.50 × 25 = $47.50 a month, or $20 + $8 + $12.50 = $40.50 billed annually. Boost: $55 + $10 = $65. Unlimited: $80, or $64 billed annually.
Core is the cheapest of the three here. Boost would be worth its extra $17.50 only if the business needs QuickBooks Desktop sync or class and location tracking.
Example C: six logins, 60 payments a month
A hypothetical contractor with six logins: the owner, two office staff, two project managers who approve payments and a bookkeeper set up as a paid user, sending 60 ACH payments a month. Core: $25 + $50 + 0.50 × 40 = $95. Boost: $55 + $50 + 0.50 × 10 = $110. Unlimited: $80, or $64 billed annually, the cheapest of the three before counting its unlimited ACH.
These three are examples, not cutoffs. Put your own logins and payment count into the formulas above; with fewer logins, Unlimited needs more payments a month before its $80 comes out ahead.
None of these totals includes the fees that are the same on every plan. Paying a bill by credit or debit card costs 2.9%, a paper check is $1.50, and same-day ACH or an instant bank transfer is 1%, up to $75. A hypothetical $3,000 supplier bill paid by card costs $87 whether you’re on Go or Unlimited, and 10 paper checks a month cost $15 on any plan. Melio lists custom transaction fees only on its invite-only Platinum plan.
If you also collect from customers by invoice, our PayPal invoice fee breakdown for card and bank payments covers the other direction: what comes out of the money customers send you.
Paying for a year at once, and what the trial leaves behind
Billed annually, Core, Boost and Unlimited cost about 20% less: $240, $528 and $768 for the year, against $300, $660 and $960 on monthly billing.
Melio’s Terms of Service make every subscription fee non-refundable, including for a billing cycle you don’t use, and plans renew automatically. A cancellation takes effect the day after the current billing cycle ends. You keep the paid plan until then, and the account moves to the free plan.
On annual billing, that cycle is the year you’ve already paid for. Melio doesn’t say whether an annual plan can switch to monthly partway through, so treat the year as spent once you choose it.
Changing plans is gentler if you start low. Melio’s help pages say an upgrade takes effect immediately, with the difference prorated onto your next bill, while a downgrade waits for the next billing cycle. Added users are prorated right away, removed users are credited on the next bill, and you can remove users without changing plans. Those help examples are written for monthly billing.
Melio’s pricing page currently offers paid-plan features free for the first 90 days, with no credit card needed, labeled a special offer in October 2026. If you haven’t subscribed by the end, the account converts to Go.
Melio says that at that point you lose the premium features “and any data from those premium features will be deleted.” Any extra logins also lose access, since Go allows only the owner. If you set things up during the trial that Go doesn’t include, decide on a plan before the trial ends.
From Go to Unlimited, sorted by logins and sync
Go holds up if you’re the only one paying bills, a handful of ACH payments a month is your usual volume, and you don’t need QuickBooks Online or Xero to keep syncing past the first 10 payments.
Core is the step when a second person needs to log in, your books need every payment synced, or you pay subcontractors you’ll need W-9s and 1099s for. Start it on monthly billing; an upgrade takes effect right away, and a downgrade only waits for the next cycle.
Boost is for QuickBooks Desktop or class and location tracking. Unlimited is worth pricing once your logins climb, because its $80 doesn’t move with them, but run the formula with your own logins and payment count before assuming it’s cheaper.
I give more weight to the login count and the sync limit than to the free-payment allowance, since neither Core’s 20 nor Boost’s 50 free payments covers the price step that comes with it.
Annual billing saves about 20%, and none of it comes back once paid. The plan worth paying a year ahead for is the one that has already carried a full billing cycle of your bills.