Which business loan type fits your needs?
Five questions to a shortlist of loan types that fit. Each answer progresses your shortlist toward better compatibility, ranked by what matters most to you.
Not a loan application. For informational purposes only.
How the business funding guide works
Answer five questions — how fast you need the money, what it's for, how long you've been in business, roughly what you make, and your credit picture. Each answer removes the business loan types that don't fit and states the reason they leave. A sixth choice ranks what's left by the priority you pick: speed, cost, flexibility, or amount. The result is a shortlist of funding options matching your situation, not a score or a sales pitch.
The eight business funding types on the board
The guide compares eight products: SBA 7(a) loans, SBA Express loans, conventional term loans, business lines of credit, equipment financing, DSCR loans, revenue-based financing, and merchant cash advances. Every business starts with all eight; your timeline, purpose, and profile decide which survive. For what each product is and who it fits, see eight types of business funding, explained.
How your funding roadmap is ranked
Surviving products are ordered by the priority you choose. Ranking by cost puts the cheapest capital first — usually SBA or bank products. Ranking by speed favors what funds in days over what funds in weeks. Flexibility favors revolving structures like a line of credit; amount favors products that scale with your deal. The ranking is a default sort of the same shortlist, not a recommendation to take the top item — the roadmap shows the tradeoff each product carries.
What this guide does not determine
Fit is not approval. The guide reads your answers against each product's typical requirements; a lender reads documents. It also doesn't price your specific offer — two lenders can quote the same product very differently. When you have real numbers in hand, the other tools take over: run an advance offer through the merchant cash advance calculator, check the SBA loan eligibility checker, or put two offers side by side in the business loan comparison calculator. When you're ready to see real options, check your funding range — no hard credit pull.