TL;DR. Two Ultimate Rewards business cards at different price tiers. Ink Preferred ($95) earns 3x on travel, shipping, internet/phone, advertising (combined $150k cap). Ink Business Premier ($195) earns 5x on Chase Travel, 2.5x on purchases of $5k or more, 2x on everything else. Premier wins for businesses with chunky large purchases. Preferred wins for everyone else.
The three dimensions that actually decide it. First, large-purchase earning. Ink Business Premier's 2.5x on purchases of $5k or more is unique among UR-earning cards and is the main reason to upgrade. Second, fee. $100 difference. The Premier needs roughly $10,000 in large-purchase spend at 2.5x to net out the fee gap. Third, welcome bonus. Preferred's 100k bonus on $8k spend in 3 months is one of the best in the business card category. Premier's $1k cash-back bonus is less efficient on a per-point-per-dollar basis.
Real customer scenario for each. If you buy $50k a year in equipment, software licenses, or contractor payments individually exceeding $5k each, Premier earns 125,000 points on that spend at 2.5x, worth roughly $2,500 in transferable currency. If instead your spend is in $50 to $500 increments, Preferred's 3x on travel and ads category dominates.
The trap to avoid. Counting 2.5x on "large purchases" without realizing each transaction must be $5k or more on its own to qualify. Splitting a $4,000 invoice into two $2,000 transactions earns 2x, not 2.5x. Verify your business actually makes single transactions at the threshold.