TL;DR
The five best-known registered agent services renew at $124.99 to $199 per year. Rocket Lawyer charges $124.99 and requires a paid membership on top, Northwest Registered Agent charges $125, BusinessAnywhere $147, Bizee $149 and ZenBusiness $199. Two of the five waive the first year when you form the company through them, which changes the ranking over three years. Every price on this page was taken from the provider’s own pricing page on 8 September 2026.
- Lowest three-year cost: BusinessAnywhere at $294, then Bizee at $298. Both figures depend on forming the company through that provider.
- Cheapest standalone renewal: Northwest Registered Agent at $125 per year, with a domain, phone line, business address and mail scanning included in that price.
- Free first year: BusinessAnywhere and Bizee, in both cases only when the company is formed through them. Neither offers it on a standalone agent order.
- Largest jump at renewal: ZenBusiness, $99 for the first year and $199 every year after.
- Only price that requires a second subscription: Rocket Lawyer, $124.99 plus a Rocket Lawyer Plus or Pro membership.
- The number to compare is the multi-year total, not the first year. A registered agent is a permanent requirement for as long as the company exists, so the renewal is the price you pay repeatedly.
Disclosure: BusinessAnywhere publishes this page and sells a registered agent service that competes with the four other providers listed here. The pricing table below is ordered by published renewal price, which puts BusinessAnywhere third. The three-year table is ordered by total cost, which puts BusinessAnywhere first, and that position rests on a free first year that is conditional on forming the company through BusinessAnywhere, the same condition Bizee attaches to its own free year. Every competitor figure links to the page it came from so you can check it.
Registered agent pricing compared, September 2026
The table shows what each provider publishes for registered agent service. State filing fees, company formation fees and add-on packages sit outside these figures. Where the first year is free, the condition attached to it is stated in the row.
| Provider | First year | Renews at | What the price covers | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocket Lawyer | $124.99 | $124.99 per year | Registered agent service. A Rocket Lawyer Plus or Pro membership is required on top. | rocketlawyer.com |
| Northwest Registered Agent | $125 | $125 per year | Registered agent service plus a domain name, business phone line, business address, business email, mail scanning, brand protection, an open-source website and legal forms. | northwestregisteredagent.com |
| BusinessAnywhere | $0 with formation | $147 per year | Registered agent service in all 50 states, with scanned documents delivered to an online dashboard. The free first year applies when the company is formed through BusinessAnywhere. The renewal price does not rise. | businessanywhere.io |
| Bizee | $0 with formation | $149 per year | Registered agent service. The free first year applies only when the company is formed through Bizee. | bizee.com |
| ZenBusiness | $99 | $199 per year | Registered agent service. The renewal is double the first-year price. | zenbusiness.com |
How to read a registered agent price
The renewal is the number that matters
Every US state requires a company to designate a registered agent and keep one continuously. That makes the service a permanent line item, not a one-off purchase. The first-year price is paid once. The renewal is paid for as long as the company exists, so it carries far more weight in any comparison run over a realistic holding period.
Three of the five price the first year below the renewal. BusinessAnywhere and Bizee waive it entirely when the company is formed through them. ZenBusiness charges $99 and then $199. Northwest and Rocket Lawyer charge the same amount every year. Over three years the ranking is close to reversed:
| Provider | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Three-year total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BusinessAnywhere | $0 | $147 | $147 | $294 |
| Bizee | $0 | $149 | $149 | $298 |
| Rocket Lawyer | $124.99 | $124.99 | $124.99 | $374.97 plus three years of membership |
| Northwest Registered Agent | $125 | $125 | $125 | $375 |
| ZenBusiness | $99 | $199 | $199 | $497 |
A waived first year is worth one year of the renewal price and nothing more. It stops deciding the comparison once enough years pass for the annual gap to catch up. Against Northwest at $125 a year, BusinessAnywhere’s free year is spent by year seven and Bizee’s by year seven as well. A founder who expects to hold the company for a decade should compare $125, $147 and $149 as flat annual numbers and treat the free year as a rounding item.
What the fee does not cover
The registered agent fee is separate from the money the state takes. Three costs sit outside it:
- The state filing fee to form the company. This runs from $35 in Montana to $520 in Massachusetts. The LLC cost by state table lists the current figure for all 51 jurisdictions.
- The annual report or franchise tax. California charges $800 a year in franchise tax on top of any agent fee. Delaware charges $400.
- A change of agent filing. Most states charge to record a new registered agent, and that fee is paid to the state rather than the provider.
An EIN is not part of any registered agent package and does not need to be. The IRS issues EINs free, and the guide on how to obtain an EIN for your LLC covers the process for both US residents and founders based outside the country.
Rocket Lawyer: $124.99 per year plus a membership
Rocket Lawyer lists registered agent service at $124.99, renewing annually, and states that a Rocket Lawyer Plus or Pro membership is required to buy it. The published price is the lowest of the five, and it is also the only one that cannot be bought on its own. The membership is a separate recurring charge, so the real annual cost is $124.99 plus whatever tier you hold. Source: rocketlawyer.com, checked 8 September 2026.
Rocket Lawyer sells the agent service as one component of a legal subscription that also covers document templates, e-signature and attorney questions. That bundle earns its price for a business that uses legal documents regularly. For a founder who wants an address for service of process and nothing else, the membership requirement makes it the most expensive option on the list rather than the cheapest.
- Suits: a business already paying for a Rocket Lawyer membership.
- Does not suit: anyone buying registered agent service alone.
Northwest Registered Agent: $125 per year
Northwest Registered Agent charges $125 per year for registered agent service and includes a domain name, a business phone line, a business address, a business email address, mail scanning, brand protection, an open-source website and legal forms at that price. Source: northwestregisteredagent.com, checked 8 September 2026.
That is the lowest standalone renewal of the five and the widest bundle at any price on this list. There is no free first year, so the three-year cost is $375 and the ten-year cost is $1,250. That ten-year figure is the lowest of any provider here that can be bought on its own, because by then the waived first years elsewhere have been absorbed by the higher renewals.
The bundled extras carry a trade-off: a domain, a phone line, an email address and a website tie parts of your business identity to the same vendor that holds your legal address. Moving away later means moving more than one thing.
- Suits: a US-based founder who wants the lowest recurring price and will use the bundled address and mail scanning.
- Does not suit: a founder who wants to keep the domain, phone and address with separate vendors.
BusinessAnywhere: free first year with formation, then $147 per year
BusinessAnywhere waives the first year of registered agent service when the company is formed through BusinessAnywhere, then charges $147 per year in all 50 states. The free year is stated on its own formation pricing table, with the footnote that the service is $147 a year after the first year. Documents are scanned and delivered to an online dashboard rather than posted on. Sources: businessanywhere.io and the business registration pricing table, checked 8 September 2026.
This is the same conditional offer Bizee runs, and it should be read the same way. The free year is tied to buying formation from the same company, and it is worth exactly one year of the renewal. What separates the two is what happens afterwards: $147 a year here against $149 at Bizee, and the renewal figure does not rise at any point.
At renewal it is $22 a year more than Northwest, and it is the option built around founders who do not live in the United States. A non-resident founder needs a US street address for service of process, a way to receive physical mail, and a company that will take an EIN application through the phone and fax route the IRS reserves for applicants without a Social Security number. Those three needs are handled in one place here, and the virtual mailbox service works from the same dashboard.
- Suits: founders based outside the United States, and anyone forming a company now who wants the first year at no cost and a mailbox on the same account.
- Does not suit: a founder who already has a company and wants agent service on its own, since the free year does not apply, and anyone holding the company long enough for the $22 annual gap against Northwest to matter.
Bizee: free for the first year, $149 after
Bizee gives the first year of registered agent service free when the company is formed through Bizee, then charges $149 per year. The free year is not available on its own: it is attached to the formation order. Bizee positions its $149 renewal against competitors it says charge $199 to $249. Source: bizee.com, checked 8 September 2026.
This is the standard formation-service model. The filing is priced at or near zero, and the recurring agent subscription recovers the cost for as long as the company exists. The free year is a real saving over a short horizon: $298 across three years against $375 for Northwest. It stops being one in year seven, which is where the $24 annual gap between Bizee and Northwest cancels the waived first year. Against BusinessAnywhere, which runs the same conditional free year, Bizee costs $2 a year more from year two onward.
The same arithmetic applies to every offer marketed as a free company filing. The free LLC formation breakdown sets out what those packages include and what they leave for the renewal.
- Suits: a founder forming a company now who wants the first year at no cost and will review the price again before renewal.
- Does not suit: a founder holding the company past year six, where the $149 renewal overtakes Northwest’s $125, and anyone adding agent service to a company Bizee did not form.
ZenBusiness: $99 for the first year, $199 after
ZenBusiness lists registered agent service at $99 for the first year and $199 per year at renewal. The renewal is the highest of the five and slightly more than double the introductory price. Source: zenbusiness.com, checked 8 September 2026.
ZenBusiness bundles compliance monitoring and annual report reminders with the agent service, and the price reflects that. A company that wants a single vendor watching filing deadlines across several states has a case for paying it. A company that wants an address for legal documents is paying $74 a year more than Northwest for the same underlying function.
- Suits: a business that wants compliance monitoring bundled with the agent service.
- Does not suit: a price-sensitive buyer, and anyone who will forget that $99 becomes $199.
Which registered agent service suits which buyer
No single provider wins on every axis. Matched to the buyer, the choice resolves quickly:
- Lowest cost over ten years or more: Northwest Registered Agent at $125 per year, with no free year to expire.
- Lowest cost over the first three years: BusinessAnywhere at $294, provided the company is formed through BusinessAnywhere.
- Founder living outside the United States: BusinessAnywhere, for the US address, the mail handling and the EIN route that does not require a Social Security number.
- Moving an existing company to a new agent: Northwest at $125, since neither free-first-year offer applies to a standalone order.
- Already paying for legal document software: Rocket Lawyer at $124.99, since the membership is already sunk.
- Multi-state company that wants deadlines tracked: ZenBusiness at $199 per year.
The renewal gap across the whole list is $74 a year. That is smaller than one late-filing penalty in most states, so reliability of delivery outranks the price difference. A missed service of process can produce a default judgment. Choose on whether documents reach you fast and in a form you can act on, then use price to separate providers that both clear that bar.
What a registered agent is required to do
A registered agent is the person or company designated to receive service of process, state correspondence and tax notices on behalf of a business. Every US state requires one, and the requirement holds for as long as the company is registered.
- A physical street address in the state of formation. No state accepts a PO box for this purpose.
- Availability during normal business hours. The agent has to be present to accept documents in person.
- An address on the public record. The agent’s address appears on the state business register and is searchable by anyone.
The full explanation of the role sits in what is a registered agent, and the state-by-state rules are set out in registered agent requirements by state.
Can you act as your own registered agent instead
Yes, in every state, provided you hold a physical street address in the state where the company is formed and can be there during business hours. Doing it yourself costs nothing. The two costs are not financial: your home address becomes public record on the state business register, and you have to be physically present to accept legal documents, which rules out travel during business hours.
Acting as your own agent is not available in a state where you hold no street address, which is what makes a commercial agent mandatory for anyone forming outside their home state or outside the country. The trade-offs are worked through in can I be my own registered agent.
How to switch registered agent
- Sign up with the new provider first and get the address and consent details you will need on the state form.
- File the change with the state. The form is a statement of change of registered agent or equivalent, filed with the Secretary of State, and most states charge a fee to record it.
- Wait for the state to confirm the change before you cancel the old service. A gap in coverage puts the company out of good standing.
- Cancel the previous subscription and check that auto-renewal is switched off.
- Update the agent details on every other state where the company is registered as a foreign entity. Each state holds its own record.
The change takes effect when the state records it, not when the new provider accepts the order.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest registered agent service?
It depends on the period. Over three years BusinessAnywhere is cheapest at $294 and Bizee second at $298, because both waive the first year when the company is formed through them. Over ten years Northwest Registered Agent is cheapest at $1,250, because its $125 renewal is the lowest and it has no free year to expire. Rocket Lawyer publishes the lowest headline figure at $124.99 but requires a Rocket Lawyer Plus or Pro membership on top.
How much does a registered agent cost per year?
Commercial registered agent services renew at $125 to $199 per year among the five best-known providers. Northwest charges $125, BusinessAnywhere $147, Bizee $149 and ZenBusiness $199. Rocket Lawyer charges $124.99 plus a required membership. Acting as your own registered agent costs nothing but requires a street address in the state of formation and your presence during business hours.
Is a free registered agent service actually free?
The free year is real, and it is conditional. BusinessAnywhere and Bizee both waive the first year of registered agent service when you form the company through them, then charge $147 and $149 per year. Neither offers the free year on a standalone agent order. ZenBusiness charges $99 for the first year and $199 after. Because a registered agent is required for as long as the company exists, a waived first year is worth one year of the renewal and the renewal decides the rest.
Do I need a registered agent in every state where my company is registered?
Yes. A registered agent is required in each state where the company is formed or registered as a foreign entity. A company formed in Wyoming and registered to do business in California needs an agent with a street address in both. Most national providers cover additional states at the same per-state annual rate.
Can a non-US resident use a registered agent service?
Yes. There is no residency or citizenship requirement to own a US company or to appoint a registered agent, and a commercial agent is the standard route for founders living outside the United States, because acting as your own agent requires a street address in the state of formation. BusinessAnywhere covers all 50 states, waives the first year when the company is formed through it, and charges $147 per year after that.
Can I be my own registered agent?
Yes, in every state, provided you hold a physical street address in the state where the company is formed and can be there during normal business hours. No state accepts a PO box. The address goes on the public state business register, and you have to be present to accept service of process in person, which is the reason most founders who travel use a commercial agent.
What happens if my registered agent misses a legal document?
The company can lose a case by default. Service of process starts a clock, and a lawsuit that is served on the registered agent and never reaches the owner can end in a default judgment without the owner knowing a claim was filed. Missed state correspondence carries a smaller penalty, which is loss of good standing and reinstatement fees.
How do I change my registered agent?
Sign up with the new provider, file a statement of change of registered agent with the Secretary of State in every state where the company is registered, wait for the state to record the change, then cancel the old subscription. Most states charge a fee to record the change. Do not cancel the old service before the state confirms, because a gap puts the company out of good standing.
