Most LLC owners pick their registered agent during formation without thinking about it. The formation service offers it as an add-on, sometimes free for the first year, and you check the box. Then the renewal hits: $199, $249, sometimes $299/year for a service that costs $99 to $125 elsewhere. By the time you notice, you have already been paying the higher rate for a year or two.
This is not a scam. It is a business model. Formation companies make most of their revenue from recurring services, not from the one-time formation fee. The $0 formation was never free. You are paying for it every year through an inflated registered agent renewal.
| Provider | Year 1 | Renewal | 2-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| LegalZoom | $249 | $249/yr | $498 |
| Registered Agents Inc | $200 | $200/yr | $400 |
| ZenBusiness | $99 | $199/yr | $298 |
| Harbor Compliance | $99 | $99/yr | $198 |
| Northwest RA | Free w/ formation | $125/yr | $125 |
| Bizee (Incfile) | Free w/ formation | $119/yr | $119 |
Prices as of April 2026. LegalZoom and ZenBusiness prices are for standalone registered agent service, not bundled formation packages. Year 1 "free" assumes you used the provider for LLC formation.
The service itself is identical across all of these providers. They receive your legal mail at their address and forward it to you electronically. That is the entire job. The price difference is not about quality. It is about how each company makes money.
One year of overpaying feels small. Five years makes it obvious.
| Provider | 5-year total | vs. Northwest |
|---|---|---|
| LegalZoom | $1,245 | $620 more |
| ZenBusiness | $895 | $270 more |
| Bizee (Incfile) | $476 | $151 less |
| Northwest RA | $625 | -- |
| Harbor Compliance | $495 | $130 less |
Assumes year 1 rate + 4 years at renewal rate. Northwest: $0 (year 1 with formation) + $125 x 4 = $625. Does not include formation fees or state filing fees.
If you formed your LLC with LegalZoom and kept their registered agent for 5 years, you paid $1,245 for registered agent service alone. The same 5 years with Northwest costs $625. That is $620 you spent on the exact same service: receiving mail and forwarding it to you.
They assume switching is hard. It is not. You file a one-page form with the Secretary of State. Most states process it online in a few days. The fee is $0 to $50 depending on the state. We wrote a full guide on how to change your registered agent.
They do not realize the renewal price is different from the introductory price. ZenBusiness charges $99 for year 1 and $199 for every year after. Bizee gives you a free year and then charges $119. The first-year price is a customer acquisition cost, not the real price. Check your next invoice.
Auto-renewal is on by default. Every formation service enables auto-renewal when you sign up. Some make it difficult to cancel. A recurring complaint in LegalZoom reviews is that cancelling requires a phone call to their retention team, not an online toggle. ZenBusiness has similar complaints on BBB and Trustpilot.
The job is simple: receive legal and government documents at a physical address in your state and forward them to you. Everything else (compliance calendars, document storage, business address) is a nice-to-have, not a reason to pay $249/year. Here is what matters:
Physical office in your state. Required by law. Some budget services use mail forwarding arrangements that may not technically qualify. Ask before signing up.
Same-day document scanning. When a process server delivers lawsuit papers, you need to see them that day. Not in 3 to 5 business days. Not by postal mail. Same-day electronic delivery is the baseline.
Reliable compliance reminders. Annual report and biennial statement deadlines vary by state. A good agent sends you reminders before they are due. This costs the agent nothing to provide, so any service that charges extra for it is padding the bill.
Privacy. Your registered agent address goes on the public record instead of your home address. If the service does not put their address on your state filing by default, they are not providing privacy. Check what address appears on your Secretary of State record.
If you are currently paying $199 or more per year, any of these three will save you money and provide the same core service.
| Provider | Price | Key feature |
|---|---|---|
| Northwest RA | $125/yr | Privacy included, files switch for you |
| Harbor Compliance | $99/yr | Lowest price, all 50 states |
| Registered Agents Inc | $200/yr | Includes annual report filing |
Northwest is the most common switch for people leaving LegalZoom or ZenBusiness. $125/year, flat, no price increases for existing customers. They also file the change-of-agent paperwork for you and pay the state filing fee when you switch to them. For a full breakdown, see our Northwest review.
Harbor Compliance is the cheapest option at $99/year if you only need basic registered agent service. Registered Agents Inc costs more ($200/year) but includes filing your annual report, which saves you from tracking that deadline yourself.
Sign up with your new agent. File a Change of Registered Agent form with your Secretary of State ($0 to $50). Cancel your old service. That is it. If you switch to Northwest, they handle the filing for you. The full process is in our step-by-step guide.
Northwest files your change-of-agent paperwork and pays the state fee when you sign up. Same service, lower price, no upsells.
Will I lose any documents if I switch agents? No. Your new agent starts receiving documents from the date the state processes the change. Your old agent should have forwarded everything they received while they were active. Download any stored documents from your old provider's portal before cancelling.
Does my LLC name or EIN change when I switch? No. Changing your registered agent does not affect your LLC name, EIN, operating agreement, bank accounts, or tax status. It only changes the name and address on file with the Secretary of State for receiving legal documents.
Can my old agent refuse to let me switch? No. The change is filed with the state, not with your old agent. They do not need to approve it. You should still notify them to stop billing, but they cannot prevent the switch.
Is the cheapest agent always the best choice? Not necessarily. The cheapest standalone agent is being your own agent (free), but that puts your home address on public record and requires you to be available during business hours. Among paid services, the differences below $200/year are mostly about features like compliance reminders and annual report filing, not the core registered agent function. See our full cost comparison for more detail.
Find out which states require foreign qualification and see the registered agent cost for each.
This guide provides general information based on publicly available pricing from formation service providers. Prices may change. Verify current rates on each provider's website before signing up. Some links on this page are affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you.