"Cheapest registered agent" has two honest answers: the absolute cheapest is being your own agent for $0 — but it costs you privacy and availability. Among paid services, the cheapest are the ones with the lowest renewal price (not just a free first year). Here's the real picture.
The genuinely cheapest option: $0 (be your own agent)
Every state lets you act as your own registered agent if you have a physical address there and are available during business hours. Cost: nothing. The catch is real, though — your address goes on the public record (scraped by data brokers and marketers), and if you miss a delivery you can miss a lawsuit. For many home-based founders, that privacy loss is worth more than the ~$120/year a service costs. See can I be my own registered agent?
This isn't a vague threat — you can see the public record yourself. Registered-agent names and addresses are filed with your state's business division and exposed in its free public lookup, for example the Delaware Division of Corporations entity search or California's Secretary of State business search. Search any LLC and the agent address comes right up — which is exactly the page data brokers scrape. Going DIY puts your home address on that page for free; a service puts theirs there instead.
Cheapest paid services, by renewal price
| Service | First year | Renewal / year | Address privacy included? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bizee | Free (with $0 formation) | ~$119 | No (add-on) |
| Northwest | Free (with $39 formation) | ~$125 | Yes — by default |
| ZenBusiness | $99 standalone (free on Pro/Premium) | $199 | No (add-on) |
| LegalZoom | $249 | $249 | No (add-on) |
Three things stand out. First, the "free first year" offers (Northwest, Bizee) are genuinely the cheapest entry. Second, the renewal is what you actually pay long-term — and there Bizee and Northwest (~$119–$125) are far below ZenBusiness ($199) and LegalZoom ($249). Third — and this is what price-only comparisons miss — the headline number isn't buying the same thing at each provider. Only Northwest puts its address on your public filings at no extra charge; the others list your address unless you pay for a privacy add-on. So Northwest's ~$6/year premium over Bizee isn't a price difference, it's a feature difference. Always check the renewal and what's included, not just the headline, and confirm current prices on each site.
"Cheap" first year vs. what you actually renew at
The cheapest sticker isn't the cheapest agent. Compare the renewal — the price you pay every year after the intro — not the first-year teaser.
Cheapest vs best value
Bizee edges out Northwest on pure price by a few dollars a year. But Northwest adds address privacy (their address on your public filings instead of yours) and a checkout without upsell pressure. For most people, paying about $6 more a year to keep your home address off public databases is the better deal — which is why we rate Northwest the best value, and Bizee the best for absolute lowest upfront cost.
The #1 hidden cost of going cheap: your address goes public
Here's the trade-off no price chart shows. The cheapest paths — being your own agent ($0) or a budget service without privacy — both put your real address on the public record, where data brokers scrape it and resell it. That's a genuine safety and identity concern, not just junk mail, especially for home-based founders. Buying that privacy back is itself a line item: at roughly $6/year more than the cheapest paid service, Northwest is the cheapest way to keep your address private, because it's included by default rather than sold as an add-on. So the honest framing is two winners — Bizee wins lowest sticker price; Northwest wins lowest price with privacy. Decide which one you're actually buying before you compare numbers.
Want the rock-bottom upfront option instead? Bizee forms your LLC for $0 plus the state fee with a free first-year agent — just decline the add-ons at checkout. Not sure what your state's filing and annual fees are? Our LLC cost calculator has all 50 states, verified.
How to keep your total cost down
- Choose a service by its renewal price, not the free first year alone.
- Get your EIN free directly from the IRS — it costs $0 there, so don't pay a service for it.
- Use a free operating-agreement template for a simple single-member LLC.
- Decline expedited filing unless you truly need the speed.
- Treat switching as a strategy, not a hassle: the cheapest service is sometimes the one you switch from. A change-of-agent filing costs about $0–$50 with your state, and dropping from a $199–$249/year provider to a ~$125/year one recoups that in the first year — every year after is pure saving. See changing your registered agent.
Prices and state fees change and vary by state — confirm current figures on the provider's own pricing page and your Secretary of State site before you buy. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.