Northwest Registered Agent is one of the oldest legal filing services (founded in 1998), and we love their transparency. They're based in Spokane, Washington and “We’re just not annoying” and "Privacy by default" are their catch phrase. These are emblematic of this family owned company. They are one of the cheaper business filing services that we reviewed. However, it’s also one of the most poorly reviewed services. Unfortunately, although we love the company ethos, we can’t recommend them due to their low customer ratings.
Read our full guide on: Business Filing Services ⚖️
Northwest Registered Agent is a business filing service for forming LLCs, S-corps, and C-corps.
Northwest Registered Agent is one of the oldest company filing services. They were founded in 1998 in Spokane, Washington. You can see it’s a company that doesn’t take itself too seriously by reading their staff bios and titles including some gems like Chief Feelings Coordination Officer (C.F.C.C.) and Manager Of The Office Redundant Redundancies Procedures (O.R.R.P.).
👉 Try Northwest Registered Agent here
Typically, we put less emphasis on public review sites, but for this category, many of the options have thousands of reviews on TrustPilot, and the process for incorporating is typically very standardized. This increased our trust in their ratings, and the ‘wisdom of the crowd’, so we’ve taken them into account in our recommendations, but with one big caveat. As we dug into the TrustPilot scores, we noticed some discrepancies. One tool had one 5-star review, but their Trustpilot rating was 3.7. How could this be? We found that the TrustPilot score takes other factors into account like the age of the company and responding to negative reviews. We’ve calculated the TrustPilot score based on a simple weighted average and not taken the headline TrustPilot score. As with all our guides, we’ve tried to be guided by the data.
As you can see in the chart below, Northwest Registered Agent has a TrustPilot score of 3.2 (with over 81 reviews). Unfortunately, this is the lowest rating of the legal filing services that we reviewed.
👉 Sign up for Northwest Registered Agent
Comparing pricing between business formation services is a difficult task. Many companies will charge high add-on fees for things that other companies will include standard.
When it comes to comparing prices, you should be aware of two aspects: the cost to file your business, and the cost to maintain your business (Registered Agent fees). This section will focus on the cost to file your company and the next section will focus on the cost to maintain your company.
When filing your company, we view a couple of elements in addition to the core filing as essential: an Operating Agreement, EIN, and the first year’s Registered Agent service. The charts below compare the total price of filing across each of the major filing services including these essential elements.
Northwest Agent offers solid pricing relative to many competitors. However, it will be slightly more expensive to file and maintain your business than our recommended tool Bizee (Incfile).
👉 Sign up for Northwest Registered Agent
The major ongoing service related to your business filing is Registered Agent services. Many companies include the first year of Registered Agent services for free in their offerings and then charge steep fees after year one. This is an easy way for these companies to make additional money because it’s very easy to fall back on the business you filed your company with for ongoing Registered Agent services.
For Northwest Registered Agent, it will cost $125 to use their Registered Agent services. This is a great price relative to many competitors.
👉 Sign up for Northwest Registered Agent
When comparing processing times, there are two elements to consider. The first is how long it takes the service to file with the State for you once you have provided the necessary information. Then there will be the time that it takes for the State governments to process your business filing paperwork. This typically takes 1-2 weeks but depends on the State where you are filing. The government processing time will be the same no matter which service you use.
Northwest Registered Agent doesn’t advertise or guarantee their turnaround times, but they typically file your business within 1-2 business days. This is a great turnaround time and among the quickest in the industry.
👉 Sign up for Northwest Registered Agent
Northwest Registered Agent offers phone support by calling 509-435-9053 which is available Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST in addition to email support.
We’ve generally had positive experiences with their customer service. However, we’ve heard complaints of Northwest Registered Agent's support in customer interviews. These issues typically arise in two cases. The first is when the founder is trying to incorporate something other than a plain vanilla LLC or S corp. We recommend those founders instead use a lawyer for the incorporation process. The second case for complaints typically arises from people who make mistakes when entering the company info and are forced to remedy post filing. Our advice is to triple check everything before submitting it to avoid these situations.
Northwest Registered Agent does not have a business banking partnership. If you use Northwest Registered Agent to register your business, we recommend getting a business bank account. You can read our full guide on business bank accounts but the TLDR is that we recommend Mercury. They don’t charge a monthly fee, have higher FDIC insurance amounts, and have the best integrations of all the banks we reviewed.
Northwest Registered Agent pricing is straightforward. They will charge $100 for their filing service and $125 for their Registered Agent service. And in order to get an EIN, you will be charged another $50. So the first year will cost $275 plus state filing fees and post year one will cost $125 per year for their Registered Agent service.
👉 Sign up for Northwest Registered Agent
👉 Read our comparison of Northwest Registered Agent vs Bizee (Incfile)
Is Northwest Registered Agent LLC legit?
Yes, Northwest Registered Agent has been in business since 1998 and helped over 2 million companies incorporate.
Why not use Northwest Registered Agent?
Northwest Registered Agent has the lowest Trustpilot rating of the companies we reviewed.
Does Northwest Registered Agent give you an EIN?
Yes, for a $50 fee Northwest Registered Agent will get you a Federal Tax ID (EIN).
Where is Northwest Registered Agent located?
Northwest Registered Agent is headquartered in Spokane, Washington.
How many employees does Northwest Registered Agent have?
ZenBusiness has 22 employees listed on Linkedin.
What is Northwest Registered Agent’s cancellation policy?
They offer a 90-day refund policy that will give you all of your money back (less state filing fees) without any additional fees or charges.
Receive email updates when we drop a new guide.
