I’ve tested the 11 best registered agent services in Texas. Here’s my review.

I’m usually a very skeptical person, especially when dealing with corporations that often make strong claims and promises in a bid to win your trust and get you to give them your hard-earned cash. 

That’s why I took it upon myself to thoroughly investigate the Texas registered agent industry and came up with a list of 11 major registered agent services in the Lone Star State.

Here are the results of my findings.

After spending months and months in front of a computer screen. I concluded that Northwest Registered Agent is the best registered agent in New York State. I don’t expect you to just take my word for it. Here are my reasons:

• They provide a registered address in all 50 states.
• They scan and upload ALL my mail.
• They provide an online account where I can view all my important documents.
• They charge $125 for their services. 
• They provide a simple sign-up system.
• They let me know about any and all compliance dates I need to meet to stay in good standing with the New York Department of State.
• They accept Service of Process on behalf of my New York LLC.

There is no other registered agent in Texas that offers this broad range of essential services that Northwest Registered Agent provides.

But the main highlight of their services is their customer support.

I got in touch with one of their customer service personnel and I was really impressed by the experience, calmness, and poise of the agent as he answered all my questions. This is after I barraged him with a myriad of questions about their services.

That’s the amazing thing about Northwest that you don’t get from other registered agents in Texas: highly experienced support personnel.

Northwest’s customer support personnel are good and it’s because of them that the agency ranks #1 on my list.

If you are ready to establish your Texas LLC, visit Northwest Registered Agent today.

Harbor Compliance was initially my top recommendation before I settled on Northwest.

They provided all the LLC services I needed to form my Texas business entity, including filing my Certificate of Formation with the Texas Secretary of State and a business name and street address in Texas, all at the affordable price of $99.

The dedicated account manager that they provided is always available (during normal business hours, of course) to answer any questions I have about their LLC services, but they don’t provide the small business advice you get from Northwest’s Corporate Guides.

Visit Harbor Compliance today and learn more about the services they provide.

*All listed prices are per state, per year, and do not include state fees or filing fees.

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My Process

I spent the better part of a year investigating the best registered agents in the state of Texas. Have a look at the process I used to arrive at my conclusion.

My Start

As you know by now, I’m prone to doubt most information I find on the interwebs and, given the times we are living in, I would excuse anyone who doesn’t trust every piece of information out there, especially when it comes to your finances. 

I applied this state of paranoia when establishing my business in Texas. A simple Google search of “registered agent services in the state of Texas” brought up a huge number of results, and I spent a while going through each of the over 50 companies to figure out who offered the best services at the best price. Ultimately, I was both confused and worn out from working through this whole procedure.

Then I had a brilliant idea: “If I can’t trust any of the claims made by each registered agent, why not try all of them?!” Granted, this sounds like a bit of a stretch, but it’s the only way I could differentiate between genuine and substandard agents.

So I chose 11 of the best registered agents in Texas and signed up for their services, which resulted in me establishing 11 new business entities and thus the process of reviewing their services had begun. Every review in this article is backed up with first-hand experience.

My Criteria

In order to decide which Texas registered agent was the best, I formulated a list of criteria to guide me during the investigation process.

First on my list was the features offered by each registered agent. Some companies, such as Northwest Registered Agent, provide a full suite of features at a specific price and don’t clutter my email inbox with incessant promotions. 

A proper Texas registered agent must provide all the basic essentials:

• A business address and name in the state of Texas to keep clients’ personal info off the public record
• Filing of an LLC Certificate of Formation with the Texas Secretary of State for the establishment of a new business
• An online account to save important business documents and offer compliance alerts that keep clients apprised of forthcoming filing deadlines with the Secretary of State.
• Scanning, uploading, and forwarding of ALL mail 
• A registered office and street address that can accept Service of Process during normal business hours.

A duplicitous agent uses shady pricing strategies to upsell and coerce clients into purchasing extra features. Any company that used this strategy was scratched off my list.

The second criterion was “mileage,” or a track record of dependability and delivery. It is pointless to hire a Texas registered agent service just to have them close down after a year due to insolvency. They had to be reliable.

Next I looked at their online sign-up. Some Texas agents have clumsy, out-of-date platforms that are difficult to use. With this in mind, the registered agent must have a sign-up procedure that is simple, with pre-filled forms. Nobody likes to enter the same information over and over again. This was the third factor I used to determine the most superior registered agent in Texas.

The final item on my checklist was the level of customer support given by each Texas registered agent. It’s quite aggravating when I contact a company’s support team only to be put on hold or referred to an online forum. Their customer support team had to be available at all times to guide clients through problems in an efficient and professional manner.

My Journey

Initially, I sorted through over 50 national registered agent service providers. But thanks to the internet, I was able to eliminate about a third of this number during my initial round of research for the top Texas registered agent.

This stage consisted of hundreds of negative reviews and comments. Some people expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of fundamental services, some with prices, and others with poor customer support. After this step, I eliminated the bulk of agents that provided terrible service, leaving only 16 firms that showed some promise.

For the following phase, I visited the websites of the remaining agents to look at their claims and promises. I quickly found enough grounds to exclude a few more.

Some agent services marketed their lack of experience as their strongest selling point. The idea that clients should trust you just because you’re a “new face” in the sector didn’t inspire much trust in me.

I wouldn’t want to entrust my Service of Process documents to the new kid on the block. Others even suggested they would use a facsimile machine to file my paperwork. Anyone still using a fax machine in the twenty-first century needs a reality check.

Ultimately, I was left with a list of 11 registered agents to review.

My Results

After weeks of researching these 11 registered agents, here are the results of my investigation:

My Favorite Registered Agent Service: Northwest Registered Agent

Northwest Registered Agent is the best Texas Registered Agent because their services are both inexpensive and dependable, and they make sure my business entity complies with all the legal requirements of the Texas Secretary of State. Furthermore, their customer support remains unrivaled in the registered agent industry.

My Experience

Northwest Registered Agent offers a wide range of features. 

They ensured that my Certificate of Formation was filed and submitted to the office of the Texas Secretary of State and that I had a business name and physical street address in Texas so that my personal info was kept off the public record. They scanned, uploaded, and forwarded all legal mail and important legal documents to my online document portal, and made sure that I received compliance alerts that reminded me of important filing deadlines, such as my annual report. These comprehensive and dependable services make sure that my company is in compliance with the Secretary of State.

Their customer support is an extraordinary component of the company.

When I called the support teams of the other registered agents on my list, I was given generic replies exclusively connected to their services, and I was eventually able to guess their answers before I had even posed a question. Northwest, on the other hand, is a different story. 

Their Corporate Guides are a group of specialists with backgrounds from various disciplines, such as law and accountancy, who have a lot of expertise in how to manage a Texas business entity.

When I called them for help, they took me through every step of the business formation process and were always there to give outstanding business advice, such as how to conduct a successful marketing campaign or how to attract the best staff for my nascent firm.

My Recommendation

I would definitely recommend Northwest Registered Agent to anybody who wants to form a business in Texas. Not only are they dependable but their customer service is also far superior to every other Texas registered agent service on this list.

They ensure that my Texas LLC (Limited Liability Company) is in good standing with the Texas Secretary of State’s office and their Corporate Guides are always ready to give exceptional business advice if you run into any problems during your everyday business operations.

They are somewhat more expensive than Harbor Compliance, at $125 per year, but their service is well worth the money.

Visit Northwest Registered Agent when you’re ready to establish your Texas business entity and need to maintain a registered agent in Texas that is dependable and trustworthy.

My Budget Pick: Harbor Compliance

Despite not providing the degree of business assistance I receive from Northwest Registered Agent, Harbor Compliance came in second overall because they supplied a personal account manager devoted to aiding me with the LLC formation process. They are also the least expensive Texas registered agent on this list, with a fee of $199.

My Experience

One aspect of Harbor Compliance I enjoyed was their straightforward approach. Their website was easy to navigate, which saved me a lot of time. You can see they have worked hard on all the bells and whistles.

Their marketing strategy mirrors their simplistic approach. They provide all the necessary services that my Texas LLC needs, with no hidden fees or clickbait bundles encouraging me to buy costly upgrades. They forwarded my formation papers to my office address, and Harbor Compliance told me that if and when I was served with Service of Process paperwork, they would notify me.

Following the sign-up procedure, they assigned me a dedicated account manager who answered all my inquiries about their registered agent service in Texas. 

The main difference between Northwest’s Corporate Guides and this dedicated account manager is that while the Corporate Guides understand my current business issues and go above their mandate to provide business advice, the account manager is limited to updating me about my account details.

My Recommendation

Harbor Compliance is a reputable Texas registered agent that provides reliable services, and they are also Texas’s most economical registered agent service at $199 plus state fees.

They will keep your Texas LLC on the right side of state law by ensuring that all your legal requirements with the Texas Secretary of State are met. Their website is also well designed and easy to use.

The dedicated account manager they provide is a welcome convenience, but they don’t provide any business advice. Their customer support is limited to registered agent services. Conveniently, if you’re establishing a business entity or transferring agents, they will provide a Statement of Change of Registered Agent form.

If you need a registered agent for your LLC that offers inexpensive services and a dedicated account manager, visit Harbor Compliance’s website today.

The Other Registered Agent Services

As part of my investigation, I evaluated nine other registered agents. In no particular sequence, here is a short synopsis of what I discovered.

Rapid Registered Agent—A few fun features

Rapid Registered Agent charges $120 plus filing fee for registered agent services in the state of Texas. They assisted me with a handful of the time-consuming forms required to guarantee I don’t anger the bigwigs in charge and, because I dislike paperwork, this was quite convenient for me.

They don’t provide my LLC with the same degree of customer service as Harbor Compliance or Northwest Registered Agent, but they are a dependable organization that will handle all my company’s legal requirements so I can focus on my everyday business activities.

Rocket Lawyer—Great for online legal services

Rocket Lawyer is not a full-service Texas registered agent. They are an online legal service that provides a few registered agent services, such as forwarding Service of Process and my legal mail to an online document repository that I may view at any time.

Despite the fact that they specialize in legal advice rather than registered agent service, Rocket Lawyer is a suitable alternative if your LLC requires a single firm to manage all the company’s filing requirements and legal obligations.

Team ‘Nothing Special’

The four Texas registered agent service providers listed below are so similar that it’s scarcely worth writing about them individually. Jumpstart Filings ($150 plus filing fee), ZenBusiness ($199), SunDoc Filings ($159), Registered Agents Inc. ($200), and Incorporate.com ($235) are fine, but not remarkable.

These LLC formation services dabble in the Texas registered agent service sector and provide what I want from a registered agent service for my company without giving anything new or notable.

Team ‘Big Brand’

Each of these is a well-known company that relies on a “Big Brand” reputation to provide Texas registered agent services: LegalZoom ($299), Wolters Kluwer ($305), and CSC Global ($299).

They’re quite content to charge outrageous fees for what is effectively the same product as everyone else’s since they all have fancy websites and competent marketing professionals. They also all provide additional LLC formation services, for a cost. Their customer service is adequate, but Northwest Registered Agent and Harbor Compliance give even better service for less than half the price.

Wrapping It All Up

While reviewing each Texas registered agent service, it occurred to me that there is only one firm that supplied all my LLC needs from a registered agent in Texas, and that is Northwest Registered Agent.

They charge $125 for the following services: 

• Submitting my mail and legal documents to an online document portal where I may access them. 
• Scanning, uploading, and forwarding my mail 
• Sending me compliance notifications to notify me of approaching filing deadlines with the Texas Secretary of State 
• Assigning me a registered office in Texas that is available during regular business hours to serve as a point of contact and accept Service of Process.

Their Corporate Guides are what propels them to the top of my list. They will help you from the start of your firm and beyond by offering superb business advice that will help you manage your Texas LLC (Limited Liability Company).

With Northwest Registered Agent, Texas LLCs are in good hands. If you are ready to form your business entity in the state of Texas, contact Northwest Registered Agent today.