Updated October 6, 2026 · 6 services tested
We tested 6 registered agent services for Tennessee. Northwest Registered Agent is our pick: $125 first year, then $125/yr.
By Jon Morgan · Fact-checked by Jon Tobin, Business Attorney · How we test
Northwest Registered Agent
$125 first year, then $125/yrFree first year with its $39 LLCGet Northwest's agent service (opens in a new tab)
ZenBusiness
$99 first year, then $199/yrHalf price in year one when you switch to ZenBusiness (state fee extra)See ZenBusiness agent plan (opens in a new tab)
Harbor Compliance
$99 first year, then $159/yrFor new customersSee Harbor Compliance agent plan (opens in a new tab)Prices checked October 6, 2026.
We compared registered-agent pricing, documented features, and account observations for Tennessee founders. Our tests covered different service steps by provider, including LLC formation and active-agent account access where available.
Northwest Registered Agent remains our top pick. ZenBusiness ranks second at 4.7/5 for its guided platform and stronger public customer-review score, while Harbor Compliance ranks third at 4.6/5 and remains a strong option for multi-state compliance.
Compare providers on the renewal price, since that's the number you pay every year after the first.
Tennessee's own Annual Report fee stays completely separate from every figure in the table below, which lists providers in overall recommendation order and shows their ongoing renewal costs.
| Service | Agent price | RA bundled with formation | Service features | Score | Compare offers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $125 first year, then $125/yrFree first year with its $39 LLC | Yes (free first year with formation) | • Same-day scanning of legal mail • Files change-of-agent form for switchers • Home address kept off public filings | 4.9 | Get agent service (opens in a new tab) |
| $99 first year, then $199/yrHalf price in year one when you switch to ZenBusiness (state fee extra) | No (separate purchase, never pre-selected) | • Same-day scanning with an email alert • Address limited to legal and state mail • Never billed without a signup step | 4.7 | See plan (opens in a new tab) |
| $99 first year, then $159/yrFor new customers | No (sold separately) | • Entity Manager tracks standing in every state • No per-document scanning charge • 3-year prepay locks the $99/year rate | 4.6 | See plan (opens in a new tab) |
 | $124.99 first year, then $124.99/yrOnly with a Plus or Pro membership | No (Plus or Pro membership required; billed separately) | • Digital document delivery • Attorney consultations via membership • Paid Plus or Pro membership required | 4.5 | See plan (opens in a new tab) |
 | $249 first year, then $249/yr | No | • Documents scanned with time-sensitive alerts • Unlimited cloud storage • Not offered during formation checkout | 4.4 | See plan (opens in a new tab) |
 | $149 first year, then $149/yrFree first year with a Bizee LLC | Yes (free first year with formation) | • Dedicated tab for registered-agent mail • Free-year policy stated upfront on-site • Renewal billed apart from other tools | 4.3 | See plan (opens in a new tab) |
Prices checked October 6, 2026.
Each score combines support, price, features, privacy and security, compliance alerts and user ratings.
Refund: 90 days
Inside our Northwest Registered Agent account, the Registered Agent Details screen laid out the entity ID, address and renewal date in one place. Nothing was left ambiguous about the coming year's price.
Northwest Registered Agent's own address stands in for a customer's home address on the public filing, so no personal address turns up in a state database search.
The company also states it files the switch-over paperwork when a customer moves over from a different provider.
Its whole pitch rests on one steady number, a per-year renewal rate that has held for a long stretch, with no per-document scanning fee added later.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60 days
ZenBusiness states plainly on the signup screen that this is a separate purchase. It never ships automatically with an LLC order.
Skip that step during signup and the account just keeps an Appoint button waiting for later, with no surprise charge attached. Its mail policy stays just as narrow. That address accepts only court paperwork and state notices, nothing else.
Pros
Cons
Walking through Harbor Compliance's order wizard, the registered agent fee priced out on its own line instead of folded into one combined total.
Its own team told us documents get scanned into the Client Portal the same day they arrive, with nothing held up afterward.
That team also pointed to Entity Manager, a tool included with every registered agent subscription, as the main reason to pick this service. It tracks good standing across every state a customer operates in.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60 days
Rocket Lawyer sells this service on its own to anyone, though an existing Plus or Pro membership cuts the renewal price roughly in half.
Rocket Lawyer Corporate Services LLC, a company Rocket Lawyer owns outright, is the entity that actually carries out the role behind the account.
Membership itself bills apart from the registered agent fee, so anyone with one on hand saves real money on this line item alone.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60 days
Our formation order through LegalZoom never once surfaced this service during checkout. Anyone who wants it has to seek it out and add it separately afterward.
United States Corporation Agents, Inc., a company LegalZoom owns outright, actually handles the paperwork behind the scenes rather than a name buried in fine print.
No separate renewal figure gets published anywhere. Whatever a customer pays in that first year carries forward unchanged as the renewal rate.
Pros
Cons
Open any card for the complete review, scores and packages.
Refund: Before state payment
Bizee drops this service's price to zero for the first year whenever it ships with an LLC order, a policy printed plainly on its own site rather than tucked away.
We noticed the account keeps a tab set aside just for registered agent mail, separate from Bizee's other alerts. Anything routed there posted the moment a scan finished, with an email notice attached.
Pros
Cons
Our testing methodology combines provider research with account observations where access was available.
The ZenBusiness test purchased LLC formation only, without activating its paid registered-agent service; the Harbor Compliance assessment covered direct Q&A and a pricing and signup-wizard walkthrough without a paid order.
We average six numeric categories equally to calculate each overall score, rounding the result to one decimal place. The separate Tennessee Fit subsection adds context and is not a seventh numeric score.
ZenBusiness's six scores average 4.700/5; Harbor Compliance's average 4.633/5, giving displayed overall scores of 4.7 and 4.6, respectively.
A single plain question, sent before any money changed hands, exposed the widest gap between these six companies faster than anything else we tried.
Northwest Registered Agent answered fastest of the group, with ZenBusiness trailing only slightly on how directly its reply addressed what we actually asked.
Response time dropped off at the bottom of the list, where a simple question sat unanswered for days.
Renewal price matters more than the signup discount when comparing recurring costs. Harbor Compliance renews at $159 per year, compared with ZenBusiness at $199 per year, so Harbor earns the higher Price score: 4.7 versus 4.6.
Their current introductory rates both start at $99. Compare the final checkout total and any formation or multi-year conditions before deciding how much the first year will cost.
Northwest Registered Agent has the highest Features score at 4.8, while ZenBusiness and Harbor Compliance each score 4.7. Northwest's forms library and handling of agent-change paperwork add practical value beyond receiving documents.
Harbor Compliance's Entity Manager stands out for tracking registrations in multiple states, while ZenBusiness provides guided account tools through Velo. Those different strengths may matter more to an individual owner than the small numerical gap.
Northwest Registered Agent and Harbor Compliance share the highest Privacy and Security score at 4.9, while ZenBusiness scores 4.7.
We considered documented address-use policies and secure document handling alongside the account observations available to us.
An agent's address can replace a personal address in the registered-agent field, but it does not remove information required elsewhere on state filings.
ZenBusiness explicitly limits its agent address to legal and state mail, rather than general business correspondence.
Northwest Registered Agent and Harbor Compliance each score 4.9 for Compliance Alerts, while ZenBusiness scores 4.6. We considered the clarity and availability of deadline reminders; managed filing services, when offered, may carry a separate charge.
Public customer reviews are one input in our comparison, alongside service features and account observations. ZenBusiness earns a 4.8 User Ratings score; Harbor Compliance earns 3.9.
These are editorial category scores derived from the review snapshot checked on October 2, 2026, rather than ratings of a state-specific office.
ZenBusiness's score combines Trustpilot's 4.8/5 from 32,767 reviews and BBB's 4.04/5 from 817 customer reviews, weighted by review count. The result is 4.78/5, rounded to 4.8.
Harbor Compliance's score uses Trustpilot's 3.1/5 from 53 reviews, BBB's 1.0/5 from 8 customer reviews, and Birdeye's 4.2/5 from 245 Google reviews. The same weighting gives 3.93/5, rounded to 3.9.
Review counts and invitation practices differ across platforms, so these samples are not directly comparable measures of service quality.
BBB customer-review averages are separate from its business letter grades; Harbor's own site also reports a separate Google sample of 4.3/5 from 212 reviews.
The real local wrinkle here has little to do with the registered agent rule itself, which tracks Tennessee's Revised Limited Liability Company Act closely.
The actual complication is the separate Annual Report every LLC owes the Secretary of State on its own independent schedule, detailed in Quick Facts above.
No registered agent's renewal price on this page touches that separate state report, so budget for it as its own yearly line item.
Tennessee also skips the commercial-versus-noncommercial agent split that some other states write into statute, which keeps the compliance picture here a little simpler for a first-time filer.
Northwest Registered Agent's free change-of-agent filing and Harbor Compliance's multi-state entity tracker both save a step tied specifically to running a business that touches more than one state's calendar.
Standalone annual rates among these providers start at $125 and reach about $249 per year, excluding quarterly billing, prepaid discounts and paid membership requirements.
ZenBusiness starts at $99 and renews at $199; Harbor Compliance starts at $99 and renews at $159.
Rocket Lawyer's $124.99 annual (the same in the first year and every year after) agent add-on requires a separately paid Plus or Pro membership, so its agent fee is not the whole recurring bill.
That range has nothing to do with Tennessee's own Annual Report, a completely separate obligation every LLC owes the Secretary of State.
That report costs $300 for up to six members, plus $50 for each member above that, due April 1 for a calendar-year LLC.
Acting as your own registered agent costs nothing at all, as long as you can meet the state's address and availability requirement yourself.
Anyone comparing full LLC formation services instead should check our Tennessee LLC services guide, built from the same hands-on testing.
Tennessee's rule centers on naming an agent with a genuine street address, and the state's Revised Limited Liability Company Act spells out exactly who qualifies. The full requirements are listed below.
Yes, Tennessee requires every LLC and corporation to maintain one under the Revised Limited Liability Company Act, satisfied at a physical street address inside the state.
A registered agent accepts service of process and official state correspondence, then forwards it to the business at the address on file.
Yes, as long as you're a Tennessee resident with a qualifying street address and available there during regular business hours.
No, a P.O. box alone never satisfies Tennessee's rule. The registered agent needs a genuine street address where documents can be delivered in person.
Standalone annual rates on this list start at $125 and reach about $249, excluding prepaid discounts, with first-year promotions starting at $99. Rocket Lawyer requires a paid membership in addition to the agent fee.
File Form SS-4534 with the Secretary of State and pay the $20 fee, either online or by mail.
Yes. Every LLC owes an Annual Report to the Secretary of State, due April 1 for calendar-year entities, separate from any registered agent fee.
Every provider on this page handled Tennessee service of process correctly, and none put a customer's own address on the public filing. Renewal price and scan speed actually separated them.
Northwest Registered Agent stands out if you want one provider that handles the switch-over paperwork and never adds a per-document charge later.
Harbor Compliance costs $34 more a year, a fair trade if its extra tracking tools matter more to you than saving that difference.
If price is the only factor that matters to you, Northwest Registered Agent's flat $125 rate ($125 first year, then $125/yr) is still the strongest overall value on this page.
Rocket Lawyer is worth a look too, but only if you already carry a Plus or Pro membership.
ZenBusiness is our second overall choice at 4.7/5, combining guided account tools with the stronger public customer-review score.
Harbor Compliance ranks third at 4.6/5 and is still the specialist pick for owners tracking compliance across multiple states.
References
Our verdict
$125 first year, then $125/yr. 90-day money-back guarantee.
Prices checked October 6, 2026.