Updated October 6, 2026 · 5 services tested
We tested 5 registered agent services for Virginia. 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)
Rocket Lawyer
$124.99 first year, then $124.99/yrOnly with a Plus or Pro membershipSee Rocket Lawyer's agent plan (opens in a new tab)Prices checked October 6, 2026.
Virginia is stricter than most states about who can serve as your LLC's registered agent. We used every registered agent service reviewed here and compared what happened in each account after we paid instead of relying on what a signup page promised.
Northwest Registered Agent won this roundup with the strongest scores of the group, backed by a checkout that lets customers keep their own address off the public filing.
ZenBusiness took second by asking for a paid step upfront instead of adding it automatically.
Compare providers using the renewal price in the table below, since that's the number you'll actually pay every year after the first one. Virginia's own annual registration fee is a completely separate cost from any registered agent's price.
| 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) |
| $124.99 first year, then $124.99/yrOnly with a Plus or Pro membership | No (Plus or Pro membership required for the discount) | • Membership cuts the renewal price in half • Digital delivery, not physical mail • Available without a formation purchase | 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
Northwest Registered Agent's checkout offered a privacy choice before payment, letting us either use its own address on the public filing and keep ours private or list our own instead.
We chose to keep our information private, and the registered agent details were already filled in on the screen below that choice.
Minutes after paying, a welcome email arrived from a real staff member with a direct contact instead of a no-reply address.
It scans every legal notice with no yearly limit, according to the provider, while regular mail gets a capped number of scans each year.
The dashboard's Registered Agent screen lays out the active service's renewal date and price plainly. That yearly rate holds steady at renewal, the provider says, with no separate hike built in.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60 days
ZenBusiness explains up front what a registered agent actually covers. A short video during checkout walks through the mail types it watches for, before anyone pays.
The choice to add ZenBusiness comes up twice, first on a screen before payment that states plainly no charge applies until formation finishes. The same choice resurfaces again inside the post-payment application.
Skip both prompts, and the compliance dashboard still keeps an "Appoint ZenBusiness" button ready next to the amendment and annual report tools. The option never disappears.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60 days
Rocket Lawyer's own review team found phone support resolved most issues on the first call, with email answers from Incorporation Specialists arriving quickly.
Rocket Lawyer runs this service through its own company, Rocket Lawyer Corporate Services LLC, rather than handling it directly under the parent brand's name.
A Plus or Pro membership, sold separately, cuts the registered agent rate roughly in half. Without it, this is the priciest renewal on this page.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60 days
United States Corporation Agents, Inc., a company LegalZoom owns outright and discloses in its own SEC filings, carries out the registered agent duties behind the scenes.
Our documented LegalZoom checkout ran through six separate upsell screens before payment, and none of them ever offered this service. Anyone who wants it has to add it separately afterward.
No fixed renewal figure appears anywhere on the site. LegalZoom never publishes a separate renewal number, so the price a customer first pays simply becomes next year's bill too, with a note that it's subject to change.
Pros
Cons
Refund: Before state payment
Bizee's dashboard keeps a dedicated Registered Agent screen. It sits right under Company Details in the left sidebar instead of being buried inside general settings.
The registered agent service ships free for the first year with every formation order. That's stated plainly on the order confirmation instead of tucked into fine print.
Any document sent to that address gets uploaded to the account's mail tab, Bizee says. An email notice goes out the moment it posts.
Pros
Cons
We used every registered agent service reviewed here and compared what each account actually delivered after payment. Our full testing methodology walks through exactly how that process runs.
Seven weighted categories combine into the score shown on each card above. The seven sections below break down what separated these five providers from each other.
Support scores split this group more than most other categories we track, and the registry reflects that spread.
Northwest Registered Agent leads the roster by the widest margin here. ZenBusiness sits close behind it on the same score band. Rocket Lawyer's support score sits closer to the middle of the group.
Opening discounts fade after year one, so this category weighs the figure that actually shows up on the renewal invoice.
On renewal-year value, Northwest Registered Agent and ZenBusiness tied for the top score. Without its membership discount, Rocket Lawyer's $249.99 renewal is the highest figure on this page.
Every provider's feature list reads about the same on the surface, so the real split shows up in what stays free versus what quietly turns into a paid extra.
Northwest Registered Agent's document handling pulled clearly ahead here. LegalZoom and ZenBusiness trailed only slightly behind it. Bizee's feature set covers the basics without much beyond a scan-and-notify step.
Not one provider on this page lists a customer's own home address on a public Virginia filing. They differed instead in how clearly each one spelled out what that address could be used for afterward.
No other provider came close to Northwest Registered Agent in this category, since its checkout-stage privacy choice spells out that scope plainly. ZenBusiness tied with Rocket Lawyer for the next-highest score.
A deadline reminder that lands on time outweighs nearly any other feature on this list, since missing that window undoes whatever else a provider offers.
Northwest Registered Agent posted the top score here outright. ZenBusiness wasn't far off the pace. Alert detail drops off further down the roster.
Public reviews don't always match what our own account testing turned up, which is exactly why this category gets scored on its own instead of folded into a testing note.
Northwest Registered Agent carries the strongest public rating of the five. ZenBusiness sits closest behind it. LegalZoom and Bizee sit level at the bottom of this category.
Virginia's own rule about who can serve as agent is the real local wrinkle here. It rules out a random friend or relative the way many other states allow.
Only an insider with a qualifying company position, a licensed Virginia State Bar member or an authorized business entity can take the job personally.
That narrower rule is exactly why a professional service carries more weight here than in a looser state.
Virginia also skips the commercial-versus-noncommercial registered agent split several other states write into their own statutes, treating every qualifying agent under a single set of rules.
Renewal prices across this group span $125 to $249.99 a year, with Northwest Registered Agent's flat rate anchoring the low end and Rocket Lawyer's non-member rate topping the range.
That range has nothing to do with Virginia's own $50 Annual Registration Fee. The State Corporation Commission bills that separate yearly charge to every LLC on its anniversary month, regardless of who serves as agent.
Skipping every provider here costs nothing at all, but only if a Virginia resident with a qualifying company position, or an authorized business entity, takes on the job directly.
Anyone comparing full LLC formation services instead should check our Virginia LLC services guide, built from the same hands-on testing.
Virginia's rule for who can serve is narrower than most states write into their own law. Here's the full list of what applies.
Yes. Virginia law requires every LLC to continuously maintain a registered agent with a real Virginia street address for as long as the company exists.
Virginia limits the role to a resident holding a qualifying company role, a licensed Virginia State Bar member, or an authorized business entity. A random friend without one of those roles cannot serve.
An individual member, manager, or officer of the LLC who lives in Virginia can serve personally. The LLC itself can never act as its own agent.
A registered agent in Virginia costs between $125 and $249.99 a year on the renewal basis.
Rocket Lawyer's discounted $124.99 membership rate lands close to Northwest Registered Agent's $125 flat price, while its $249.99 non-member rate sits at the top of that range.
Filing a statement of change with the State Corporation Commission switches your registered agent in Virginia, done online through the Clerk's Information System or by paper form, with no filing fee.
No. Virginia LLCs pay a $50 Annual Registration Fee instead, due by the last day of the LLC's anniversary month, separate from any registered agent's price.
Every provider on this page keeps a customer's home address off the public Virginia filing. Yearly cost and how clearly each one explained its own process separated them most.
Northwest Registered Agent is the pick if you want the strongest overall scores and a privacy choice built into checkout. ZenBusiness is the strongest runner-up if you'd rather review the covered mail list before you commit to anything.
If you already carry a Rocket Lawyer Plus or Pro membership, that discounted rate is worth a look. Otherwise, Northwest Registered Agent's $125 yearly price ($125 first year, then $125/yr) is the easiest one to plan a budget around.
References
Our verdict
$125 first year, then $125/yr. 90-day money-back guarantee.
Prices checked October 6, 2026.