Updated October 6, 2026 · 7 services tested
We tested 7 registered agent services for Washington DC. 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 Washington, D.C. 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 using the renewal price in the table below, since that's the number you'll actually pay every year after the first one. The District's own Biennial Report fee stays completely separate 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) |
| $99 first year, then $159/yrFor new customers | No (sold separately) | • Entity Manager tracks multi-state deadlines • Same-day scanning confirmed by its own team • Priced as its own line item | 4.6 | See plan (opens in a new tab) |
 | $119 first year, then $119/yrIncluded in year one with its Entrepreneur and Complete LLC packages | No | • Legal notices delivered via online dashboard • Free email forwarding up to 3x/year • Physical forwarding costs extra | 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
Right after payment, Northwest Registered Agent's confirmation screen showed our registered agent details already filled in. The invoice downloaded as a PDF in a new browser window.
The provider states the service goes active immediately after payment in most cases, and the flat yearly rate carries through to renewal with no separate hike built in.
The dashboard home splits into three sections: Active Services shows the registered agent subscription on its own, separate from Active Orders, which tracks the formation filing.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60 days
The ZenBusiness compliance dashboard shows an unpurchased registered agent as its own tile, with an "Appoint ZenBusiness" button sitting right beside the amendment and annual report tools.
Checkout itself never adds the service by default, and a short video runs through the categories of mail it tracks.
The choice to add it comes with a plain statement that no charge applies until formation finishes, and that identical prompt reappears once more inside the post-payment application.
Pros
Cons
Harbor Compliance's own order wizard broke this service out as its own line item. It showed up as a separate yearly charge, clearly listed rather than folded into formation.
Its own team confirmed there's no dummy order option available. Once an order comes in, the system moves straight into the formation flow.
The provider states the registered agent address only receives legal and government notices, never routine business mail like bank statements.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 90 days
MyCompanyWorks says it delivers legal notices right away through its online dashboard instead of regular mail.
It also publishes its forwarding terms plainly. Legal documents get emailed free up to three times a year, then each extra one costs a fee.
Physical forwarding costs extra too, and MyCompanyWorks says so upfront rather than in fine print. Registered Agent Solutions, Inc., a Wolters Kluwer company, owns MyCompanyWorks and runs this service directly.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60 days
Rocket Lawyer's platform is fully web-based, with the review team finding the same features work equally well on desktop or mobile.
Rocket Lawyer Corporate Services LLC, a subsidiary the parent company owns and operates itself, actually does this job instead of Rocket Lawyer handling it under its own name.
Non-members pay the full sticker price. Anyone already holding a Plus or Pro membership for other legal paperwork pays roughly half that instead.
Pros
Cons
Open any card for the complete review, scores and packages.
Refund: 60 days
None of the six upsell screens in our documented LegalZoom checkout ever mentioned this service, from plan selection to the final review.
United States Corporation Agents, Inc. quietly handles this for customers who add it later. LegalZoom discloses it as a wholly owned subsidiary in its SEC filings.
There's no separate renewal figure published anywhere on the site either. Whatever a customer's first-year charge happens to be simply becomes the standing rate every year after, described only as subject to change.
Pros
Cons
Refund: Before state payment
Bizee's checkout flagged this service as free with formation well before the final order summary. The first year never came as a surprise.
Inside the account, a Registered Agent option sits under Company Details in the left navigation rather than tucked away inside a general settings menu.
Bizee states that anything sent to that address lands in the account's own mail tab, tracked apart from its other compliance and filing tools.
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 Washington, D.C. 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.
No category splits this roster wider than Support, and the registry numbers back that up.
Northwest Registered Agent holds the widest lead of any category here. ZenBusiness sits just behind it on a similar band, and Rocket Lawyer lands nearer the middle of the pack.
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. MyCompanyWorks scores 4.7 in this category.
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.
Harbor's unrounded mean of 4.633/5 is higher than MyCompanyWorks at 4.567/5. That explains their order even though both cards display 4.6/5 after rounding.
The District's own registered-agent rule is the real local wrinkle here, since it recognizes commercial and noncommercial agents as two genuinely separate categories.
A noncommercial agent, whether a named individual or an officer or employee of the company, can serve with a stated business address instead.
That structure is exactly why Harbor Compliance's commercial-agent-style dashboard fits D.C. especially well.
The $300 Biennial Report bill runs on its own two-year clock, unrelated to whatever a registered agent charges annually, per the deadline detailed in Quick Facts above.
Standalone annual rates among these providers start at $119 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 the District's own $300 Biennial Report fee, billed by the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection every two years regardless of who serves as agent.
Skipping every provider here costs nothing at all, but only if a qualifying noncommercial agent, whether a named individual or an officer or employee of the company, takes on that job directly with a stated address.
Anyone comparing full LLC formation services instead should check our Washington, D.C. LLC services guide, built from the same hands-on testing.
Washington, D.C.'s rule genuinely splits into two paths, unlike states that treat every registered agent the same. Here's the full list of what applies.
Yes. Every D.C. LLC must continuously maintain a registered agent under DC Code Title 29, whether that agent is a commercial provider or a qualifying noncommercial designee.
A commercial registered agent can serve, or a noncommercial registered agent can, whether that's a named individual or an officer or employee of the company, each with a stated address.
Yes, and the split is a real legal distinction here, not boilerplate. A commercial agent registers separately as one; a noncommercial agent is simply named with an address.
Standalone annual rates on this list start at $119 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.
Filing a statement of change with the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection switches your registered agent in D.C., for a $50 fee.
No. D.C. LLCs pay a $300 Biennial Report fee every two years instead, due April 1, separate from any registered agent's price.
None of the seven providers here put a customer's home address on the public D.C. filing. The real difference was how quickly each one confirmed an active account and what it actually cost every year.
Northwest Registered Agent is the pick for the strongest scores across the board and a renewal price that never moves.
Harbor Compliance is our third overall choice and a specialist option for anyone tracking compliance deadlines across more than one entity.
A Rocket Lawyer Plus or Pro membership already on your account makes that discounted rate worth considering first. Without one, Northwest Registered Agent's flat $125 a year ($125 first year, then $125/yr) is the simplest number to budget against.
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.