Choosing the right Colorado registered agent service is crucial to the success of LLCs and corporations.
The right Colorado registered agent will make sure that your LLC (limited liability company) meets all the legal requirements set forth by the Colorado Secretary of State, as well as keeping your personal information off the Colorado Secretary of State’s website and off the public record.
The wrong Colorado registered agent will be careless with your personal information, which can lead to it falling into the hands of hackers and scammers. They can also leave your Colorado business vulnerable to lawsuits if they don’t ensure that your company remains in good legal standing with the Colorado Secretary of State.
So if you don’t feel like you can afford to lose the business that you’ve worked so hard to build, you need to find the best registered agent for your Colorado LLC.
I started with 60 different Colorado registered agents in the state, which I investigated, then I rated the top 12 and went on to write detailed reviews on the best three. You’ll find all the registered agent information you need below. Here are my choices for the best resident agent services in Colorado.
1. Northwest Registered Agent — 9.13/10 (My Top Pick)
Northwest Registered Agent is my choice for the best Colorado registered agent because they provide your business with all the services it needs to meet its legal requirements, they charge a fair fee for their services, and they provide industry-leading customer service and small business support.
Pros
It won’t take you long to find many different reasons to like Northwest Registered Agent.
They provide your business with all the services it needs to maintain its legal LLC status (including the best LLC formation service in Colorado). As your point of contact they file your Articles of Organization, provide your Colorado business with a name and street address to register with the Colorado Secretary of State, are available during normal business hours to accept legal documents and mail on behalf of your business, and forward all your mail.
They also provide all the services you want for your business in the state of Colorado. They scan ALL the mail, service of process, and legal documents they receive on your behalf (not just the legal documents) and upload them to an online portal for you to access with an online account the same day, and issue compliance notifications to remind you when you need to file important forms and documents for your LLC, like your annual report or periodic report.
Northwest’s online portal system is easy to use, which is a welcome change from most agents’ clunky systems. Also, because they are a national registered agent service with offices in every state, you can easily sign up for resident agent services in multiple states or for multiple years from the same portal.
But by far their best service feature is their comprehensive customer service.
It’s not uncommon in today’s business culture to find that a company has outsourced their customer service to a different company whose employees aren’t knowledgeable about the company they’re representing nor their services. So Northwest’s team of US-based former lawyers, business owners, entrepreneurs, and accountants with years of business experience and knowledge is a breath of fresh air.
Their customer support team is available every weekday during normal business hours. When you call their customer service team, they take the time to understand your problem and ask questions to ensure that they provide you with accurate information and an effective solution to your problem. This service approach is a lot more comforting than the scripted responses one ordinarily gets from customer service.
With a fee of only $125 per year on top of all their fantastic services, it’s easy to see why I chose Northwest Registered Agent as the best registered agent in Colorado.
Cons
There’s only one drawback to Northwest’s registered agent service, and oddly enough it also happens to be its best feature: their comprehensive approach to customer service.
Their customer service team is incredibly polite and they do everything they can to make sure that they understand your question or problem before they provide you with advice or solutions. However, this can be a real pain when you’re pressed for time.
There’s really no way to call their customer service team and ask a quick, one-sentence question and get a quick, one sentence response because they ask so many questions about your situation. There were several times that I called their customer service team and their questions took up more time than I could feasibly spend on the phone to find a solution to my problem. In fact, it’s quicker in most of these pressed-for-time scenarios to simply Google your question.
Of course, this is only a small knock against Northwest Registered Agent, and it’s a problem that you won’t even encounter very often.
Overall
Northwest Registered Agent provides all the statutory agent services you need to keep your LLC in good standing with the Colorado Secretary of State, as well as the services you want for your business. Their system is easy to use, and they charge a fee of only $125 per state per year.
On top of all of that, their customer service team is the best in the industry. So it’s easy to understand why I chose Northwest as the best Colorado registered agent service.
If you want a registered agent service that will keep your personal information safe, provide all the services that a registered agent in Colorado must, as well as a few services that feel “extra,” and provide excellent customer service for a low fee, then sign up for Northwest Registered Agent’s Colorado registered agent service today.
2. Harbor Compliance — 7.92/10 (Best Budget Registered Agent)
Harbor Compliance is a good choice if you’re more concerned about the cost of an agent than the service they provide because they’re $26 per year cheaper than Northwest Registered Agent.
Pros
Harbor Compliance’s Colorado registered agent service will ensure that your LLC meets all the Colorado Secretary of State’s requirements.
Their services include filing the Articles of Organization, providing your business with a street address in Colorado, accepting service of process, receiving mail and documents on behalf of your LLC during regular business hours, scanning your documents and uploading them to an online portal for you to access with an online account, and issuing compliance alerts to let you know about any important forms or documents you need to file for your LLC.
It’s easy to sign into their system and once you’re in, it’s easy to navigate the system. Their best feature is their fee: they only charge $99 per state per year for their registered agent service.
Cons
While Harbor Compliance’s Colorado registered agent service adequately covers all the services that a registered agent in Colorado must to keep an LLC in good legal standing, none of their services are exceptional.
For instance, their customer service team is efficient enough, but they’re nowhere near as polite and comprehensive as Northwest Registered Agent’s team, and while they scan legal documents they’ve received on behalf of your business, they don’t scan every piece of mail that comes through like Northwest does.
So while their services are all okay, none of them are great.
Overall
Harbor Compliance can provide your LLC with the registered agent services it needs to maintain its LLC status, and they charge the lowest fee in the state of Colorado.
If you can happily trade away Northwest Registered Agent’s quality resident agent services and outstanding customer service team to save a mere $26 per state per year, then Harbor Compliance will get the job done. You can read about their Colorado registered agent service here: Harbor Compliance
3. LegalZoom — 6.59/10 (Best Premium Service)
LegalZoom is my third option for best registered agent in Colorado, but it’s my first option if you’re looking for a premium registered agent service because I found most of the premium registered agents in Colorado were unsatisfactory at best.
Pros
LegalZoom is a big, well-respected name in the business world and that sort of reputation means a lot to many people, regardless of the actual quality of the services they provide.
Their Colorado resident agent services cover everything that a registered agent in Colorado must provide. So as your registered office they’ll file the Articles of Organization, provide your LLC with a street address in Colorado, accept service of process, receive mail and documents on behalf of your business during normal business hours, and forward your mail. They make sure you beat those all-important deadlines set forth by the Secretary of State's office.
The biggest perk to LegalZoom’s premium registered agent service is they provide your business with up to $1,000,000 in identity theft protection. This is very useful and can provide peace of mind because hackers and scam artists are becoming more adept at what they do each day, and it’s easier than ever for information leaks and identity theft to occur.
Cons
LegalZoom apparently uses the fact that they’ve got a big reputation to charge a lot more for their Colorado registered agent service than they’re actually worth.
They charge $299 per state per year for their services, which is nearly double what Northwest Registered Agent charges and for that price you won’t even get any services that feel like nice extras other than the identity theft protection or good customer service. There’s a $176 difference between the two companies’ fees and identity theft protection doesn’t cost nearly that much so it really isn’t worth the additional cost.
LegalZoom is known for their other business services, which are mostly templates for business documents. Because of this, their registered agent service isn’t prioritized. Their customer service team isn’t as knowledgeable about their resident agent services and their online portal system is pretty dismal.
Overall
LegalZoom is a well-known business service that’s respected throughout the business industry, and they’re also a premium commercial registered agent. Therefore, they charge more money for their Colorado registered agent services than they’re worth. If you’re already using LegalZoom’s other services, it could make sense to use their registered agent service as well so that all your business needs are met by the same company, but otherwise they’re not worth the investment.
If you’re more enthusiastic about the recognition of a registered agent’s name than the quality of their services, you can read more about LegalZoom here: LegalZoom
4. ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness is an LLC formation service and Colorado registered agent service. This means that they can help to form your LLC and help draft and file your company’s Articles of Organization, as well as providing all the full-service statutory agent services you expect from a good Colorado registered agent.
They accept mail, documents and service of process for your business, provide your LLC with an street address in the state of Colorado, and forward your mail. They charge $199 for these minimal services.
This is likely because their LLC formation services are the primary focus of their business, which means that their registered agent services lack the same focus. But no matter what their reasoning is for this outrageous fee system, they still cost more than Northwest and their services are of inferior quality when compared with Northwest’s.
If you'd like a more in-depth breakdown of their products and services, read my full ZenBusiness review.
5. IncFile
IncFile is a registered agent in Colorado that provides the bare minimum in terms of statutory agent services. They file your Articles of Organization, provide your LLC with a street address in Colorado, accept mail and service of process during regular business hours, and provide mail forwarding. However, they don’t provide any services that feel like “extras.”
While their fee is a little less than Northwest’s ($119 per state per year), their service offerings and their customer service is inferior to Northwest’s.
6. Rocket Lawyer
The best way to describe Rocket Lawyer is that it’s a commercial registered agent in Colorado and a cheap knockoff of LegalZoom that isn’t that much cheaper.
Of course, they’ll provide your business with a street address in Colorado, accept mail and service of process on behalf of your Colorado LLC, and forward your mail. They charge $149 per state per year for their services, which is more than Northwest Registered Agent charges, and you don’t get as good value for that money.
One of the biggest differences of Rocket Lawyer is that it offers various online legal services.
If you'd like to know more about Rocket Lawyer's attorney or legal document services, you can read all about them in my Rocket Lawyer review.
7. SunDoc Filings
SunDoc Filings is another registered agent service in Colorado that offers minimal services but carries a big price tag. They provide services that amount to little more than providing a street address in the state of Colorado and accepting mail and service of process on behalf of your company. They certainly don’t provide anything as luxurious as compliance notifications, and for $159 per state, per year, they really should.
8. InCorp
InCorp presented an interesting conundrum when I was investigating their company and trying to rate their services. They charge $99 per state, per year for their services—just like Harbor Compliance. On top of being a full-service registered agent in Colorado, they also offer LLC formation services and can help you draft and file the Articles of Organization for your company.
And while they offer the same general services as Harbor Compliance (street address in the state, accepting mail and service of process during business hours, and mail forwarding), their system is so difficult to use that it plummeted to my #8 spot. You can save yourself a lot of headaches by choosing Northwest’s services instead because their system is a lot simpler to use.
9. Swyft Filings
Like so many of the resident agents on this list, Swyft Filings provides LLC formation services along with negligible registered agent services. For $149 per state per year, they provide your company with an address in Colorado, accept mail and service of process on your behalf, and forward your mail, but you’re not going to get much more than that from their services.
If you want to know more about Swyft Filings business services, read my in-depth Swyft Filings review.
10. CSC Global
CSC Global is a “premium” registered agent service that charges $299 per state per year for their services. They’ll provide your company with an address in Colorado, receive service of process, accept mail on your behalf, forward it to you and provide all the basic resident agent services you should expect from a full-service agent.
But the reason I call them a “premium” registered agent is the only premium service they provide is covering the state fees you incur when you file a Statement of Change to change your registered agent service to theirs. That’s a $176 difference between their price and Northwest Registered Agent’s. For less than $176 you could file your Statement of Change, sign up for Northwest’s excellent services and pay the state fees yourself.
11. Registered Agents Inc.
Registered Agents Inc. was pretty exciting to me because they’re the only company on this list that specializes solely in resident agent services. So of course, if you choose Registered Agents Inc. as your registered office, you’re going to get a bit more than just an address in the state. However, they charge $200 per state per year for their services so they’re too pricey to justify a higher position on my list.
If you’re excited about choosing an expensive Colorado registered agent whose price doesn’t match the quality of their services, you can check out Registered Agents Inc. here:
12. Jumpstart Filings
Jumpstart Filings is yet another registered agent in Colorado whose service offerings (besides the all-important address in the state) are not worth mentioning, yet they charge $129 per state per year for them. Northwest Registered Agent may only be $4 per state per year cheaper than Jumpstart Filings, but their services are a lot better and you’ll be glad you chose them instead.
If you’re happy with paying more money for subpar services than you should, you can sign up for Jumpstart Filings here :
Registered Agent Review Summary
I started with a list of over 60 different resident agents in the state, then rated the best 12. I found that Northwest Registered Agent is the best registered agent Colorado has to offer.
They provide all the services that you need to keep your Colorado LLC in good legal standing, a few services that feel like nice “extras,” and an experienced US-based customer service team that provides the best customer service in the entire industry. And they do all this for the very reasonable price of $125 per state per year.
They may not offer any premium services, but their system is easy to use and their customer service team is a delight to interact with.
If you need a registered agent that will provide all the services you need, throw in a few “extras,” keep your personal information safe and grow along with your company, you can sign up with Northwest Registered Agent.
Best Registered Agent Review Methodology
Here is the logic, reasoning, and process I used to determine the best registered agent.
Why You Should Trust Me
The main reason you should trust me to choose the best Colorado registered agent for your business is I’ve spent more time dealing with and researching the registered agent industry than most normal sane people have. I’d be willing to bet that I know more than even some of the people who work for these Colorado registered agent companies on my list.
My journey started when I needed to find a Colorado registered agent service for my two businesses. I didn’t know much about resident agents at the time, but I knew enough to know that I didn’t want any part of the legal problems I could encounter without one. So I set about reading through mountains of promotional pamphlets to find out what was fact and what was hype.
I read tons of online reviews and spent hours on the phone with customer service for these agents, which resulted in a pricey phone bill.
The next reason you should trust my recommendations is that I’ve helped thousands of people find the best Colorado registered agent to suit their needs.
I started by helping my friends and colleagues in my local business community. From speaking with them I learned that most people don’t have the time to research Colorado registered agents as thoroughly as I have, and they don’t have the knowledge that I do. This made me the right person to teach other people about this subject.
Since then, I started my website dedicated to helping other people learn about Colorado registered agents and find the one for them. I’ve helped thousands of people find their ideal agent service, and I can help you find yours too!
How I Selected the Best Registered Agent
This is the four-stage investigative process I used to determine which agents were good enough to make my list and which ones got the ax.
Stage 1: Reviews
You can learn a lot of things about a company simply from reading online reviews. So for each of the 60+ agents on my original list, I combed through reviews on Facebook, TrustPilot, the Better Business Bureau, and Google Business to see what people were saying about them.
There’s no way I could have read every last review left about these agents, but I did read through the ones that were longer than a paragraph and provided me with enough information to determine which agents were legitimate businesses, which were outright scams, and which used deceptive pricing practices. (More on that later.)
Stage 2: Website Analysis
The next stage (after I’d eliminated the obvious scams) was to delve into each agent’s website.
This was a simple step that provided me with quite a bit of information. I checked each agent’s sales page to see what sort of services they offered, their “About” page, checked to see if they listed any awards they’d won, noted how many different methods they listed to contact their customer service team (email, phone, chat), their address (it had to be in the state of Colorado) and I reached out to their customer service team if something on their page required further explanation.
When I completed this step, I had created a spreadsheet with 13 rows and 24 columns that detailed each agent’s service offerings.
Stage 3: Speaking with Real Customers
Reading online reviews provides a good bit of information but to get the down-and-dirty details about the type of service a company provides you have to speak directly to their customers. The company websites tell you what services they offer, but only the customers will tell you how well they provide those services.
To complete this stage of the investigation, I reached out to new customers who came to my site looking for Colorado registered agents, as well as those I’d previously helped and I asked them how satisfied they were with their current registered agent’s service.
This gave me an idea of what it’s like to deal with each of the Colorado registered agent businesses on my list.
Stage 4: Speaking with Their Sales Teams
The last stage of my investigation involved speaking directly to each agent service’s sales team.
I rounded up all the negative comments, feedback and reviews, as well as issues I’d found with their services and problems that customers had told me about during the course of my investigation and I asked the sales teams very direct questions about them.
This was an illuminating part of the investigation because it let me know a bit more about the culture of each company. Some companies told me that they’d taken the feedback into consideration and used it to fix the issue so that the problem I described was no longer a problem, while others insinuated that there wasn’t any problem and that I shouldn’t listen to that one “crazy” customer.
Knowing which companies use feedback to grow and provide better services and which ones deny their failings and blame their customers instead of owning up to them helped me determine which companies were the best to interact with.
- Montana Registered Agent
- Wyoming Registered Agent
- Colorado Registered Agent
- New Mexico Registered Agent
- Arizona Registered Agent
- Utah Registered Agent
- Idaho Registered Agent
- Washington Registered Agent
- Oregon Registered Agent
- California Registered Agent
- Nevada Registered Agent
- Alaska Registered Agent
- Hawaii Registered Agent
Rating Factors
After my investigative process was completed, I was left with only 12 Colorado resident agent services. Here is the methodology I used to determine the best registered agent for your Colorado LLC:
Factor 1: Offerings
This is arguably the most important factor when choosing a Colorado registered agent service because if the agent you’re considering doesn’t offer the services you need, all the other factors are irrelevant. However, there are a wide array of service offerings provided by agents in Colorado. A registered agent in the state is required to be available to receive notifications at their physical place of work during normal business hours.
Some services only provide an address in the state, accept mail and service of process on your behalf, forward your mail, keep your personal information off the public record, and keep your business in good standing with the Colorado Secretary of State.
Other services scan your documents and upload them to an online portal for you to access with an online account, provide LLC services, and issue compliance alerts.
Still, other services offer identity theft protection and pay any filing fee you incur when you switch to their service.
So the first rating factor I considered was the range of service offerings of each agent.
Factor 2: Value
The value of a registered agent’s services is another important factor. However, the fees that resident agents in the state charge business entities vary widely. Some agents charge $39 per year while others charge nearly $300.
During the course of my investigation, I noticed that the agents that charged $39–$59 per year were using deceptive pricing practices. The services that they provide for the price they charge are insufficient and it’s likely that they won’t meet the needs of your business. In order to get the services you need like compliance alerts, they charge additional fees that can add up to over $120 per year on top of the initial $39–$59.
Because this pricing method is deceptive, I feel it’s unethical and you’ll notice that none of these agents made my list because of this.
Factor 3: Ease of Sign-up
It’s infuriating to find a Colorado registered agent service that provides all the services you need for your business entity at an affordable price only to find that their sign-up process is complicated and drawn out for weeks.
I actually signed up for service with each of the agents on my list to save you some of the aggravation of finding out which ones have simple sign-up processes and which ones were a nightmare to get through.
If they had simple, automated processes, they found themselves higher on my list than the agents whose sign-up processes required stacks of paperwork sent off to a sketchy address on the other side of the world along with bits of biometric identification and your firstborn child.
Factor 4: Ease of Use
Okay, so you’ve found an agent service in Colorado with an easy sign-up process, you’re happy with their fee and they have all the services you need. The next thing to consider is how easy or difficult it is to use their online system. It can be a real turnoff to find that your agent’s system is so complicated or outdated that you dread using it.
To save you some of the hassles of learning about how each agent’s online system performed, I used each one of them. I logged into them and performed simple tasks, noting where I got hung up in the system (if I did).
Factor 5: Customer Service
No matter how excellent an agent’s online system is, you’ll eventually have a question or an issue that you need someone to walk you through.
A great customer service team can answer your questions and solve your technical problems efficiently and quickly so that you can get back to work. An agent with poor customer service, well . . . if you’ve ever tried to call the DMV at lunchtime on a weekday, you know the level of service I’m referring to.
To gauge the level of support that each Colorado registered agent’s customer service team provided, I called each of them and asked them to help me with simple issues. I paid attention to things like how long it took them to respond to me, whether they solved my problem quickly and efficiently, if they were friendly and polite, and how many people I had to talk to or how many times I had to be transferred to get a resolution to my problem.
The Best Colorado Registered Agent Results Summary
I investigated over 60 different resident agent services in the state and then rated the top 12. Here are the best three resident agent services in Colorado:
Best Overall Registered Agent — Northwest Registered Agent (9.13/10)
The reason Northwest Registered Agent is my top choice for the best registered agent in Colorado is they provide all the services you need for your business for only $125 per year, and they also offer the best customer service in the Colorado registered agent industry.
They provide your business with an address in the state, become your point of contact, accept mail and service of process on behalf of your Colorado LLC, forward your mail, and make sure that your personal information stays off the public record. They make sure that your business is in compliance with the Colorado Secretary of State.
They also provide a few services that feel like nice “extras.” They scan all your mail (not just the legal documents) and upload it to an online portal for you to access the same day with your online account, compliance alerts to let you know when you need to file an important form or document to keep your Colorado LLC in good standing and offer discounts for registered agent service for multiple years or states.
But by far their best feature is their customer service.
Their customer service team is US-based and made up of agents who were previously lawyers, business owners, entrepreneurs, and accountants. In their years of experience, they’ve encountered many issues so they can help answer nearly any question you ask them—and they will. Not only do they answer questions about their registered agent service, but they’ll also answer any business-related question you bring to them with their knowledge of business support. They are available every weekday during normal business hours.
It’s worth stating that there are over 3,000 positive Northwest Registered Agent reviews, so it’s not like I’m the only one who’s had a positive experience with their service, and it wasn’t just a fluke.
If you want the registered agent service with the best quality of services and industry-leading customer service and small business support, sign up with Northwest Registered Agent.
To find out the best LLC formation services in Colorado, read my guide on the best LLC Services in Colorado.
Best Budget Registered Agent — Harbor Compliance (7.92/10)
Harbor Compliance is a good option if you’re more concerned about saving money than you are the quality of the service you’re paying for.
For $99 per state per year, they provide your company with an address in the state, receive service of process and other legal documents, accept mail and documents on behalf of your company, scan your documents and upload them to an online portal, forward your mail, and issue compliance alerts making sure your business is in good standing with the Secretary of State.
Their computer system is pretty user-friendly. However, their customer service team is really only adequate when compared with Northwest’s outstanding customer service team.
Don't just take it from me. There are also hundreds of positive Harbor Compliance reviews online from other happy customers.
If you can confidently trade away Northwest’s excellent services and great customer service to save a whopping $26 per year, then you can read more about Harbor Compliance here: Harbor Compliance.
Best Premium Registered Agent — Legal Zoom (6.59/10)
LegalZoom is the best premium registered agent service in the state among a sea of other unsatisfactory, premium agent services.
They provide all the services that are typical of a full-service registered agent, accepting mail and service of process on behalf of your business, providing you with an address in the state and mail forwarding, compliance alerts to make sure that your LLC is in check with the Secretary of State's office. In addition, they also offer up to $1,000,000 in identity theft insurance.
The identity theft protection that LegalZoom provides as part of their premium registered agent service will cost you nearly double what Northwest Registered Agent charges for their services, which are of better quality. But if you’re already signed up for some of LegalZoom’s other services, it may be worth it to you to sign up for their registered agent services simply due to convenience. Otherwise, it’s really not worth the extra expense just for identity theft insurance because you can purchase it elsewhere for less.
You can read about LegalZoom here if you want to spend more than you should for identity theft protection: LegalZoom.
In Conclusion
It’s important to make sure that you choose the right Colorado registered agent service for your business to meet its legal obligations and also to keep your personal details off the public record.
I investigated over 60 different registered agent services, then rated the top 12 and wrote in-depth reviews about the best three.
My investigation process revealed that Northwest Registered Agent is the best registered agent service in Colorado.
They provide all the resident agent services you need for your business, like providing your business with an address in the state, accepting mail and service of process on your behalf, scanning your mail and documents and uploading them to an online portal for you to access the same day with an online account, providing LLC formation services, and issuing compliance alerts to keep you in good standing with the Colorado Secretary of State.
Their sign-up process is simple to complete and their system is easy to navigate. Their customer service team of US-based, experienced former business owners, entrepreneurs, accountants, and lawyers also provide business support and can answer any question you have about your business journey. To top it all off, they provide these fantastic services for only $125 per state per year.
If you’re looking for a Colorado registered agent service that will offer your company the best service offerings, along with an affordable rate and excellent customer service, then head over to Northwest Registered Agent.