Getting the right registered agent is critical for your business success.
The right Maine registered agent will responsibly guard your personal assets and proactively help you maintain compliance with the state of Maine, all for a fair price.
The wrong Maine registered agent will be careless with your personal data, mishandle legal documents or critical communication from the Maine Secretary of State, and overcharge you for their services.
I've investigated 60+ Maine registered agents, assessed the top 12, and written in-depth reviews of the three best. Here are my picks for the best registered agent service in Maine:
1. Northwest Registered Agent — 9.13/10 (My Top Pick)
After a tremendous amount of research, I selected Northwest Registered Agent as the best registered agent service in the state of Maine. They’re exceptionally responsible, eager, and able to help your business overcome any challenges and very fairly priced.
Pros
Northwest Registered Agent is the best registered agent in Maine because they built their business on the basics. They are responsible. They are prompt. They are knowledgeable. They genuinely care about your business.
It all starts with the simple things. As required of any Maine registered agent, Northwest assists you in filing your Maine LLC Certificate of Formation, issues you a street address in Maine that is open during normal business hours to accept service of process, legal notices, and information from the Maine Division of Corporations. This issued street address keeps your own personal address and information off the public record.
They are also very responsible with whatever mail you may receive. They forward it to you via regular mail and electronically through your online portal, to which they will upload your incoming documents.
Northwest Registered Agent also takes substantial steps to make sure you keep on top of your filings with the state. Compliance alerts and a personalized filing calendar, which can cost extra at other Maine registered agents, are both included with Northwest’s standard service.
Where Northwest Registered Agent really sets themselves apart from other Maine registered agents is in the customer service department. They are the most knowledgeable in the industry, without a doubt.
As other Maine registered agents sought to outsource or automate their customer service, Northwest hired former lawyers, accountants, and entrepreneurs to their team. The result is apparent the minute they pick up the phone.
No question is difficult enough to overcome their knowledge. No question is dumb enough to overwhelm their patience.
Cons
If you’re someone who really hates to be on the phone, a call to Northwest Registered Agent might try your patience on occasion. They are nothing if not thorough and sometimes this can mean a few more minutes on the phone than you’d like.
This is definitely a pretty minor complaint in the grand scheme. A few extra minutes on the phone every once in a while is a sacrifice I can make if it means my registered agent makes sure all i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.
Overall
Northwest Registered Agent gives you all the tools you need to keep your personal assets safe and your business in good standing, but if you do run into trouble, they have the best customer service in the industry to help bail you out.
If you want a Maine registered agent that will guard your personal assets, responsibly handle your critical documents, and keep your company in good regulatory standing, go to Northwest Registered Agent today.
2. Harbor Compliance — 7.92/10 (Best Budget Registered Agent)
If your budget is your main priority and you’re willing to forgo great customer service, Harbor Compliance is a reliable budget option that will save you $26 per year when compared with Northwest Registered Agent.
Pros
Harbor Compliance does everything legally required of a Maine registered agent. They keep your personal name and address off public record and keep you in good standing with the Maine Secretary of State.
They are reliable enough to be trusted with service of process, legal documents, and any other important communication your business may receive. They process your documents relatively quickly, scanning and uploading them to your web portal before forwarding them to your PO Box or home address the old-fashioned way.
Harbor Compliance also takes a few extra steps that are pretty uncommon amongst budget Maine registered agent services. They offer compliance alerts to keep you apprised of any upcoming due date for an annual report or other filing, and they’ll pick up the phone and give you a call to notify you if any particularly time-sensitive documents have arrived.
Cons
Harbor Compliance won’t let you down, but you won’t be blown away by any aspect of their service. They seem content to offer a pretty good service at a very good price.
In order to keep prices down, it seems that they’ve skimped a bit on one aspect of their business. Their customer service department leaves something to be desired.
If you should encounter an unusual issue regarding a state filing or have a question about something that goes beyond the standard FAQs, the customer service department at Harbor Compliance may not have the experience or desire to find your answers in a timely manner.
Overall
If your budget is so tight that you can’t afford the extra $26 to hire Northwest Registered Agent, then Harbor Compliance is a safe budget option.
They don’t have the experience to guide you through complicated filing issues, but if you are an experienced business owner and know your way around the Maine Secretary of State’s office, Harbor Compliance can affordably keep you in compliance.
3. LegalZoom — 6.59/10 (Best Premium Service)
LegalZoom is the most recognizable commercial registered agent on this list. They’ve guided millions of people through all sorts of legal issues. Their registered agent service is expensive, but has some interesting perks.
Pros
If you find yourself in uncharted waters when it comes to picking a registered agent in Maine, coming across a familiar name like LegalZoom can feel like a blessing. They’ve been around forever (by internet standards) and have a good reputation.
Despite being an international company and a national registered agent service, LegalZoom offers a street address in the state of Maine that’s open during business hours to receive service of process and other critical documents so as to keep you in compliance for annual reports and other deadlines with the Maine Secretary of State.
Their registered agent package includes all the other typical services, plus compliance alerts, reimbursement of state fees if you are changing your registered agent in Maine to LegalZoom, and identity theft insurance.
The free identity theft insurance is a policy that covers you up to $1 million, and could be an absolute lifesaver should you fall victim to cybercriminals. That is a pretty valuable add-on that you won’t find offered by other Maine registered agents.
Cons
LegalZoom is tied for the most expensive service ($299) on this list. They take advantage of their name recognition to charge more than double what Northwest Registered Agent charges.
Even when you factor in the value of the identity theft insurance, LegalZoom is still no bargain. You could purchase a similar policy from an insurance agent and it would cost you a lot less than the price difference between LegalZoom and Northwest.
LegalZoom’s sheer size can also be a liability at times. They offer so many different services for so many different states and countries, that finding the information you need for your Maine registered agent service can be difficult.
Overall
LegalZoom can serve as your one-stop shop for a variety of online legal services, including LLC formation, and their registered agent service will keep you in good standing with the Maine Secretary of State.
They offer all the basics, plus a few valuable add-ons, such as compliance alerts and identity theft insurance.
The downside is you are paying a substantial premium for impersonal service and a few perks that could be purchased cheaper elsewhere.
If you prefer a big name over great service, check out LegalZoom.
4. ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness' registered agent service is better than average and is bolstered by decent customer service, but they have a pretty substantial flaw.
ZenBusiness charges $199 for the same basic services offered by Northwest Registered Agent, such as service of process and annual report compliance alerts, meaning that you could save money and get better service at Northwest.
ZenBusiness is so good at other aspects of their business that I’m hopeful they will come to their senses and begin reviewing the cost of their Pro package.
Read my full ZenBusiness review and learn more about their services.
5. IncFile
IncFile offers a reliable-but-basic Maine registered agent service that offers the essentials such as a street address in Maine and service of process, but no perks such as compliance alerts .
As far as price goes ($119 per year), IncFile falls between Harbor Compliance and Northwest Registered Agent. You can save money using Harbor Compliance or, for just a few dollars more, hire Northwest Registered Agent and get the best in the business.
6. Rocket Lawyer
Rocket Lawyer is a commercial registered agent that is very similar to LegalZoom but typically offers better prices. They share many of the same advantages and disadvantages of their more famous cousin but charge $150 less and don’t offer free identity theft insurance.
Even though they are cheaper than LegalZoom, there are still better cheaper options that offer more individualized service for Maine business owners.
If you'd like to learn more about Rocket Lawyer's online legal services, read my full Rocket Lawyer review.
7. SunDoc Filings
SunDoc Filings charges $159 for a very basic registered agent service that doesn't include compliance alerts. They charge more and offer less than a number of other Maine registered agents.
8. InCorp
InCorp offers a good budget Maine registered agent service and could be much higher on this list if they bothered to invest a little more time and resources into their online system.
Online tasks that should be simple can prove very frustrating. If you prefer an analog world to a digital one and rarely venture down the “information superhighway,” InCorp may be your perfect match.
9. Swyft Filings
Swyft Filings is another national registered agent service that charges too much ($149) for too little. They offer little beyond the required necessities but are $50 more than a typical budget Maine registered agent.
Read my full Swyft Filings review to learn more about their services.
10. CSC Global
It’s possible that someone at CSC Global tacked a bunch of price points to a dartboard, threw a dart, and committed themselves to the results because their price of $299 per year seems completely random. It certainly isn’t a reflection of the services they offer.
For $299 you would at least expect compliance alerts but they are not included.
One decent perk CSC Global offers is that they will reimburse any state fees associated with changing your registered agent. In some states that can be a substantial fee, but in Maine it is only $35.
Saving $35 to switch to a registered agent in Maine that charges more than double most other registered agents doesn’t make any sense.
11. Registered Agents Inc.
Remember the rock band that called themselves the Band? Registered Agents Inc. is the registered agent version of the Band, at least as far as name originality goes.
Unlike the Band, however, Registered Agents Inc. is not destined for inclusion in any sort of Hall of Fame. They charge $200 per year and only offer the very basics.
12. Jumpstart Filings
Jumpstart Filings charges $129 per year for a pretty pedestrian Maine registered agent service. They are not the most expensive registered agent, but they definitely don’t offer much value.
Northwest Registered Agent is $4 cheaper and offers substantially better service.
Registered Agent Review Summary
I surveyed more than 60 Maine registered agents and chose 12 that deserved a closer look. I signed up for all 12 services and ranked them based on five key factors. After my extensive research, Northwest Registered Agent emerged as the best Maine Registered Agent.
Northwest Registered Agent is trustworthy, reliable, efficient, relatively affordable, and their customer service team is the most experienced in the industry. They are clearly the best.
If you want to put the future of your business in the hands of the best registered agent in the state of Maine, go to Northwest Registered Agent.
Best Registered Agent Review Methodology
This is the process I used to determine the best registered agent.
Why You Should Trust Me
You would probably have to talk to thousands of business owners before you found anyone who had done as much research on Maine registered agent services as I have.
Like most business owners, when I started my first company I didn’t even consider who my Maine registered agent would be. I never thought about how critical they could be to my business.
But after I read just a few online reviews of Maine registered agents, I was surprised by some of the horror stories out there. I read about registered agent services that misplaced important legal documents, didn’t inform their clients of new filing dates or charged substantially more than their advertised price.
These are all worst-case scenarios, of course, but there are some business owners who’ve paid a very steep price for choosing the wrong Maine registered agent.
I realized it didn’t make sense to work so hard to establish my company and then entrust it to the first Maine registered agent who popped up in my Google search. If my company was going to be the best, I was only going to employ the best.
My first step was to find out exactly who and what was out there. I read through the marketing materials of every Maine registered agent service I could find, from the big fonts to the fine print.
Then I went back to online reviews and looked at them a little more in-depth, trying to determine which reviews were credible. When I had questions I picked up the phone and called the companies themselves.
As I was engaged in this process, I also reached out to fellow business owners and discovered that they were almost as clueless about Maine registered agents as I had been. They shared their own experiences with their registered agents and encouraged me to continue with my research.
It was obvious that there was a real need for someone to thoroughly review Maine registered agents, which pushed me to continue my investigations and to eventually publish this website.
Now that this site is live, I’ve helped thousands find their Maine registered agent service. I hope I can help you too.
How I Selected the Best Registered Agent
I used a four-step process to select the registered agent service in Maine.
Stage 1: Reviews
Online reviews were my entry point into the world of registered agents. It is not always easy to tell which reviews are legitimate, but after going through as many sites as I could including TrustPilot, the Better Business Bureau, Google Business, Facebook, and others, I was able to weed out some less-than-reputable Maine registered agents.
I came across a lot of complaints about how certain registered agents were advertising one very low price without revealing that this was the sign-up fee, not the annual rate. So a service that was advertised as $39 ended up being more than $120 per year.
After some thought, I eliminated any registered agents who used this pricing scheme from my ranking list. Above all, you need a Maine registered agent service you can trust. I don’t want a registered agent that is not completely transparent with their prices to be handling my critical paperwork.
Of the 64 registered agents I looked into, 52 of them used some form of the bait-and-switch when it came to their pricing.
Stage 2: Website Analysis
For the 12 remaining Maine registered agents, I took a good hard look at their websites. I wanted to see exactly what services they were offering.
I found more than 24 different services available ranging from the universal, such as a street address in Maine, to the more unusual, such as LegalZoom’s identity theft insurance.
I made a simple spreadsheet listing the 24 services across the top with the names of 12 registered agent services running down the side. Then I marked what companies offered what service. It was a great visual for which Maine registered agents offered the most value for your money.
Stage 3: Speaking with Real Customers
Reading online reviews and looking at websites can only take you so far. I also wanted to talk to actual customers who could answer some of my specific questions. I was lucky to have a lot of friends in the local business community who were willing to share their experiences using Maine registered agents with me.
Once I launched this website, I received a lot of feedback from readers who want to share their own experiences. This is greatly appreciated, and I use whatever info I receive to update my rankings.
Stage 4: Speaking with Their Sales Teams
For my last step, I went back to the sales teams at the registered agents. Now that I was knowledgeable about the Maine registered agent business in general and about the specific strengths and weaknesses of each of my 12 Maine registered agent services, I was able to ask very pointed questions of each sales team.
I asked some simple questions of each company and also challenged them based on specific complaints I had heard or observed. How they responded told me a lot about how each registered agent service viewed their customers.
The best Maine registered agents were very open to feedback, eager to correct mistakes, and talked about how they hoped to better their service. The worst registered agents in Maine simply didn’t get back to me.
Rating Factors
I ranked my top 12 registered agent services for your Maine LLC according to five factors.
Factor 1: Offerings
The registered agent business seems pretty straightforward. If you offer your clients a Maine street address that’s open during normal business hours to accept service of process and other legal documents, you’ve fulfilled a good chunk of your obligation. That’s why I was surprised to find out just how many services a registered agent service can offer.
All registered agents offer you a Maine address. They are all available during normal business hours and are required to be located at a street address in Maine. They are all legally able to accept service of process and other legal documents on your behalf. All of them also serve as your point of contact with the Maine Secretary of State. Some registered agents in Maine offer cheap LLC services, while some others offer the best LLC service.
However, better registered agents fulfill more than these basic obligations. They offer compliance alerts to make sure you don’t miss the deadline for an annual report or other filings. They scan and upload your incoming documents rather than just forward them through the mail They offer different types of online dashboards to help keep your mail and legal filings organized. They can help with your Certificate of Formation and other documents. Some even offer fee reimbursement if you change your registered agent service or other sign-up incentives.
In total, I found 24 distinct services and ranked each registered agent in Maine based on how many of these LLC services they offered.
Factor 2: Value
Every business owner knows that a lot of your early success is based on how far you can stretch your dollar.
Pricing in the Maine registered agent business is all over the map. Harbor Compliance, my best budget registered agent charges $99 per year, while my best premium registered agent charges $299 per year.
Everyone else is somewhere in between, but many charge prices that don’t seem to match the services they offer.
To determine which Maine registered agent offers the best value, I plotted the number of services they offered against the price they charged.
Factor 3: Ease of Sign-up
Some Maine registered agents make the sign-up process significantly more difficult than it should be. Nothing is more frustrating, especially when your time is limited—as it always is for an entrepreneur— than when a simple process takes up too much of your time.
It also isn’t a good omen for the rest of your relationship with your registered agent if you need the help of their customer service department just to get your foot in the door.
I signed up for all twelve services and ranked each registered agent in Maine based on the ease of their process.
Factor 4: Ease of Use
Once I was signed up, I also kicked the tires on each Maine registered agent’s online systems. Some registered agents have elaborate online portals that try to keep you as organized and up-to-date as possible, while others have something far more basic.
What I was interested in was how quickly and easily I could manage the simple chores that I would most often have to do. I tested how long it would take to change a mailing address in my profile, access service of process or other uploaded documents, contact customer service via chat if that was available, and a few other everyday tasks.
The faster, easier, more intuitive the website was, the higher the ranking.
Factor 5: Customer Service
I put a lot of value in good customer service even though it is something you probably won’t need very often. The reason is when you do need customer service, it is often because something has gone wrong and you need someone to fix it as quickly as humanly possible.
There are these rare but critical junctures that prove just how important customer service is. Get bad or untimely advice from a customer service agent and it could cost your business dearly.
I also found that really good customer service reps can serve almost as small business advisors, helping you with business advice that goes far beyond the scope of a registered agent.
To test the customer service departments at each Maine registered agent, I called with some simple, general questions and some specific questions for each company.
I rated each registered agent’s customer service department based on how efficient, accurate, and courteous they were.
The Best Maine Registered Agent Results Summary
I investigated more than 60 registered agents and ranked my top 12 based on five key factors. Here are the three best.
Best Overall Registered Agent — Northwest Registered Agent (9.13/10)
Northwest Registered Agent came out on top in nearly every category I ranked and was clearly the best Maine registered agent overall.
They are extremely reliable and trustworthy when it comes to protecting your personal assets and data, which is why they have such a great reputation. They take their responsibilities seriously and go above and beyond when it comes to covering the essentials.
Northwest Registered Agent also offers a great range of add-on services like annual report compliance alerts and a personalized filing calendar, all included in their standard package.
On top of that, they have the most experienced and attentive customer service team in the industry. Their customer service department is made up of former lawyers, accountants, and entrepreneurs, and they can help guide your company through just about anything. All this for $125, one of the best rates in the industry.
It's worth mentioning that there are over 3,000 positive Northwest Registered Agent reviews online, so I'm not the only one who's had a positive experience with them.
If you want your registered agent in Maine to be an asset to your business rather than just an afterthought, go to Northwest Registered Agent.
Best Budget Registered Agent — Harbor Compliance (7.92/10)
Harbor Compliance offers a reliable registered agent service that’s not overly impressive in any aspect but includes all the essentials, like scanning your documents and sending them to your PO Box, plus compliance alerts, for a good price ($99).
Their customer service is not in the same league as Northwest Registered Agent, but they are a trustworthy budget option that will keep you in compliance with the Maine Secretary of State.
They are still a great option, and the hundreds of positive Harbor Compliance reviews online prove just that.
If your budget is your sole priority and you can forgo great customer service, check out Harbor Compliance.
Best Premium Registered Agent — LegalZoom (6.59/10)
LegalZoom is the most famous registered agent in Maine and if you don’t know much about registered agents you may be more comfortable hiring a recognizable name.
That name comes at a steep price, however, as LegalZoom charges three times as much ($299) per year as Harbor Compliance.
Some of that big price tag goes to cover some valuable add-ons, such as identity theft insurance, which is included for free, but LegalZoom doesn’t distinguish themselves enough to justify such a high price.
If you have an unlimited budget and prefer the comfort of a familiar name with a few extra perks, check out LegalZoom.
In Conclusion
Your registered agent in Maine might not seem like more than a glorified post office box, but the reality is that whoever you hire will be handling your company’s most important documents. It is critical that you hire someone you can trust.
A really good registered agent can also be a tremendous asset in helping guide your company through various regulatory and legal challenges, particularly if you are just getting started with your first business.
I want to make sure you make the right choice for your business.
I went through more than 60 registered agents operating in the state of Maine, selected the best 12, and rated them based on five important factors. I spent countless hours reading online reviews, talking to real customers, analyzing websites, and talking to the registered agents themselves.
After all that, I found one clear winner. Northwest Registered Agent is the best Maine registered agent.
They offer all the essentials, plus all the tools you need to keep your business in good standing:
- A physical Maine mailing address open during regular business hours to accept critical documents on your behalf
- A trustworthy mail forwarding service
- Document scanning and uploading to provide you with instant access to your most important paperwork
- A user-friendly online portal for easy access to all your documents
- Help with your Certificate of Formation and other filings
- Compliance alerts to keep you on top of key deadlines and in compliance with the Maine Secretary of State
Add to that a customer service team made up of experienced professionals with experience as lawyers, accountants, and entrepreneurs.
At $125 per year, Northwest Registered Agent could be the best investment you ever make for your business.
If you want to hire the best registered agent in Maine, go to Northwest Registered Agent today.
