The right Nebraska registered agent will protect your personal information and assets, responsibly receive and forward your company’s legal notices, and keep your business in compliance with the Secretary of State.
The wrong Nebraska registered agent will act recklessly with your personal data, lose or mishandle critical legal notices, fail to help you maintain good standing with the state, and overcharge you for the pleasure.
I've investigated 60+ 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 Nebraska:
1.Northwest Registered Agent—9.13/10 (My Top Pick)
Northwest Registered Agent is my choice for the top registered agent in Nebraska due to their mastery of the basics, helpful bonus services, excellent customer service, and competitive price.
Pros
Northwest Registered Agent has been in the business a long time, and it shows. They execute the basic registered agent services better than anyone.
They provide the required street address in Nebraska at which they receive Service of Process, other legal notices, and correspondence from the Nebraska Secretary of State on behalf of your business. Northwest Registered Agent also safeguards your personal information, keeping it off the public record. They take both these responsibilities seriously and you can rest assured they won’t overlook critical paperwork or expose your personal data.
When it comes time to forward your company’s correspondence, Northwest Registered Agent does so both physically through the US Mail and electronically by scanning and uploading incoming documents to your online portal.
Northwest also provides a lot of extra services to help you proactively keep on top of your filings with the state of Nebraska. Compliance alerts keep you from missing critical deadlines and a personalized filing calendar keeps you looking ahead.
The biggest advantage Northwest Registered Agent has over other Nebraska registered agents is their customer service team. While other registered agents see customer service as a place to cut costs through outsourcing or automation, Northwest has invested in a customer service team with a lot of real-world business experience. Former lawyers, accountants, and entrepreneurs make up the best customer service team in the industry.
All that, plus a great reputation, and still Northwest Registered Agent charges only $125, one of the best rates you’ll find among reputable registered agent services.
Cons
I have to nitpick a bit to find a true flaw in their service, but there are times when Northwest Registered Agent suffers from the adage “Too much of a good thing…”
Their customer service team is incredibly thorough, which in general is a good trait for a registered agent that is responsible for keeping you in compliance with the Nebraska Secretary of State. In practice, however, it can seem like too much if you are trying to ask a quick question and get off the phone.
It’s definitely a forgivable offense, and, in the long run, I’d gladly sacrifice a few extra minutes on the phone to make sure my business is in good standing with the state.
Overall
According to all my research, Northwest Registered Agent is far and away the best registered agent service in Nebraska.
For $125 per year, they will give you all the tools you need to keep your business in good standing with the state of Nebraska. If things should somehow go awry, they have the most experienced, knowledgeable customer service department in the industry to get you back on the right track.
If you want a registered agent that will protect your personal assets and guide your company through whatever regulatory challenges you may face, go to Northwest Registered Agent.
2.Harbor Compliance—7.92/10 (Best Budget Registered Agent)
If your budget is your only concern, Harbor Compliance is a reliable Nebraska registered agent that has some flaws but won’t let you down.
Pros
Harbor Compliance meets all Nebraska registered agent requirements and does so at one of the best prices ($99) you’ll find from a legitimate registered agent.
They offer the requisite physical address in Nebraska that’s open during normal business hours and can be trusted to promptly forward any correspondence to you via the mail and also electronically via your online account. Harbor Compliance will even call you on the phone if something seems particularly time-sensitive.
Harbor Compliance also offers compliance alerts, which is a rare offering from a budget agent. And although their customer service isn’t as knowledgeable or experienced as what you’d find at Northwest Registered Agent, they eventually get you the answers you need.
Cons
There’s nothing in particular about Harbor Compliance that stands out. They are content to offer a decent service at a low price. That means you’ll encounter a few inconveniences along the way. Their customer service department is fairly knowledgeable but not super quick.
Overall
For the price, Harbor Compliance is a good Nebraska registered agent service. If financial reasons mean you need the cheapest registered agent, Harbor Compliance is your best budget choice.
They won’t leave you particularly impressed, but they will keep you out of trouble with the Secretary of State.
If you can’t afford the $26 more to get the best, Harbor Compliance is far from the worst. Check them out here.
3. LegalZoom—6.59/10 (Best Premium Service)
LegalZoom is probably the most recognizable name on this list. In addition to their wide array of other legal services, they offer an expensive premium Nebraska registered agent service.
Pros
LegalZoom has built up a big name and solid reputation as a legal services company. If you haven’t heard of any of the other registered agents on this list, it is comforting to encounter a familiar name.
There’s also a good chance you’ve used their services before, perhaps for setting up a corporation or LLC. If so, it is easy to simply sign up for their registered agent service using your same account.
LegalZoom also includes some valuable extras such as identity theft insurance and fee reimbursement if you change your Nebraska registered agent service to them.
Identity theft insurance in particular could be valuable. It could save you a tremendous amount of time and money should you fall victim to cybercriminals.
Cons
LegalZoom is extremely expensive—more than twice the price of Northwest Registered Agent and three times the price of Harbor Compliance.
Even if you take into account the value of identity theft insurance, LegalZoom’s registered agent service still seems overpriced. If the insurance is a priority for you, you can purchase it elsewhere for less than the difference in price between LegalZoom and Northwest Registered Agent.
LegalZoom’s sheer size can also be a disadvantage. They are a national registered agent service and an international company, so sometimes your business in Nebraska can feel lost in the shuffle.
Overall
If you are not at all budget conscious and you value a big name that offers some perks, LegalZoom could be a good fit.
They’re a one-stop legal shop and if you’ve used them before you can easily add registered agent service to your tab.
It’ll be a pretty heft tab, however, and you can find far more personalized service at a much cheaper rate if you look elsewhere.
If you don’t mind the price tag and really love the name and the “free” identity theft insurance, check out LegalZoom.
4. ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness recently opened up their registered agent service to everyone after initially restricting it to those who had used them for their LLC formation services. LLC formation is their claim to fame, and they are extremely good at it.
Their registered agent service, however, isn’t quite there yet. The service is good and they are certainly trustworthy enough to be your point of contact with the Nebraska Secretary of State, but their prices leave something to be desired.
Currently, ZenBusiness' basic Pro Package is $199, and it only provides all the basic services that my top 2 registered agents offer at a much cheaper rate. At these rates, their Pro Package is underwhelming and their Premium Package ($299) is overpriced.
If you don't want to spend $199 per year, Harbor Compliance offers a more comprehensive registered agent service, and if you want the premium package, Northwest Registered Agent is better and cheaper.
Read our full ZenBusiness Review here.
5. IncFile
IncFile is a reputable budget alternative that can be trusted to receive Service of Process or other legal documents on behalf of your company. They will keep you in compliance by providing a Nebraska address that’s open during normal business hours to receive legal correspondence for your company.
Their service is pretty basic and doesn’t include compliance alerts, yet they still charge $119 per year. That’s not a great price when you consider the alternatives. Harbor Compliance is better and cheaper and Northwest Registered Agent is substantially better and just a few dollars more.
Read our full IncFile review to find out more about IncFile's offers and services.
6. Rocket Lawyer
Rocket Lawyer is a company similar to LegalZoom in terms of the scope of their online legal services. Although Rocket Lawyer offers Nebraska registered agent service at $149, which is quite a bit cheaper than that of LegalZoom, they are still overpriced compared with other registered agents.
Rocket Lawyer also falls victim to its size and, as a result, fails to provide personalized service.
If you're interested in finding out more about Rocket Lawyer's services, read our full Rocket Lawyer Review.
7. SunDoc Filings
SunDoc Filings embodies the phrase “You don’t always get what you pay for.” They charge $159 per year for a basic service that doesn’t include filing alerts.
They offer the essentials, such as a Nebraska office address open during regular business hours to receive Service of Process and other legal documents, plus correspondence from the state, but that’s about it. For $159 they should be offering far more.
8. InCorp
If you don’t plan on using your online account often, InCorp is a good budget Nebraska registered agent option. They offer a good range of services for a low price ($99).
Until I logged on to their website, InCorp was a definite contender for Harbor Compliance’s spot as my best budget registered agent. Once I was on their site, however, they didn’t seem like such a bargain. Completing simple tasks was an ordeal.
9. Swyft Filings
Swyft Filings is another Nebraska registered agent that price themselves into no man’s land. For $149 per year, they offer a pretty basic service. There are cheaper, better options for your registered agent in Nebraska.
Read more about Swyft Filing's services in our in-depth Swyft Filings Review.
10. CSC Global
CSC Global might seem like a good option if you are considering a change of registered agent because they offer to reimburse your filing fee if you switch to their service. Don’t fall for it!
Considering that CSC Global charges $299 per year and doesn’t even offer compliance alerts or good customer service, you are almost certainly better off with your current Nebraska registered agent service.
11. Registered Agents Inc.
Ah, to be a fly on the wall when Registered Agents Inc. decided on their company name. Did anyone float any other ideas? Something a little less generic perhaps?
I suppose you could admire them for their straightforwardness but there’s little else about their service that’s worthy of admiration. They charge $200 per year for a pretty basic level of service.
If you need a Nebraska registered agent, find a good lowercase registered agent elsewhere. The uppercase Registered Agent won’t do much for your pocketbook or your peace of mind.
12. Jumpstart Filings
Take a leap in another direction. Jumpstart Filings comes down on the lower end of the price point ($129), but the quality of their service suggests they should be far cheaper.
Registered Agent Review Summary
I started my research with more than 60 registered agents, narrowed it down to my top 12, and examined those companies from head to toe.
Northwest Registered Agent was clearly the best.
They’ve mastered the essential services of a registered agent and can be trusted to protect your assets and handle your company’s most critical documents.
Northwest Registered Agent also employs the most experienced, helpful customer service team in the industry. They have the knowledge and expertise to guide you and your company through just about any regulatory issue.
All that for a competitive price ($125).
If you want the support and guidance of the best registered agent in Nebraska, sign up with Northwest Registered Agent.
Best Registered Agent Review Methodology
These are the steps I took to decide which was the best registered agent for your business.
Why You Should Trust Me
I am blessed with a large network of fellow small business owners and I don’t know a single one who has spent as much time researching registered agents as I have.
Why is that? Why do small business owners spend countless hours debating every little decision about the direction of their companies but then don’t spend a second on their choice of registered agent?
Many business owners see their registered agent as a state-required PO box and nothing else, but a good registered agent can be a great asset for your business.
It is, after all, your registered agent who handles your company’s most important legal documents and acts as the go-between between you and the Nebraska Secretary of State. Your registered agent is also what keeps your name and address off the public record. That’s a lot of responsibility!
When I realized just how important a registered agent was, I started taking my research seriously. And when I realized how few resources offered comprehensive registered agent reviews, I doubled my research efforts with the thought of one day publishing the results.
I found more than 60 companies that offered registered agent services in Nebraska and I took the time to go through the websites of each one—from the tops of the pages to the bottoms, from the front pages to every single “About Us” and FAQ.
I dove deep into the world of online reviews and read as many as I could find, from the remarkably thorough to the oddly unhinged.
Whenever I was unclear about something, I picked up the phone and called the registered agents directly. I asked so many questions, I suspect a few of the less patient registered agents may have blocked my number.
Now that this website is live, all that work has paid off. I hired a great registered agent that I trust for both of my companies and through this website I’ve helped thousands find their own registered agent. I hope this site can help you too.
How I Selected the Best Registered Agent
I used a four-stage process to select the best Nebraska registered agent for your Nebraska LLC.
Stage 1: Reviews
After I had identified 60 of the major registered agents in Nebraska, I read online reviews of all of them.
Online reviews can be less than trustworthy. In many cases it seems that only consumers with extreme opinions weighed in. Companies also use various methods to manipulate their reviews.
Read enough of them, however, and you start to get a pretty complete picture of a company. I went through the Better Business Bureau, Google Business, Facebook, and TrustPilot just to name a few.
The most common complaint I encountered was regarding a bait-and-switch pricing scheme used by a surprising number of agents.
A lot of registered agents advertise a low price, typically in the $39–$59 range. What they don’t always explain is that this price point is just a sign-up cost and your annual costs will be substantially higher.
If I can’t trust a company to be honest about their pricing, I certainly can’t trust them to serve as my registered office and accept Service of Process on behalf of my company.
Nearly 50 registered agents operating in Nebraska used this pricing scheme. I eliminated all of them.
Stage 2: Website Analysis
For my 12 reputable remainders, I went through their websites and cataloged exactly what they included with their registered agent service.
I observed a surprising variety of features, ranging from the required street address in Nebraska to identity theft insurance. In total, among the 12 companies, there were 24 distinct service offerings.
Stage 3: Speaking with Real Customers
I now knew exactly what each registered agent offered, but I also wanted to know how well they executed those services.
Thanks to my small business network, I was able to reach out to a lot of people and hear about their direct experiences with their registered agents.
Now that I’ve published this website, I’m getting even more feedback from customers, which I use to keep these ratings accurate and up-to-date.
Stage 4: Speaking with Their Sales Team
As the last step, I spent a lot of time talking directly to the registered agents themselves. I didn’t want to give them the last word, but I did want to fill in some blanks and get a sense of their company culture.
Since I had already done so much research, I was able to directly challenge the registered agents regarding certain issues and complaints I’d come across.
My intent was to see how much each company valued customer feedback, whether they were committed to correcting mistakes, and how eager they were to improve their service.
Rating Factors
I rated the top 12 registered agents according to how well they fared in the following five factors.
Factor 1: Offerings
Some companies are creative in what they include in their registered agent package. Some are not.
On the one hand, you have a company like LegalZoom that decided to include identity theft insurance with their registered agent package. On the other, you have the lazier registered agents who don’t offer much more than a registered office open during normal business hours.
Some registered agents provide cheap LLC formation services, which is a big plus. Some offer the best LLC formation services.
Additional services include filing fee reimbursement if you have to pay to change your registered agent and more everyday perks like compliance alerts.
To keep track of who offered what I made a simple spreadsheet and tallied up which services were offered by which companies. The more services offered, the higher the rating.
Factor 2: Value
Value is always an important consideration for small business owners. It is particularly important when rating registered agents because there are a number of agents who like to charge more and offer less.
I defined “value” in terms of which registered agent gives you the most bang for your buck. I devised a ratio by dividing the number of services each registered agent offered by how much they charged.
Factor 3: Ease of Sign-up
I didn’t consider this a major factor in my ratings process until I tried to sign up for a few services. It was incredible how difficult this process was with some registered agents.
I strongly believe that a registered agent should value their customer’s time. We are, after all, small business owners with hardly a minute to spare, let alone a few hours to fight through a ridiculous sign-up process.
I signed up for all 12 registered agents and judged their sign-up process based on how easy and quick it was to complete.
Factor 4: Ease of Use
After signing up, I also spent a lot of time testing the online systems of each registered agent.
Some registered agents offer web portals that allow you to view scanned copies of your incoming documents the same day they arrive, which is a huge advantage over other registered agent services who simply forward your mail through the US Mail service.
That advantage is negated, however, if the site is difficult to navigate or your documents are difficult to access.
I rated each registered agent based on the simplicity, efficiency, and usefulness of their website.
Factor 5: Customer Service
The final factor that I rated was customer service. I considered not weighing this factor as heavily as the others in my overall rating because you probably won’t use your customer service department that often.
In the end, I gave it the same weight as the other factors because on the rare occasions when you do need customer service, they can be lifesavers.
A good customer service department can help you prevent filing mistakes that could result in costly state fees or worse, and if you do make a mistake, they can help you get back on the right track.
I talked to the customer service departments of all 12 of my top registered agents. I created a little test and judged each department based on how efficient and accurate they were.
The Best Nebraska Registered Agent Results Summary
After a thorough evaluation of more than 60 Nebraska registered agents, I narrowed the field to my top 12 and selected the best of the best:
Best Overall Registered Agent—Northwest Registered Agent (9.13/10)
Northwest Registered Agent finished atop my ratings by a pretty wide margin due to their trustworthiness, extensive service offerings, competitive price, and amazing customer support.
Northwest Registered agent does a great job with all the required registered agent essentials. They can be trusted to responsibly handle Service of Process, other legal documents, and communication from the state of Nebraska on behalf of your company.
They also offer some helpful extras such as compliance alerts and an individualized filing calendar to help you keep on top of deadlines for your biennial report (or annual report depending on your corporate structure).
Northwest Registered Agent’s customer service department received my highest rating by a significant margin. They are so knowledgeable they can easily pass for small business advisors and will often help you with issues going well beyond their responsibilities as your registered agent.
Counting with well over 3,000 positive Northwest Registered Agent reviews, this service is one of the best-rated in the industry, so you're very unlikely to have a bad experience when working with them.
If you value experience, expertise, and dependability at a reasonable price, hire Northwest Registered Agent today.
Best Budget Registered Agent—Harbor Compliance (7.92/10)
Harbor Compliance offers minimal savings ($26) compared with Northwest Registered Agent, but they offer a reliable service if you are really pinching pennies.
Harbor Compliance does a nice job with the basics, and they will keep your company in compliance by offering a Nebraska street address open during normal business hours to receive legal notices on behalf of your company.
They also offer compliance alerts which is a rare offering from a budget service.
Their customer service is adequate but not great, which is a pretty good description of Harbor Compliance in general.
And even though it's one of the cheapest services, there are hundreds of positive Harbor Compliance reviews online to prove what I'm trying to say here.
If your budget is a higher priority than great customer service, check out Harbor Compliance.
Best Premium Registered Agent—LegalZoom (6.59/10)
LegalZoom is on the opposite end of the budget spectrum. They are expensive—more than twice the price of Northwest Registered Agent.
LegalZoom is a one-stop shop for all your legal needs. They can help with your Certificate of Organization and any other aspects of your LLC formation, so if you’ve used them for those purposes it is simple enough to add registered agent service to your account.
They also offer some unique perks, most notably identity theft insurance, but it is not enough to justify their exorbitant price.
If you have an unlimited budget and value a big name more than personalized service, check out LegalZoom.
In Conclusion
Choosing your registered agent might not be high on your priority list, but it isn’t a decision that you should overlook.
Your registered agent is responsible for receiving critical legal notices, maintaining your privacy by keeping your name off the public record and serving as the point of contact with the Nebraska Secretary of State.
When you consider their responsibilities, it becomes clear that your registered agent will play a critical role in your company’s future.
With that in mind, I started on a quest to write a comprehensive review of the registered agent options in Nebraska. I began with 60 registered agents, narrowed the field down to 12 and rated them according to five critical factors.
When I tallied up the ratings, Northwest Registered Agent was the clear winner.
They offer all the basics plus some great extras to help you keep in good standing with the state of Nebraska:
- A Nebraska street address to receive Service of Process and other legal documents
- Prompt mail forwarding
- Document scanning and uploading
- An online portal allowing you near-instant access to your incoming correspondence
- Help with your Certificate of Organization
- Compliance alerts
- A personalized filing calendar to keep you from missing key filing deadlines
Northwest Registered Agent also has the best customer service team in the industry. They are experienced and knowledgeable enough to help guide you through any regulatory issues that may arise.
Despite all these advantages and a great reputation, they still charge one of the best rates in the business.
If your company deserves the best registered agent in Nebraska, hire Northwest Registered Agent today.
