Corporate Filings Solutions vs. Northwest Registered Agent

Learn about the similarities and differences between Northwest Registered Agent and us in this Corporate Filings Solutions vs. Northwest Registered Agent review.

A Northwest Registered Agent Review

Northwest Registered Agent offers numerous products and services beyond registered agent service in all 50 states, business incorporation, and LLC formation. These services include foreign qualification, mail forwarding services, and virtual office services as well as odd items like corporate books and BOC-3 blanket agent service for motor carriers.

The website is a bit too big and complex for our taste—almost 2,000 pages of information—but it isn’t hard to see why it might appeal to the DIY business formation crowd on which Northwest Registered Agent focuses most of its attention.

Here’s a snapshot of what makes Northwest Registered Agent one of the most compelling companies in the industry:

• Competitive pricing: Northwest Registered Agent charges $125/year for its registered agent service; its LLC formation & incorporation services cost $100 plus state fees.
• Transparent pricing: You won’t find any up-sells or third-party add-ons.
• Privacy & security: The company creates and manages its own software, keeps your data secure, and doesn’t partner with third parties.
• Corporate Guides: Hiring Northwest Registered Agent means you’ll get ongoing access to your own corporate expert (called a “Corporate Guide”) for no extra cost.
• Same-day digital notifications: If Northwest Registered Agent receives service of process (or any other official state mail) for your company, they’ll notify you on the same day and upload a scanned copy of the document to your online account from their local office.
• Annual report reminders: Northwest Registered Agent will also remind your company to submit its annual report by the deadline free of charge. (If you want Northwest to actually complete and submit your company’s annual report, however, you’ll need to pay an extra $100 filing fee.)

Northwest Registered Agent also has a decent reputation for a company that has been in business as long as they have (twenty plus years). You can find numerous positive reviews online, and (like CFS!) they’ve received an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

How Does CFS Compare to Northwest Registered Agent?

The main difference between CFS and Northwest Registered Agent comes down to our company history.

CFS was founded in 2009, and we originally focused on providing corporate filings solutions for law firms and certified public accountants (CPAs). Providing corporate filing services to law firms and CPAs is a lot more complicated than doing the same thing for individual entrepreneurs, so we had to learn the ins and outs of the business filing world more thoroughly than most, and we developed strategies for managing our clients’ complex filings with ease and simplicity.

Then we decided to take what we’d learned and apply it to the consumer market. We tailor our services to our clients’ needs, and we know how to deliver. That’s why our other name is Corporate Filings Solutions.

Compare our main selling points to those of Northwest Registered Agent, listed above, and you’ll see exactly what we mean:

• Better Registered Agent Prices: Our prices are even better than Northwest Registered Agent’s. Whereas they charge $125 a year for registered agent service, we charge $95 a year, and we also offer discounts to clients who want to make a long-term commitment. We can pull this off because we partner with Registered Agents Inc, the best wholesale registered agent service on the market, to help keep our prices low.
• Better Business Formation Prices: Our business formation fee is only $50 plus state fees (compared to Northwest Registered Agent’s $100).
• Privacy Expertise: Despite the way their website talks, Northwest Registered Agent doesn’t have a monopoly on privacy and security. Like Northwest, we strive to limit the exposure of your company’s information on the public record, and we keep your private information private.
• Expert Customer Service: We may not have a fancy name like “Corporate Guides” for our expert staff, but we know our trade inside and out. Our office is staffed by corporate lawyers, CPAs, and filers experienced working directly with secretary of state offices around the country.
• Fast Processing: Since we have registered agent offices in all 50 states through our partnership with Registered Agents Inc, we’re able to offer the same fast business filings and equally prompt registered agent service available from Northwest Registered Agent.
• Compliance Monitoring: Here we’re pretty much identical to Northwest Registered Agent. When you hire CFS, we’ll send your company reminders before your annual report is due, and you can also get our annual report compliance service for $100 a year.

Registered Agent Multi-Year Discounts

Price is where we really knock Northwest Registered Agent out of the water. Northwest charges $125 a year, every year, for its registered agent service. That’s a pretty good price, and better than a lot of the competition out there, but doesn’t hold up to the prices and options we provide.

At CFS, we offer multi-year discounts depending on how many years you want to commit to in advance, including our base price of $95 a year and 2-year, 3-year, 4-year, and 5-year discounts depending on your needs. These discounted prices are possible because of our partnership with Registered Agents Inc, the industry’s leader in commercial registered agent service.

You can see from the table at the top of this page just how much money you’ll save on registered agent service if you sign up for one of our registered agent multi-year discount packages, or even if you just sign up for a single year, versus the price you’ll pay if you hire Northwest Registered Agent.

The Verdict: CFS vs. Northwest Registered Agent

If it isn’t obvious already, we think Northwest Registered Agent is a pretty good company, and it isn’t our purpose here to bash them. We just believe that, all in all, we provide simpler, more efficient sign-up options at a better price. Furthermore, our partnership with Registered Agents Inc allows us to provide registered agent service equal to Northwest’s but for far less money. In short, you can do a lot worse than hiring Northwest Registered Agent to form your company or serve as your business’s registered agent, but by hiring Corporate Filings Solutions, instead, you can also do a whole lot better.