The Best Business Formation Agents In 2025: Our Recommendations For New Owners

Are you thinking of opening your own business in the next 6 to 12 months? Then you’ve got a lot of work to get on with right now! Business establishment isn’t an easy process, by any means, and you’re going to need plenty of research, funding, and contacts on your side. 

So right now you’re in the pre-establishment stages. You’re deep into market research and developing your product idea, and you’ve got an outline of a business plan in the works. You’re in a good position to start looking toward the future. 

However, the road ahead can get rough and rocky. There’s quite a few hurdles a new business owner has to jump over to get their business up and running, and many fall at the very first: getting your business registered as a business. 

As such, there’s one thing we strongly recommend doing right now: look into hiring a formation agent. 

What is a company formation agent?

If you’ve never heard of this service before, here’s a quick rundown for you. 

Formation agents are companies who provide a business registration service. They fill out the forms on your behalf, submit them to Companies House, and ensure your certification is in the post to you ASAP. 

And rarely do their services stop there. Formation agents usually operate with years of industry experience, so they know the roadblocks you’re most likely to run into. 

That’s why it’s not uncommon to see accountancy services in their roster, to make your early-days bookkeeping as simple as possible as well. 

But it’s no good just signing up to the first formation agent service you see. You need to pick your formation agent just right. And to make that as quick and easy as possible, we’ve listed out a few of our own recommendations for formation companies below. 

We’ve picked out 5 for you to look through, all of whom could be the best fit for your business plans. 

Our picks for the top 5 formation agents in 2025

1. Your Company Formations - Best for sustainable business formation

With green business practices being a top priority in the market, there are many business owners out there who want to invest in sustainable business operations. You might even be one of them!

That’s where Your Company Formations comes in. They offer one of the most environmentally-friendly information services in the entire business landscape. 

The pros of choosing Your Company Formations:

• Have worked as a successful formation agent for over 10 years now.
• Have become a multi award winning formation company in recent years, including the Ecologi For Our Planet Bronze Award in 2024.
• Plant a tree for every new client order, so you can be sure your business starts off as green as possible.

2. Anna Money - Offers some of the best formation plan levels

A mobile business bank account provider, Anna Money also runs a highly accredited company formation service too. 

The pros of choosing Anna Money:

• Operates plans with both one-off payments and yearly fees.
• Competitive pricing across their plans, with their basic tier costing only £19.
• Pay the Companies House fee for business registration themselves on all plan levels.
• Provides access to a business bank account with all business registrations.

3. 121 Company Formation - A good choice if you’re looking for various add-ons

121 Company Formation have helped to form around 50,000 businesses since they started, and they could offer a good formation experience for you too. 

Their pricing runs slightly higher than the other formation agents on this list, but their choice of add-ons could make the price worth it.

The pros of choosing 121 Company Formation:

• 5 stars on Google based on 91 reviews.
• Offer 5 different formation packages, all of which promise company registration within 24 hours (they note this is subject to workload, however). 
• Their ‘Diamond’ level package offers accountancy add-ons such as corporation tax return handling and quarterly VAT returns.

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4. Companies Made Simple - An agency with great communication and transparency

If you’re looking for an agency you can trust to put the customer first, you’ll want to look into Companies Made Simple. 

They go the extra mile to offer stellar communication and transparency, both into the registration process and their own service. If you have questions, their customer service team is always on hand to answer them. 

The pros of choosing Companies Made Simple:

• Incredibly simple registration portal that’s easy to run through for beginners.
• Very good price range across their packages, with both their Basic tier package and their Ultimate tier package seeming very affordable.
• Quick response times when you run into issues, which massively helps with any fears you may have around the registration process.

5. Tide Business - Perfect for those needing business account features

You’ve likely heard the name before now! What you might not know, however, is that Tide Business offers a basic company formation service too. 

You won’t get the same kind of support as you would from the expert formation agents listed above, but Tide’s business banking services may more than make up for this. 

The pros of choosing Tide Business:

• A well known name in the UK business community, serving around 10% of all SMEs in the country.
• Company registration costs £14.99 through Tide’s service, instead of the usual £50 fee charged by Companies House.
• You get a free business bank account when using their registration service, with no monthly fees on usage.

Hire a formation agent for easy business set up

If you want to set up a business without any hassle, you may just want to consider working with a formation agent. 

They have the experience you need for getting your business ready to operate, and offer plenty of other beneficial services that could be worth your time and investment. The more simple it is to run your business, the better your shot at success. 

And while our picks above come highly recommended, do your own research into formation agents to find the best choice for you. 

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