Georgia will register a company for about $37. Delaware charges $110. Both numbers are real, and both will cost you money if you stop there, because the jurisdiction with the lowest entry price is almost never the one with the lowest cost of ownership. Here is what nine jurisdictions charge to register, what they cost to keep for three years, and why those two rankings barely overlap.
The cheapest countries to register a company
By government fee alone, checked August 2026. These are statutory fees paid to the state, with no agent margin in them.
| Rank | Jurisdiction | Government fee to register |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | ~100 GEL (~$37) for an LLC, ~25 GEL (~$9) for an IE |
| 2 | Delaware | $110 |
| 3 | Seychelles | $150 |
| 4 | Cyprus | €165 |
| 5 | Estonia | €265 |
| 6 | Singapore | S$315 |
| 7 | BVI | $450–550 |
| 8 | Hong Kong | ~HKD 3,895 |
| 9 | Dubai | AED 5,750–12,900 licence |
Registering in Georgia wins this table and it is not close. An LLC costs about 100 GEL and an Individual Entrepreneur about 25 GEL, both filed at a Public Service Hall, and there is no annual renewal fee on the registration itself. Nothing else in the set is within a factor of three.
The ordering above is the part most comparisons get wrong, because they quote an agent's package price and call it the country's cost.
The number every other ranking gets wrong
Search this question and one figure keeps coming back: the United Kingdom, at $12. It is the cheapest number published for this term, it anchors most of the lists on page one, and it has not been true for years.
Companies House charged £10 to incorporate online until May 2024, when the fee went to £50. It rose again on 1 February 2026, and online incorporation now costs £100, with a £50 confirmation statement due every year after that. The figure still in circulation is roughly an eighth of the real one, and it leaves out the recurring charge completely.
That $12 traces back to the World Bank's Doing Business dataset, which is why it usually appears next to a "business registration cost to GNI per capita" ratio. That phrase is the name of the indicator. The World Bank discontinued Doing Business in September 2021 after an investigation found the data had been manipulated, and nothing has refreshed those numbers since. The same dead dataset is where the claim that Rwanda, Venezuela and Slovenia register companies for free comes from.
We have not repriced those three against their current registry schedules, so we do not repeat the claim in either direction. We do check the fee schedules for the nine jurisdictions we rank, and the tables here are built from those.
The cheapest countries to actually own
Now the same jurisdictions ranked by what three years costs, including agent fees and every recurring obligation. This is a different list, and two of the entries appear twice.
| Jurisdiction | Three-year total |
|---|---|
| Georgia | ~$1,200 |
| Delaware, low-fee agent | ~$1,460 |
| Estonia, low accounting tier | ~$1,600 |
| Delaware, high-fee agent | ~$2,210 |
| Seychelles, matched renewal | ~$2,700 |
| Seychelles, stepped renewal | ~$4,400 |
| BVI | ~$5,800 |
| Hong Kong, with audit | ~$5,800 |
| Cyprus | ~$7,000 |
| Singapore, with nominee director | ~$9,000 |
Delaware and Seychelles each occupy two rows because the spread between agents inside those jurisdictions is wider than the gap between several of the countries above them. That is the single most useful thing on this page. Picking the country is a smaller decision than picking who files for you.
Georgia holds first place on both tables. State fees are negligible, there is no mandatory audit for small entities, and agents charge 600 to 1,200 GEL to set up with accounting from around 180 GEL a month.
Delaware comes second on a low-fee agent. The state takes $110 to file and $400 a year in franchise tax, due on 1 June with no annual report required, and misses draw a $200 penalty plus 1.5% a month. The variable is the registered agent, and across our Delaware directory renewals run from $50 to $299 a year for identical statutory service.
Estonia is third and behaves unlike anything else here. Formation is essentially the €265 state fee plus €150 for e-Residency, since agents add little margin, but an Estonian company files monthly and the accounting subscription runs from about €10 to €259 a month. Cheap to start, and the meter never stops.
Seychelles sits mid-table despite the third-cheapest entry fee, because the $150 government licence is a small part of what you pay. Agent fees across our Seychelles listings run from $439 to $1,750 for the same filing.
Cheap to start is not cheap to keep
This is the trap the whole category is built on, and it shows up most clearly where the entry price is lowest.
A free formation offer means the agent recovers the cost at renewal. In Delaware, one agent charges nothing to form beyond the $110 state fee and $249 a year for the registered agent, while another charges $229 to form and guarantees $50 a year for the life of the company. The second is roughly $600 cheaper by year three and about $1,000 cheaper by year five.
The same inversion runs through Seychelles, where one agent charges $950 to incorporate and $1,650 to renew, while another charges $850 and renews at the same $850. The cheaper-looking quote is the more expensive company.
Ask any agent for the first-year total and the renewal total in one message. That single question reorders most shortlists, and it is the fastest way to tell a published price from a real one. The rest of the diligence worth doing sits in choosing a formation agent on something other than headline price.
The recurring obligation decides the ranking
Registration is a one-off. Everything that moves a jurisdiction down the second table is an annual duty you cannot opt out of, and there are only three that matter.
A mandatory audit is the most expensive. Cyprus requires a statutory audit of every company regardless of size, turnover or activity, which is why a €165 registration fee ends at roughly $7,000 over three years. Hong Kong applies the same rule, and its audit is the reason a company that costs about HKD 3,895 to register sits near the bottom of the ownership table.
A required local officer is the second. Singapore is the most expensive jurisdiction here for a foreign founder, not because of its S$315 filing fee but because every company must have a resident director. If you are not resident, you rent one, at S$1,800 to S$4,000 every year for as long as the company exists.
Continuous bookkeeping is the third, and it is the one people underestimate because each instalment is small. Estonia's monthly filing obligation turns €10 a month into a real number over three years, and at the €259 tier it becomes the largest line in the budget.
Dubai is a separate case. Its licence is expensive to buy and roughly as expensive to renew each year, so the three-year figure lands close to three times the entry price rather than tapering. That makes it the only jurisdiction here where the registration fee is a fair guide to the running cost. Fuller per-jurisdiction workings sit in our breakdown of formation costs across all nine.
What cheap costs you at the bank
Low fees usually mean low compliance obligations and a smaller professional market. The bill arrives at the bank.
Cheaper jurisdictions are harder to open accounts for. Correspondent banks have withdrawn from several of them, payment providers ask more questions, and an application that takes two weeks for a Delaware LLC can take two months and still fail elsewhere. A company you cannot bank is worth nothing regardless of what it cost to register, which makes the account a precondition rather than a later step. Confirm it is available before you incorporate, not after.
There is a credibility cost too. A BVI company, whose government fees start at $450, costs roughly twice a Seychelles one and is accepted in places a Seychelles company is not. If your counterparties, payment processor or investors will look the entity up, the cheap option stops being the cheap option.
The charges nobody quotes upfront, from apostilles to certified copies to beneficial ownership filings, are covered in the hidden costs of an offshore company and typically add 20% to 50% to a year-one budget.
The genuinely cheap combinations
If you are a freelancer invoicing foreign clients and you can manage your own paperwork, Georgia is difficult to beat: roughly $37 to register and 1% on turnover up to 500,000 GEL. Note that the 1% status is a separate application, and you are a 20% taxpayer by default until it is granted.
If you want US banking and payment rails, Delaware with a low-renewal registered agent is the cheapest credible route, at $110 to file and around $450 a year all in. The catch is the EIN, which a non-resident cannot obtain online.
If you need to be inside the EU, Estonia is the cheapest entry, provided you pick a low accounting tier and keep your document volume down. Its cost scales with activity rather than sitting flat.
If you specifically want an offshore structure, Seychelles is the cheapest mainstream option, and the banking question should decide it rather than the fee. Where the entity needs to be recognised by counterparties, the BVI premium buys something real.
Key takeaways
- Georgia is the cheapest place to register a company at roughly $37, ahead of Delaware at $110 and Seychelles at $150.
- The cheapest to register is not the cheapest to own. Compare three-year totals, never entry prices.
- The $12 UK figure repeated across this topic comes from a World Bank dataset discontinued in 2021. Online incorporation there now costs £100 plus £50 a year.
- The spread between agents inside one jurisdiction beats the gap between jurisdictions. Delaware renewals run $50 to $299 for identical service.
- Free formation offers are recovered at renewal. Ask for the first-year total and the renewal total together.
- Mandatory audits in Cyprus and Hong Kong, and Singapore's resident director, cost more than any registration fee in this set.
- Cheap jurisdictions are harder to bank. Confirm the account before incorporating.
- The 1% Georgian regime is an application, not an automatic status. You are taxed at 20% until you apply.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest country to register a company in?
Georgia, at roughly 100 GEL for an LLC and 25 GEL for an Individual Entrepreneur, which is about $37 and $9 respectively. Delaware is next at $110, then Seychelles at $150. Georgia also charges no annual renewal fee on the registration itself.
Is the UK really the cheapest place to register a company?
No, and the $12 figure behind that claim is long out of date. Companies House raised online incorporation to £50 in May 2024 and to £100 on 1 February 2026, with a £50 confirmation statement every year after. The original number came from a World Bank dataset discontinued in 2021.
Is a cheap company a bad company?
No, but low fees usually come with a smaller professional market and more banking friction. The formation cost and the usefulness of the company are separate questions, and only one of them shows up on the invoice.
What is the cheapest country in the EU to register a company?
Estonia, where the €265 state fee plus €150 for e-Residency is most of the formation cost. The ongoing accounting subscription is the real expense, running from about €10 to €259 a month depending on document volume.
What is the cheapest offshore jurisdiction?
Seychelles, with a flat $150 annual government licence fee that does not vary with share capital. Agent fees vary far more than the government fee, from $439 to $1,750 for identical work, so the agent decides your total.
Is Delaware cheap for non-US residents?
Yes on fees, at $110 to file and $400 a year in franchise tax. The complication is the EIN, which cannot be obtained online without an SSN or ITIN, so a non-resident applies by fax or post and waits several business days.
How much should I budget beyond the registration fee?
Between 20% and 50% more in year one for most jurisdictions. Apostilles, certified copies, courier charges, beneficial ownership filings and bank account assistance sit outside almost every quoted package.
Does cheap registration mean low tax?
No, the two are unrelated. Georgia happens to have both, with a 1% turnover regime for qualifying individual entrepreneurs. Cyprus has modest state fees and charges 15% corporate tax. Registration cost tells you nothing about your tax position.
Can I register a company for free anywhere?
No. Several agents advertise free formation, which means they charge only the government fee upfront and recover their margin through the registered agent renewal. Nothing is free once you count year two.
Which is cheapest over five years?
Georgia, then Delaware with a low-renewal agent, at roughly $1,200 and $1,460 respectively over three years and widening after that. Estonia stays competitive on a low accounting tier. Singapore is the most expensive for a foreign founder who needs a nominee director throughout.
Do I need to live in the country to register there?
Not in any of the nine jurisdictions we cover. All can be incorporated remotely through an agent, though Singapore requires a resident director on the board and Hong Kong a resident company secretary, both of which you rent rather than become.
