Most people budget the formation fee and get caught by the renewal. The cheapest company to start is almost never the cheapest company to own, and the gap only shows up in year two, when you have already committed. We priced sixty-three agents across all nine jurisdictions we cover, separated what the government takes from what the agent takes, and worked out the three-year total.
The short answer
Government fees run from about $37 in Georgia to roughly $1,570 for a Dubai free zone licence. Agent fees run from nothing to €2,600. Prices checked August 2026.
| Jurisdiction | Government, year 1 | Typical agent fee | Annual cost after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | ~100 GEL (~$37) | 600–1,200 GEL | Accounting only |
| Delaware | $110 | $0–500 | $400 tax + $50–299 agent |
| Seychelles | $150 | $439–1,750 | $150 + agent fee |
| Estonia | €265 | €0–200 | €0 state + monthly accounting |
| Cyprus | €165 | €1,200–2,600 | Audit + levy |
| Hong Kong | ~HKD 3,895 | Bundled, $745–1,350 all-in | Renewal + mandatory audit |
| BVI | $450–550 | $500–1,500 | ~$550 + agent fee |
| Singapore | S$315 | S$2,000–3,700 for a foreigner | Nominee S$1,800–4,000 |
| Dubai | AED 5,750–12,900 | Rarely published | Licence renewal, similar to setup |
Two things jump out. The state almost never takes the biggest share, and the jurisdictions with the lowest entry price are not the ones with the lowest running cost.
The three-year view nobody publishes
Every comparison of this kind stops at the first-year total. That is the number agents want you to compare on, and it is the one that misleads most.
Here is the same nine, projected to three years, assuming a mid-market agent and the compliance obligations each jurisdiction actually imposes.
| Jurisdiction | Year 1 | Years 2–3 | Three-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | ~$400 | ~$800 | ~$1,200 |
| Delaware, low-fee agent | ~$560 | ~$900 | ~$1,460 |
| Estonia, low tier | ~$600 | ~$1,000 | ~$1,600 |
| Seychelles, matched renewal | ~$1,000 | ~$1,700 | ~$2,700 |
| Delaware, high-fee agent | ~$810 | ~$1,400 | ~$2,210 |
| Seychelles, stepped renewal | ~$1,100 | ~$3,300 | ~$4,400 |
| BVI | ~$2,200 | ~$3,600 | ~$5,800 |
| Hong Kong, with audit | ~$1,800 | ~$4,000 | ~$5,800 |
| Cyprus, with audit | ~$3,000 | ~$4,000 | ~$7,000 |
| Singapore, with nominee | ~$3,000 | ~$6,000 | ~$9,000 |
Indicative, and the point is the ordering rather than the precision. Two things change position between the two tables. Seychelles appears twice, because the choice of agent moves it by $1,700 on identical filings. And Delaware appears twice for the same reason.
Your agent decides more of your three-year cost than your jurisdiction does, in four of the nine.
What the government takes
This is the honest half of the bill, because it is published and identical whoever files for you.
Delaware charges $110 to file a Certificate of Formation, then $400 a year in franchise tax due on 1 June. That $400 figure matters, because a large amount of published material still says $300. If an agent quotes you the old number, it tells you when they last checked anything.
Estonia charges €265 to register an OÜ online and €150 for e-Residency, with no annual state fee at all. Registering an Estonian company is one of the few places where the government's cut is most of what you pay.
The BVI charges about $450 to $550 to incorporate at the standard tier of up to 50,000 shares, with a similar annual licence fee. Authorise more than 50,000 shares and the fee rises materially, every year, which is why the share structure is a cost decision as much as a legal one.
Cyprus takes €165 for the combined filings, and Singapore takes S$315. Both are trivial next to the professional fees around them.
What the agent takes
Here the published numbers stop, and the spread is enormous.
A Seychelles IBC can be bought for $439 or for $1,750. Both agents submit the same documents to the same registry and receive the same certificate. What differs is who answers when something goes wrong, and whether the renewal was disclosed before you paid.
Delaware agents are the most transparent group we priced. Formation runs from free to about $500, but the registered agent renewal is where the models diverge: $50 a year at the cheapest end against $299 at the dearest, for a statutory service nobody can differentiate. Across five years that gap is around $1,250.
Dubai is the opposite extreme. Free zone licence fees are published, roughly AED 5,750 for a Sharjah or Ras Al Khaimah freelance permit and about AED 12,500 to 12,900 for a Dubai address, but almost no agent will state their own fee without a phone call. When a whole market declines to publish, that is information.
You are buying one of three different things
The jurisdictions on this page are not selling the same product, which is why a straight price comparison misleads. Each one is really charging you for one of three things.
A filing. Georgia, Delaware and Estonia are cheap because the state does very little and asks very little back. You are paying for a registration and, in Estonia's case, a monthly bookkeeping subscription. There is no gatekeeper.
A gatekeeper. Seychelles and the BVI legally require a licensed local agent, permanently. You cannot file directly and you cannot go without, so the annual agent fee is structural rather than optional. That is most of the difference between Delaware's $110 and the BVI's $2,200 first year.
A person. Singapore requires a director who is ordinarily resident there, and Hong Kong requires a resident company secretary. You are renting a human being with statutory duties, which is why Singapore's nominee costs S$1,800 to S$4,000 a year and why it tops the three-year table.
Work out which of the three you are buying before comparing any two quotes.
The renewal inversion
Take two agents on the same Seychelles page. One charges $850 to incorporate and $850 to renew. Another charges $950 and renews at $1,650. On day one the first looks $100 more expensive. By the end of year three it is $1,500 cheaper.
The same pattern runs through most of this list:
- Delaware looks cheapest at formation and stays cheapest, provided you pick an agent with a low renewal. Pick the wrong one and it quietly becomes mid-table.
- Estonia has almost no formation cost and a permanent monthly one. The accounting subscription runs from about €10 to €259 a month, so the ranking between Estonian providers is decided entirely after you have signed up.
- Singapore is the clearest case. A foreign founder needs a resident director, and renting one costs S$1,800 to S$4,000 every year. Over three years the nominee costs more than everything else combined.
- Cyprus carries a statutory audit for every company regardless of size, which is unusual in the EU and is the largest recurring cost of owning one.
What quotes leave out
Ask what a quote excludes rather than what it includes. The omissions repeat across jurisdictions and they are not small.
The certificate of good standing, the apostille and the courier are almost never in the headline figure, and you will need all three the moment a bank asks. Budget a few hundred dollars and expect to need them at short notice.
The ultimate beneficial owner filing is a separate line in several jurisdictions. Economic substance reporting is an annual professional exercise in Seychelles and the BVI, and cheap agents whose service ends at the certificate do not do it.
Bank account assistance is priced separately by most agents and declined outright by some. In Hong Kong and the BVI that assistance is worth more than the formation itself, because opening the account is the step that actually fails.
Visas are the Dubai version of this. A zero-visa free zone licence at around AED 5,000 becomes roughly AED 12,000 the moment one person needs residency, once the establishment card, immigration card and the visa itself are added.
Where the cheap options actually are
If you want the lowest total cost of ownership and your clients are outside the jurisdiction, registering in Georgia is difficult to beat. An LLC costs about 100 GEL to register and an Individual Entrepreneur about 25 GEL, with a 1% turnover tax regime available up to 500,000 GEL a year. The catch is that the 1% status is a separate application and you are a 20% taxpayer by default until you make it.
Delaware is the cheapest credible option in the US, and an Estonian OÜ is the cheapest in the EU once you accept that the cost arrives monthly rather than upfront.
At the other end, Singapore and Cyprus are expensive for reasons that are structural rather than greedy: one requires a resident director you probably do not have, the other requires an audit you certainly do not want. Both are still the right answer for specific situations. Neither is the right answer because the brochure said low tax.
The rate changes that moved the maths in 2026
Two jurisdictions repriced this year and a lot of published guidance has not caught up.
Cyprus raised corporate income tax from 12.5% to 15% with effect from 1 January 2026, under the reform aligning it with the OECD global minimum rate. That removes the single statistic Cyprus had been sold on for a decade, though the IP Box regime and its effective 3% rate on qualifying intellectual property income survive intact.
The UAE now charges federal corporate tax at 9% on taxable profits above AED 375,000. Qualifying free zone companies can still reach 0% on qualifying income, but that is a defined regime with conditions rather than an automatic consequence of holding a free zone licence.
Anyone still describing either jurisdiction as tax free is quoting marketing from 2022.
Key takeaways
- Government fees range from about $37 in Georgia to roughly $1,570 for a Dubai free zone licence, and they are the honest, published half of the bill.
- The agent's fee is the larger and less visible half, and it does not correlate with quality. Identical filings sell for $439 and $1,750.
- Compare the three-year total, not year one. In four of the nine jurisdictions your choice of agent moves the total more than your choice of country.
- You are buying a filing, a gatekeeper or a person. Work out which before comparing quotes.
- Ask what a quote excludes: apostille, good standing certificate, UBO filing, substance reporting, bank assistance and, in Dubai, the visas.
- Cyprus is now 15%, not 12.5%, and the UAE charges 9% above AED 375,000.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest country to register a company in 2026?
Georgia, on state fees alone, at roughly 100 GEL for an LLC and 25 GEL for an Individual Entrepreneur. Delaware is cheapest among major jurisdictions at $110 to file. Seychelles is the cheapest of the traditional offshore options, with a $150 government licence fee.
Why do two agents charge such different prices for the same company?
Because the filing is standardised and everything around it is not. Both submit identical documents to the same registry. The price difference reflects service level, whether the renewal was disclosed up front, and in some cases simply what the agent thinks the market will pay.
What is the most expensive jurisdiction on this list?
Singapore over three years, at roughly $9,000, because a foreign founder must rent a resident director at S$1,800 to S$4,000 every year. Cyprus follows at around $7,000 on account of professional fees plus a mandatory annual audit.
Is a cheaper jurisdiction worse?
Not inherently. It usually means lower compliance obligations and a smaller professional services market. The trade-off appears in banking: cheaper jurisdictions are generally harder to open accounts for, which matters more than the formation fee.
What is the renewal fee and why does it matter more?
It is the annual cost of keeping the company alive: government licence, agent or registered agent fee, and any mandatory accounting. It matters more because you pay it every year, and it is the number agents are least likely to publish.
How much should I budget beyond the quoted price?
Between 20% and 50% more in the first year for most jurisdictions. Apostilles, certified copies, courier charges, bank account assistance and beneficial ownership filings sit outside almost every headline package.
Which jurisdiction is cheapest over three years?
Georgia at roughly $1,200, then Delaware at about $1,460 provided you choose an agent with a low registered agent renewal. Estonia is close behind on a low accounting tier. Singapore is the most expensive at around $9,000.
Do these prices include a bank account?
Almost never. Bank account assistance is priced separately by most agents and declined outright by some. In Hong Kong, the BVI and Seychelles it is the hardest part of the exercise, and an agent's ability to help there is worth more than a few hundred dollars on the formation fee.
Does a cheap company mean a cheap tax rate?
No, and the two are unrelated. Georgia has among the lowest fees and a 1% regime for qualifying individual entrepreneurs. Cyprus has low state fees relative to its professional costs and now charges 15%. Formation cost tells you nothing about your eventual tax position.
How often do these figures change?
Government fees move every year or two, and 2026 has already brought a Cyprus rate rise and confirmation of Delaware's $400 annual tax. Agent pricing changes more often than that. We re-check every list quarterly, and the date on each page tells you when it was last done.
