Six checks stand between a company and a place on our lists
Every company on this site went through all six, in order, before it appeared anywhere — and goes through them again every quarter. We find them, we test them, we rank them.
What every company has to clear
What the fee covers
The headline number is rarely the number. We separate what the first-year fee actually buys, registered agent, registered office, the government fee, the filings, from what turns up later as an extra: the renewal, the certificate of good standing, the apostille, the courier. Two agents can quote the same figure and mean very different things by it.
Track record
Years in operation, the volume and kind of work actually completed, and the specialisms a firm can prove rather than claim. We look for the pattern: a firm that has handled your situation a hundred times is worth more to you than a generalist with a better website.
Reputation analysis
Google reviews weighed for volume, recency and pattern — not the average alone. Then the part no rating captures: what the expat and local communities actually say about a firm when nobody is marketing to them, in the groups and threads where people report back after the fact.
The response test
We contact every agent the way a client would: an ordinary question from an ordinary address, no press introduction, no disclosure. We record who replies, how fast, and whether the reply contains a price or a request for a call. In this market that single check separates more agents than any other.
Price transparency
Firms that quote clearly outrank firms that "it depends" you to death. We ask what the work costs, what’s included, what’s billed at cost, and whether any of it goes in writing before money moves. Nobody is penalised for being expensive — only for being vague.
Quarterly re-evaluation
Every list carries the date it was last checked. Each quarter we re-run the response test, re-read the reviews, re-check the published fees, and re-order the list on what we find. Agents that slipped get dropped, and better ones move up into the space.
Three things on every ranked page
Rank 1 cleared the six checks best overall. Rank 6 still cleared all six — it isn't a warning.
It's the date we last re-checked the firm ourselves. If it's old, treat the list as old.
The lines under a firm are what it did to earn the spot — not marketing copy it sent us.
Questions we get about the rankings
How does a company end up on a list?
We find it. Every list is independently researched and ranked — a firm telling us it exists gets it into the next review round, not onto a page.
Is the ranking editorial?
Yes. Ranking decisions are editorial and we are not paid for them. The order comes out of the six checks and the evidence we can write down.
What if a firm disagrees with its rank?
They can send us facts. If something we published is wrong, we correct it the same week and note the change. If it is accurate, the rank stands until the next quarterly review.
Do firms know they're being tested?
Not during the response test. We write as a normal client with a normal question, from a normal address, and we wait like one.
Why only 8–12 firms per list?
Because that's how many we can check properly and re-check every quarter. A longer list would be a directory, and directories are what sent you here.
Think a firm was judged wrongly?
Send us what we got wrong. Corrections go in ahead of everything else.