Home/Registering a company/Can I register a company myself?
Can I register a company myself, without an agent?
Yes — here is exactly how, what it costs, and the four situations where an agent earns its fee.
Yes. You can register a company directly with Companies House for the £100 statutory fee, with no agent involved at any stage. An agent is worth paying when you need your home address kept off the public register, when directors are overseas, when the share structure is not a simple even split, or when you want someone else to own the filing deadlines.
How to do it yourself
Use the Companies House web incorporation service, have your directors' details and identity verification ready, decide the share structure before you start, and use an address you are content to have published. It is genuinely straightforward for a single UK-resident director and shareholder.
What you give up
Nothing checks your name against the "same as" rules or the sensitive words list before you submit. Nothing tells you the structure you picked is wrong for what you described. Reminders go to the address you gave, which is often the problem two years later.
When an agent earns its fee
A home address that must stay private. Directors or shareholders abroad. More than one shareholder, or shares that are not split evenly. A guarantee company, CIC, RTM company or PLC, where the articles are not the standard ones.
What no agent can do
File faster than Companies House processes. Guarantee a name will be accepted. Guarantee a bank account. Remove an address that has already been published.
Where to go next
Check a name first
Statutory rules, then the Companies House register. Free, and no email required.
Check a company name What it costs