North Carolina Bills $200 a Year. LegalZoom Bills $249.

Who wrote this matters, so here it is at the top: NC Registered Agent.org, which puts a North Carolina agent seat on the market at $99 a year and would rather you bought ours than LegalZoom's. Nothing on this page is impartial except the prices, which were copied from LegalZoom's published rates in July 2026 and are printed here exactly as found.

The Brand Is Not Nothing

LegalZoom is the most recognized name in this business by a wide margin, and there is real value in that for some buyers. Two decades and more of trading history sit behind it, the company is not going to evaporate over a weekend, the support organization is large, and if you already run trademarks, estate documents, and business filings through the same account, consolidating the agent appointment there is a defensible convenience. People who dislike vendor sprawl are buying something coherent. That is a genuine argument and it deserves saying before the criticism starts.

$249, and It Renews Itself

Registered agent service from LegalZoom runs $249 a year. That is a flat figure with no first-year discount that we could locate in July 2026, and it renews automatically until somebody stops it. Nothing dishonest is happening here; the price is on the page and the auto-renewal is disclosed. It is simply expensive relative to what the job is.

Here is the North Carolina framing that puts the number in perspective. This state charges LLCs $200 a year for the annual report, which is one of the steepest recurring state charges in the country and something every North Carolina owner grumbles about. LegalZoom's agent fee is larger than that. You would be paying more to have somebody stand at an address than the state charges you to stay registered at all.

One of those three lines is unavoidable. The state's report is owed whether or not the company traded a dollar that year, and our walkthrough of the report covers the filing. The other two lines are a choice between $249 and $99 for identical statutory work.

What the Statute Actually Demands

North Carolina writes the requirement in one place and applies it to everybody. Under § 55D-30 every registered entity keeps a registered agent and a registered office in this state, continuously, at a physical street address. That is the entire mandate. Be reachable at a real North Carolina location during business hours, accept what is delivered, and pass it along. The statute contains no clause about the size of the vendor's marketing budget, and a summons handed to a $249 agent creates exactly the same obligations as one handed to a $99 agent.

So the honest question is not whether LegalZoom is competent. It is whether the recognition premium is worth $150 a year, forever, on a duty defined by three sentences of state law.

What Our $99 Covers

The rate is $99, it stays $99 at renewal, and there is no tier above it to be moved into later. Court papers handed to us in North Carolina reach your portal as scans before the day is out, and an email tells you they are waiting. Our address occupies the public record instead of your home address. Deadline reminders go out before April 15 so the report does not sneak up on you. Checkout offers one product and does not attempt to sell you five more on the way through.

We are not the cheapest agent in North Carolina and will not claim to be. BetterLegal advertises $90, which is below us. The narrower claim is the defensible one: $99 is one of the lower flat yearly figures quoted for this state, it does not move at renewal, and the same-day scanning is inside the rate rather than billed beside it.

Moving the Appointment Away From LegalZoom

The mechanics are short. North Carolina uses Form BE-06, a statement of change that records a new registered office, a new agent, or both, and the state charges $5 to file it with the Secretary of State's office in Raleigh. One form covers every entity type, so an LLC and a nonprofit submit the same document.

The order is the part people get wrong. Cancel the LegalZoom subscription first and you have changed your billing, not your public record; the state still shows LegalZoom as your agent and will keep sending everything there. Appoint the replacement, file BE-06, confirm the record has flipped, and then cancel. Done that way there is never a moment where your company lacks an agent, which is the condition the statute above forbids. Our change of agent walkthrough has the full sequence.

Time it a month or two before the auto-renewal date, since that charge posts without asking.

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