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ZenBusiness reviews Harbor Compliance’s registered agent service. Harbor Compliance offers affordable registered agent service compared to some competitors, but its other services (and upsells) might have you spending more than you’d like.
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Last Updated: August 20, 2025
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When you start a registered business like a corporation or limited liability company (LLC) in the United States, you’ll be required to designate a registered agent to accept service of process on your business’s behalf. If you’re researching the many registered agent services on the market today, you might encounter Harbor Compliance’s registered agent services.
But does Harbor Compliance provide a good registered agent service offering? How does it compare to most registered agent services? In this guide, we’ll review Harbor Compliance, including what this company is, its track record, how this registered agent service stacks up, and more.
A registered agent, sometimes called a resident agent or statutory agent, is an individual or a business entity that receives legal documents like service of process on behalf of a business. When you register your business with your state, you’ll be required to designate a registered agent. Many business owners decide to hire a registered agent service for peace of mind and to protect their business’s image.
In most states, a registered agent needs to be an individual or business entity with a physical address in the state (P.O. boxes don’t count). The agent needs to be physically present at their listed address (often referred to as the registered agent address or a registered office) during all standard business hours.
If you don’t designate a registered agent, your business’s initial filings will be rejected, and your business won’t be formed. Additionally, if your existing business no longer has an agent, your business could lose its good standing in the state and face penalties like administrative dissolution.
In many cases, it’s possible to be your own registered agent (and it’s natural to want a free registered agent, which you can get if you serve as your own agent). But just because you can be your own agent doesn’t mean you should. From a logistical standpoint, serving as your own agent means that you’ll have to be present at that listed address during all normal business hours — not ideal if your business requires you to be out and about during the day or if you want to go on vacation.
But more importantly, if you serve as your own agent, you’ll personally receive any legal notices if your business is ever sued. This could happen at any time at your business address — potentially while you’re working with a client or business partner — which could harm your reputation.
A registered agent service like ZenBusiness or Harbor Compliance can help you avoid that scenario. Registered agent services will receive these notices privately in their office, and they’ll deliver the notice to you discreetly. Plus, they’ll give you peace of mind that someone’s always present at your listed registered agent address, helping ensure that you follow these state compliance requirements.
But should you use Harbor Compliance as your registered agent? Let’s dig into this company in more detail.
Since its founding in 2012, Harbor Compliance has served over 40,000 different organizations with a variety of services, from compliance help to business formations, registered agent services, and more. They’re a successful midsize company; you’ll definitely find bigger online formation services, but Harbor Compliance has still set itself up as a contender in the industry.
As their name implies, Harbor Compliance highlights compliance solutions for businesses, with a primary focus on complying with requirements across multiple states. This can include business licensing services, foreign qualifications, and, of course, registered agent service (and more).
Before we get into our full review of Harbor Compliance, let’s take a quick look at the primary advantages and disadvantages of Harbor Compliance.
When we assessed Harbor Compliance, we looked at several categories of their service, including the registered agent software offering, pricing, online customer reviews, and their customer support. Let’s talk through these categories.
If you hire Harbor Compliance as your registered agent, you’ll receive a reliable registered agent who can accept legal documents and notices on your behalf. The Harbor Compliance team will promptly upload those documents to your portal so you receive them the same business day they’re received. They’ll also notify you by phone if you receive service of process.
Additionally, the Harbor Compliance website says that registered agent customers get access to their Entity Manager software, which can help you see information about compliance processes, such as annual report statuses, in your online portal.
Harbor Compliance charges less than some competitors for registered agent services, but it’s very important to thoroughly understand their pricing structure before you subscribe to their services. If you’re a new customer to Harbor Compliance, you’ll pay $99 plus state fees for your first year of registered agent service (per state). When your service renews, your price jumps to $149.
However, Harbor Compliance makes it appealing to hire them for multiple years of service by offering volume discounts; if you contract them for more than one year, you’ll get an extra 5-10% off. The downside? Harbor Compliance doesn’t offer any refunds for registered agent services, so if you decided to cancel their service after the first year, you’d be out the rest of the money.
When your first contract expires (whether that’s a single year or a three-year contract), your registered agent service will automatically renew at $149 per state per year.
Pricing for other services by Harbor Compliance is a mixed bag. Some services are affordable, and others will cost you a pretty hefty sum. When you’re signing up for certain services, you may also find that Harbor Compliance offers frequent upsells. For example, their LLC formation portal upsells a product or service on almost every single page. While it’s clear that you can opt out of these offers, customers may find these offers annoying and distracting.
Harbor Compliance is a newer company compared to some competitors in the industry, but they’re reasonably well established — and for a company of their age, they don’t have a high volume of customer reviews on third-party websites like Trustpilot or the Better Business Bureau.
For reference, between those two sites, we found fewer than 50 reviews. The majority of those reviews on Trustpilot were positive, but not on the Better Business Bureau — at the time of this writing (August 20, 2025), three of the four reviews were only one star. Satisfied customers often mentioned their account manager by name, thanking them for prompt customer service. However, some less-pleased customers mentioned they had trouble getting customer support, billing issues, and more.
Harbor Compliance offers a few different customer support methods. The chat feature on their website is a chatbot that may be able to answer your question quickly. But if you need to speak to a human, you can call them at the phone number listed on their website, fill out the contact form, or email them directly. When we reached out and asked a question through their contact form, we got a prompt response the same business day.
One thing some customers appreciate is the fact that Harbor Compliance assigns a dedicated account manager to each client, so if you’re a customer, you’ll get support from one specific person who knows your business.
As we mentioned above in the customer reviews section, some customers have noted they’ve had trouble getting support for certain issues, so their support may be a bit of a mixed bag.
Harbor Compliance is a reliable registered agent service, and its service costs less than many competitors in this sector. If affordability is your goal, then you won’t find many options that charge just $99 (plus state fees) for the first year, then $149 per year after that.
Harbor Compliance does have some drawbacks, though. Their pricing can be very expensive for other service offerings, so if you need a variety of services in one place, there are choices with a better overall value. And if you place a lot of stock in customer reviews, you’ll probably find Harbor Compliance’s reviews to be lacking.
In contrast, ZenBusiness has a long history of positive customer reviews (currently there are 24,062 of them on Trustpilot alone). We’ll also give you registered agent service for $99 (plus state fees) for your first year ($199 per year after that), a good value for other services, and award-winning customer support at every stage of your business.
Here at ZenBusiness, we pride ourselves on providing reliable services for a variety of small business needs at a great value. Whether you need registered agent service for a good price, help starting your LLC, a Money Pro app for managing your business finances, or something else, we’ve got your back. We’ll help handle the red tape for you so you can focus on what you love: running your business.
Compared to some competitors, Harbor Compliance isn’t as experienced (they started business in 2012). But with over 40,000 customers to their name, there is no question that they’re a legitimate operation.
Harbor Compliance offers a couple of different customer support options. You can get answers to many basic questions through their web chat feature (which uses a chatbot). If you need human support, you can fill out the contact form on their website, email them at info@harborcompliance.com, or call them at the phone number listed on their “Contact Us” page.
In short, yes, every LLC and corporation operating in America today needs to designate a registered agent (in Pennsylvania, you list a registered office instead of an agent, but the gist of the requirement is the same). A registered agent is a person or business entity who receives service of process and important document deliveries from the state, then forwards them to your business. It’s a crucial part of any LLC or corporation’s compliance.
Technically, you can serve as your own agent, appoint a friend or family member, or even hire an attorney to fill this role for you, but a dedicated registered agent service is a wise choice for balancing overall value with peace of mind.
Harbor Compliance has different refund policies for the different services it offers. But generally speaking, their refund policy isn’t very generous. For registered agent services, no refund policies are offered. Before you commit to a service with them, be sure that you’re willing to spend the money in question, because odds are, you won’t get it back.
Harbor Compliance offers a variety of other services, including business compliance software for multi-state compliance. They also offer support for other business filings, including amendments, annual reports, withdrawals, dissolutions, Certificates of Good Standing, certified copies, foreign qualifications, publication service (in states that require it), and more.
Interestingly, we think that Harbor Compliance’s biggest pro and con is the same: pricing. For registered agent service, Harbor Compliance has a $149 per year price point (and $99 per year for your first contract) that compares favorably to many competitors.
At the same time, its pricing for other services is a mixed bag. Some services, such as LLC formation, are still pretty affordable. However, its annual report service costs at least $199 (plus state fees), and other services start at even higher price points. For example, the price for filing an amendment starts at $299 (plus state fees).
Registered Agent Services Reviewed
Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.
Written by Team ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness has helped people start, run, and grow over 850,000 dream companies. The editorial team at ZenBusiness has over 20 years of collective small business publishing experience and is composed of business formation experts who are dedicated to empowering and educating entrepreneurs about owning a company.
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