There is no shortage of contenders for your registered agent business. You should not make the mistake, however, of thinking that it is a "commodity" business - that is, the same service with everyone, so that the only thing that matters is the cheapest price. Always remember that service on your registered agent is service on your company and that it is no excuse to tell a court that you didn't respond to a lawsuit because your registered agent didn't get the information about that lawsuit to you. The bottom line is that you have two concerns to contend with: quality and price. "Buying" a registered agent is no different than any other buying decision you make. First, you need to eliminate from your buying consideration those services which do not meet your quality requirements. Once you are satisfied that you are comparing quality-equivalents ("apples to apples"), price has its place.

While the essence of the registered agent's job is dealing with matters which are legally important to your company, there are some nonlawyer services which provide services comparable in quality with the services provided by attorneys. Of these, there are several which provide services on a nationwide basis. There are, however, a much greater number who provide their services on a local or a multistate basis and sell their services on the basis of price. You need to be able to tell the difference.

Once you have divided the possibilities into quality and questionable quality, examine the quality candidates in terms of your own individual needs. If you are a large national corporation, with litigation in a number of states, it may make sense to pay considerably more to get online tracking of your litigation in addition to quality registered agent service. On the other hand, if you view the requirement of having a registered agent in the various states as a necessary evil, then it might make sense to get the least expensive quality service you can (in other words, strip out the unnecessary extras).