Rated #15 Best UK Company Formation Agent

Overall Rating:

8.9

Ease Of Use = 9.3

Value For Money = 8.6

Customer Support = 8.8

Services Offered = 9.0

PROS:

Specialists in offshore company formations

Good range of formation packages available

Simple and straightforward formation process, though can be more complex for some offshore registrations

CONS:

Prices aren’t the cheapest and can be classed as medium to high

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Brands Reviewed:

Hours Of Research:

Average Rating:

9.1

CFS Formations review – This a unique agent specializes in both UK and offshore company formations.

According to their own statements, they offer competitive prices and a very simple five-step process. It will take only a few minutes to go through if you’re setting up a UK company and less than 12 hours if you’re setting up an offshore one.

The formations agent offers one of the largest varieties of packages on the British market alongside and entire plethora of UK additional services and company incorporation software.

Let’s use this CFS Formations review to break all this down and see what it means for you as a customer.

Important Note:
Companies House fees for new incorporations are increasing massively (by around 400%) on 1st May 2024. We recommend forming new companies before this date to avoid the price increase. All company formation agents are likely to increase their rates after this date.

What you'll get from this page:

At a Glance

CFS Formations was founded in 2001 by Tony Thornton and Nuala Heaney, the directors. According to their own statements, the business was one of the first to register with Companies House.

Since then, they claim to have opened over 120,000 companies on behalf of their clients, given just how simple and straightforward their online system is.

Also according to their own statements, today, almost 20 years after they were founded, CFS Formations has clients the world over which they try to service from their head office in South Yorkshire. The formations agent provides UK formations, offshore formations, ready made companies, and additional services.

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How Does The CFS Formations Process Work?

One of the most important things when it comes to an online formations agent is the formation process in itself. CFS Formations claims that the process they have set up is extremely simple since it only has five steps.

In other words, it will only take you 3 to 4 minutes to complete. Let’s use this CFS Formations review to break it down.

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Check if your proposed name is available

Choosing a company name before you start your business is one of the most important steps of the process.

The first thing you need to do is check if the name you have chosen is still available to be registered or if it doesn’t contain any sensitive words.

You can check the name on CFS Formations’ website. This is free of charge and the tool allows you to check as many names as you want.

Select the package that is perfect for your company

As already mentioned, CFS Formations offers one of the widest selection of packages available in this niche. Evidently, when it comes to selecting the package that is perfect for you, it all depends on the type of company that you are trying to set up. Here are the basic packages you can choose from:

Reserve a Name Package – this bundle will allow you to reserve the name of your company even if you are not yet ready to start your business completely.
The Email Package – this is the bundle for you if you need all the legal documentation to be sent to you via email and not in the original format.
The Premium Package – you receive all the standard legal documents in printed format in the mail.
The Privacy Package – will ensure your privacy is protected through registered office service.
The Business Package – this is a complete bundle you can choose which includes CFS Formations’ London registered office and nominee officers among other things.
The International Package – the perfect solution for individuals who do not reside in the UK or for people who do live in the UK but want extra services and documents.

These are the packages that CFS Formations offers if you want to set up a limited company. However, they have many more bundles and packages apart from these ones if you are interested in other types of structure

Their packages are divided into 3 main categories – UK formations packages, ready-made companies, and offshore businesses.

These three categories are themselves further divided into a very wide range of other types of companies. For example, the offshore category offers seven types of business models you can choose from including formations, trusts, ready made companies, and more.

The UK formations category numbers no less than 12 company types that you can choose from. These categories come with the same 5 basic packages that a limited company also has and that we have listed above. The only difference is that the prices vary from category to category.

Complete the company details

The next step in the formation process is the one in which CFS Formations asks for some information from you such as your registered office address, your directors, information about your shareholders, your secretary, distribution of shares, and PSC or person with significant control.

Check and review your company details

During the process of setting up your business on CFS Formations official website, this will appear as your Summary page. You will now have the possibility to review, check, and then make any necessary adjustments to the information you have entered the system if you feel the need to.

Submit your company for incorporation

If, after checking all the details on the summary page, you feel everything is correct you can submit all the information be incorporated as your new company. From now on you can relax and, according to CFS Formations’ statements, wait for them to send your documents by email.

Fees

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At the time of conducting our CFS Formations review, the business offers one of the absolute widest ranges of formations packages in this niche on the British market. As a result, when it comes to fees and prices, we won’t be able to list everything in this CFS Formations review. So, let’s take a look at some key examples.

The number one thing most customers will be interested in when it comes to fees are basic formations packages. As a result, this CFS Formations review has found out that their basic packages have a medium to high price.

The Reserved Name package, which is the cheapest one costs £13.50, while their International Non-resident package is £149. They state on their official website that their most popular basic bundle is the Email package which comes in at £27.95.

Moving on to offshore company formations packages, their prices depend on the country or city you are planning on forming that business in. For example, a Barcelona package costs £3,019, the Cyprus one is £1,495, the Delaware package will set you back £375, for Germany it’s £3,950, while the Luxembourg one costs £8,420 and is also their most expensive.

Their offshore ready made company prices also depend on the geographical area where you are planning to base your business in. As a result, an Ireland shelf company starts at £645, a Belize one starts at £1,110, while a Sweden one starts at £2,519 and is their most expensive service of this kind.

Speaking of services, let’s take a look at the fees they practice for their extra services.

They have named this category UK Additional Services and it includes examples such as the following:

Company Manager, where the prices range from £2.99 per service to £15, Official Filing of Documents with Companies House, where the prices range from £7.50 to £115, UK Registered Office and Correspondence Address, with the services ranging from £25 to £275, Restore and Dissolve a UK Company with the services ranging from £40 to £1,999, and many more.

Value for Money

There is absolutely no doubt, as you might already have seen from this CFS Formations review that this agent offers one of the absolute widest ranges of both formation packages and extra services in this niche on the British market.

Apart from that, they have also simplified their formations process to the point where it only has five simple steps and it takes just a few minutes to complete.

Not only that, but seeing as they are a unique company formations agent that has chosen to focus on offshore company formations leads us to believe that working with them will add good value for your money.

CFS Formations Reviews From Customers:

I was looking for help setting up an overseas company and selected CFS Formations who proved to be really helpful even before I went ahead. Excellent service, responsive customer support, extremely competitive and everything handled to make sure it proceeds smoothly. Highly recommended.
5-Star review from David Smith via Trustpilot

I placed an order for a Delaware company formation; the entire process was fast, straightforward, and easy. I can recommend CFS Formations to anyone who seeks a reliable and quality company–formation provider.
5-Star review via Trustpilot

The Advantages

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Working with CFS Formations as a customer might be very simple and straightforward. But are there any disadvantages? Let’s use this CFS Formations review to find out.

A very large number of packages and extra services

One of the things that you will enjoy the most when choosing to work with CFS Formations is the fact that they offer one of the widest variety of services available.

CFS Formations gives you the possibility to set up not just a limited company as many formation agents do, but also Limited by Guarantee, Charity by Guaranty, Public Limited, LLPs, and the list goes on and on.

They also offer ready-made companies and offshore companies, which is definitely unique in this landscape.

They focus on offshore companies

This is a characteristic that is quite uncommon when it comes to formation agents but one that you might enjoy as a customer.

CFS Formations focuses largely on offshore companies, giving you the possibility to set up your own business in a wide number of countries and geographical locations around the world.

According to their own statements, you can opt for these formation packages as well as for the extra offshore services they offer for very low prices.

Very simple formation process

CFS Formations has boiled down their process to 5 simple steps that, according to them, only take 3 to 4 minutes to go through.

The process requires you to check the name you have chosen on their website, choose the package you think is most suitable for your needs, fill in the company details, and send them. Once you are done, all you have to do is wait to receive your documents via email.

The Disadvantages

As promised, let’s take a look at the cons of working with CFS Formations as a customer.

Their prices are not very low

When it comes to the fees and prices that CFS Formations practices, they can be described as medium to high. In fact, some of their prices for offshore formation packages reach up to almost £7000. There are certainly other formation agents on the British market that practice much lower prices.

On the other hand, as we have already shown above if you choose to work with them you will be getting good value for your money.

The brand has invested a lot of time and effort to make their process as simple and straightforward as possible, not to mention the fact that they offer a wide variety of services as well as unique packages that cater to customers who want to set up offshore companies.

As a result, even though their prices are a bit higher this might not be viewed as a nuisance.

Summary

One of the most interesting things about CFS Formations is the fact that it’s quite unique in the landscape of British formation agents.

As this CFS Formations review has shown, they have chosen to focus on offshore company formations, which will be great news for customers interested in this aspect.

However, if you still want a solid UK company formations agent, we don’t believe you will be disappointed, as CFS Formations still offer some of the best packages and extra services on the market.

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