Trading address vs registered office: which do you need?

A registered office is a legal filing: the company's official address on the Companies House register. A trading address is a contractual licence: the provider's permission to put its address on your website, invoices and letterhead and to receive ordinary business post there. A director's service address is a third thing again. Providers sell all three under the single name "virtual office", and the cheapest plans include only the first.

Quick answer: If customers, suppliers or your bank will ever see or write to the address, you need a trading address, and a £39-a-year registered office will not do. If nobody but Companies House and HMRC will use it, the registered office alone is enough. The trading address add-on costs £89 to £120 a year at formation agents, or £5 to £16 a month at monthly providers.

What are the three addresses a provider can sell you?

The three addresses are the registered office, which belongs to the company; the director's service address, which belongs to each director; and the trading or business address, which is a licence to use the provider's premises as your public place of business. Only the first two are filed with Companies House.

The four components of a plan, and how the post service fits around them, are set out in our explainer on the four components of a virtual office. The point that matters here is that the trading address is not a filing. Companies House does not know or care where you trade from. The provider does, because every letter that is not from a government body is work the provider has to do, and the cheap plans are priced on the assumption it will not have to.

What is the difference between a trading address and a registered office?

The registered office receives official post and legal service and must pass the appropriate address test; the trading address receives everything else and must be permitted by the provider's terms. A registered office can be a trading address, and usually is on monthly plans, but a registered-office-only plan forbids it.

A limited company must show its registered office, company number and place of registration on its website and business letters, so the registered office is public whether or not you trade from it. That is why a plan that lets you use the same address for both is cleaner. The Hoxton Mix includes registered office and trading use in one £24.99 plan, with the director's address at £3 a month each¹⁷; the formation agents sell the three separately and the price triples once you add the second and third. The service address side of that, and how a home address keeps leaking through it, is covered in how a director's home address leaks through the service address.

What goes wrong if you use a registered-office-only plan as a trading address?

Two things go wrong: the provider can terminate you for breaching its terms, and post that is not from Companies House, HMRC or the courts is refused or returned. The second is the real risk, because you do not find out until something important has already gone back to the sender.

1st Formations says plainly that its £39 registered office covers government and court mail only, and that full business use is a separate purchase¹. Put that address on your website and a customer's cheque, a supplier's contract or a bank's card comes back marked not known. Nobody rings you. The same is true of every statutory-mail plan on the market, including Rapid Formations' £89 business address, which exists precisely because the £39 product cannot do the job¹.

How much does a trading address cost on top of a registered office?

A trading address costs £89 to £120 a year as a formation agent add-on, £5 to £16 a month as an add-on at monthly providers, and it is the base product rather than the add-on at most workspace operators, where the registered office is the thing sold on top.

The table shows why headline comparisons fail. Among the Farringdon EC1 virtual offices, Smithfield Offices' Essential Address and Essential Registered Address tiers differ by £5 a month, and only the second can go on your Companies House record⁴. In virtual offices in Croydon, UP's START and GROW tiers differ by £25 a month for the same reason⁸. On the virtual office plans in Bristol page, Raw Space's two levels are a clean example: £16 buys a marketing address with post held for collection, and £32 adds the right to register the company there⁹. Our guide to the trading-address add-on prices across the market puts these against the workspace operators, where Argyll's £130 virtual office is a trading address first and the registered office is £40 a month on top¹⁵.

Which plans include all three addresses?

A minority of plans include the registered office, the director's service address and trading use in one price, and they are the simplest purchase for a home-based director. The cheapest we hold are £19 to £25 a month.

W1 Virtual Office includes all three at £20 a month with VAT in the price, on a Mayfair address¹¹. Clyde Offices in Glasgow does the same at £19 plus VAT and covers two directors¹¹. Among the Nottingham providers in the Lace Market, Nottingham Offices' £25 all-in plan covers the registered office, the director's address, trading use and scanning of basic letters, with a £30 deposit at setup¹². On an annual basis, Capital Office's three-address bundle is £142.99 a year², MYCO Works charges £59.99 for registered office plus director and £169.99 for its virtual business address tier¹³, and E14 Office in Docklands prices the trading address at £39.99 a year alongside a £19.99 first-year registered office¹⁴.

What should you check before you buy?

Check four things in writing: explicit permission to use the address as a trading address, confirmation that general business post is accepted, the policy on parcels and signed-for items, and whether the provider allows a Google Business Profile listing at the address.

If the pricing page says only "registered office", assume that is all it means. The Google point is easy to miss: WERKS Group in Brighton states that virtual office clients cannot register its address with Google Business Profile¹⁶. If local search matters to you, ask before you pay. The comparison tool lets you filter for plans that permit trading use and shows what each costs with the registered office and post handling included. Some providers pay us commission when you buy, and why commission does not move a provider up the list is set out in full.

Where these figures come from

Prices were read from each provider's own website on 8 September 2026.

1. 1st Formations registered office page: £39 a year plus VAT, government and court mail only, with full business use a separate purchase. Rapid Formations London registered office page: registered office £39 a year, director's service address £26, business address £89.
2. Capital Office pricing page, annual and ex VAT: registered office £39.99, virtual business address £120, registered plus director's plus virtual business address £142.99.
3. Uniwide pages: registered office £69 plus VAT a year; business postal address service £16 a month or £118 a year.
4. Smithfield Offices virtual pricing page: Essential Address £24.99 a month, Essential Registered Address £29.99, ex VAT; Farringdon EC1M 4BH.
5. Silverstream London virtual office page: from £10 a month; registered address add-on £7.50 a month; post forwarding add-on £15. VAT treatment not stated.
6. Virtually There virtual offices page: from £10 a month ex VAT; registered company address add-on from £16 a month including trading address. The same site elsewhere quotes the add-on from £7.50.
7. Blake House York: Virtual Tenant £30 a month no VAT; Companies House registration add-on £5 a month.
8. UP (formerly Start Up Croydon) virtual office page: START £34, GROW £59, SCALE £122 a month ex VAT; registered office use on GROW and SCALE only.
9. Raw Space, Bristol, virtual office options page: Level 1 £16 a month, Level 2 £32 adding HMRC and Companies House use and UK forwarding; VAT not stated.
10. Bureau Plus, Aberdeen: Restricted Virtual Office £25, Virtual Office £39, Business Address £44 a month plus VAT, three-month minimum; registered office use on the £44 tier only.
11. W1 Virtual Office homepage: VO Collect £20 a month inc VAT with registered office, director's service address and business address included. Clyde Offices Glasgow: £19 a month plus VAT with registered office, director names, trading address and scanning.
12. Nottingham Offices virtual office page: £25 a month plus VAT covering registered office, service address, mail reception and scanning of basic letters; £30 deposit plus first month at setup; Gothic House, NG1 1JU.
13. MYCO Works: registered office £49.99, registered office and director service address £59.99, virtual business address £169.99, all per year plus VAT.
14. E14 Office homepage: registered office £19.99 for the first year at 50 per cent off, trading address £39.99 a year, director's address £19.99; VAT treatment not stated; E14 8PX.
15. Argyll registered office address page: virtual office from £130 a month, registered address £40 a month, directors' service address £25.
16. WERKS Group Brighton virtual office page: states virtual office clients cannot register the address with Google Business Profile.
17. The Hoxton Mix help centre: £24.99 a month ex VAT covering registered office and trading use; director's address £3 a month per director.