Registered office vs virtual office: what is the difference?
A registered office, director service address and virtual business address may use the same location, but they serve different legal and commercial purposes.
27 August 2026 · 5 min readRegistered office
This is the company’s official public address in its jurisdiction of incorporation. Companies House, HMRC and courts use it for statutory correspondence.
Director service address
This is the director’s public correspondence address. Companies House still holds the residential address on a protected record.
Virtual business address
This is a customer-facing correspondence address for ordinary commercial mail. It is not automatically authorised for statutory company or director use.
Choose coverage deliberately
International founders often need all three functions, but the service terms, mail types, named users, renewals and forwarding costs should be checked separately.
This article provides general information, not legal, tax or accounting advice. Requirements and fees can change; confirm the current position for your circumstances before acting.