One person, no employees, invoicing business clients. It is the commonest reason anyone forms an Estonian company, and the cheapest published option costs less than half the most expensive — for an obligation that is broadly identical either way.
€670 to €1,473 a year, and the gap is almost entirely accounting
Registration is €265 to the state, once. After that a solo founder needs a contact person or an Estonian address, and the annual report filed.
The cheapest published route is an address-and-contact-person bundle with accounting handled yourself. The most expensive bundles accounting into a monthly subscription. That is the whole decision, and it is a trade of money against your own time rather than a difference in what you get.
Table of Contents
Your Numbers
Preset for a solo founder: one shareholder, no EU consumer sales, annual report filed for you. Change anything that does not match.
What it actually costs, per provider
Tell it what your company needs and it adds the state fee, the subscription, the annual report and VAT — the four things each provider leaves off a different part of its own pricing page.
The state fee is €265 and everyone pays it once. The question is whether your provider has already included it.
Because they do not publish: whether the state fee is included; the one-off formation charge.
Because they do not publish: the annual report fee.
Two of the four cannot be totalled at all
That is not us failing to look. Xolo publishes no state fee anywhere on its pricing, Leap or Go pages, so its first-year total cannot be computed. Enty publishes no annual-report fee. Both sort below the providers that publish enough to be compared, because a missing number is not a cheaper number.
The One Real Decision
Everything else is detail. The question is whether you file your own declarations.
Unbundled — around €670 a year
Address and contact person only:
- Roughly half the cost of the bundled route
- You file the monthly declarations yourself if you register for VAT
- You buy the annual report separately, or do it yourself
- Suits a founder with few invoices and some patience
Bundled — around €1,300 a year
Accounting inside a monthly subscription:
- Roughly double, and the annual report is usually included
- Someone else watches the deadlines
- Worth it the moment your time is worth more than the difference
- Suits anyone billing enough that a missed filing is expensive
The difference is about €650 a year. If sorting your own bookkeeping costs you more than roughly a day and a half of billable time annually, the bundled route is cheaper in real terms. Below that it is not.
The threshold that changes the answer
Registering for VAT at €40,000 of turnover turns your filing obligation from annual into monthly. A founder comfortably doing their own books below the threshold is a founder doing twelve times the work above it. Decide the accounting question against where your turnover is heading, not where it is.
The Providers
Commercial comparison · Links to providers, no commission earned
Ordered by published recurring cost for a solo founder, lowest first — providers who publish too little to total sort last. Ordering reflects fees, features and how well each option works for someone arriving from abroad.
1Office
Cheapest published route, if you handle your own books
Key features
- The only provider of the four that states the €265 state fee inside its package price
- Address and contact person sold as a standalone line, so you can see what you are paying for it
- Annual report priced separately and openly
Published terms
- Address and contact person
- €290/yr
- Annual report
- €250, filed for you
- Accounting
- From €135/month, bought separately
Summary
- The only provider of the four that states the €265 state fee inside its package price
- Address and contact person sold as a standalone line, so you can see what you are paying for it
- Annual report priced separately and openly
- Accounting is not included — at €135/month it costs more than the bundled providers if you buy it here
- Publishes two different formation prices on its own site
Companio
Everything bundled, and the only one whose pages do not contradict each other
Key features
- Annual report and accounting both included, so the recurring figure is the whole figure
- Passes the state fee through at cost and says so — its €390 setup is shown discounted to exactly €265
- The only provider of the four with no contradictions found across its own pages
Published terms
- Accounting
- Included, up to 1,000 transactions a month
- Annual report
- Included
- Address and contact person
- Included
- Minimum term
- Three months to get the registration discount
Summary
- Annual report and accounting both included, so the recurring figure is the whole figure
- Passes the state fee through at cost and says so — its €390 setup is shown discounted to exactly €265
- The only provider of the four with no contradictions found across its own pages
- Roughly double the unbundled route
- A three-month minimum commitment applies to the registration discount and when switching in
Xolo
First-year total cannot be computed — no state fee is published anywhere
Key features
- Accounting and tax reporting bundled
- A separate product, Xolo Go, lets you invoice with no company at all — worth knowing before you form one
Published terms
- Accounting
- Included
- Legal address
- Included
- Billing
- Monthly only — no annual price published
Summary
- Accounting and tax reporting bundled
- A separate product, Xolo Go, lets you invoice with no company at all — worth knowing before you form one
- The €59 Starter tier is not a running cost: it is capped to the first 12 months and €4,000 of revenue, so the real entry price is €99
- The most expensive recurring cost of the three that can be totalled
Enty
Cheapest subscription of the four, and the least possible to compare
Key features
- By far the lowest published subscription, at €22 a month
- Formation service fee of €60 is the lowest of the four
Published terms
- Formation
- €60 service fee
- Contact person
- In paid plans only — not in the free tier
- Extra shareholder
- €100 each
Summary
- By far the lowest published subscription, at €22 a month
- Formation service fee of €60 is the lowest of the four
- Calls €290 the 'Estonian government fee' when the state charges €265
- Quotes €33/month on its Estonia page and €22/month on its pricing page
- Its free tier excludes the contact person, so it cannot lawfully run a company whose board sits abroad
Do You Even Need a Company?
Worth asking before paying anyone. An Estonian OÜ is not the only structure, and for a genuinely small solo operation it is often not the cheapest.
| Route | Cost floor | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Estonian OÜ through a provider | €670+/yr | You want an EU company, invoice business clients, and retain profit |
| Invoicing with no company | Percentage of what you invoice | Low volume, testing an idea — Xolo Go registers no company and charges 5.9% on payouts |
| Estonian sole trader (FIE) or entrepreneur account | See the self-employment page | You are resident in Estonia — these are not routes for a non-resident |
| A company where you actually live | Varies | Your clients, your bank and your tax authority are all in one country already |
The question that decides it, and it is not about Estonia
An Estonian company does not change where you are taxed. It gives the company a 0% rate on retained profit and 22% on distribution — but the moment you pay yourself, your own country's rules apply to that income, and some countries will treat a company you manage from your sofa as tax-resident there rather than in Estonia. That is a question for an adviser where you live, not for a comparison page. See e-Residency is not residency.
Common Mistakes
Comparing the €22 against the €89
They buy different things. One is a dashboard subscription with a contact person; the other includes accounting and the annual report.
Budgeting €59 for Xolo
That tier is capped to the first 12 months and €4,000 of revenue. The real recurring entry price is €99 a month.
Forgetting the annual report in the total
It is compulsory. Either it is inside your subscription or it is a separate €250 — and one provider does not publish the price at all.
Doing your own books past the VAT threshold
Crossing €40,000 turns annual filing into monthly. Decide against where your turnover is going.
Assuming cheapest means best value
The cheap route is cheap because you do the accounting. That is a real trade, not a free saving.
Paying for an address you already have
The legal address and the contact person are alternatives. With a genuine Estonian address you need neither bundle.
Treating this as a tax decision
Where you are taxed personally is decided where you live. An Estonian company changes the company's tax, not yours.
Starting a business in Estonia?
Registering an OÜ, working out whether you need one at all, or finding the contact person the law requires when nobody on the board lives here. Get matched with specialists who set companies up for foreigners.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest way for a freelancer to run an Estonian company?
Of the published prices we read, an address-and-contact-person bundle at around €290 a year with the annual report bought separately at €250 — roughly €670 a year including VAT — with you handling the bookkeeping. Bundled providers that include accounting run about €1,324 a year. The difference is your own time, not the level of service.
How much does it cost to start as a freelancer in Estonia?
€265 state fee to register the company, plus whatever the provider charges. First-year totals across the providers who publish enough to be compared came to about €1,302–€1,653 including VAT. Two of the four could not be totalled at all, because they do not publish the state fee treatment or the annual report price.
Do I need accounting help, or can I do it myself?
Legally you can do it yourself — the obligation is that the annual report is filed within six months of the financial year end, not that an accountant files it. Practically it depends on VAT: below the €40,000 threshold your filing is annual, above it it is monthly. The bundled route costs about €650 more a year, so it pays for itself if your own bookkeeping would cost you more than roughly a day and a half of billable time.
Is Xolo or Companio better for a freelancer?
Both bundle accounting. Companio's recurring cost is lower on published prices and its first-year total can actually be computed, because it states the state fee treatment; Xolo does not publish that anywhere, so its first-year figure is unknown. Xolo also offers Xolo Go, which lets you invoice without forming a company at all — a genuinely different option worth considering before you register anything.
Can I use the free Enty plan?
Not to run a company whose board sits abroad. Enty's own documentation says the contact person is included in all plans except the free one, and a company with a foreign management board address is required to have a contact person. The free tier is not a cheaper route to the same thing.
Do I need an Estonian company at all as a freelancer?
Often not. If your clients, your bank and your tax authority are all in the country you live in, a local structure is usually simpler and cheaper. An Estonian company makes sense when you want an EU company, invoice business clients across borders, and retain profit inside it — and it does not change where you are taxed personally.
Will an Estonian company reduce my personal tax?
Not by itself, and this is where most of the bad advice sits. Estonia taxes company profit at 0% while retained and 22/78 on distribution, but the moment money reaches you personally your own country's rules apply. Some countries also treat a company managed from their territory as resident there. Get advice where you live before assuming any saving.
Related Guides
Company, or something simpler?
For a lot of one-person operations the answer is not a company at all. Estonia has three other ways to be paid for your own work, and two of them cost nothing to run.
Disclaimer. General guidance, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Provider prices were read on each provider's own page in August 2026 and change without notice. Whether an Estonian company suits you depends on where you live, where you manage it from and where your clients are — questions that need an adviser in your own jurisdiction rather than a comparison page.