Review

1st Formations, honestly: what it's like to incorporate a UK limited company in an afternoon

By Laquila Ecosystem · Updated July 2026

The short version: 1st Formations is a Companies House–authorised formation agent that will register a UK limited company for you in a few hours for a small fee. After walking two of our own side-projects through the process, we think it's the right pick for most first-time founders who want a real registered office, a real business address, and a clean paper trail — without paying an accountant £400 for a task that takes forty minutes.

It's not magic, and it's not free. Here's what you actually get, what to watch out for, and whether the paid packages are worth it over the bare-bones option.

What 1st Formations actually is

1st Formations is a company formation agent based in London. They file your incorporation with Companies House on your behalf, hand you the digital certificate, memorandum, and articles, and — on paid tiers — bundle a registered office address, a service address for directors, business banking introductions, and a year of statutory mail handling.

Legally, you can incorporate directly with Companies House for £50 yourself. The reason to use a formation agent is speed, an address that isn't your flat, and having your compliance documents in one dashboard from day one.

How we tested it

• We used the mid-tier package to incorporate a real limited company for a consulting side-project.
• We separately walked the free/basic path (using our own address) to see what's genuinely missing.
• We tracked the actual time from checkout to receiving the certificate.
• We paid full price. This review contains affiliate links — see the disclosure above.

What it did well

1. Speed to a working company

Checkout to Companies House confirmation was under four hours on a normal working day. The digital certificate landed in the dashboard, followed by the PDF pack — memorandum, articles, share certificates — all named cleanly and ready to hand to a bank or an accountant.

2. Keeping your home address off the public register

If you incorporate yourself with your flat as the registered office and director service address, that address is searchable forever on the Companies House register. The registered-office and director-service-address add-ons are the single most useful part of any paid package.

3. Sensible defaults for a one-person company

The default articles are the standard Model Articles, share structure is one £1 ordinary share, and SIC codes are guided rather than guessed. There's nothing exotic here to unwind later.

Where it fell short

• Upsells at checkout. The flow suggests a lot of optional extras. Most first-time founders only need the registered office, the service address, and printed certificates.
• Banking introductions vary. Partner banks change; don't pick a package solely on which bank is promoted this month.
• UK-only. This is a UK limited company formation service. If you need a Delaware LLC or a Dubai free-zone entity, look elsewhere.

Which package is worth it

For most founders reading this site, the mid-tier "privacy" package — registered office + director service address + digital documents — is the sweet spot. Skip the higher tiers unless you specifically want printed bound copies or a same-day guarantee.

Who we'd recommend it to

• First-time UK founders who want to be trading legally by the end of the week.
• Solo consultants and freelancers going Ltd to protect their personal assets.
• Non-UK founders spinning up a UK entity to invoice UK/EU clients cleanly.
• Anyone who does not want their home address on the public register.

Our verdict

4.6 out of 5. A boring, dependable, well-scoped service. Start with the mid-tier package, keep the address add-ons, ignore the rest, and get back to the actual work of building the business.