How Much It Costs to Register a Company in South Africa (2026)

The honest answer to this question is shorter than the industry would like: the state charges very little to register a company, and almost everything else you might pay is a service fee. Here is the full picture, statutory fees first.

What CIPC actually charges

• Company registration without a name: R125. Your company is registered under its enterprise number — perfectly legal, and you can add a name later.
• Company registration with a name: R175. The standard route for most new businesses.
• Name reservation on its own: R50. One application covers up to four proposed names in order of preference, and a successful reservation holds the name for six months.

These are the only amounts the state requires to bring a private company into existence. You can pay them yourself at bizportal.gov.za, and our step-by-step guide walks through the whole process free.

What the registration services charge

Providers in this market run from roughly R460 to R950 for a standard registration package, with premium bundles above that. The spread is mostly about what is included: the cheapest tiers tend to cover the filing alone, while the fuller packs add the name reservation, a SARS income tax number, share certificates, a B-BBEE affidavit and the beneficial-ownership filing.

Rateweb's own service is R899 with the CIPC fees included, and we say plainly on that page what nobody else in the price band will: we are not the cheapest way to register a company — CIPC is. What you are paying any provider for is the labour of names that get rejected, forms that bounce, and two state systems that do not talk to each other.

The costs after registration

Registration is the cheap part. A company carries recurring obligations from day one, and the ones below catch most first-time owners:

• The CIPC annual return, due in the 30 business days after each anniversary of your incorporation date — even if the company never traded. Late filing accrues penalties daily, and missing it two consecutive years flags the company for deregistration, published in the Government Gazette. Since 15 April 2024 CIPC will not accept the annual return unless your beneficial-ownership filing is up to date.
• Provisional tax, twice a year from your first financial year, and the ITR14 company return within twelve months of year end — a nil return is still a return.
• Accounting. Whether that is software or an accountant, budget something: a company's records must support its filings.

Enter your incorporation date in our free company compliance calendar and it will show you every one of these dates for your own company.

Costs you should not pay

Two things get sold to new company owners that the law does not require. You do not need a paid "B-BBEE certificate" if your turnover is under the threshold for an exempt micro enterprise — a sworn affidavit, which any commissioner of oaths signs free, is sufficient. And you do not need a "share certificate service" as a separate purchase; certificates are ordinary documents your registration provider should include or you can draft yourself.

Where the real money goes

Before spending anything on registration extras, put the budget where a new company actually needs it: a business bank account (compare the fee structures — they differ far more than registration fees do), a card machine if you trade in person, and working capital. When the business is older and needs funding, that comparison is here too.

CIPC's fees are set by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission and were confirmed against bizportal.gov.za at the time of writing. Service prices are from providers' published price lists, July 2026, and change without notice. This is general information, not financial or legal advice.

A worked example: DIY vs a provider, rand for rand

Take a one-person consultancy registering with a name. The DIY route: R50 to reserve the name (four choices in one application), then R125 to register — R175 all in, plus your time. Budget a full afternoon for the BizPortal process itself if it goes smoothly, and add the SARS income tax number, the beneficial-ownership filing on eServices, drafting your own share certificate and commissioning a B-BBEE affidavit as separate errands. None of them is hard; each is a place where a form can bounce and cost you a week.

The provider route at R899: the same R175 goes to CIPC, and the remaining R724 buys the errands above done for you, rejections handled without another round trip, and a person to phone when a filing sticks. Whether that R724 is worth it depends entirely on what your time earns elsewhere — a freelancer between contracts should probably keep the R724; a founder invoicing clients this week probably should not spend an afternoon on BizPortal to save it. There is no universally right answer, which is exactly why we publish both routes.

What about shelf companies?

A shelf company — an already-registered company sold on to you — used to be the fast route when registration took months. Now that a straightforward registration completes in days, the shelf company's main remaining use is when a contract or tender demands a company with an older registration date. You pay a premium for the age, and you inherit the obligation to check the company's history is genuinely clean: its annual returns, its beneficial-ownership filings, and that it has never traded. For a new business with no such requirement, a fresh registration is cheaper and cleaner.

Common questions about the costs

Is there a minimum share capital? No. A South African private company can be registered without any minimum capital requirement — the days of proving paid-up capital are long gone.

Does registering cost more with more directors? No — CIPC's fee is the same whether the company has one director or ten. Providers may charge more for the extra document handling, which is a service decision, not a statutory one.

Are there ongoing CIPC fees? Yes — the annual return carries a fee scaled to the company's turnover, payable each year with the filing. It is modest for small companies, but it is not optional, and the penalties for missing it are the expensive part.

Can I claim these costs against tax? Company formation and running costs are a matter for your accountant and SARS's rules on pre-trade and running expenditure — keep every receipt from day one, including the registration itself, and hand the question to whoever files your ITR14.