How Much Does It Really Cost to Run an Estonian Company with e-Residency in 2026?
14 August 2026
You may have heard that you can open an Estonian company for €265. Technically, that number exists. Realistically, it tells you very little about what it actually costs to create and run the company.
If you are considering e-Residency in Estonia, a form of digital residency that lets you run a company online, there are three different numbers you should understand: what it costs to become an e-resident, what it costs to establish your company, and what you will spend every year to keep that company properly accounted for and compliant.
The good news is that Estonia is remarkably transparent about these costs. The official e-Residency programme currently estimates roughly €600 for a DIY first year and around €1,300 for a first year with accounting support.
But let’s break down where that money actually goes.
How much does e-Residency and an online company in Estonia cost to start?
For most international entrepreneurs, the journey starts with e-Residency, Estonia’s official digital identity programme for accessing Estonian online services and managing a business remotely.
The state fee for an e-Residency application is currently €150, while registering an Estonian private limited company, or OÜ, carries a €265 state registration fee. The e-Residency card itself has no annual maintenance fee and is valid for five years.
So does that mean you can have your online company in Estonia for €415?
Not quite. The registration itself is only the beginning. International founders will usually also need a legal address/contact-person solution, accounting and, eventually, preparation of the company’s annual report.
There is also an important distinction between government costs and what you pay a company-formation provider. At Companio, for example, our current one-time incorporation fee is €390 with the Pro Plan, while customers choosing Premium pay only the €265 company incorporation fee.
And here’s one number that looks like a cost, but really isn’t:
Did you know? An Estonian OÜ can now be established with share capital starting from just €0.01 per shareholder. That contribution belongs to your company, so it should not be confused with a government fee or business expense.
What does it cost to run an Estonian company every year?
This is where the answer becomes: it depends on your company.
A consultant issuing a handful of invoices every month does not generate the same accounting workload as an e-commerce company using several payment providers, an investment company or a business processing hundreds of transactions.
The official e-Residency programme gives a useful benchmark: accounting services start at around €50 per month for very simple, low-transaction companies using basic bookkeeping packages with minimal support and limited scope, while a standalone contact-person service typically costs around €200–€400 per year. It also explicitly notes that service packages can bundle the contact person together with accounting or other services.
That last part matters. Don’t automatically add €200–€400 for a contact person when comparing accounting plans.Many providers already include it.
Companio’s Pro Plan, for example, starts at €89 per month and already includes the legal address and person of contact, full accounting and compliance, up to three supported bank accounts and up to 1,000 transactions.
For a straightforward company using Companio Pro for a full year, an illustrative first-year budget would therefore look like this:
| EXPENSE | COST |
| e-Residency application | €150 |
| Company incorporation with Pro | €390 |
| Pro accounting: €89 × 12 | €1,068 |
| Annual report | from €250 |
| Legal address & contact person | Included |
| Illustrative first-year total | €1,858 |
This example excludes VAT where applicable and any services specific to the individual business.
With Premium, the monthly accounting plan starts at €199, but the incorporation fee drops to €265, rather than €390. Premium is designed for companies that require additional capabilities such as more bank accounts, crypto or investment activity, OSS or Amazon FBA, so the cheapest plan is not automatically the right benchmark for every business.
Is accounting for an Estonian e-Residency company expensive?
Not necessarily, but comparing accounting providers by their monthly headline price can be misleading.
Across the market, you can find accounting packages starting from entry-level plans around €50–€60 per month, while more comprehensive providers start at €135 per month or more depending on scope and included services. Some plans include a legal address, contact person and annual report; others place limits on transactions, invoices, employees or activities, or price additional compliance separately.
So instead of asking only “Who charges the lowest monthly price?”, ask:
- Is the legal address and contact person included?
- How many transactions or invoices are covered?
- How many bank or payment accounts can I connect?
- Is the annual report included or charged separately?
- What happens if I hire someone?
- Are e-commerce, OSS, investments or crypto supported?
- Will the price still make sense when my business grows?
A €59 accounting package and a €135 package are not necessarily competing products if one is designed for a tiny company and the other covers substantially more activity.
In other words, good accounting does not only help you stay compliant; being organized can literally save you money.
What other costs can an Estonian company have?
Once the basics are covered, there is no universal “cost of an Estonian company.” Your business model begins determining the answer.
Employees and board-member salaries create payroll and tax obligations. E-commerce businesses may need OSS or additional integrations. Companies trading or investing may require more specialised accounting, while businesses using multiple banks and payment platforms generate a larger volume of transactions to reconcile.
Taxes are another perfect example of a very important number that should not be confused with a fixed running cost.
Estonia’s corporate tax system taxes profits when they are distributed rather than simply when the company earns them. If profits remain inside the company and are reinvested, there is generally no corporate income tax liability at that point; distributed profits are currently taxed at 22/78 of the net distribution.
That doesn’t mean your Estonian company is automatically tax-free, nor does e-Residency change your personal tax residency. International founders still need to consider where they live, where the company is actually managed and whether activities create tax obligations elsewhere.
But it does explain why Estonia remains particularly interesting for founders building digital businesses that intend to reinvest profits and grow.
So, how much should you budget for an Estonian company in 2026?
For the simplest possible setup, Estonia’s own e-Residency programme puts the first-year DIY figure at approximately €600. Add professional accounting support and its rough benchmark rises to around €1,300.
With a full-service provider, a more realistic budget for an active digital company can move higher depending on the accounting package and complexity of the business. Using Companio Pro as an example, €1,858 covers our illustrative first-year combination of e-Residency, incorporation, 12 months of accounting and an annual report, before applicable VAT and company-specific extras.
After the first year, the e-Residency application and incorporation disappear from your regular budget. What really determines the cost of running your Estonian company from then on is the complexity of the business itself.
And that’s probably the most useful number to understand before you start.
Thinking about e-Residency? Calculate the real cost before creating your company
If you’re considering e-Residency in Estonia because you want to create and manage a European company online, you don’t need to work out every possible cost by yourself.
During our free Estonia consultation, we’ll look at the type of business you want to create and help you understand what your setup would actually require, from the e-Residency process to incorporation and ongoing accounting.
What will we cover during the consultation?
We’ll help you understand:
- What you need to apply for e-Residency.
- How the e-Residency and company-formation process works.
- What initial costs you should expect.
- What kind of accounting setup your business is likely to need.
- Which costs are included and which may depend on your activity.
- What happens once your Estonian company is operational.
A freelance consultant, SaaS founder, marketing agency and e-commerce business can all create an online company in Estonia, but their accounting needs may be completely different. The purpose of the consultation is to understand yours before you start paying for services you may not need.
