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  shrink
  I've had companies in a few different jurisdictions, including a Delaware C Corp[1] and currently an OÜ through Estonia's e-residency program.Yes, it is fantastic and delivers on all of the promises. The only potential headache is that you must collect your e-residency card from an embassy which, depending on your location, might require travel to a nearby country.I used Xolo but there are lots of agents in the directory. I like and recommend Xolo. No idea what the supposed issue with banking is, all of the agents have banking relationships and you can also use Revolut and Wise. My bank account was opened same day as the company.Your details are published on the public register. The moment your registration is published you'll get lots of emails offering services, like banking (some people pretend to be Revolut but are actually just sending you affiliate links). Don't publish an email address you care about.[1] The problem with forming a U.S. company is that all of the formation agents are layers on top of a convoluted nightmare. The formation agent can do their best to abstract away the complexity but the moment you have to peak behind the curtain you'll find yourself face to face with something very scary. The Estonian e-residency program is integrated all the way through.
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  littlecranky67
  You said you are from Germany but not where you are now. If you are still in Germany, forget it. Just because you incorporate outside of Germany does not exempt your from any taxes (and its beauraucracies) in Germany. That is, even with an estonian corporation, you will owe german corporate taxes (plural - one goes to the state one to the county - a.k.a. Körperschaftsteuer and Gewerbesteuer). That implies you will have to do the same tax paperwork as with a german GmbH and file them official with the tax authorities (Steuererklärungen, Umsatzsteuerjahresabschluss) and the Bundesanzeiger (Jahresabschlussbilanz). Nothing gets easier with that setup.
• jFriedensreich
  Can also confirm it is great. The community is also quite nice and helpful. Also worth noting, because that comes up all the time, is that Estonia has a digital data embassy in Luxemburg, so if god forbid, russia would take increase its aggression, there is a copy of everything that would keep running your business. The main issue germans have is you cannot really get rid of german accounting as long as generating the business value there while living there. Once getting used to how smooth things can be, I could not bear having to deal with the german bureaucracy in any other area of life.
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  Bluestein
  I professionally have been helping folks set up and maintain e-Residence and businesses, and all said here in the comments so far tracks: Estonia is absolutely unsurpassed qua administrative ease (this giving you a clear and lasting business advantage), the tax advantages are real, and the jurisdiction only gets better.-Banking and being scrupulous on your personal taxes at your place of personal residence are issues, but nothing insurmountable, far from it.-
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  dsnr
  Not answering your question directly but accounting and taxes are a thing everywhere. EU rules make accounting for companies quite complicated.Focus on your business, open the smallest and simplest entity you can to validate your product before spending time and money optimizing or scaling things. That being said, I’m familiar with GmbHs in Germany and I would advise against going this route unless funding is available. Try a sole proprietorship instead if possible.
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  tpetry
  Oh there will be a lot of issues in the future because Germany says thst your company is in Germany because you work from there. So you have to do taxes in Estonia and in Germany. And prepare for a lot of tax issues if you dont have a good tax advisor.
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  Gys
  It is mentioned a bit in other comments: be aware that in the country where you live, the tax authorities can argue that your 100% owned company in country X is managed by you. This means it is taxable in your country. It is then up to you to counter their point of view…
• gargalatas
  Idk where you are coming from but I am Greek and compared to Greece there is ZERO bureaucracy. You send your documents pretty much whenever you like, you don't get fined for stupid things and you just need to prepare the financial report once per year. We are talking about a very clear and flat system. 20% tax on dividend and for good tax payers it can go as low as 14% as far as I remember. The only "bureaucracy" things is that you have to travel all the way to your country's Estonian embassy to get your e-residency card. Last but not least, don't count on Estonian banks. They don't like e-residents and even if they like them today, don't trust them. reply
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  andai
  My 2 centsIn 2023 tried to register a business in Estonia.I had to first get the e-residency.This worked, (took 6 weeks I believe), but then I had to travel to another country (which had an Estonian embassy) to collect it.Then I would have had to travel to Estonia itself to register the actual business and bank account (something like that -- it was a while ago).(There are "done for you" business services, but from what I recall they were quite expensive, and I think would have still required the travel.)It was theoretically doable, but due to life circumstances I wasn't able to travel at the time, so it didn't work out.Meanwhile a few days ago, finally worked up the courage, and registered a business in the UK via a formation agent.It took 25 minutes and $150. (Business was registered within 2 business days.) From the comfort of sitting on mine own ass, on the other side of the sea. So... yeah xD I like this way a bit better so far.
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  fl7305
  > As somebody from Germany, establishing a company is a bit tedious and bureaucratic.I'm fairly sure the German tax authority will claim that you have a local German branch office since you live and work there.That might be OK tax wise?But I'd recommend starting with the tax situation in Germany.Having limited liability through some kind of corporation can be nice.But on the other hand, it becomes harder in Germany to pay out a varying salary as profits fluctuates throughout the year since the German tax authorities will see that as an illegal dividend payment from your company.From this perspective it can be easier to set up some kind of sole proprietorship. Easier accounting etc and can pay out profits easier. But you get the personal liability.This is not hard advice, just some things to point out that it gets complicated fast. So I'd recommend spending a few hundred euros on getting advice from a tax professional to begin with.
• pier25
  I've been running a saas like this for the past couple of years.I'm using Xolo which do the accounting and local representative. 99% of my bureaucracy is uploading pdf invoices to the Xolo system. Once a year I have to spend like one hour on the anual report. That's pretty much it.Every 5 years you have to renew your digital id. It costs a little money and if you are in the EU there will be a pickup location not far away (I had to travel internationally).I also have to deal with my personal taxes but that's another matter.
• sivers
  Here's a newer post from a German who previously was a fan of the Estonian e-business, saying things changed for the worse in 2025:https://denationalize.me/emigrate/goodbye-estonia-how-a-popu...
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  gmsarmiento
  Here's what I've seen. First you’ll need a service provider (you can’t really avoid it) we tried grouhub,Manuel the guy was very kind. 500€ for the incorporation and he referred us to get the bank account . On the other hand, don’t incorporate too early. If you’re still validating, you’re just paying overhead for nothing(180€/month). On initial capital: you can set it at €10k as it helps if you plan to structure/share ownership more seriously later, but plenty of people start smaller and adjust when needed.
• anon
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• dewey
  What are you comparing it to in Germany? Have you tried services like https://www.firma.de that don't make it much more complicated than the Estonian option these days. I have not tried it myself, but I have friends who had good experiences with it.
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  nnurmanov
  What about EU Inc? Is there any timeline?
• savageaudit
  curious how much of the appeal is still there vs a few years ago feels like a lot of these “global founder” setups sound great in theory but get messy in practice
• tusuegra
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• truepricehq
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• moomoo11
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  golubovski
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  evanbuilds
  The hardest part is always distribution, not building. You can have the best product in the world but if nobody knows it exists it does not matter. Focus on being genuinely helpful in the communities where your users hang out and the product sells itself.