The best suited businesses for e-Residency are paperless companies that can be run completely online independent of location, for example consulting or freelance services in IT and communications, professional and scientific activities, and administrative and support service activities. We are increasingly seeing e-residents setting up small to medium eCommerce and dropshipping businesses, as well as larger companies manufacturing and/or selling physical goods wanting to set up a subsidiary in Europe. Read more on our Knowledge Base.

Once you have received your e-Residency digital ID, you’re ready to create your Estonian company online.  Online registration can be done through the government owned Company Registration Portal, or via Business Register API services that some service providers have on their websites. The state fee to register a private limited company (‘osaühing’ or ‘OÜ’ in Estonian) is €265. You must use a licensed service provider to fulfil the legal address and contact person legal requirements. You may also need help from your service provider with accounting, tax, legal matters, and business banking in  Estonia, the EU, or your own country. Read more about choosing the right service provider and then follow our step-by-step instructions to register your company.

Costs of starting and running your business will vary depending on the business form, volume of activities, the fees of your service providers, and the types of services you need. At a basic level for a private limited company (OÜ), the costs will include:

• E-Residency application state fee = €100-€130, depending on pickup point 
• Company registration state fee = €265
• Fee for legal address + licensed contact person in Estonia =  €200-400 per year, on average
• Fees for additional services (e.g. bookkeeping, accounting) start at €50 per month 
• Minimum share capital contribution = €2,500

Read more about costs and fees of starting a business in Estonia on our Knowledge Base.

There are no restrictions on becoming an e-resident or opening a company in Estonia based on your country of citizenship or residence (unless you are an Estonian citizen or have a residence permit in Estonia!).  However, if you’re based in a country where there is no e-Residency card pickup point, a lack of experienced service providers to support setting up your business, or barriers to banking or taxation, e-Residency may not be suitable for you right now. Further, people who are unable to obtain international financial services because they live within a jurisdiction categorised as ‘high risk and non-cooperative’ by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) may be limited from enjoying the advantages offered by e-Residency. Note that this is based on residency, not nationality, so people from these countries living abroad may still successfully benefit from e-Residency. Read more on the e-Residency blog.

There are no restrictions for e-resident companies in terms of business activities as long as they are legal and comply with local regulations. Some areas of activities are more regulated than others, hence if your company will be active in financial services (including virtual currency services like cryptocurrencies), tourism undertakings, educational activities or construction you will need to obtain a necessary licence or submit a respective notice of economic activity after company formation, but before you start any business activities in that field.  Read more in our Knowledge Base article on this subject.