Whether it's Artificial Intelligence being implemented into your daily operations or highly detailed analytic software, even some of the more traditional businesses these days are embracing the digital age we're currently living in — and this goes all the way down to the office that you and your employees are actually working in itself.
As a result, virtual business addresses have never been more popular, giving company owners an opportunity to base themselves in popular business hubs and cities without ever even needing to own or rent a physical office there.
Still, if you're used to working in a regular office with your employees, the concept of virtual offices probably seems abstract at best, so throughout this article, we're going to be breaking down all you need to know about how these fairly new services work and if they're actually worth investing in or not.
In addition, we'll also be covering our favourite five virtual office providers that we found, so keep reading to discover how they can transform the way you run your business and how you can choose the right option.
| Provider | Score | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Davinci Virtual Office | ★★★★★ | Click Here |
| 2. Icon Offices | ★★★★★ | Click Here |
| 3. Argyll Club | ★★★★★ | Click Here |
| 4. Ascent Properties | ★★★★★ | Click Here |
| 5. Regus | ★★★★★ | Click Here |
Understanding Virtual Office Services
In essence, virtual offices basically provide a range of different services and facilities that you can take advantage of in order to operate remotely rather than ever having to rent a physical location to base your business — meaning you've got access to meeting rooms, mail handling services, and more, without all the hassle and money involved with a physical office space.
With the rise of remote work and distributed teams, it's not exactly surprising why virtual offices have become an increasingly popular choice for businesses of all sizes and industries.
Common Features to Look Out for
Ultimately, there aren't too many things that separate one virtual office service from the next, as oftentimes, the only real difference is the location and access to meeting rooms — everything else is generally the same.
Still, if the virtual office solution that you've been considering doesn't include one of these features, it should raise some red flags immediately. So, let's walk through which features you need to ensure are a part of your virtual office package throughout this next section:
Virtual Business Address
If possible, try to find a provider that offers business addresses in some of the more desirable locations to run a company, such as Central London or other key business districts.
Mail Forwarding
These are also vital for ensuring that any of your business correspondence reaches you promptly and securely, regardless of where your office is located in the world.
Telephone Answering
It can always help in terms of making a good first impression for your business if the virtual office that you use comes with a professional telephone answering service — not to mention that it ensures you don't miss any important business calls.
Meeting Room Access
If you require occasional access to physical meeting spaces, look for a virtual office provider that offers access to well-equipped meeting rooms on an ad-hoc basis. This isn't always going to be available given just how high demand some of these spaces are, so you should probably expect to pay top of the range if you need guaranteed access to them.
Companies House Compliance
If you're registering your business with Companies House, you're going to need to check whether your virtual office address meets their requirements for a registered office address in order to legally operate as a business.
Additional Services
Depending on who you partner with, certain virtual office providers might offer some additional services to aid your business rather than solely providing the attraction of having an office address in a major city — such as coworking spaces or administrative support, for example — so consider whether these extras would be beneficial for your business or if you'd be better off with a cheaper alternative (because extra features naturally mean forking out extra money).
Now, it's not exactly paramount that your virtual office space provider comes with these kinds of features, but it's naturally one of the ways that they can stand out from one another.
Pros and Cons of UK Virtual Offices
Generally speaking, there are probably more things worth praising about virtual office addresses than there is to criticise — especially when you consider how new these services are and their growth potential — but it's definitely still worth showing both sides of the argument so you can get a better understanding of whether it's something you want to invest in.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Cost-Effective ✔️ Above all, the most significant reason why people invest in virtual office solutions is the price savings compared to leasing a more traditional office space. Given how inflated the property market is becoming and how insanely expensive it can be to rent an office in major cities, large numbers of startups and other small businesses are priced out from ever being able to operate in these areas and enjoy all the benefits that come with that (in terms of networking, your brand image, etc.) — not any more thanks to virtual offices. | Limited Access to Meeting Spaces ❌️ Depending on the virtual business address service that you've opted for, you might actually be given access to meeting rooms for when you need to schedule an in-person meeting — whether it's with a client or you're simply looking to connect with your staff in person. Having said that, the availability of these spaces — especially if you're using a London virtual office address — can be pretty limited unless you're paying for one of the more expensive virtual office packages. So, while it's still undoubtedly cheaper to rent a virtual office as opposed to a physical one, you might face a few issues when it comes to making in-person impressions, which can be slightly scathing to the professional brand image you've been trying to cultivate since using one of these services in the first place. |
| Flexibility ✔️ Rather than ever being tied down to one particular location, you've got the option of basing your business literally anywhere, allowing you to scale up or down or even switch to a more affordable service whenever you like. | Lack of Physical Presence ❌️ Aside from not always being able to schedule in-person meetings, you might find that your business just doesn't lend itself that well to a virtual office space in general, whether that's because you deal with a lot of clients face-to-face or because it makes you feel slightly more disconnected with your employees. |
| Professional Image ✔️ Few things scream credibility like having an office address based in highly sought-after and prestigious areas like Central London, so although you're not quite owning a specific piece of real estate, you are still able to appear more professional, which can help attract new clients or partners. | Dependency on Technology ❌️ Finally, it goes without saying that virtual office services rely pretty heavily on technology for communication and generally running your business, so while this takes away a lot of the expenses involved with renting a physical office, it can obviously be a nightmare if there are any major technical issues or interruptions in service that get in the way of your daily business operations. |
Best Virtual Office Addresses — Reviews
So, now that you're familiar with how these kinds of services work let's explore our top five choices in this next section:
1. Davinci Virtual Office — Best Option for an International Service
As far as range goes, you'll probably struggle to find an option for a virtual office that works in so many countries — over 100, to be exact, whether you're in the United Kingdom, United States, India, or Australia.
The most basic plan they offer is around £38 per month, but this is subject to change depending on which of their plans you choose.
Either way, you'll be gaining access to over 20,000 different meeting rooms across the world, so we definitely recommend the Davinci Virtual Office if you're looking to branch out overseas without breaking the bank.
In terms of features, you'll have your own dedicated team of receptionists to handle your business calls for you, but you'll still need to upgrade plans if you want things like order processing or even appointment scheduling.
Furthermore, although the £38 per month price tag isn't awful, you're going to need to pay extra for pretty much every additional service you want as they don't wrap them altogether in one all-inclusive plan, so you might be better off with another one of our picks if you don't want to settle for a slightly more basic virtual office service.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✔️ Admin assistant services. | ❌️ Limited services in the basic plan. |
| ✔️ Global reach. | ❌️ Lack of all-inclusive options. |
| ✔️ Live answering service. |
2. Icon Offices — Most Affordable Virtual Office Service
Next on our list is by far the cheapest option you'll see on our list, costing only £3.96 per month without skimping on any of the extra services it comes with — whether that's a mail handling service or even company formation services.
That last feature does, however, come with a fee of £5.99, but this is only a one-time fee you'll have to pay.
Furthermore, when you consider that Icon Offices claim to specialise in company formation, it's actually an incredibly impressive price, especially when compared to some of the other options we'll be covering today — if they even provide this service at all.
There's a premium plan, too, if you need some additional tools like website domains or VOIP landline numbers for your business, but you've got more than enough in the basic plan if you're trying to stay within a budget.
Still, with only around six different locations, it certainly pales in comparison to our aforementioned top choice, Davinci Virtual Office, if you're looking for flexibility.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✔️ Very affordable price. | ❌️ Few customisation options for virtual office packages. |
| ✔️ Serviced office locations with meeting rooms and receptionists. | ❌️ Fairly limited physical office locations compared to other providers. |
3. Argyll Club — Most Attractive Virtual Office Service
Although virtual offices imply that you'll not actually be visiting the office very regularly, Argyll Club offers some of the most luxurious and beautifully designed offices in all of London, so if you ever need to enter the office to chat with new clients face-to-face, you can be positive that you'll be making a solid first impression.
Still, as for pretty much all virtual or physical offices in London, you're going to be paying a pretty high fee per month, but Argyll Club don't actually make it very clear what this charge actually is as they implore you to enquire in order to be given a quote — presumably after asking what kind of additional features you're looking for.
As such, this is definitely one for the more established businesses with a bit more income.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✔️ Plenty of additional admin assistant services. | ❌️ Unclear pricing structure. |
| ✔️ Gorgeous offices. | ❌️ Not the most accessible options for small companies with low budgets. |
4. Ascent Properties — Best London Based Virtual Office Service
As far as being based at a prestigious business address goes, you'll struggle to find somewhere more iconic than Central London, specifically in one of the most famous districts in the city, Kings Cross.
Now, this kind of name attached to your business address is obviously a far more effective way of improving your brand image than if your company was based in, say, Stoke-on-Trent (no offence), but the overall price you'll end up paying certainly reflects this, as you can expect to spend around £100 per month for this primely located virtual office.
Of course, with Ascent Properties you'll be able to benefit from all the typical features that come with having a regular virtual office — not being hindered by excessively high rent, etc…
But the main advantage here is undoubtedly the Kings Cross connection, being not only an iconic name but also incredibly connected in terms of transport links and other services, meaning you'll be able to conveniently access meeting rooms without having to travel all over the place.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✔️ Admin assistant services. | ❌️ Fairly steep price. |
| ✔️ Global reach. | ❌️ Only one virtual office address, so there are limited meeting rooms and other services. |
| ✔️ Live answering service. |
5. Regus — Best Virtual Office Service for Small Businesses
Similarly to the Davinci virtual office, Regus is another service with a pretty extensive number of locations around the world for you to choose from, so instead of just being limited to one location, you can choose from 4,000.
Now, most of the options we've been covering so far are all exclusively providing virtual office services, but Regus actually provides a bunch of physical office locations, too, not to mention plenty of meeting spaces for you to rent if you need to have face-to-face chats with clients or employees.
As touched on earlier, virtual office spaces tend to be better suited towards smaller businesses, meaning they become slightly less useful while you develop over time as your requirements grow. So, the fact that you can potentially one day upgrade to a physical office with Regus makes them one of the best services in terms of scalability.
The lowest subscription package they offer is the business address plan for around £38 per month, but the virtual office packages start to get a little more pricey at £69 per month or around £97 if you want to include a range of extra features with the “plus package”.
The cheapest option still includes features like mail handling, so this might be all you need in the meantime if you're working on a budget.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✔️ Plenty of different subscription packages to choose from. | ❌️ It is not the cheapest option in general. |
| ✔️ Fairly impressive list of locations available. | ❌️ Higher cost than some competitors. |
| ✔️ Variety of meeting spaces available for rent. | ❌️ Huge difference in price between the lowest and highest subscription plan. |
Choosing the Right Virtual Office Service
Pretty much any of the five options we've just covered would make great options for virtual office spaces, but some of them are probably going to be better suited to certain businesses than others.
If you simply opt for the cheapest option on our list because it's good for your cash flow in the short term, you're probably running the risk of it not aligning with your long-term business goals since the cheaper options are generally only for startups.
So, let's walk through some of the key considerations to keep in mind when you're choosing which provider you ultimately want to sign up for:
Know Your Requirements
Before you start researching virtual office providers, it's worth considering a few different factors:
- The level of flexibility you need.
- Where exactly you want your desired business address to be in the world.
- The volume of mail you think you might receive.
- Any additional services you may require.
It goes without saying that it's a lot easier to narrow your options down once you actually know what it is that you're looking for, so make sure you prioritise this before anything else.
Research Potential Providers
Once you have a clear idea of your requirements, it's time to start researching potential virtual office providers, so look for providers that offer the features and services you need and pay attention to things like their reputation and the level of customer support they provide.
Reaching out to other businesses or professionals who have used virtual office services in the past can always help if you want specific recommendations.
Evaluate Features and Pricing
As you've probably realised by this point, the range of features between different virtual office providers doesn't usually change too much, but you should still pay close attention to what's actually included in each package — as well as the pricing structure.
Obviously, you need to find a provider that offers the services you need, but that doesn't mean you should be paying an arm and a leg for it; the best services always have a balance between affordability and quality features.
Trial Period or Guarantee
It's not exactly standard practice across the board, but some virtual office providers might offer you a trial period or some kind of satisfaction guarantee so that you've got a chance to test out their services risk-free before making a commitment.
Take advantage of these offers if they're available, as they're generally one of the best ways you're able to see whether you're making the right choice for your business or not.
Final Thoughts
To wrap things up, it's fairly clear how any of the five options we've covered — or just virtual office spaces in general — can leave a positive impact on your business, whether it's down to the savings you make on certain overheads like rent or maintenance or simply the flexibility they give you in terms of how you want to run your company.
Naturally, though, these kinds of services, while massively helpful, do tend to appeal more towards startups and small businesses working with tight budgets rather than large corporations, and while that might be perfectly fine for the time being, it's best to think of a long-term physical solution that your business can start using once you've hit a certain size.
The freedom of your staff being able to work on their own terms is obviously a huge plus, but one of the main concerns people who've used these services seem to express is the barrier that comes with a lack of physical presence, making it slightly less easy to build relationships with new potential clients.
Still, with the way digital solutions are being embraced in both our personal and business lives, who's to say that virtual office addresses won't become the norm in the future and the way we perceive online video calls as being slightly less professional begins to shift in the other direction?
Ultimately, whether or not one of these virtual office services is the right choice for your business is something you're only going to know through testing them out, so we implore you to choose one of the options we've picked out today and see how your business progresses!
