[jackgavigan]

> Why bother with a third party company registration service?

Well, note the affiliate link...

Companies House charge £15 for setting up a company online. Most accountants include it in their service, and will let you use their address as your office/postal address if you want.

It may be different for developers but if you avoid recruiters, you're probably ignoring about half the job market for contracting.

[lucaspiller]

When I decided I wanted a Ltd I spend an afternoon reading through the regulations on HMRC and Contractor UK and still wasn't really sure what I needed to do. I went with Crunch and they setup everything for me in a couple of days (including flat-rate VAT and PAYE). If I were to do it again I probably would do it myself, but to start with I don't think it's really worth the effort of this is all new to you.

When I first started contracting I used an umbrella company for a few months, I'd recommend people starting out go this route then move to a Ltd once they are sure this is what they want to do.