A virtual address for your company — what it is and what it does

“Virtual address” sounds as if it referred to something that doesn’t exist — the reality is the exact opposite. It is a real postal address that your company uses without renting any premises. Below I explain the two roles such an address plays, when it genuinely helps and when it isn’t worth paying for.

What a virtual business address is

A virtual address is an address your company uses officially, even though you don’t carry out day-to-day work there and have no desk of your own. Instead of renting a room for your exclusive use, you rent the right to use the address and the handling of the post that arrives at it. Behind it stands a specific building — in our case Al. Jana Pawła II 80/4 in Warsaw, in the city centre — with people who receive your letters.

The distinction matters, because “virtual” is misleading. You are not buying a fiction or merely a street name. You are buying access to a real address and to a service that makes sure the correspondence sent there is not left unattended. If you would first like to understand the whole service from the ground up, I describe it in the article on what a virtual office is.

Two roles: registered and correspondence

A virtual address is easiest to grasp once you separate its two roles. In practice they usually work together, but they are two different uses:

These roles can be split. You can have your seat in one place and direct correspondence somewhere else — I cover the difference in more detail in the article on correspondence address vs registered office. In a typical virtual office a single address fills both roles at once, and that is usually enough.

When it comes in handy

A virtual address solves a few very concrete problems. Most often it is reached for by someone who:

• Works from home or remotely and doesn’t want their home address in public registers and on every invoice.
• Is just setting up a company and needs a registered address before deciding on renting any premises at all.
• Operates from outside Warsaw but wants a prestigious address in the capital — for image or to be closer to clients.
• Wants order in their mail — so that official letters are collected on time and archived in one place.

The common denominator is this: you need an address and mail handling, but you don’t need space for daily work. If your company is only just getting going, a good reference point is the article on a virtual office for sole traders.

What you get in practice

The address is only half the service. The other half is mail handling — without it the address would be just an entry in a register. At VSTREFA every package — including the cheapest — gives you:

• A company registration address — for a sole trader in CEIDG and for companies in the KRS, including a limited liability company.
• Mail receipt with notification — every item is received, and you get an email letting you know about it.
• Unlimited scanning — by default we scan every item into the panel, with no cap on the number (unless you ask us not to).
• Client Panel and app 24/7 — all your post and case history at hand at any hour.

The add-ons appear only higher up. The PRO package adds a monthly parcel of letters sent to an address of your choice, an hour of the meeting room per month and help with filling in documents. We also run the whole service in English, which matters for companies with a foreign shareholder.

What a virtual address is not

In fairness it is worth saying what a virtual address won’t do, so there are no disappointments. It is not a rental of workspace — you don’t get a permanent desk or a spot in a coworking space. It is not a secretariat either: we don’t answer the phone on your company’s behalf. We don’t provide legal advice and we don’t translate documents.

A virtual address solves the address-and-mail problem — and only that problem, but it does it well and cheaply. If your business needs a permanent space with clients on site, a virtual address will be an add-on at most, not the solution. Need more than an address? We also run accounting and company formation, so the address and running of your company can be kept in one place.

What it costs at VSTREFA

The lowest price is PLN 29 net per month in the package that combines a virtual address with accounting — a reasonable choice if your company is just getting going and you need both anyway. A virtual office on its own starts in the STANDARD package, and the full service with add-ons is in PRO. The complete overview is below:

Frequently asked questions

Summary

A virtual address for your company is a real address that plays two roles: it is your registered address in the register and the place your post arrives. It helps when you work remotely, are just starting out or want a Warsaw address without renting premises — and don’t want your home address circulating on invoices and in registers. For a few dozen złoty a month you gain an address, mail handling and a panel that keeps everything under control.