If you sell online from Ireland and you have no shop, no warehouse and no office, you still need a business address for online business use, and it is not an address you want to change twice. This guide compares the four realistic options, says plainly what Irish law asks for, and shows what else is inside the buildings behind 26 Irish addresses on Wezoo. If you want the wider background first, read our complete guide to virtual offices.
The audience here is narrow on purpose: an Irish or EU trader who works from a laptop and has no premises to put on an invoice. An e-commerce seller, a marketplace trader, a SaaS founder, a freelancer. If you run a US LLC, see our separate guide to a business address for LLC owners. Everything below is about Ireland.
Wezoo snapshot — virtual office addresses in Ireland
- 26 buildings in Ireland list a virtual office address on Wezoo (counted per building, not per listing)
- Spread across six towns and cities: Dublin 16, Limerick 4, Cork 3 (two in the city, one in West Cork), and one each in Kilkenny, Drogheda and Sligo
- Six operators: Regus holds 14 of the 26, Spaces 4, HQ and WeWork level on 3 each, and one each for Bureau Offices and Huckletree
- 20 of the 26 also list space you can book by the hour or the day in the same building
- No price is published on a virtual office listing — on Wezoo the address is a request, not an instant booking
Wezoo inventory, Ireland, checked 5 September 2026.
Why does an online business need an address at all?
Because Irish law asks for one in more than one place, and every one of them means a physical place. Take the broader rule first: it reaches everyone who sells online, incorporated or not.
That rule is e-commerce law. Regulation 7 of the European Communities (Directive 2000/31/EC) Regulations 2003 covers a relevant service provider: someone supplying a service “normally provided for remuneration, at a distance, by electronic means and at the individual request of a recipient of the service”. In practice that covers an online shop, a marketplace listing, a SaaS subscription. Regulation 7 requires certain information to be “easily, directly and permanently accessible to the recipients of the service and to the Director”, including “the geographic address at which the service provider is established” and, “where the service provider undertakes an activity that is subject to value-added tax”, the VAT number. Failing to comply is an offence, and a person guilty of an offence under the Regulations is liable on summary conviction to a fine of up to €3,000, or up to three months’ imprisonment, or both.
Note what Regulation 7 asks for: a geographic address, and the one you are established at. The Regulations define what being established means, and what does not count towards it. A provider is established in the State where it “effectively pursues an economic activity using a fixed establishment”, and “the presence and use of the technical means and technologies required to provide the service do not, in themselves, constitute an establishment of the provider”. Your domain and your servers are not an establishment.
Company law is the narrower rule, and it is a duty on companies only. Section 50 of the Companies Act 2014 says a company “shall, at all times, have a registered office in the State to which all communications and notices may be addressed”, and failing to keep one is a category 4 offence. The Companies Registration Office adds the practical test: the address “must be a physical location, not just a post office box number, because people have the right to visit the company’s registered office to inspect certain registers and documents and to deliver documents by hand”, and a letter sent there “must be capable of being delivered by An Post”. If you have not incorporated, you have no registered office, and none of this paragraph reaches you.
Consumer law says the same thing from the buyer’s side. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission tells shoppers that before they buy, a business must give them “the business’s name, physical address, phone number and email address”, and warns that “a website address ending in ‘.ie’ does not guarantee the business is based in Ireland”. Your buyers have been told to look you up. Selling online is not a niche here either: the Central Statistics Office reports that “in 2025, almost two in five enterprises (37.5%) in Ireland had e-commerce sales”.
What’s wrong with using your home address?
On the law, nothing. A company’s registered office has to be a physical place in the State that An Post can deliver to, and a home that meets that is fine — plenty of Irish companies are registered at a kitchen table.
A home address costs nothing until it has to be published. Use it as your registered office and the particulars go to the Registrar under section 50 and are recorded there. Trade online and Regulation 7 puts the geographic address at which you are established in front of your customers, permanently accessible, for as long as you trade. Returns and couriers arrive there, and so does the occasional unhappy customer.
Changing it later takes a filing. A company has to notify a change of registered office to the Registrar within 14 days, and the CRO is explicit that “the change becomes legally effective only when the CRO has registered the form”.
Your four options for a business address for online business use
The four routes do different jobs.
| Option | Works as a registered office? | Handles your post? | Can you book space by the hour or day? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home address | Yes, if it is a physical place in the State | You do | No |
| PO box | No — the CRO requires a physical location | Collection only | No |
| Registered office service | Yes — section 50(4), care of an approved agent | Statutory post — ask what is included | Not usually |
| Virtual office | Depends on the provider — ask first | Yes, that is the product | At 20 of the 26 Irish buildings, yes |
The PO box row is the one people argue with, and there is a separate guide on whether you can use a PO box as a business address. For Ireland the CRO is direct about it: somewhere a person can call to, and that An Post can deliver a letter to.
The last two overlap. A registered office service sells a compliant filing address; a virtual office normally sells a street address plus mail handling and, in most buildings, space you can book on site. If a CRO filing address is your only problem, see our guide to a registered office address in Ireland.
What else can you do at the address? All 26 buildings, counted
Every one of the 26 also lists a private office. Most address comparisons stop at the address, so we checked all 26 buildings one by one for what else each sells. The counts that follow overlap, because most buildings appear in more than one of them.
19 of the 26 also list a meeting room you can book by the hour. 18 of the 26 list a day office and 17 list a hot desk, and across those three, 20 of the 26 give you somewhere to book by the hour or the day at the same address that goes on your invoices. The other six list a private office and nothing you can take by the hour or the day.
Those six are not scattered at random. Three of them are the three WeWork buildings in the set, two are HQ sites, and the sixth is the set’s only address in Sligo.
The co-location counts are not a Dublin advantage, tempting as that reading is. 11 of the 16 Dublin buildings also list a meeting room (68.8%), against 8 of the 10 outside Dublin (80.0%) — a higher share outside the capital, not lower. Those three WeWork buildings are all in Dublin, and the operator has none anywhere else in the set, so leaving them out moves one side only: Dublin becomes 11 of 13 (84.6%) against an unchanged 8 of 10, a difference of less than one building either way. The city is not what decides it.
So the useful question is which building, not which city. What the city decides is how much choice you get. All six operators in the set have a Dublin building; outside Dublin, only three of them do. And in Kilkenny, Drogheda and Sligo, Wezoo lists exactly one address in the town, so there is no choice of operator: that single virtual office in Kilkenny is the entire Kilkenny listing.
Three Irish examples, and what each one really gives you
Three buildings, picked because they sit at different points of the co-location pattern above. Each works as a business address; what differs is what else is in the building.
Alexandra House — Dublin 4 (Regus). A D04 address, and one of the buildings that lists all four products: private office, meeting room, day office and hot desk. If you want a Dublin postcode on your invoices and somewhere to sit when a supplier flies in, this is the shape to look for. Request Alexandra House on Wezoo.
Horgan’s Quay — Cork (Spaces). A T23 address on the Cork quays. The building lists a meeting room, a day office and a private office, though no hot desk — a reminder to check the specific building rather than the brand. Request Horgan’s Quay on Wezoo.
Embankment — Sligo (Regus). The only virtual office address Wezoo lists in Sligo, and one of the six buildings whose listing shows a private office and nothing you can take by the hour or the day. It works as an address in the north-west. Request Embankment on Wezoo.
What does a business address for online business cost in Ireland?
There is no price on a Wezoo virtual office listing, and inventing one would not help you. Unlike a meeting room or a hot desk, the address is quoted rather than booked: you tell the operator what you need and they price it, which is why the building links above say request rather than book.
What you can control is what you ask for. Mail handling, eligibility to be named as a registered office, meeting-room credits and call answering are separate elements, and providers price them separately. Ask which of them are inside the figure, in writing, before you put two quotes side by side — otherwise you are comparing two different products.
For a wider view of the Irish market, see our guide to a business address in Ireland and our virtual office address options in Ireland. Any price you see quoted anywhere is indicative until an operator gives you one.
What to check before you buy a business address for online business
Five questions to ask any provider, most expensive to get wrong first.
1. Will they act as your registered office? Section 50(4) allows a company’s registered office to be held care of an agent — itself a registered company — approved by the Registrar for that purpose. Ask directly, and ask in writing. A mail address and a registered office are not the same product.
2. What happens to post? Forwarded, scanned, or held for collection — ask which. It matters because, as the CRO points out, section 51 deems a document left at or posted to the address recorded at the CRO to have been left at or posted to your registered office, even if the office has since moved.
3. Is it a real street address? For a registered office it has to be somewhere a person can call to and An Post can deliver a letter to.
4. Can you book space there? At 20 of the 26 Irish buildings you can book something by the hour or the day. At the other six, the listing shows a private office and nothing you can take by the hour or the day. This is the question that decides which building, not just which town.
5. Does it match where you actually operate? The Regulations define being established in the State as effectively pursuing an economic activity using a fixed establishment there, and say the technical means used to provide the service do not, in themselves, constitute an establishment. If your setup is unusual, take advice before you publish an address.
How to set one up
1. Shortlist by building. Using the 26-building counts above, decide first whether you need somewhere you can book space, then which town.
2. Request a quote. Put the registered-office question in that first message, not after you have paid.
3. Complete the identity checks the provider asks for.
4. File the address, if you are a company. A new company gives it in the incorporation statement; an existing one notifies the change to the Registrar within 14 days on Form B2 through CORE.
5. Publish the address. Website contact page, invoices, marketplace seller profiles. An address only does its job once your customers can see it.
Ready to set up your virtual office in Ireland?
Frequently asked questions
Is a virtual office a legal business address for online business use in Ireland?
It can be. If you are a company, section 50 requires a registered office in the State and the CRO requires a physical location a person can visit and An Post can deliver to — a serviced street address can satisfy that, but whether a particular provider will act as your registered office under section 50(4) is a question for that provider. If you are a sole trader you have no registered office; the address you publish under the e-commerce Regulations is the one that matters.
Does an online business have to show its address on its website?
Regulation 7 of the 2003 e-commerce Regulations requires a relevant service provider — one supplying a service for remuneration, at a distance, by electronic means and at the individual request of the recipient — to make the geographic address at which it is established easily, directly and permanently accessible to the recipients of the service and to the Director, along with contact details and, where the activity is subject to VAT, the VAT number. Failing to comply is an offence.
Can I use a PO box as my registered office in Ireland?
The CRO says no: the address “must be a physical location, not just a post office box number, because people have the right to visit the company’s registered office to inspect certain registers and documents and to deliver documents by hand”.
How much does a business address for online business cost in Ireland?
Virtual office listings on Wezoo carry no published price, so any figure you see elsewhere is indicative until an operator quotes you. Mail handling, registered-office eligibility, meeting-room credits and call answering are priced separately, so ask which are included in the figure you are given.
Can I just use my home address?
Legally you can. For a company it has to be a physical address in the State, and it is filed with the Registrar. The trade-off is publicity: if you trade online, Regulation 7 also requires the geographic address at which you are established to be permanently accessible to your customers.
Can I book a meeting room at the same address?
At 19 of the 26 Irish buildings, yes — those buildings list a meeting room as well as the address. Count day offices and hot desks too and the figure is 20 of the 26; the other six list a private office and nothing you can take by the hour or the day.
Choosing well
Two things are already settled: a PO box cannot do the job, and a home address, if you trade online, is one your customers can read for as long as you trade. What is left is the live question — do you want the address to be somewhere you can also turn up to, or only somewhere your post lands? That is the choice, and on Wezoo it is a choice of building.
Sources
- Companies Act 2014, section 50 — Registered office of company, Law Reform Commission Revised Acts
- S.I. No. 68/2003 — European Communities (Directive 2000/31/EC) Regulations 2003, Irish Statute Book
- Registered Office, Companies Registration Office
- Buying online, Competition and Consumer Protection Commission
- Information Society Statistics — Enterprises 2025, E-Commerce, Central Statistics Office
This article is general information, not legal, financial or tax advice. Rules differ by jurisdiction and change over time. Confirm your situation with a qualified solicitor, accountant or tax advisor. Last reviewed: 5 September 2026.
