Online Business Registry  Reviews 167

From my recent personal experience, it "appears" that their very existence as "Online Business Registry", alongside "Ontario Business Registry," calling themselves as an "intermediary" between the Government and the clients, is just to make money out of unsuspecting, hapless clients. What should've cost me just $60 to renew my business, ended up in me paying nearly $405 CAD!!! I did not realize this was a private organization until I spoke to them over the phone - my bad !
Here are the details;
1. Nuans Report - $28.25

2. Agency Filing Fee:
Qty: 1, Price: $ 99.00 CAD
Ontario Government Fee:
Qty: 1, Price: $ 60.00 CAD
Nuans search & name validation:
Qty: 1, Price: $ 25.00 CAD
Renewal Documents Retrival Fee:
Qty: 1, Price: $ 50.00 CAD
Total:
$ 234.00 CAD
Subtotal: $234.00
HST (13%): $30.42
Total: $264.42

3. Company Key Request
$ 111.87 CAD
Subtotal: $111.87
Grand Total: $28.25 + $264.4 +$111.87 = $404.52 !!!

Please note; It took them 30 days from February 26, 2026, to tell me that
a) the Nuans Report was not uploaded properly !?
b) They saw that the "Company Key" sent to them was actually the "Federal Key" - so please pay $99(+ tax) to get the "Company Key" (this actually costs $0, if applied online). they sent me at least three prompts !

Kindly Note: Service Ontario was not the least helpful in providing me the Company Key, but their tele-agents were surprisingly keen to "chastise" me, every time I called them - remi ding me to keep all information up-to-date. Even after escalating the issue, not a soul got back to me until this day !!!
From my experience, if anyone suspects any unholy nexus between "any parties", don't blame me !
For those who don't care about money, their (Online-BR's) "good works" / service may appear excellent. But for the vast majority that find it hard to make both ends meet, the option is left open to each one to choose between paying $60 to renew their business online, via ONTARIO BUSINESS REGISTRY (Govt. Of Ontario), or pay $375 and up via a private company "ONLINE BUSINESS REGISTRY". Don't expect too much assistance from them (Ontario-BR), if you contact them over the phone.

Warning: When you call them (Online-BR), please ensure you speak soft, at your lowest tone. Otherwise, the triaging person will tell you "NOT TO YELL", in addition to constantly "talking over you", without letting you explain your grievance. Honestly, it's not fair to expect any (including cut-throat) enterprise(s) to educate or redirect anyone to other relatively cheap, convenient or affordable government services.
My 1/5 review rating is not for the service provided, but for their supposedly-misleading business name that trapped me, purposefu(?) unethical-unprofessional delay and the defensively-offensive telephone assistance, although losing $405, in place of $60 became an inevitable and agonizing evil.
Although it makes no direct sense, my rating for the Govt. of Service Ontario assistance over the phone (4 lengthy calls) is a MINUS 5/+5 - Yes, and I mean it !
Humble Request to Online-BR: please don’t waste your energy trying to reply to this review. My experience was miserable. I do agree, in the first place I should've exercised utmost diligence to differentiate between Ontario-BR & Online-BR !!! In short - "I got fooled"!

Dear financially poor General Public, please dont get fooled by misnomer's or impersonator's !

They pretend to be the government division which deals with business registration, licence renewal etc. They are not. They use the same name OBR (Online Business Registry vs Ontario Business Registry of government office) and sounding similar domain name (ontario-business.ca vs ServiceOntario site ontario .ca /ontario-business-registry).
The whole process of registering a sole proprietorship on the government site took for me about 1/2 hour and cost $60. In minutes after filling forms I got my Business Name Registration with the business number (formerly known as Master Business Licence) and the Company Key.
The bill from this company was $407+tax=$459.91. (government fee of $60 is not even supposed to be taxable). Service fee is $99. And then you have an impression that HST registration ($99), NUANCE search ($50), Business Number ($99), Company Key ($99), Ready in 1 hour ($99) etc. etc. are legitimate expenses necessary to open your business. They are not. If you have time to fill up forms on their site, you may do this on the Service Ontario site as well.

Tina is very knowledgeable and professional. Excellent service and put my mind at ease regarding my new business.
Thank you for taking time to explain and answer questions
Regards Susan ..CocoBongos!

Great experience. Thanks Shoukat !

Was the work needed or not?
We had a back up from our septic system on our ground floor, so I removed three feet of snow and removed the main entrance to the septic tank to see if I could clear it. I also removed the toilet on the main floor so that it would be an easy and fast task to get someone in to clear.
We called ROOTER-MAN PLUMBING & DRAINS who came out to our property very quickly and said we had to first get our septic tank emptied, and it just so happened they had a truck available to come out right away. (much more costly than the company that usually do the job and who we had out less than two years ago, but what can you do)
Once that was paid for, they did additional review including a camera down the drain (with related costs of course) and then said “The main drain is cracked or broken and we will need to cut into your deck, dig up your patio and go down three feet to cut out the damaged pipe. This will cost you another $5000 on top of the $1000 you already paid. They called the job “OUTSIDE SEWER LINE REPAIR OR REPLACEMENT”
The did NOT try to clear the blockage at all, (which I found strange) so I elected to get a second opinion and a company called Drain King Plumbers came out the next day. They were on site at our home for less than 15 minutes and used a camera down the main drain (another $325) and said, “we agree, replace the sewer line”. They also made NO attempt to clear the blockage but did quote us for the work they said was required (almost the exact same as Rooter man)
We went with Rooter man, and they soon had two guys on site for almost 6 hours of work and no question they replaced the pipe. The only issue was the pipe they replaced was not damaged or cracked and looked almost new to me. I watched every step of the job and took photos and inspected the replaced pipe which WAS blocked with “stuff” (but of course it was as no one had tried to clear it)
So $7000 later we can now flush the toilet again, but it does leave me wondering is this story familiar to anyone else?

very helpful, got back to me very quickly. and also sent info out and came back quickly as well.very satisfied with service and progress

Gagan does a great job and was extremely easy to work with. Thank you so much!

My experience for the first time was awesome, I was well attended to with prompt response and paper work out without any delay.
Good job.

The experience was great, good communication and sense of customer service

Angela was very helpful with what I needed. Appreciate her quick response

Great help. Very willing to assist and explain. Spoke to both Rana and Jobin and both experiences were pleasant.

Limited Partnership was created within same day

Fast and very helpful, Thank you Rana!

The instructions were easy to follow and layered out in a logical and user friendly manner. Jobin was very helpful in making sure everything was properly submitted to ensure the results I expected… thank you! Looking forward for everything remaining to fall into place!

Larry was very helpful. He was able to answer all my questions, was very quick at responding and following up. The whole process was very smooth and pleasant. Thank you for your help in registering my business Larry.

Mr Jobin was very helpful and quick in response.

There was a problem with the e-mail communication but once the agent (Sukhraj) and myself got it sorted out everything went smoothly

The incorporation service is very quick and effective. Worked with Rani, Alejandra and Jobin and get excellent support and cooperation.