5 Best Virtual Mailbox Services for UK Small Businesses

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Are you a small business that needs to be able to receive letters, parcels and official business correspondence, but doesn’t want to publicise your home address? Then, renting a virtual mailbox is the solution.

If you’re a business that doesn’t have a dedicated commercial office space, this virtual mailbox address will protect the privacy of your private residence and elevate the professional image of your company.

Small business owners are switching to virtual mailboxes after looking for PO box alternatives because of the additional services virtual address providers can offer, as well as lower costs and faster setup. What’s more, PO box addresses are no longer accepted as registered office addresses by Companies House.

How to choose a virtual mailbox for your business

Choosing the right virtual mailbox for your business starts with understanding exactly what you want to achieve. 

For some businesses, a simple mail handling service that forwards letters to a chosen address will be enough, while others might need a more comprehensive solution that includes scanning and uploading correspondence to a secure customer portal, shredding unwanted post securely, or storing important documents safely. You may even want a virtual business phone number or have the option to only forward specific items of post.

Budget is another important factor, and costs will vary depending on the level of service and location prestige. For example, a prime London address may cost more but can enhance your business image more than a cheaper virtual office in a less prestigious city.

Finally, think about growth, and choose a virtual mailbox provider that can scale with your business. Additional services like call handling can support you as you expand, ensuring you won’t outgrow the service as your company develops.

The best virtual mailbox providers for small businesses

To help you identify the best virtual mailbox service provider for your small business, we’ve reviewed five of the best:

1. Hoxton Mix
2. UK Postbox
3. Expost UK
4. Mail Boxes Etc.
5. PostAssist

Let’s take a closer look at each solution.

Hoxton Mix: Best for all-encompassing virtual office solutions

Hoxton Mix goes beyond a simple virtual mailbox for business, instead providing an all-round virtual office solution at a flexible, affordable price point. This comprehensive approach has delighted our 60,000+ customers over the years, helping us to achieve an impressive 4.6* on Trustpilot, with reviewers frequently citing exceptional customer support, a smooth and seamless setup process and reliability as key reasons for loving our services.

Not only will we process, scan and upload all of your business mail to your secure, AI-powered customer portal, but we can also provide virtual office mail forwarding, a virtual phone number, and our Full Privacy Service that protects your privacy even further with a director’s service address.

Setup

Getting started with Hoxton Mix is easy and fast, with setup completed within 10 minutes of you starting the process.

Simply select the services you need in addition to your registered office address service, for example mail forwarding or virtual office phone number, and proceed through the checkout process. There is even a UK-based customer support team who will help with all onboarding and verification topics if you need help.

Once we’ve processed your purchase, your new virtual mailbox will be up and running straight away, meaning you can start publicising it to your customers and suppliers, or use it to register your company with Companies House.

Ease of use

Our dedicated customer portal and app allow you to effortlessly manage every aspect of your virtual mailbox, at home and on the go. 

This portal is powered by our AI agent, HaiRo, that processes your business correspondence and delivers it directly to your inbox, automatically detecting the sender of the mail, categorising it and providing a brief summary so you don’t have to read the whole letter to understand the context.

The office is close to Old Street and Liverpool Street, and staffed Monday to Friday, 09:00 - 18:00. They are available for all support questions, and store your mail for 30 days, if you want to go and pick it up.

Pricing tiers

Unlike many of our competitors, we don’t have complicated pricing tiers that reserve the most essential functionality for our highest-paying customers.

Our registered address service with AI-mail handling is just £19 per month, while additional services are simply optional extras, available as add-ons for heavy users, or pay by usage. Simple, clear and transparent, with no hidden fees or setup costs.

UK Postbox – Best for complete digital mail management

UK Postbox provides a complete digital mail management solution, designed for individuals, businesses, charities and the public sector.

UK Postbox has an excellent reputation, scoring 4.7* on Trustpilot, with customers consistently praising the company’s service, dependability and professionalism. However, some reviewers have raised concerns around sign-up issues and a confusing website.

UK Postbox offers a ‘Digital Mailroom’, as well as remote office mail management and business mail contingency planning.

Setup

Getting started with UK Postbox is relatively straightforward, although there are a few different options for your address type and location, adding a degree of complexity to your decision process.

You can choose between:

• PO Box Address
• Street Address
• Business Address
• Redirection Address
• Parcel Address

You’ll then need to choose your ‘Mail Plan’, which we’ll cover shortly, before verifying your identity—and the process for this depends on whether you’re an individual or a business.

Ease of use

A number of UK Postbox customers have commented on the platform’s ease of use.

When new post arrives at their UK-based sorting facility, they’ll upload a scanned version of the letter (or a photo of the parcel) to the system and notify you that new mail has arrived. You then have the choice of what to do with it, whether you simply want to read it online, have it forwarded to an address of your choice or securely destroyed.

Pricing tiers

The pricing options for UK Postbox are arguably complex, with multiple options to choose from depending on whether you’re an individual, business or organisation.

For example, businesses and organisations can choose from the following options, each offering different benefits:

• Business street address
• Business PO box address
• Business redirection address
• Warehouse address
• A mail service only
• A mail service combined with DX address

You then have to choose your location, each of which is priced differently. For example, a Business Street Address in Poole, Dorset is £10 per month, while Bristol and Birmingham are both £32.50 per month.

You’ll then be prompted to choose your mail plan, based on the number of letters you expect to receive each month. These plans range from an additional £0 for up to 25 scans per month, to £10 per month for unlimited scans.

Finally, choose between paying monthly or yearly. Note that the annual plan includes two months free (a 16% saving).

Expost UK – Best no frills business solution

Expost UK offers a reliable and secure UK virtual mailbox service, with an address that can be used for official business use, although they don’t offer supporting virtual office solutions and are more expensive than Hoxton Mix.

On the whole, Expost UK customers are happy with the service, with a 3.9* rating on Trustpilot from 229 reviews. However, note that some users have reported long delays in receiving their mail, an unresponsive customer support team and a confusing onboarding process.

Setup

Getting started with Expost is relatively easy, requiring you to choose your location before selecting one of two services: their Premium Mailcentre or Economy Hub. You then simply need to verify your identity in order to use the service.

Ease of use

Multiple customers have commented on the service’s ease of use, as well as Expost’s flexibility, an important factor for small businesses looking to be agile.

Pricing tiers

Expost’s services are priced competitively, although the Economy Hub and Premium Mailcentre both start from £280 per year, with the latter available from £350 per year for London. 

The price is dependent on location, although the features of the service also differ between the two packages. What’s more, the Premium package will process your mail within one working day, whereas it can take up to seven working days with Economy Hub.

Mail Boxes Etc. – Best for high street presence

Mail Boxes Etc. offers the broadest range of services of any provider in this list, not just specialising in mailbox services, virtual office addresses and registered company addresses, but also print marketing and shipping. They even offer an auction house directory.

They have a strong rating of 4.5* on Trustpilot from almost 2,000 reviews, although this will include reviews of their various services, not just their virtual mailboxes. 

Setup

Getting started with Mail Boxes Etc. is quick and easy, although there’s not a single unified ‘virtual’ mailbox solution. You can rent a physical mailbox at the location of your choice, and then separately request mail forwarding if you’re unable to collect your mail and parcels in-store ‘for a while’. It’s not intended as an ongoing mail forwarding service.

A virtual office address or registered company address are also services you’ll need to sign up for separately.

Ease of use

Using each of Mail Boxes Etc.’s services is easy, although in most cases you’ll need to be able to physically go to a local store to collect your mail. What’s more, Mail Boxes Etc. (at the time of writing) don’t offer a mail scanning service.

Pricing tiers

The price of mailbox rental depends on location. For example, it will cost between £59 and £95 per month for a business mailbox at their Soho branch. You’ll also have to pay a £30 registration fee, a £0.60 package holding fee per day, and £30 mail handling fee per thousand items.

PostAssist: Best simple address service (most options cost extra)

PostAssist offers individuals and small businesses instant access to a real UK address, with flexible mail handling that includes the option to scan and forward mail to an address of your choice. 

However, with no independent reviews (they publish curated reviews on their website), it’s hard to verify the quality of the service.

Setup

Getting started with PostAssist is quick and easy. Simply enter your details and submit a payment to get instant activation.

Ease of use

Without independent reviews, we’re unable to comment on how easy it is to use the service.

Pricing tiers

PostAssist offers a single service, although you’ll receive a discount if you choose to pay annually: £149.99 for the year versus £14.99 per month.

However, there are some costs you need to be aware of in addition to the headline price. 

For example, you’ll have to pay the cost of postage and a 20% handling fee for mail forwarding (which will get expensive if you receive a lot of mail), while you’ll pay £0.60 per page if you want your post to be scanned and emailed. This means you’ll end up paying much more than £14.99 per month, unless you plan to collect your business mail from one of their UK offices.

Why Hoxton Mix is your best choice

We believe that Hoxton Mix represents the best virtual mailbox solution in the UK. Why? Because with a proven track record of supporting over 60,000 small and medium-sized businesses since 2010.

Unlike some of our competitors that specialise in mail forwarding with a virtual mailbox service bolted on, or provide a whole range of other services like Mail Boxes Etc, here at Hoxton Mix we have enhanced our virtual mailbox service to deliver a seamless and efficient mail management solution, making it easy to access your business correspondence on the go. We also represent the best value for money, with a low starting cost of £19 per month—without compromising on service quality.

So, what are you waiting for?

Getting started with Hoxton Mix

Launch your new registered office address with an AI-powered mail platform within minutes, before browsing our extensive business app and service marketplace to discover the special offers and discounts available to Hoxton Mix customers.

Have questions? Contact us via live chat, call 020 3475 3374 or email help@hoxtonmix.com.

FAQ

Are virtual mailboxes worth it?

If you’re a small business that doesn’t have access to dedicated office space, a virtual mailbox is definitely a worthwhile investment. It will protect your privacy and enhance the professional image of your business, while you’ll also benefit from advanced AI mail handling—all for a low monthly fee.

How much does a virtual mailbox cost?

Prices vary between vendors, but typically you’ll be able to rent a virtual mailbox service for around £20 per month. At Hoxton Mix, our virtual office and AI-powered mail handling is available from just £19 per month, with no hidden costs or setup fees.

Do banks accept virtual mailboxes?

Banks will typically require a genuine physical address for your business because of Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, and some mailbox rental services do not include a virtual office address. However, with Hoxton Mix, you’ll receive a virtual address as standard, meaning you can share it with your bank to receive correspondence related to your business account. We will process your mail, scan it and upload it directly to your dedicated online portal.

Can you pick up mail from a virtual mailbox?

Some virtual mailbox providers allow you to collect your mail and will charge you for storing it, although you’ll typically have to do so within a set timeframe, usually 30 days. We do not offer a mail collection service, but we can forward your post to an address of your choice anywhere in the world.

How safe are virtual mailboxes?

Virtual mailbox security varies from vendor to vendor, but at Hoxton Mix, our depot is monitored 24/7 with advanced access control, while your dedicated customer portal is protected by enterprise-grade cybersecurity.