Business name vs company name: what's the difference

A company name is the legal name of a separate legal entity registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). It ends in Pty Ltd or Ltd, has its own Australian Company Number (ACN), and can own assets, sign contracts, and be sued in its own right.

A business name is just a trading name. It's the name you put on your website, invoices and signage when you don't want to use your personal name or your company's legal name. A business name is not a legal entity on its own — it has to sit underneath either an individual sole trader or a company.

Most new founders end up with both: a Pty Ltd company that owns the business and holds the contracts, plus a business name registered against that company so the brand reads as Northside Plumbing rather than Smith Holdings Pty Ltd. The two things are cheap, fast, and they do completely different jobs.

When you register a company through ASIC, you're creating a brand new legal entity that exists separately from you. It has its own nine-digit ACN, its own tax file number, its own bank account, and its own balance sheet. Your liability as a director and shareholder is generally limited to the value of your shares — which is what people mean when they say a Pty Ltd offers asset protection.

A proprietary limited company name must end in the words Proprietary Limited, or the abbreviation Pty Ltd, or Pty Limited. You'll see it written every which way; they all mean the same thing. Public companies end in Limited or Ltd, but unless you're raising capital from the public, you almost certainly want a proprietary limited.

The company name itself has to be unique on the ASIC register. ASIC will reject names that are identical or near-identical to existing companies, names that imply government endorsement, and names containing restricted words like bank, university, or trust without the right approvals. Before you fall in love with a name, run an ASIC search on it.

A business name is administrative, not structural. It tells the public and the regulator: this person or company is trading under this brand. It doesn't create a separate legal entity, it doesn't change your tax position, and it doesn't on its own give you any ownership of the words.

Business names are registered nationally on ASIC's business names register. You hold the name for either one year or three years, and you have to renew it before the expiry date or it lapses and becomes available to anyone else. Renewal isn't automatic unless you opt in.

Every business name has to be held by an entity with an Australian Business Number (ABN). That entity is either an individual sole trader (you, personally, with an ABN) or a company (your Pty Ltd, with its own ABN). The ABN appears on the public record next to the business name, which is how customers and other businesses can look up who actually stands behind the brand.

You don't need a business name at all if you're happy to trade under your own personal name (for a sole trader) or your company's legal name (for a Pty Ltd). The law only requires you to register one when you're carrying on business under a name that isn't your full personal name or your company's exact registered name.

There's no rule that says everyone needs a company. There's also no rule that says everyone needs a business name. Which combination you choose comes down to how you want to be taxed, how much liability protection you want, and whether your brand name is different from your legal name.

Here's how the common combinations play out for first-time founders, from the simplest sole-trader setup right through to a company-and-brand combination most growing businesses end up with.

Jane is a licensed plumber starting her own business. She wants to trade as Northside Plumbing because it's brand-friendly and search-friendly. She also wants to take on commercial jobs and employ an apprentice, so she wants the asset protection of a company.

Here's what Jane registers, in order, to end up with a company that owns the business and a separate registered business name that customers see on the truck and the invoice.

Both registrations happen through ASIC, but they're separate processes with separate costs and separate renewal cycles. The company registration is the bigger lift; the business name takes minutes once you've got an ABN to attach it to.

Company registration takes about 15 minutes if you have your details ready. You need each director's Director ID, their full name and address, the shareholder details, the registered office address, and the principal place of business. ASIC issues the certificate and ACN on the same day in most cases. The ASIC application fee is $611 for a standard proprietary company in 2025–26. Once registered, you pay an annual review fee — $329 a year for a standard company, or $67 a year if it qualifies as a special-purpose company (most often used for trustee and SMSF structures).

Business name registration is faster and cheaper. You need an ABN (either your personal one as a sole trader, or the company's ABN), and you pay ASIC $44 for one year or $108 for three years. The three-year option is generally the better value if you're confident in the name. ASIC also charges late fees if you let things slide — $98 if you're 1–28 days late on a lodgement, $411 if you're more than 28 days late.

ASIC fees are set by regulation and indexed each year on 1 July, so the exact figures above apply for the 2025–26 financial year. Structly's prices are listed in plain Australian dollars on every product page so you can see exactly what's the ASIC fee and what's our service fee.

This is where a lot of new founders get caught out. Registering a business name with ASIC does not give you any exclusive right to use that name as a brand. It just stops two entities from holding the same business name on the register at the same time. Someone else can still use a very similar name, and you can't stop them by waving your business name certificate.

Exclusive rights to a brand name come from a trade mark, which is a completely separate registration handled by IP Australia, not ASIC. A registered trade mark gives you the legal right to stop others from using a similar mark for similar goods or services in Australia. It costs more and takes longer than registering a business name — typically several hundred dollars per class of goods or services, and around seven months to examine.

If your brand is going to be commercially valuable — if it's the thing customers remember and search for — it's worth talking to a trade mark attorney about whether a registered trade mark makes sense. Structly doesn't lodge trade marks. For the brand-protection conversation, IP Australia's free trade mark headstart service at ipaustralia.gov.au is a good first step, and your solicitor or a registered trade mark attorney can take it from there.

Quick way to remember it: ASIC business name = administrative label. IP Australia trade mark = legal protection.

Here's the honest breakdown of what each registration costs, with the ASIC fees separated from Structly's service fee so you can see the components and decide what's worth paying for.

If you're going down the bundled route — company plus business name plus the ABN — our Company Essential bundle is $887 all-in. That's the company registration ($699, which includes the $611 ASIC fee plus an $88 service fee), the ABN package ($99), and a three-year business name registration ($89 standalone or included in the bundle). The bundle is cheaper than buying each piece separately.