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Written by: Coralee Bechteler
Coralee is a business writer with experience in administrative services, education, and software testing.
Edited by: David Lepeska
David has been writing and learning about business, finance and globalization for a quarter-century, starting with a small New York consulting firm in the 1990s.
Published on August 16, 2022
Updated on April 11, 2024
If you’re starting a business, the business entity formation process is one of the first and most important hurdles. This step can be terribly complex and time-consuming, which is why many entrepreneurs turn to professional formation services.
But which are the best services for you? LegalZoom is a great option, but we’ve examined a wide variety of alternatives to help you choose the service that will put you on the road to success.
A business formation service handles the formation process for you, making it nearly seamless while offering additional services that can make life easier for a new business owner. Whether you’re forming a limited liability company (LLC) or a corporation, a business formation service takes care of all the red tape, freeing you up to focus on growing your business.
Here are our top alternative choices for LLC business formation.
Northwest Registered Agent differentiates itself from competitors with transparent pricing, great customer service, and a commitment to maintaining your privacy.
ZenBusiness offers free business formation plan (unlike many other competitors), has great customer service and the site is ease to use.
We recommend Bizee because of good quality services with a lot of features and affordable online incorporation services.
Rocket Lawyer offers a subscription of $39.99 that provides access to several helpful business services and legal documents.
Tailor Brands offers a suite of online tools, such as an AI-powered logo generator, a social media theme maker, and a website builder, to help companies promote themselves.
Northwest Registered Agent offers several a la carte services and one business formation package, which is competitively priced and includes registered agent services for one year. All customers will have online access to their documents and full customer support.
Northwest Registered Agent differentiates itself from competitors with transparent pricing, outstanding customer service, and a commitment to maintaining your privacy.
Northwest’s plan, at $225 plus state fees, includes business formation, free registered agent services for a year, a business address, an operating agreement, and a few extras.
This plan is of good value because it includes registered agent services and an operating agreement, which are very important.
But if you do not choose the registered agent services, you’re still charged the full plan price.
Overall, Northwest Registered Agent provides valuable services for aspiring business owners. They can ensure that your new business gets off on the right foot. Their service is easy to use and offers a great customer experience, which we learned from testing their support services, reading countless customer reviews, and moving through their online formation process.
Northwest Registered Agent can take the time and hassle out of starting your business and the ongoing process of staying in compliance with your state’s laws. Their streamlined pricing is uncommon amongst competitors, so you’ll have more control over what you pay for. We highly recommend Northwest Registered Agent.
ZenBusiness offers three competitively priced service packages and a la carte services. ZenBusiness is a public benefit corporation (PBC) and aims “to promote entrepreneurship by providing accessible products and responsive support.”
The Starter plan, at the cost of state fees, only includes a business name availability search through your state and the business formation service, with full customer support. It also offers a few extras, including an accounting consultation to help you get started with your finances. You’ll also have access to your formation documents online at any time.
The Pro plan, at $199, includes all the services included in the starter plan, with the addition of an operating agreement template and their annual compliance service. The annual compliance service means that ZenBusiness will remind you of any reporting due dates based on your state’s requirements.
The Premium plan includes everything in the Pro plan with the advantage of rush filing, as well as a business domain name, website, and email. It costs $349.
Overall, ZenBusiness provides extremely valuable services for aspiring business owners. They can ensure that your new business gets off on the right foot. Their service is easy to use and offers a great customer experience, which we learned from testing their support services, reading countless customer reviews, and forming our own LLC.
ZenBusiness can take the time and hassle out of starting your business and the ongoing process of staying in compliance with your state’s laws. Their pricing is very competitive, so you’ll get outstanding value for what you pay. We highly recommend ZenBusiness.
Bizee offers three business formation packages: Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The Silver package is free, plus state fees, and includes free registered agent services for one year. Bizee also gives customers access to an online dashboard and unlimited phone and email support.
Bizee’s Silver package provides the preparation and filing of the articles of organization, unlimited name searches, business banking offer, and lifetime company alerts. It also includes free registered agent services for a year, making it a great value at no additional cost other than the state’s LLC formation filing fees.
Customers can purchase the Gold package for $149, which encompasses everything in Bizee’s Silver plus an operating agreement and EIN. It has a few other benefits, as well, so it’s an overall good value.
For $299 plus state fees, Bizee’s Platinum package includes everything in Gold, as well as expedited filing and access to business contract templates. However, if you have either the Silver or Gold package, you can gain access to the entire document library for $150. Bizee also offers a number of a la carte services. For a fee, Bizee can handle tasks like filing your annual report and changing your registered agent.
Bizee is great for entrepreneurs on a budget, as their Silver package covers the basics and includes a free year of their registered agent service. Competitors like LegalZoom and Swyft Filings have a more robust suite of services, but can be more expensive.
Unlike most other LLC formation services, Rocket Lawyer does not offer packages of services, just a la carte service options. They also offer a $39.99 per month subscription service on their site with which you can get legal services, documents, and advice. The subscription has a seven-day free trial.
To form your LLC, Rocket Lawyer will file your articles of organization with the state.
The service is expensive at $99 without a subscription compared to the competition.
The $99 fee is waived with a subscription, but you’ll pay $39.99 monthly, so it’s a good value if you’re going to use their legal services on an ongoing basis.
Note that you can sign up for a subscription, which comes with a seven-day free trial, and then cancel your subscription as soon as your LLC is formed.
Overall, Rocket Lawyer provides valuable services for aspiring business owners. They can ensure that your new business gets off on the right foot. Their service is easy to use and offers a good customer experience, which we learned from testing their support services and reading customer reviews.
Rocket Lawyer can take the time and hassle out of starting your business. There are some services, however, that other formation services provide but Rocket Lawyer does not. We feel that the best value that they offer is their membership, as you’ll be able to get assistance for any ongoing legal concerns.
Tailor Brands is an LLC formation service focusing on the needs of digital entrepreneurs. Beyond formation filing, they offer various brand-building tools, including AI-generated logo design, website building, and merchandise printing.
Since its founding, Its mission has been to “make business creation easy, fun, and accessible to everyone.”
For $49 plus state fees, Tailor’s Lite plan will form your LLC with standard processing, which will take up to 14 business days to file your document.
At $199 annually plus state fees, The Essential plan includes all of the above plus expedited filing, compliance monitoring, and an operating agreement.
Expedited filing only means that Tailor will file your documents with the state within two days but the total time will be based on state formation times.
The Elite plan, at $249, includes everything from the Essential plan plus a year of a free domain, eight free logos, a website builder, a digital business card page that displays your links and products, a social media post maker, and a business card design tool.
Tailor Brands targets digital entrepreneurs with a modern website and many services for e-commerce and digital marketing.
Tailor’s customer service is an issue, and its sales pitches are aggressive.
If you’re planning a business with a physical location, Tailor’s offerings are expensive. But if you’re starting a web-based business, we recommend Tailor’s Elite plan, which offers some unique tools at a reasonable price.
With so many business formation services to choose from, it can be difficult to decide which is best for you. There are four essential elements that can help you make your decision.
Each service offers various products and services, and their plans are all designed differently. You may need some services but not others, so you need to choose the service that offers everything you need. For example, only some of the providers offer annual report filing.
If it’s important to you to get that task off your plate, you’ll want a service that offers that feature. Another feature you might need is a digital dashboard where you can always access your business formation documents.
You’ll want to choose a service that has everything you need to make starting and running your business as easy as possible.
One good way to learn about the quality of any service is to listen to what people are saying about it. When we review services, we look at reviews and ratings from the Better Business Bureau and TrustPilot. It’s wise to look at both positive and negative reviews to find out what people love about the service and the issues they’ve encountered.
Remember that fake reviews are common, so you should take some of the reviews with a grain of salt.
Of course, you’ll want to get the best value for your money!
Compare the cost of each service for everything you need. The price can really add up when you start adding extras, so be careful not to go too far. You also want to get good value and great customer service, so if you’re considering the cheapest service, check the reviews to see how people felt about it.
Business formation turnaround times vary with each service, so if you’re in a hurry to get your business up and running, you’ll want to look for the quickest service. You don’t want your order to sit in an office too long before your paperwork gets filed with the state. Some services differentiate themselves with fast turnaround times, so if they also offer good value, that might be your best choice.
As a leading entrepreneurial advisory site, we take our responsibilities seriously. We understand that countless entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs rely on our judgments and insights, particularly when it comes to creating their business.
As a result, our writers do their utmost to gain a comprehensive understanding of the services offered and the actual customer experience. In nearly every case, we:
Thanks to this full immersion in the actual customer experience, our reviewers are able to provide the most complete and insightful analysis of various LLC formation services.
When assessing whether or not a business formation service is right for you, it’s important to dive into the following four categories: included features, customer service, pricing, and turnaround time.
To learn more about the customer experience at a particular business formation service, check out the reviews and ratings on the Better Business Bureau and Trustpilot websites. Also see our summaries of customer reviews for each LLC formation service, detailed near the start of this article.
Bizee is great for entrepreneurs on a budget, as their Silver Package covers the basics and includes a free year of their registered agent service. Competitors like LegalZoom and Swyft Filings have a more robust suite of services, but can be more expensive.
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