The best online incorporation service for most people is ZenBusiness because it makes a complicated process smooth and stress-free. Get your first year of ZenBusiness services starting at just $0 plus state fees.
Our dedicated research team analyzed the 14 most popular business incorporation services available. We spent hours studying 1,152 customer reviews and measured each brand against 12 criteria points. Through this intensive research, we narrowed the list of the best online incorporation services down to 12 outstanding brands. In this guide, you’ll learn all about why we love these top brands—and why we didn’t pick the other two options.
The Top 12 Best Online Incorporation Services
Best Online Incorporation Services: BizFilings, Harbor Compliance, Inc Authority, Bizee (Formerly IncFile), LegalNature, LegalShield, LegalZoom, MyCompanyWorks, Northwest Registered Agent, Rocket Lawyer, Swyft Filings, ZenBusiness
Each of the online incorporation services on our list is an excellent choice for different reasons, but we think most businesses can find the services they need with one of the following:
- ZenBusiness — Best for beginners
- Bizee (formerly Incfile) — Best for the budget-conscious
- LegalShield — Best for home-based businesses
- Northwest Registered Agent — Best for maximum privacy
- LegalZoom — Best buffet of Business Services
Thanks to the unique and reliable way it guides users through the incorporation process, the all-around top pick for most people is ZenBusiness. You can register your company with ZenBusiness for just $0 plus state fees.
How We Evaluate the Best Online Incorporation Service Companies
Are you wondering why some companies made our list and some didn’t? In this section, we lay out the methodology we used to choose the top online incorporation services. If you want to skip ahead to the product reviews, you can do that too.
How We Qualify the Online Incorporation Services for Consideration
Our first round of research identified 14 brands that provide online incorporation services.
BizFilings, Harbor Compliance, Inc Authority, Bizee, Incorporate.com, LegalZoom, LegalNature, LegalShield, MyCompanyWorks, MyCorporation, Northwest Registered Agent, Rocket Lawyer, Swyft Filings, ZenBusiness
Most of these companies were excellent. How did we know? Because we defined 12 criteria points that make an incorporation service worth it for a user, including six core criteria.
- Help when you need it: Because incorporating a company can be complicated yet important to get right, users may have questions as they work. Only services with dependable customer support made our top list.
- Simple and intuitive: The paperwork involved in business incorporation is confusing to most of us, and an online incorporation tool should make that process simpler—not more confusing.
- Quickly form your business: Paperwork is notorious for moving slowly through local, state, and federal channels. The services on our list offer speedy business formation, with some even offering free expedited processing.
- Value for your money: We excluded services that cost an exorbitant amount without offering any real value for the extra expense. At the same time, we took a hard look at the pricing packages for the companies that stayed, noting which ones are truly budget-friendly and which ones come with a lot of upcharges.
- Registered agent services: If you want someone else to accept mail, tax, and legal documents on behalf of your business, you can find this feature bundled into several of our top online incorporation services.
- Stay compliant with ease: Most states require businesses to file annual reports, along with other measures that keep things legal. Several of the companies on our top list provide compliance services, as well as reminders to keep you on track.
These criteria helped us weed out two companies, leaving us with 12 top online incorporation services.
We dove deep into each one to make it easy for you to choose the best service for your needs.
How We Narrowed the List of Qualified Online Incorporation Services
You’re probably wondering why we knocked two companies off our top list. Let’s take a look at both services and the reasons they didn’t make the cut.
Incorporate.com: While this incorporation service has roots going back over a hundred years, its pricing is higher than competitors—and for no good reason. You can get the same services at more reasonable prices from several of the top companies on our list.
MyCorporation: Like Incorporate.com, MyCorporation offers its services at prices that exceed the norm for this industry—without having a solid reason for doing so.
The Top Online Incorporation Service Companies Left Standing
The majority of our readers can find everything they need from ZenBusiness or Bizee (formerly Incfile). Getting started with ZenBusiness starts at just $0 plus state fees for a year of incorporation services.
- ZenBusiness — Best for Beginners
- Bizee (formerly Incfile) — Best for the Budget-Conscious
- LegalShield — Best for Home-Based Businesses
- Northwest Registered Agent — Best for Maximum Privacy
- LegalZoom — Best Buffet of Business Services
- Rocket Lawyer — Best for Ongoing Legal Support
- Inc Authority — Best for Starting from Scratch
- MyCompanyWorks — Best Expedited Incorporation Service
- Harbor Compliance — Best for Compliance in Multiple States
- Swyft Filings — Best for Dedicated Customer Support
- LegalNature — Best for DIY Legal Forms
- BizFilings — Best for Entrepreneurs and New Businesses
Match Your Scenario to the Right Online Incorporation Solution
If you’re not sure which incorporation service to use, this section will walk through several scenarios that could be relevant to you. In each scenario section, we’ll suggest two services that would meet those needs.
- You need some extra help incorporating your business
- You want the best value
- You want the simplest and easiest incorporation process without the extras
- You need a registered agent service in addition to incorporation
- You need to incorporate your business quickly
- You need access to legal services as well
You need some extra help incorporating your business
Best Option: ZenBusiness
If you’re struggling to navigate the paperwork needed to form your LLC, C corp, or S corp, ZenBusiness offers several helpful tools to help you figure it all out:
- A dedicated bot that guides you through each step
- ZenBusiness Academy, a free resource of video courses for small businesses
- Informative blogs and articles
- Customer support via phone, email, and chat, with agents available on weekends
- An intuitive, user-friendly layout
Another great choice: LegalZoom
One downside to ZenBusiness is that it doesn’t come with the services to support the creation of non-profits. That’s where LegalZoom comes in. LegalZoom lets you form non-profits, LLCs, C corps, and S corps.
Like ZenBusiness, LegalZoom offers users an extensive library of resources to help beginners understand the process of business incorporation. It also provides U.S.-based phone support on weekdays and weekends.
If you need a proverbial shoulder to lean on as you incorporate your business, keep these factors in mind:
- Customer Support: how easily can you reach a customer service agent? Which days and hours are agents available to help?
- Ease of Use: can you easily check the status of your documents, locate past communications within the service, and navigate the website?
- Customer Satisfaction: read customer reviews before you make a decision. Pay attention to whether or not the service solved the customers’ problems. How satisfied were they with the service?
- Type of Business Structure: which business structures—LLCs, sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, non-profits, cooperatives—does the incorporation service support? Does it support the structure you need to incorporate?
- Resources: How many educational guides and articles does the service have to help newer business owners understand the ins and outs of doing business?
You want the best value
Best Option: Bizee (formerly Incfile)
Bizee offers a 100% free online formation service for LLCs and corporations alike. The Silver package costs $0, and you just need to pay your state’s filing fees.
What’s amazing about Bizee is that the free plan even includes free registered agent services for your first year. While this is a common promotion for many online incorporation services, it’s almost unheard of to be offered in an unpaid tier.
If you want the most bang for your buck, Bizee offers a wealth of valuable features in budget-friendly packages. For example, Bizee’s Gold Package for business formation comes with:
- Incorporation paperwork completed on your behalf
- Name availability verification
- Processing on a next-business-day basis
- Online Bizee dashboard and communication portal
- Free registered agent services for one year
- An employer identification number (EIN)
- Personalized operating agreements and bylaws
- Lifetime compliance alerts
- Business tax consultation services
All of these services come with a one-time price of $199 plus state filing fees. To continue receiving registered agent services, you’ll pay $119 yearly after the first year.
Another great choice: Swyft Filings
Swyft Filings has a free online incorporation plan that includes a comprehensive name check, document filing with your secretary of state, and lifetime customer support. They’ll also prepare your articles of incorporation, all for free—just pay your state filing fees.
If want a bit more and you won’t need registered agent services, Swyft Filings offers excellent value with its Standard Package—which is comparable to Bizee’s Gold Package. For $199 plus state filing fees, you’ll receive:
- Completion of incorporation paperwork
- A one-hour business tax consultation
- Custom operating agreement
- EIN
- Name availability verification
- Compliance reminders
Swyft Filings also offers registered agent services, but the rates are expensive. It’s $199 for the first year but then automatically renews at $199 every three months—for just short of $600 annually. This is significantly pricier than Bizee’s $199 per year. In this case, Swyft Filings is only a good value if you’re getting your registered agent service elsewhere or if you’re going to be your own registered agent.
If you’re looking for a high-value service that won’t break the bank, here’s what to keep in mind:
- Pricing: before you commit to a service that looks budget-friendly, find out what’s included in the initial price and how often you’ll need to pay a renewal fee.
- Discounted services: most platforms offer free or discounted registered agent services with certain packages, which ends up being a better value compared to a cheaper plan and having to pay full price for your registered agent.
- Freebies you’ll actually use: Lots of incorporation packages come with a “starter kit” that includes a binder and some certificates. But that shouldn’t be something to sway you into choosing one plan over the other.
You want the simplest and easiest incorporation process without the extras
Best Option: Bizee (formerly Incfile)
The best no-frills business incorporation service is Bizee. It’s free to file and prepare your business’s articles of organization with Bizee. Best of all, you’ll still get customer support, unlimited name searches, and one free year of Bizee’s registered agent service.
However, you’ll still need to pay state filing fees. These vary dramatically, from $5 to form an LLC in California to $250 for the same incorporation in Alaska. If you need any additional services, you can order them à la carte.
Another great choice: MyCompanyWorks
For just $59 plus your state’s filing fees, MyCompanyWorks takes care of your business incorporation. The company backs its services with a 90-day, 100% satisfaction guarantee—no questions asked. This is something most services don’t offer.
If you’re in the market for business incorporation and not much else, here’s what to pay attention to:
- Ease of Use: does the service make it easy for users to complete important processes and stay organized?
- Customer Satisfaction: what do the public-facing customer reviews have to say about the company’s online incorporation service, specifically?
- Pricing: how much does the service cost? Does it come with a satisfaction guarantee?
You need a registered agent service in addition to incorporation
Best Option: Northwest Registered Agent
Maybe you run an ecommerce business with no physical location, and you don’t want to use your home address for your business. Or maybe you own a restaurant and want to avoid receiving sensitive documents with customers around. If you need privacy of any kind, a registered agent service is the perfect solution.
Northwest Registered Agent offers comprehensive registered agent services designed to give you maximum privacy as a business owner. You’ll receive same-day local scans of documents sent to you, mail forwarding, annual compliance reminders, and easy access to your incorporation documents.
Another great choice: Bizee (formerly Incfile)
Because it offers one free year of registered agent services, Bizee is an ideal choice if you’re still testing out the waters when it comes to using a registered agent other than yourself. If you decide you love it, you can renew the service year after year.
If you’re looking for a registered agent along with an online incorporation service, consider:
- Registered Agent Services: what’s included with the registered agent service? Does the registered agent help the business stay compliant as well as receive mail and legal documents on behalf of the business?
- Billing Frequency: most registered agents charge $90 to $150 per year and offer the first year free with an incorporation package. But a few charge significantly more, like $99 per quarter—which can add up quickly.
- Add-ons: some registered agents let you add things like a virtual address, virtual office, or even business phone number to your plan for a nominal fee.
You need to incorporate your business quickly
Best Option: Northwest Registered Agent
While most online incorporation services process documents within two to three weeks, Northwest Registered Agent can get everything filed on the same business day. For no extra charge. That’s what we call speedy service.
Simply select the fastest available time for your state, and Northwest Registered Agent will take care of the rest.
In addition to providing speedy service, Northwest Registered Agents provides detailed guides for registering a business in each state.
Another great choice: MyCompanyWorks
MyCompanyWorks guarantees same-day business processing for all paperwork submitted before 3 p.m. EST on a business day. Anything submitted after this time will be processed the next business day. Better yet, there’s no additional fee for this expedited process.
If you need to incorporate a business quickly, keep these points in mind:
- Filing Time: how long does it take for the online incorporation service to file paperwork on behalf of your business?
- Expedited Filing Cost: it’s common for online incorporation services to charge extra for expedited filings, so just make sure any added cost is worth it for your business.
- State-Specific Approvals: keep in mind that the filing time offered by your online incorporation service doesn’t necessarily reflect how quickly your state will officially incorporate your business. Just because something is filed the same day, your state may not approve it for another week.
You need access to legal services as well
Best Option: Rocket Lawyer
Rocket Lawyer helps you incorporate your business while also providing legal services specific to running a business. With a Rocket Lawyer subscription of $39 per month, you receive:
- Answers to direct legal questions
- 30-minute consultations for legal matters
- Templates for dozens of legal documents
- Dispute protection on Rocket Lawyer documents
- Free incorporation filing
- Discounted registered agent services
Another great choice: LegalNature
If you don’t need access to a lawyer but would like to have over 100 legal document templates at your disposal, try LegalNature. For just $119 a year on top of the $49 business formation fee, you’ll have what you need to run a legally sound business.
Those who need to pay extra-close attention to legal issues should consider:
- Access to a Legal Team: do you want or need direct access to a lawyer and a larger legal team? If so, does the online incorporation service provide this? How quickly can you speak with a lawyer if you need one?
- Legal Forms/Templates: how many legal templates and forms are included with the service? Can you easily edit, store, and access these documents on a dashboard or portal?
Online Incorporation Service Company Reviews
Starting any type of business is both exciting and overwhelming. Online business incorporation sites make the process smoother, but how do you know which one to pick?
In this section, we provide a detailed review of each of the top 12 online incorporation services. Our goal is to give you the information you need to make a decision sooner rather than later. That way, you can get back to running your business while one of these services takes care of the paperwork.
ZenBusiness – Best for Beginners
If you’ve never incorporated a business before, ZenBusiness is the perfect tool to get you started. Our favorite feature for beginners is the chatbot that guides you through the process of incorporating an LLC or corporation. It’s like having a pro sitting next to you and explaining each step in detail.
If you run into any problems, ZenBusiness offers the following customer support options:
- Live chat: Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. CST and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST
- Email: An agent typically replies within one business day
- Phone: Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. CST, Sundays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST
One downside with ZenBusiness is that you can’t form a non-profit using its services. We’d love to see this feature included in the future—there are plenty of beginners in the non-profit space who could benefit from ZenBusiness’s easy-to-use tools.
What Makes ZenBusiness Great
ZenBusiness users praise the company’s intuitive interface, customer service, and reasonably quick filing speed. Most paperwork is filed within two to three weeks, but you can expedite the process for a fee: $50 for 4-6 day filing or $100 for 1-2 day filing.
ZenBusiness also makes it easy to brand your business. Its business name checker feature helps you quickly find out if the name you want is already taken. If it is available, you’re good to go and can register it on the spot.
However, if you’re still in the planning stages, ZenBusiness has you covered. You can reserve your business name for $50 and keep it safe until you’re ready to form your LLC or corporation.
We also appreciate ZenBusiness’s commitment to helping its customers stay compliant. Keeping in good standing with the state—or states—where you do business can be challenging, especially if you’re new to business ownership.
Depending on the state and type of business, you’ll likely need to submit an annual report to your state every year.
ZenBusiness offers a Worry-Free Compliance service in each of its pricing plans. The service will send you alerts when it’s time to submit paperwork—and it’ll file the documents on your behalf.
If you accidentally miss a deadline, ZenBusiness will deploy an expert to help you get back on track.
The Starter plan starts at just $0 plus state fees for the first year and then $199 each year thereafter. It’s basically a less expensive first year of the Pro plan, which costs $199 per year. Regardless of which plan or service you use, you’ll need to pay state filing fees, too.
Bizee (Formerly Incfile) – Best for the Budget-Conscious
Some states—looking at you and your $520 filing fee for an LLC, Massachusetts—charge a lot of money for anyone wishing to incorporate a business. Nevada, Massachusetts, Alaska, Alabama, Tennessee, and Texas are some of the pricier states. If you want to do business in one of these states, Bizee can help keep your costs down.
That’s because its incorporation service is 100% free. You can form a business using Bizee without paying the company a penny. You’ll only need to worry about state filing fees.
Even better, Bizee provides you with a free registered agent service for one year. If you like having a registered agent, you can continue this service for $119 a year.
One thing we wish we could see is weekend customer support options—agents are only reachable from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST. But this is a small price to pay for a budget-friendly service.
What Makes Bizee Great
Bizee’s website is stylish and easy to navigate. For the most part, you won’t be wasting time trying to figure out where to find the services you need. The only detail that might be hard to find at first is pricing, but that’s because Bizee includes state filing fees in its plan pricing tiers.
Those filing an LLC in California, for example, will select both those options to see the resulting price—just $5 for Bizee’s Silver package because that’s the state filing fee. Massachusetts will still be a whopping $520, but that’s all the state’s fault—not Bizee’s.
If you choose a Gold or Platinum package, you’ll pay a package fee and a state fee, but you’ll receive plenty of benefits, including:
- Lifetime compliance alerts
- Business tax consultation
- Legal document templates
- Business banking account
Bizee also offers a plethora of à la carte services should you need them.
Another cool feature that Bizee offers is its business name generator tool. It can be hard to capture your new business idea with a memorable name. Bizee takes the guesswork out of the creative process.
You just type in words that describe your business, niche, target audience, and products or services, and Bizee does the rest. It even displays them with different color palettes to inspire your creativity.
LegalShield – Best for Home-Based Businesses
Starting a new business is always an exciting—yet challenging—time for an aspiring entrepreneur. But it can be especially tricky when you’re a one-person show running your business from home. LegalShield helps take the stress out of being a home-based solopreneur.
LegalShield offers all the services you’d expect for a new business in its Launch package. This includes a business name check, formation of a single-member LLC, drafting Articles of Incorporation, and more. LegalShield will also secure your federal tax ID (EIN) number for you.
To top it off, LegalShield includes three months of legal support for both business and personal matters. All these services cost just $149, making it affordable for new business owners, no matter their budget.
What Makes LegalShield Great
Where LegalShield really shines for home-based solopreneurs is with its Home Business Supplement. This add-on gives you peace of mind with one year of unlimited legal consultations for general business matters, plus three designated consultations for tax, patent, copyright, trademark, or antitrust issues.
You won’t have to worry about writing legal letters or making tough phone calls, either. LegalShield includes 12 letters and/or phone calls (or a combination of the two) each year.
And if you have late paying clients, LegalShield will send up to four collection letters each month on your behalf. It doesn’t matter where your client is located, either. Both in-state and out-of-state correspondence is included in the add-on price.
But perhaps the most peace of mind comes from LegalShield’s IRS audit protection. You’ll receive assistance with any Schedule C or E audits, so you don’t have to go it alone.
LegalShield’s Launch package—a one-time $149 fee—includes three months of its Home Business Supplement. After that, you’ll pay just $14.95 per month for total peace of mind. One thing to note, though. You’ll need to have an ongoing legal plan with LegalShield to qualify for the Home Business Supplement after your initial three months of complimentary coverage.
Learn even more about LegalShield and its offerings in our reviews of the best online legal services.
Northwest Registered Agent – Best for Maximum Privacy
Every state in the United States requires businesses to have a registered agent. This person can be you or someone else, and their job is to run a physical office to receive mail and legal documents on behalf of your business. You can act as your own registered agent, but if you want privacy, using a service like Northwest Registered Agent is a better idea.
As part of its registered agent service, Northwest Registered Agent will:
- Keep your contact information private unless strictly necessary
- List its business address on the paperwork instead of yours
- Scan up to five mail documents a year for free
- Provide pre-populated legal forms and templates
- Send out annual compliance reminders
- Automatic annual report filing
In addition to these services, Northwest offers online incorporation services so you can form your business and manage it from one platform.
One drawback to Northwest Registered Agent is that its pricing structure is difficult to pin down. You have to do a fair bit of searching to find it as there’s no pricing page. And while Northwest provides phone support, it’s unclear whether live chat is an option.
What Makes Northwest Registered Agent Great
In addition to its registered agent services, Northwest Registered Agent offers additional perks for reasonable prices. All of these extras can help your business secure even more privacy:
- Virtual Office: for $29 a month, get a real office lease and suite number to act as your business address—phone service, document scanning, and mail forwarding are included
- VoIP Phone: pay $9 a month for a business phone number, so you don’t have to use your personal number for your business
- Premium Mail Forwarding: at just $20 a month, Northwest will give you a business mailing address and the option to forward or scan all business mail
We should note that the virtual office service is only available in a handful of states—California, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Montana, New York, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.
To file documents for forming a business, you’ll pay $100 plus your state’s processing fee. You’ll also pay $125 for the registered agent service—and you can’t opt out of that.
LegalZoom – Best Buffet of Business Services
It can be exhausting to do your taxes with one online service, incorporate your company with another service, and use yet another online company for as-needed legal services. If you need a robust array of business services, LegalZoom enables you to do them all from one platform.
Here’s what LegalZoom offers:
- Online business incorporation for LLCs, corporations, non-profits, DBA, and sole proprietorships
- Registered agent services
- Business licenses
- Virtual mailbox
- Contracts and agreements
- LZ Tax Services
- Trademark registration and monitoring
- Copyrights
- Provisional patents
- Attorney services
The packages are robust, and you can get a lot of these services for a single price—but not all of them. Still, this is the closest you’ll get to a buffet of business formation and management services.
What Makes LegalZoom Great
LegalZoom is easy to use, and those who just need a bit of support with business formation services can do so with a Basic or Pro package.
But LegalZoom’s Premium package is unique in that you get a qualified attorney to help you set your business up correctly. Not only that, but you get to choose the attorney from LegalZoom’s network yourself.
For the first 90 days after you begin the business formation process, you get unlimited 30-minute consultations with your attorney. You’ll also be able to make any necessary changes within those 90 days without paying extra.
As you go through the checkout process, you’ll be able to pick and choose all the business services you’ll need.
It’s free—plus state fees—to form an LLC using LegalZoom’s Basic plan. Incorporation services from LegalZoom start at $149 plus state fees.
More Great Online Incorporation Services
Rocket Lawyer – Best for Ongoing Legal Support
Rocket Lawyer is an excellent combination of online incorporation services and legal support. While these services are available on a pick-what-you-need basis, the Rocket Lawyer subscription provides the best value.
For $39 a month, you’ll get full incorporation services, legal document templates, document dispute protection, direct answers to legal questions, and 30-minute consultations with a lawyer.
Any business that needs legal support regularly would benefit from Rocket Lawyer’s services. You can test most of these tools out with Rocket Lawyer’s seven-day free trial, but keep in mind that some user reviews stated that canceling this free trial is difficult to do.
What Makes Rocket Lawyer Great
Our open-source research showed that users found Rocket Lawyer easy to use, which is important when legal situations are on the line. Rocket Lawyer’s document builder features step-by-step instructions to help you create all the paperwork you need for your business.
The website is intuitive and easy to navigate. Legal issues are sorted into categories. Each category contains the legal documents you might need to use, FAQs for a specific legal issue, and a box for you to submit questions to a lawyer.
If you want to use one single document or ask a lawyer one question, you’ll pay a hefty price—$39.99 for each document and $49.99 per question. Anyone needing ongoing legal support, including legal documents, would be better off with a monthly subscription of $39.99 a month.
Inc Authority – Best for Starting from Scratch
Are you starting a thrilling new business with no funding, no website, no organized plan, and no budget? Inc Authority is the online incorporation service that helps you get your act together and make your dream a reality.
First off, Inc Authority offers free LLC formation services. When you form an LLC with Inc Authority, you also receive one year of free registered agent services.
Once you become an Inc Authority client, you can access a variety of services, including business funding, website builders, compliance tools, payroll services, tax management, accounting services, logo creation, and trademark registration.
One drawback is that it’s hard to figure out the pricing for any of these services. You have to contact Inc Authority and speak with a business specialist for a quote.
What Makes Inc Authority Great
Inc Authority markets itself as the one-stop shop for startups, and that’s exactly what it is. The company has fast, friendly customer service to help answer all your questions as you get started with your new venture.
Agents are available via live chat and phone from Monday to Friday, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST. You can also reach agents by email.
We also love that when you sign up for your free LLC, you get high-quality services, including:
- Business credit and funding analysis to help you pay for your dream
- A free tax planning consultation
- An online client portal for easy access to all your incorporation documents
- One free year of registered agent services
- Full preparation and filing of your LLC
Another bonus is that Inc Authority provides a detailed, state-specific guide for how to form an LLC in all 50 states.
To find out the cost of Inc Authority’s Premium Packages, you’ll need to contact the sales team.
MyCompanyWorks – Best Expedited Incorporation Service
If you need to incorporate your business yesterday, MyCompanyWorks can get you the next-best thing: same-day paperwork processing. As long as you turn your paperwork in by 3 p.m. EST, that is.
Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until the next day. But the cherry on top is that MyCompanyWorks does not charge a single extra penny for this expedited service. With other services, you can end up paying hundreds of dollars for fast processing, so this is a big deal.
Prices begin at $59 plus state fees for business incorporation—same-day processing included. Even better? There’s a 90-day, 100% satisfaction guarantee.
What Makes MyCompanyWorks Great
In addition to its unbeatable, same-day order processing, you can purchase MyCompanyWorks Premium either as a standalone service or as part of the Entrepreneur and Complete pricing packages. The interactive startup wizard makes each step easy.
MyCompanyWorks Premium provides users with business entity monitoring, a compliance management dashboard, compliance alerts, managed annual report service, and document uploading capabilities.
The company also comes with one of the most reasonably priced registered agent services around—just $99 a year. If you need to quickly incorporate and begin running your business, MyCompanyWorks is an excellent choice.
The basic package costs $59 plus state fees, but if you pay $259 plus state fees for the Complete package, MyCompanyWorks Premium is included. Enter your state and business type to see the package features and pricing.
Harbor Compliance – Best for Compliance in Multiple States
As the name suggests, Harbor Compliance is dedicated to helping businesses stay out of hot water when it comes to renewing business licenses, submitting annual reports, keeping records, and meeting requirements.
If you run your businesses in more than one state, or if your business type comes with complicated compliance requirements, Harbor Compliance is an excellent choice.
What sets Harbor Compliance apart from other compliance tools is that it built an entire, award-winning software program dedicated to compliance. You can keep track of all your compliance tasks and deadlines from the compliance software dashboard.
Harbor Compliance also offers ComplianceAdviser, a custom package that can come with registered agent services, annual report filing, DBA renewal, compliance coaching, and more.
If you have any questions, it may be difficult to get help. Harbor Compliance’s customer support options are murky. There’s a phone number—and an email address—posted on the site’s Contact Us page, but no hours of operation are listed.
What Makes Harbor Compliance Great
Harbor Compliance’s power lies in its compliance software. In addition to a dashboard to keep track of all your compliance documents and to-dos, the software features five task managers:
- Entity Manager: connects to the secretary of state databases and lets you visually track each of your businesses entities by state
- License Manager: links to a nationwide database of licensing requirements and tracks your licenses, helping you stay current
- Tax Manager: helps you meet local, state, and federal tax requirements
- Records Manager: gives you a place to store and easily access all your records, including formation documents and board meeting minutes
- Registered Agent: links your Harbor Compliance registered agent service to an easily accessible dashboard, where you can receive scanned documents and fill out forms
Together, these task managers make compliance easy for anyone doing business in multiple states. They’re also excellent for those of us who like to visually organize and keep track of important data.
Forming an LLC with Harbor Compliance costs $99 plus state fees. It’s unclear what’s included in this price. If you want expedited processing, you’ll have to pay up to $499. You’ll have to schedule a demonstration of the compliance software to get a pricing quote.
Swyft Filings – Best for Dedicated Customer Support
If you want a personal experience from the comfort of your own home, Swyft Filings is the way to go. When you sign up to incorporate your business with Swyft Filings, you get assigned to a Business Specialist.
This specialist will give you their direct phone number and email address. They’ll help you work through the incorporation process, and when you have a question, you can call your specialist directly.
You’ll never have to repeat yourself over and over again because you’ll get to speak with the same specialist every time you have a question.
What Makes Swyft Filings Great
Swyft Filings provides users with a business specialist no matter what pricing tier they choose, and the lowest tier begins at $0 plus state filing fees. This lowest tier also gets users a preparation of the articles of organization, document filing with the state, a dedicated business specialist, and online access to your documents.
The mid-tier Standard plan includes an EIN, custom corporate bylaws, custom meeting minutes, and a custom banking resolution.
If you choose Swyft’s Premium plan, you’ll get a business website plus website hosting, a personalized founders kit, access to over 250 legal documents, and expedited filing. Swyft also comes with a substantial Learning Center, which includes helpful checklists and comparison charts to help you make decisions.
To get specific pricing information, you’ll need to give Swyft Filings your contact information and business type. But in general, prices begin at $0 plus state filing fees for the Basic plan, $199 for the Standard plan, and $299 for the Premium plan.
LegalNature – Best for DIY Legal Forms
If you’ve got legal experience or won’t need ongoing legal support, LegalNature provides business incorporation services plus all the legal forms your company might need.
While LegalNature walks you through each legal form to make sure it gets filled out correctly, the company doesn’t offer any lawyer consultations or Q&A sessions. We love that the services LegalNature does offer are easy to buy individually—and at reasonable prices.
If all you need is DIY legal documents, you’ll pay an annual fee of $119 for an all-you-can-use buffet of documents and forms. Easily add business formation services, certified copies, registered agent services, foreign entity registration, or articles of amendment to your plan as needed.
What Makes LegalNature Great
LegalNature excels at customer service. If you end up needing extra support or experience a technical glitch, you can reach an actual human from Monday to Friday, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. PST, and both weekend days from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. PST.
The reviews we studied also praised how simple and quick it is to customize legal documents with LegalNature.
And even though the company doesn’t provide a timeline for how quickly they process business formation paperwork, users had few negative things to say about the business formation service.
BizFilings – Best for Entrepreneurs and New Businesses
First-time business owners may feel overwhelmed by the steps they need to take as they open a business for the first time. Just the idea of putting together a business startup checklist can seem overwhelming. What if you miss a step? With BizFilings, you won’t have to worry about that.
BizFilings offers its users a startup checklist to help keep track of important tasks. The BizFilings wizard leads you through every step of the business formation process, making sure you hit all the right points to stay compliant, acquire the licenses you need, and register trademarks.
Each of the BizFilings packages includes three months of registered agent services, but there’s a downside. After this initial period, the price climbs to $220 a year for a registered agent. This is a lot more than what competitors charge.
What Makes BizFilings Great
BizFilings shines in how it enables easy compliance and business management from one central dashboard. For example, the BizComply service automatically creates alerts based on your state and the type of business you incorporate.
You can access these alerts for important filing dates, meetings, and events right from your BizFilings dashboard. First-timers can feel extra nervous about remembering every little detail. After pouring their heart and soul into a business, they want it to remain in good standing.
That’s what BizFilings excels at helping you do. It also comes with an impressive resource library that assumes it’s your first time forming a business and walks you through every possible path you could take.
To view prices, you’ll need to select your state and business type. Packages generally begin at $99 plus state fees, and you can add on extra services as desired.