✨ ZenBusiness ✨

Very few companies can match the outstanding free incorporation service (state filing fee not included) offered by ZenBusiness alongside our track record of 500,000+ businesses formed.

If you’d prefer to step up to one of our premium packages, ZenBusiness includes a free year of annual report service and an accounting assessment along with your incorporation, making these packages more fully featured than many competitors’ incorporation packages that cost far more.

Customer feedback is a huge advantage for ZenBusiness. We have more than 12,900 reviews online, and almost all of them are positive. In fact, of the reviews available on reputable third-party websites, the vast majority of them are positive, which says a lot about how consistently satisfied our clients are.

Another aspect of ZenBusiness that our customers really appreciate is the fact that we’re a public benefit corporation. ZenBusiness partners with Kiva.org to help lift people out of poverty through lending money, and we also loan money to women- and minority-owned businesses each year, helping more entrepreneurs reach their business goals.

ZenBusiness Pros

  • Great pricing and valuable packages
  • $5,000 grant program for new entrepreneurs
  • Excellent customer reviews
  • Ongoing compliance assistance included with premium packages

ZenBusiness Cons

  • No registered agent service included

If you want to incorporate with a socially conscious provider and get an excellent overall value, choose ZenBusiness.

Northwest

Northwest Registered Agent is a good incorporation service for those of you seeking personalized customer support. However, Northwest does not have one of the most affordable pricing models for incorporation service, with a $225 price point.

One pro of Northwest is their registered agent service is included for a full year. After that first year, it costs $125 annually, a price that is lower than average compared to other incorporation services.

As you might expect from a company that has the words “registered agent” in its business name, Northwest prioritizes providing this service.

They were the first major nationwide registered agent service that scans every document they receive as your agent, whereas their competitors usually only scan the government forms that they’re legally required to forward to you.

On top of their personalized customer support, Northwest also makes the business incorporation process fast and straightforward by removing all add-ons and upsells. You get everything you need and nothing you don’t.

Northwest Pros

  • 12 months registered agent service included
  • Personalized customer support
  • Very experienced company

Northwest Cons

  • There are cheaper options available, especially for business formations

Incfile

For Incfile, a company that is quite generous with additional features, the value for the price is there when you consider that they offer free incorporation service (state filing fee not included).

Incfile includes an entire year of free registered agent service in each package, a feature that only costs $119 per year after that.

Plus if you’re looking for more features than Incfile’s $0 incorporation service includes, their $149 Gold package offers a strong value for the additional cost, as this plan adds a federal tax ID number (EIN), corporate bylaws, meeting minutes, a banking resolution, and more.

Finally, Incfile has thousands of customer reviews available online and nearly all of which are positive. It’s tough to find more than a small handful of critical reviews when it comes to their services.

Incfile Pros

  • Free incorporation service (state fee not included)
  • Positive customer feedback
  • One year registered agent service included
  • Quick processing

Incfile Cons

  • Strict refund policy
  • Lots of add-ons and upsells

BizFilings

BizFilings is backed by Wolters Kluwer, a global compliance firm. Overall, their value-to-cost ratio is reasonable, but slightly more expensive than some other services on our list.

BizFilings offers a fairly intuitive process that even the least-experienced entrepreneur can navigate with ease. Instead of fumbling your way through a laundry list of features and prices, just walk through their convenient incorporation wizard to get a personalized recommendation.

They also include six months of registered agent service with their formation packages.

If you want BizFilings to continue serving as your registered agent after the first six months are up, it will cost you $220 annually. This price point is somewhat higher than average across the many incorporation services we reviewed.

BizFilings Pros

  • 6 months registered agent included
  • Incorporation wizard is convenient

BizFilings Cons

  • Some competitors offer lower prices
  • Very few customer reviews available online

LegalZoom

LegalZoom is perhaps the best-known of the business incorporation services. It’s also one of the most popular services available and they’ve helped more than 4 million customers over the years.

LegalZoom offers incorporation service for the price of $149, and they offer a series of upsells along that way that can make it a more expensive process.

In addition, unlike several of the other companies we’ve discussed in this guide, LegalZoom doesn’t offer free registered agent service, and they charge an additional $199 annually if you want to add it on, so you’ll likely spend at least that much investing in their services.

One aspect of their services that we really appreciate is their 100% money-back satisfaction guarantee that’s nearly identical to the ZenBusiness refund policy. If you’re unhappy with your business formation for any reason, all you have to do is request a refund within 60 days of your purchase and LegalZoom will grant it.

LegalZoom Pros

  • One of the most experienced companies in the industry
  • 100% satisfaction guarantee
  • Strong customer feedback

LegalZoom Cons

  • Expensive formation packages
  • No valuable features included
  • Registered agent is a costly add-on

Incorporate for $0

ZenBusiness files your paperwork

FAQ's

  • You certainly can. However, keep in mind that there can be a significant amount of legwork involved and that creating a corporation is more complicated than forming an LLC.

    Because each state has its own process for forming companies, you’ll need to properly research the specific formation process for your state, and then also fill out your paperwork on your own.

    If this is something you’d like to do, check out our free guides for creating a corporation or nonprofit corporation.

  • While hiring a business attorney can be the preferred route for complex businesses or those that need some extra assistance for compliance purposes, it’s a much more expensive option than using an online incorporation service.

  • If you’d like a closer look at how these services stack up next to each other, here are a few of our most popular comparisons:

  • Not at all. There is no citizenship or residency requirement to form a corporation. The only restriction along these lines is that non-residents are not allowed to be shareholders for S corporations.

  • Aside from the cost of hiring a service, are there any other fees associated with incorporating?

  • Each state has its own fee amount for business formations. In some states, your formation fee could be as low as $50 or less, but in others you’ll need to pay several hundred dollars.

  • Each of these online incorporation services can also help you form an LLC. However, there are far more options available for that entity type. If you’d like to check out the top LLC formation services, here’s a list of the most notable ones.

Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.

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Written by Team ZenBusiness

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