Formation services compete on the price of the first day. The money is in the registered agent renewal and the subscriptions that start quietly at checkout. This ranks every major service by what it costs over five years in your state, state fees included.
Filing, a year of registered agent service, its address on public records instead of yours, and free document templates.
It switches on a $100 annual report service unless you turn it off.
Filing and a first year of registered agent service.
The free filing takes about 4 to 6 weeks, and the agent renews at $149 a year.
Filing in 7 to 10 business days.
A compliance trial charges $199 a year after 14 days unless you cancel, and the agent is $149 a year.
Filing, EIN and a year of registered agent service.
It does not publish the agent renewal price, extras are sold by phone, and cancelling the agent needs proof of a replacement.
Filing, EIN and a year of registered agent service.
A 3% card fee is added to its prices, and the agent is $149 a year after.
Filing, with registered agent at $99 for the first year.
The agent renews at $159 a year.
Filing and a year of registered agent service, with annual report filing included in the agent price.
The agent costs $200 a year after year one.
Filing in about 14 business days.
Registered agent is $199 a year, and the bookkeeping trial becomes $39 a month after 30 days.
Filing in 7 to 10 business days and a free first year of its compliance plan.
No registered agent in any package ($199 a year extra), and the compliance plan renews at $199 unless you cancel.
Filing and business documents.
Its registered agent jumps from $120 in year one to $249 a year.
Name check and filing.
Registered agent is $249 a year, and the paid packages start subscriptions that renew unless you cancel.
Filing, EIN, registered agent and a US address, billed every year.
It is built for founders outside the US; the $297 plan renews every year.
Filing included with a paid membership.
Its registered agent needs the $249-a-year Plus membership on top of $124.99.
Prices from each service's own pages, checked 21 October 2026. Optional extras left out. Some links are partner links: if you buy, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes the order. How partner links work.
For each service we take its cheapest package, add its own registered agent for the first year and the four after, and add the state’s fees for the state you pick. Optional extras are left out, and so are trials you can cancel. The list is sorted by that five-year figure and nothing else: whether a service pays us a commission never moves it up or down.
The state fees come from the same checked figures as the LLC cost calculator, so the totals match it to the dollar.
Often not. If you live in the state, have a street address there and are around in office hours, you can be your own registered agent and file on the state’s website for the state fee alone. That is the cheapest way in every state.
A service earns its fee in three cases: you are forming in a state where you don’t live, you don’t want your home address on the public record, or you travel and can’t be sure of receiving legal papers in person. In those cases the agent is what you are really buying, so compare what each registered agent costs after year one before you choose.
ZenBusiness and Swyft add a yearly compliance plan, free at first, that renews at $199 a year unless you cancel it.
Northwest adds a $100 annual report service. You can file the report yourself on the state’s site for the state fee.
Services charge $50 to $99 to get your EIN. The IRS gives it free online in minutes.
Website builders, bookkeeping and legal plans start as free trials and become monthly charges.