BizFilings vs. Incfile

Do BizFilings and Incfile offer good value?

BizFilings and Incfile are two reliable and trustworthy LLC formation service providers. Both companies have their own advantages.

Most importantly, Incfile offers LLC formations for free (as long as you pay your own state fee), while BizFilings charges $99. Furthermore, Incfile has thousands of positive customer reviews available online, while BizFilings barely has any reviews at all. However, BizFilings is a good alternative to Incfile, especially if you’re looking for a company that handles state-specific compliance requirements.

Would you like to know more before making your decision? Read on to discover all the relevant details that set these service providers apart.

6 Things They Have in Common

1) Affordable: If you’re trying to save money, Incfile and BizFilings can help. These companies can both save you hundreds of dollars over hiring a business attorney to draft and file your formation documents.

2) Customer Support: Even though you’re saving a significant sum by going with BizFilings or Incfile instead of a lawyer, you still won’t be going it alone. These providers both offer convenient customer service solutions that can get your questions answered in an efficient manner.

3) Experience: Is experience a priority for you? Incfile and BizFilings have each helped form thousands of businesses over the years, meaning they have the expertise and know-how necessary to efficiently form your compliant LLC.

4) Registered Agent Service: Every LLC will require a registered agent to receive and forward your government documents. Incfile offers a year of registered agent service with any formation package, and BizFilings supplies six months. (What is a registered agent?)

5) Additional Services: LLC service is just the beginning when it comes to what these companies have to offer. BizFilings and Incfile both have dozens of business solutions that can help your new LLC remain compliant down the road, from federal tax ID numbers (EIN) to foreign qualifications and much more.

6) Efficiency: Do you need to form your LLC in a hurry? Both BizFilings and Incfile offer expedited processing (for an additional fee, of course) that can speed up your turnaround times from a matter of weeks down to just a few days in many states.

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Pricing

Incfile: Incfile will help you form your business for free while also providing a year of registered agent service. Once the first year is over, the registered agent service will renew for $119 per year. In addition, their $199 Gold package and $299 Platinum package both include valuable features that make them options as well, even at their higher price points.

BizFilings: Starting with their $99 Basic package, which includes six months of registered agent (which costs $220/year after that), their packages are all more expensive overall than some competing formation services. The Standard and Complete packages vary in price by state but generally don’t have enough valuable features to justify their price points.

Experience

Incfile: Incfile has more than 1 million business formations under its belt, and it was formed in 2004.

BizFilings: BizFilings has formed more than 500,000 businesses since it opened back in 1996.

Customer Support

Incfile: Incfile offers phone and email support, which we tested. Incfile’s phone support is typically responsive and helpful. However, its email support is much less responsive. Some of our emails have gone unanswered, and several of the responses we have received are just form emails that don’t directly address our questions.

BizFilings: BizFilings provides phone and email support, and there is also a “leave a message” feature on the left side of each page on their website. We called the listed phone number, and we were quickly able to navigate through their phone tree. When we emailed, we received a response the same day after sending it early in the morning.

Both their phone and email responses were professional, and they answered our questions thoroughly, providing additional details that were applicable based on what we asked. You can reach BizFilings representatives from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET every weekday.

Turnaround Times

Incfile: With Incfile, turnaround times vary based on each individual state’s formation speeds. This can be as quick as a few days in some states or could take several weeks in others. You can also add expedited processing to speed it up, although the price will vary by state.

BizFilings: BizFilings’ cheapest package takes 4-6 weeks, and their most expensive package takes 7-10 days. Their expedited processing has a $60 in-house upcharge to “prioritize your order above non-expedited orders,” but this doesn’t speed anything up with the state. They have official state expediting fees on top of that, but there’s no indication of how much this option will speed up your turnaround time.

Customer Reviews

Incfile: Incfile doesn’t just have hundreds of customer reviews available online, they have 75,000+ of them. Furthermore, their feedback is mostly positive, with critical reviews in short supply.

BizFilings: BizFilings essentially does not have customer feedback. We found just a couple dozen customer reviews anywhere online, which is unusual for a company with more than half a million clients.

Ease of Use

Incfile: As you walk through the process of signing up for IncFfle, your steps are personalized based on the state you live in and the type of business you wish to establish. There are hyperlinks throughout the application to learn more about a specific question or entry on the form. There are a few upsells and third-party offers to navigate through, but if you opt into any of them, your total price is immediately updated on the screen. There are never any surprises with Incfile.

BizFilings: Their incorporation wizard is a convenient tool that can help you figure out whether you should form an LLC or a corporation. Once you start filling out your order form, there are opportunities for upsells along the way, but they’re quite unobtrusive and never feel pushy at all. From the moment you start the application process, they automatically assign an order number to your application, so you can reference it with customer service if you need assistance.

Additional Services

With either BizFilings or Incfile, you’ll have access to many other services that can help you launch and maintain your business. As you might expect, they offer quite a few of the same services, including foreign qualifications, doing business as (DBA) names, annual reports, business license research, EIN obtainment, and more.

There are also some services that you can only purchase from one or the other of these companies. For instance, BizFilings offers publication services for LLC formations in states that require it (such as New York), but Incfile doesn’t. On the other hand, Incfile provides its customers with access to business accounting services, which BizFilings doesn’t offer.

Which is the LLC formation service for you?

There are many similarities between BizFilings and Incfile. They’re both experienced and legitimate operations, and each one has some advantages over the other. If you’re still undecided, let’s close by going over a couple of scenarios that might point you in one direction or the other.

Choose Incfile if:

If you want a provider with a free (+ state fee) LLC formation package and strong customer reviews, Incfile is worthy of handling your formation process.

Choose BizFilings if:

If you need consistently fast responses to your customer service queries, give BizFilings a look. They’re also an option if you’re starting a business in a state that requires publication service.

🎉 Choose ZenBusiness if:

If you’d like to form your LLC for free (+ state fee) with ZenBusiness, we’re here to help. Form your LLC quickly and get more tools to start your dream business.

Starts at $0 + state fees and only takes 5-10 minutes