ZenBusiness reviews its own products and services and compares them to others in the industry.
ZenBusiness reviews and compares LegalZoom and BizFilings for LLC formation. LegalZoom offers free formation (plus state fees) while BizFilings charges $99, and BizFilings lacks Better Business Bureau accreditation despite being backed by Wolters Kluwer.
Starts at $0 + state fees and only takes 5-10 minutes“BizFilings” is a registered trademark of Wolters Kluwer “LegalZoom” is the registered trademark of LegalZoom.com, Inc.
Last Updated: September 10, 2025
*Mr. Cuban may receive financial compensation for his support.
If you’re looking to start a registered business, then you might be considering using a business formation service like BizFilings or LegalZoom. These business formation companies (and other companies like them) can be very helpful if you feel overwhelmed by all the business paperwork you’re facing.
But in the BizFilings vs. LegalZoom matchup, who comes out on top? Are there any alternatives you should consider instead? In this guide, we’ll review both LegalZoom and BizFilings, comparing how these two options compete in terms of value, customer service, customer reviews, and more.
Let’s get started.
LegalZoom and BizFilings are two companies that can help you form and manage a business in the U.S. On the surface, the two brands might seem really similar, but each company has its own pros, cons, and company history.
LegalZoom got its start in 2001, originally offering a small library of services to help form limited liability companies (LLCs) or assist individuals with writing wills and testaments. Over time, they expanded their service library to cover legal services for both business and personal needs. Since their founding, they’ve helped people with more than 9 million different legal needs.
BizFilings is backed by CT Corporation (and both brands are part of Wolters Kluwer, a Dutch information services company). The company was first founded in 1996 by entrepreneurs, and they were picked up by Wolters Kluwer in 2002. Since its inception, BizFilings has assisted with over 500,000 business filings.
Both BizFilings and LegalZoom have a lot of common ground since they’re both business formation service companies. But they do have their own key differences, too. We’ll dive into the nitty-gritty of how these brands differ throughout this guide, but here’s a quick glance at these companies.
In our assessment of BizFilings and LegalZoom, we evaluated each company on the basis of several different categories: business formation services, registered agent service, additional service offerings, customer feedback, and customer reviews.
Let’s take a closer look at those categories.
Both LegalZoom and BizFilings can help you form a limited liability company, corporation, or nonprofit. They have other formation-related services, too. But how much will it cost you? That’s an important question to answer. Both of these brands offer several different packages for business formations, so in this section, we’ll focus on the service offerings for starting an LLC.
To start, here are the LLC formation service packages offered by LegalZoom:
If you’re interested in forming a corporation instead, LegalZoom’s corporation packages start at $149.
Meanwhile, here are the LLC package offerings from BizFilings:
BizFilings charges similar prices for corporation formation services.
When it comes to overall value, we find that LegalZoom’s packages provide more value per dollar than BizFilings’ offerings, especially when you compare the Standard and Complete packages to LegalZoom’s Pro and Premium. Plus, it’s hard to argue with their free LLC formation package (plus state fees). That’s why ZenBusiness offers the same deal. We’ll form your LLC for you at no extra cost; you just pay state fees.
Every registered business needs a registered agent. In some cases, you could serve as your own agent, but only if you meet the criteria: you’re a resident of the state, have a physical address, and can be at that address during all normal business hours. Since those criteria are too restrictive for most small business owners, many opt to hire a registered agent service. Both LegalZoom and BizFilings offer registered agent services.
LegalZoom offers registered agent service for $249 per year. You can buy it as a standalone service or add it to your formation package.
Meanwhile, BizFilings registered agent service is slightly cheaper: $220 per year. They offer it as a standalone service, but you’ll get your first three months of service for free if you use BizFilings to form your company. They also offer bundle discounts if you purchase multiple years of service at a time.
For the first year, BizFilings has a cheaper registered agent service; after that first year, the brands are pretty comparable, with BizFilings edging out LegalZoom by a small amount.
Registered agent service and formation services aren’t the only products you can purchase from LegalZoom and BizFilings — which is good news if you want a variety of services from a single brand. We won’t go over every single service offered by both of these brands; this guide would be miserably long if we did. But we can give you a decent picture of the services you could get with these companies.
LegalZoom actually offers legal services for both personal and business needs. For example, if you needed help getting a will, setting up a trust, navigating divorce proceedings, or setting up power of attorney, LegalZoom could help. On the business solutions side of things, LegalZoom can help with annual report filing, researching what licenses you need for your business entity, getting trademarks, and more. LegalZoom also has attorney services available through a subscription, where you can have thirty-minute consultations with an attorney in your state.
Meanwhile, BizFilings offers a variety of business compliance services, but they don’t have any personal legal services. For example, BizFilings can help you file an amendment, submit your annual report, research what business licenses you need, register for sales tax and payroll tax, and more.
When we’re assessing a company, we like to look at third-party review sites like Trustpilot or the Better Business Bureau; we find that these are great sources to get an unbiased view at what customers are saying. So we took a look at some of the reviews for BizFilings and LegalZoom.
LegalZoom has a very strong showing on Trustpilot; currently, across more than 23,000 Trustpilot reviews, they have an average score of 4.6/5 stars. Generally, customers report a good experience with LegalZoom. Positive reviewers typically mention that the ordering process was easy to navigate, and that customer support representatives were a big help. That said, negative reviewers often say that they had a difficult time getting support when they needed to cancel a service. A few others complained that they’d signed up for certain services without meaning to.
BizFilings has a much smaller number of reviews on Trustpilot, but they’re very positive. For reference, across the 141 reviews they do have (at the time of this writing), they have a 4.7/5 star average and only a handful of negative reviews. Positive customer reviews often mention helpful interactions with customer support and a formation process that’s easy to navigate. Negative reviewers mention billing issues or delays for certain forms.
That said, it’s worth noting that BizFilings isn’t accredited by the Better Business Bureau. If you place a lot of stock in BBB accreditation, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
If you ever encounter a question about your paperwork or about your business, you want to feel confident that you’ll get prompt, helpful customer support. That’s why we’ve taken time to review these brands’ customer support channels, too.
LegalZoom offers support through live chat or phone support. In fact, they provide three different phone numbers across their site; two of those numbers are dedicated to sales and customer care. We tested their live chat feature, and we got a helpful answer to our question within ten minutes. LegalZoom’s support also has good availability: their team is available from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT on weekdays or 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.
Most customer reviews also mention a positive experience with LegalZoom’s support team. There is a little room for improvement, especially when it comes to sorting out issues with unwanted subscriptions, but all told, people appreciate the support they receive from the brand.
Meanwhile, BizFilings offers customer support through phone, email (via the contact form on their site), and chat through the “Leave Us a Message” button near the bottom of each page on the site. When we reached out by phone, we were able to get in contact with a service rep pretty easily. We also got an email response within one business day when we used their contact form. A large number of customer reviews mention that BizFilings’ support team was very helpful, too.
Both LegalZoom and BizFilings can help you form a business, but committing to a company can feel like a big decision. Maybe you’re drawn to BizFilings’ long history in the industry, or you like LegalZoom’s mix of business and personal legal services.
But if BizFilings’ lack of BBB accreditation makes you uneasy, or you don’t like LegalZoom’s upsells throughout the ordering process, you might find yourself looking for alternatives. If that’s you, check out ZenBusiness. We’re proud to offer our customers the best value and service. Like LegalZoom, we’ll form your LLC for free (plus state filing fees). But we can also provide you with registered agent service at a great value ($99 for your first year and $199/year afterwards). Plus, we’re BBB accredited, and our customer feedback is fantastic: out of 24,506 Trustpilot reviews, we’ve got a 4.8/5 average score. We pride ourselves on providing excellent customer service whenever you need it.
Here at ZenBusiness, we pride ourselves on providing reliable services for a variety of small business needs at a great value. Whether you need registered agent service for a good price, help starting your LLC, a Money Pro app for managing your business finances, or something else, we’ve got your back. We’ll help handle the red tape for you so you can focus on what you love: running your business.
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Frequently Asked Questions About BizFilings and LegalZoom
LegalZoom, one of the most well-known services online, has formed more than 2 million businesses since 2001. Check out the comparison reviews below if you’d like to see how this brand stacks up to other LLC websites.
LegalZoom compared to:
BizFilings can help you file a Certificate of Publication in New York. Currently, they charge $100 for this service, plus the county fees (which they’ll research on your behalf). Meanwhile, LegalZoom doesn’t offer help with New York’s publication requirements.
Looking for another option? Check out our New York publication service offer.
Both BizFilings and LegalZoom present some upsells during the order process. With BizFilings, you’ll see a lot of these upsells presented when you first select your LLC formation package (primarily in the form of service add-ons). LegalZoom presents a good number of upsells on different pages throughout the order form, especially if you use their free (plus state fees) LLC formation service.
LegalZoom offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee that states you can request a refund at any time within 60 days of your initial purchase. It’s nearly identical to the ZenBusiness refund policy and one of the most reasonable in the industry.
BizFilings has a refund policy, but it’s pretty limited. If you cancel your order before BizFilings runs a name check for you, they’ll refund you after subtracting a hefty $70 processing fee. If they’ve run the name check but haven’t submitted your paperwork yet, then your processing fee will be $95.
With either brand, you won’t receive a refund for any state fees that have already been submitted to your state’s office.
LegalZoom processes your business formation paperwork within 5-14 business days if you use their standard processing speeds. You can also upgrade to expedited processing to get a one-day turnaround.
BizFilings doesn’t promise specific filing speeds; their website’s FAQs say that average processing takes 4-6 weeks, but this varies by state and the type of business you’re forming. They do offer the option to expedite your filing for $60 (plus any state expediting fees) if you use the basic package (expedited processing is included in both the Standard and Complete packages).
You absolutely can form an LLC on your own. Using LLC services can be really helpful, though. Services like ZenBusiness, LegalZoom, and BizFilings can all take some of the paperwork off your plate. These services can also help you navigate your state’s business compliance rules and regulations, which might be trickier than you expect.
BizFiling’s biggest advantage is its long history of experience in the business formation industry. LegalZoom’s biggest perk is its free LLC formation package (you just pay state fees).
Both of these companies provide plenty of solutions for ongoing compliance issues. With LegalZoom, you can get registered agent service for $249 per year, and their annual report service is available for $99.
BizFilings will give you three months of free registered agent service if you form your business with them (the service costs $220 per year after that). If you want annual report service from BizFilings, you’ll need to contact them for a quote; this service operates on a variable pricing model.
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.
Written by ZenBusiness Editorial Team
The ZenBusiness Editorial Team has more than 20 years of combined small business publishing experience and has helped over 850,000 entrepreneurs launch and grow their companies. Our writers and business formation experts are dedicated to providing accurate, practical, and trustworthy guidance so business owners can make confident decisions.
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