An Overview of DBA Filing Services

Many of the same companies offering reasonably priced online business formation services also provide DBA filing services. For most businesses, the process is quite simple. All you need to do is provide your chosen company with some basic information about your business — like your principal office address and your desired name — and they’ll fill out and file the paperwork with your state.

Most companies offer similar price points for DBA filing services, and the vast majority of them also provide comparable feature sets. However, that’s not to say that there isn’t plenty setting these companies apart. Let’s dig into the details of Direct Incorporation and find out how its offering differs from the competition.

Direct Incorporation DBA Registration Service Review

Let’s quickly review its pros and cons before we dig into the details.

Pros

• Affordable pricing model
• Many advanced features available to add on

Cons

• Hardly any customer feedback
• Refuses service in 18 states

Direct Incorporation DBA Registration Service Package

Direct Incorporation’s DBA registration service costs $89 plus your state’s fee. It includes a preliminary name search and the completion and filing of your DBA registration forms.

However, that’s all you get with Direct Incorporation, as well as most of its competitors. It’s not common for these companies to add bonus features to DBA registration service packages, which is a big part of the reason why LegalZoom is a good option. (LegalZoom includes publication service in the seven states that require it for no extra charge.)

In a very strange detail, Direct Incorporation does not offer DBA registrations in every state. Instead, it only provides this service in 32 states, so you’ll need to check and make sure your state is included. This is a truly bizarre aspect of Direct Incorporation’s offering, and no other company we’re aware of in this industry picks and chooses its states in this manner.

Overall Pricing and Value:

The big selling point for Direct Incorporation is pricing, as it offers the lowest rate we’ve ever seen for DBA registration service. At just $89, this undercuts even its lowest-priced competitors who usually charge $99 or more.

If you decide that you would rather form an LLC or corporation, Direct Incorporation is a mediocre option. This company starts its business formation service pricing at $179, a much higher price point than the free package from ZenBusiness or Incfile.

For DBA service though, you will not find a cheaper option than Direct Incorporation.

Track Record:

Direct Incorporation is a midsize company in the business services industry. This company opened its doors in 2003, and since then, it has served more than 80,000 customers.

Considering that Direct Incorporation has served tens of thousands of customers, it’s a bit unusual that it essentially does not have customer feedback. We dug through as many reputable third-party review aggregator websites as we could find looking for Direct Incorporation reviews, but we found just 30 reviews in total.

When some competitors have tens of thousands of reviews and Direct Incorporation has a few dozen, it’s a major disadvantage for Direct Incorporation because prospective clients can’t find much info about its customer experience.

Customer Support:

There isn’t anything that really stands out in a good or bad way regarding Direct Incorporation’s customer support. We’re not huge fans of their extremely limited hours of availability (10 am to 5 pm ET on weekdays), but they have always responded to our questions with efficient, accurate answers.

That said, Direct Incorporation doesn’t offer the level of customization or personalization that you’ll get with some competitors, and it doesn’t boast the extended availability of companies like LegalZoom or ZenBusiness.

Ease of Use:

The entire point of using a DBA registration service is to make this part of your business run seamlessly with little-to-no effort on your part. Direct Incorporation certainly fits the bill, as it’s simple to place orders, renew services, and navigate its website.

How Does Direct Incorporation Work?

The process of ordering DBA registration service from Direct Incorporation couldn’t be much simpler. Here’s an overview of what you can expect when you click the “Begin” button on Direct Incorporation’s DBA registration service page. Keep in mind that the process for DBA registration can vary from state to state, but in most states, it will look something like this:

• Input all of your personal and business info: The first step is to provide Direct Incorporation with lots of information about yourself and your company. On this first page, you’ll need to indicate the DBA name you’d like to register, your formation state, the type of business you operate, your business address, your name, personal address, phone number, fax number, a brief statement of your company’s purpose, the name(s) and address(es) of your company’s owner(s), your registered agent’s name and address, and your credit card info.
• Review and confirm your order: The second page of the Direct Incorporation order form simply asks you to take a second look at everything you filled in on the first page. If you’re satisfied with all the details, you can submit your order to Direct Incorporation and they’ll take it from there!

What Are Direct Incorporation Customers Saying?

Well…unfortunately, the answer to this question is, “not much.” We only found a few dozen reviews of Direct Incorporation’s services, which is such a small volume of feedback that it simply isn’t relevant for us to analyze.

We will note that more of the reviews we found are positive than negative, but Direct Incorporation has so few customer reviews available that it’s impossible to point out any meaningful trends in the data.

Our Final Thoughts

This company has the best pricing we’ve ever seen for DBA registrations, and it also provides a wide variety of additional features that most competitors don’t offer.

That said, Direct Incorporation only offers this service in certain states and almost entirely lacks information about its customer satisfaction reputation, two aspects that are less impressive.

Overall, we still strongly prefer forming an LLC or corporation to registering a DBA because these business entities provide personal asset protection and name exclusivity. That said, if you have your heart set on a DBA name, we think Direct Incorporation is a good service to help you register it.

Disclaimer: The content on this page is for informational 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.