Inc Authority vs. BizFilings

Overview

Do you need to form a limited liability company, but you don’t want to bother with the complexities and hassles of forming your own LLC? There are many companies like Inc Authority and BizFilings that offer high-quality LLC formation services, but it can be tough to figure out which one is the better option for your new business. In this Inc Authority vs. BizFilings comparison guide, you’ll find all the relevant information about these two reputable service providers organized in a convenient manner.

Do Inc Authority and BizFilings offer good value?

Inc Authority and BizFilings are two reliable services to start an LLC. They each have some advantages over the other.

Inc Authority offers LLC formation service for free, as long as you pay your own state fee. By contrast, BizFilings charges $99. Plus, Inc Authority has a strong reputation for customer feedback, whereas BizFilings has very few reviews available. On the other hand, only BizFilings offers state-specific compliance assistance.

7 Things They Have in Common

1) Affordable: With either BizFilings or Inc Authority, you’ll save a significant amount of money on your LLC formation compared to hiring a business attorney to handle your formation process.

2) Registered Agent Service: BizFilings and Inc Authority both include registered agent service with all of their LLC formation service packages — BizFilings provides six months, while Inc Authority offers a year. Considering the fact that every LLC needs a registered agent anyway, these are good offers.

3) Customer Support: These two services both have customer support networks that can answer your questions. Why go it alone when you can get help from BizFilings or Inc Authority?

4) Experience: Both Inc Authority and BizFilings have helped form thousands of businesses over the years, and they both have plenty of expertise. You can trust them to have the experience they need to form your compliant LLC.

5) Informative: The BizFilings “Business Owner’s Toolkit” is a helpful educational resource, with info about business entity types, industry guides, and more. As for Inc Authority, they have a blog where they share business tips and tricks. Both are helpful resources whether you’re a customer or not.

6) Additional Services: Do you need assistance with other popular business services like federal employer ID number (EIN) acquisition, foreign qualification, or LLC operating agreement templates? Inc Authority and BizFilings provide many additional services, making them one-stop shops for your LLC.

7) Trustworthy: These are both legitimate operations with strong track records. These aren’t fly-by-night companies, but rather they’re well-respected entities with plenty of expertise to get the job done right.

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Pricing

Inc Authority: They offer a free (+ state fee) LLC formation service package that includes a year of registered agent service and EIN acquisition. Inc Authority also sells two premium packages with advanced features like an LLC operating agreement template, faster filing, and personalized business advice, but you’ll need to contact them to inquire about pricing.

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

Inc Authority: Inc Authority has been in business since 1989, and they’ve formed more than 130,000 business entities since then.

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

Customer Support

Inc Authority: Inc Authority offers customer support via phone, email, or web chat. With all three options, you’ll receive timely support from friendly and knowledgeable representatives. Inc Authority reps are available from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET on weekdays.

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

Inc Authority: Each state has its own in-house processing times, ranging from a few days all the way up to a couple of months. Inc Authority bases its turnarounds on these state estimates, so you’ll see quite a bit of variety in expected processing speeds between different states. All that said, Inc Authority’s turnaround times are usually competitive with other services.

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

Inc Authority: Customer feedback is a pro for Inc Authority. They have 23,000+ reviews available online with a 4.9/5 average score on Trustpilot.

BizFilings: BizFilings essentially doesn’t 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

Inc Authority: The ordering process is pretty simple with Inc Authority. On the first screen, you’ll choose your entity type (LLC, corporation, nonprofit) and your state. Then, you’ll answer a series of questions about yourself and your business. Next, you’ll enter your name, email address, and phone number, followed by your business name, a short description of your business, and your business address. You’ll then navigate through an extensive series of upsells for an operating agreement template, a legal documents package, a minutes and resolutions feature, web design software, personalized business support, audit and lawsuit assistance, and business banking from Bank of America before finally paying for your order.

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

Inc Authority and BizFilings both offer their customers a selection of additional business services, and they also provide many of the same services. For example, either of these companies can help you with registered agent service, Certificates of Good Standing, EIN obtainment, and more. However, there are plenty of services that only one or the other provides.

With Inc Authority, you can access their business credit and business funding services to help you grow your business, which are both features BizFilings doesn’t offer. In addition, they offer revocable living trusts. On the other hand, BizFilings offers assistance with dissolutions, amendments, and dissolutions, while Inc Authority does not.

Which is the best LLC service for you?

BizFilings and Inc Authority have plenty of common characteristics that make them two of the most popular LLC formation services available, but they also have some differences that set them apart. If you haven’t yet made up your mind between them, let’s finish this comparison by quickly describing some scenarios that may sway your opinion one way or the other.

Choose Inc Authority if:

Are you interested in getting your LLC professionally formed for free? Does receiving a full year of registered agent service at no additional charge appeal to you? If so, Inc Authority is an option.

Choose BizFilings if:

Are you looking for a more experienced service provider? Are you forming an LLC in a state with additional compliance requirements, like New York’s publication requirement? BizFilings could be worth a look.

🎉 Choose ZenBusiness if:

If you’d like to register an LLC with ZenBusiness, we’re here to help. We offer free (+ state fee) LLC formations, and we have 12,000+ positive customer reviews. Form your LLC quickly and get more tools to start your dream business.

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