Incorporate.com vs LegalZoom

Quick Summary

With Incorporate.com and LegalZoom, we’re talking about two of the most popular LLC formation service providers available. They’re both quality companies that are easy to recommend, in our opinion. Still, each company has a couple of advantages over the other.

First off, LegalZoom has lower pricing than Incorporate.com for LLC formation services. Additionally, their thousands of customer reviews are almost all positive, while Incorporate.com has just a small handful of mixed feedback. On the other hand, Incorporate.com has more longevity than any competitor.

Would you like some more info before making your decision? Read on as we break down the major factors that set these two companies apart.

6 Things They Have In Common

1) Affordable: Whether you choose Incorporate.com or LegalZoom, you can save lots of money over enlisting the services of a traditional business attorney. Most LLC formations aren’t complex enough to necessitate a lawyer, so these providers can fit your needs nicely.

2) Customer Support: One of the best selling points for these companies is customer service. Instead of spending hours digging around on your own whenever you have a question or concern, you can simply email or call them to get your issues resolved quickly.

3) Guaranteed Services: Both of these providers offer strong guarantees to back up their services. LegalZoom has a satisfaction guarantee which states that if you’re unhappy for any reason, they will refund the fees you paid them. Incorporate.com has a Corporate Compliance Guarantee which says they’ll pay you up to $75,000 if they make a mistake while filing your formation documents.

4) Experience: If experience matters to you, both of these companies have plenty of it. LegalZoom has served millions of customers, while Incorporate.com has been open since the 19th century.

5) Additional Services: LegalZoom and Incorporate.com both offer many additional services that you may find convenient after your formation. Whether you need registered agent service or EIN obtainment, they can provide these and many more services.

6) Educational: Incorporate.com and LegalZoom have tremendous amounts of free learning tools on their websites. If you want to know more about taxation issues, compliance requirements, etc., the information you’re looking for is right at your fingertips.

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Pricing

LegalZoom: While LegalZoom does offer a $0 package for LLCs, the number of upsells can get overwhelming — and expensive. Furthermore, they do not include registered agent service with any of their formation packages, and they charge a variable fee that ranges from $249-299 per year to add on.

Incorporate.com: Their cheapest formation package checks in at $99, and it is as barebones as they get. Furthermore, their top two packages cost $634 and $734 after you add in all the additional fees associated with them. If you’re going to spend that much on your formation, you might as well just hire an attorney to form your company. Finally, their registered agent service costs $235 per year.

Experience

LegalZoom: LegalZoom served more than 2 million business clients since it started offering web-based services in 2001, a volume few competitors can touch.

Incorporate.com: Incorporate.com has served more than 750,000 businesses, and they’ve been around since 1899. No one can match their longevity.

Customer Support

LegalZoom: LegalZoom offers phone and email support. We reached out twice via the email form on their site, but it took them a full week to respond. The response we received was generic – thanking us for reaching out but not answering our question.

When we contacted them via phone, our question was answered very thoroughly. The representative went into detail about our different options and then sent us an email with their direct extension so that we could reach out directly with questions. Overall, while their phone support is good, their online support could be improved.

Incorporate.com: Incorporate.com offers phone, email, and chat support. Their response times are pretty quick, and when we reached out through all three of these options, their representatives were friendly and answered our questions thoroughly while also providing additional information.

Turnaround Times

LegalZoom: Unlike most competitors, their turnarounds are based on which package you order rather than which state you’re forming in. With their most expensive package, you could receive your finalized business formation documents in 7-10 business days, but their cheaper packages take as long as 30 business days (six weeks).

Incorporate.com: When you reach the bottom of your order form, Incorporate.com gives you detailed turnaround time estimates for both standard and expedited processing. It’s nice to see this level of transparency when it comes to the expected length of time for your formation.

Customer Reviews

LegalZoom: LegalZoom has more than 6,000 reviews available online. The majority of this feedback is positive, indicating a high level of client satisfaction.

Incorporate.com: Incorporate.com only has nine reviews across the web, and most of them are critical in nature. Many customers complain about being signed up for registered agent service without their knowledge. Furthermore, it’s odd that a company with such an enormous amount of experience has less than ten reviews on the internet.

Ease of Use

LegalZoom: Unlike most competitors, LegalZoom doesn’t give you your package options to begin the application. Instead, you enter your personal info first, then navigate through a series of rather costly upsells before you select your formation package. It’s a bit convoluted, and it can result in some surprisingly high price points by the time you work your way through the order form to the package selection screen.

Incorporate.com: It’s quite simple to form your business with Incorporate.com, although their pricing page is a bit confusing. Two of their listed features (the CSCNavigator compliance tool and the annual report service) are only available to customers who purchase registered agent service separately. Still, since their website has a clean design, it was easy to find where to place an order and navigate through to the payment page.

Additional Services

With either LegalZoom or Incorporate.com, you can access quite a few additional business services, and these two companies offer many of the same services as well. For example, you can purchase registered agent service, annual reports, business licensing packages, operating agreements, EIN acquisition, doing business as (DBA) names, and more from either one of them.

However, only Incorporate.com offers mail forwarding, and only LegalZoom offers assistance with trademarks and patents. In addition, LegalZoom provides its customers with a wide variety of personal services, like last will and testament, divorce forms, and power of attorney documents.

Better Service to Form an LLC?

Incorporate.com and LegalZoom are both capable and trustworthy companies with quality LLC formation services. We understand some of you still might be undecided, so to close let’s discuss situations where you may prefer one over the other.

➥ Choose LegalZoom if You Are:

If you’re looking for brand power and want to save money, LegalZoom is a strong pick for LLC formation services. Additionally, LegalZoom has a huge advantage in customer feedback.

➦ Choose Incorporate.com if You Are:

If you prefer to use companies that have been around for a long time, they’ve been in business since the 19th century. It’s hard to beat that level of longevity!

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