LegalZoom Registered Agent Service Review

If you want to form a business in the United States, you will need to designate a registered agent. The role of the registered agent involves the usage of their address as your official business address, which means they’ll receive important document deliveries on your behalf, including service of process and official correspondence from your state government.

While you can legally serve as your own agent and still operate a compliant business entity, there are some other benefits of hiring a registered agent service. Having a registered agent makes it so that you don’t need to be available at your place of business during all standard business hours, and it also cuts down on the amount of junk mail you’ll receive.

There are many companies that offer this vital service to businesses, and it can be difficult to discern which one is the best option for your company. In this review, we’ll take a close look at LegalZoom, one of the most popular service providers in the industry. Are they the right registered agent service for your business?

About LegalZoom

Since they formed in 1999, LegalZoom has served around 6 million customers, which includes the formation of more than 2 million businesses. While they clearly have a high degree of experience, LegalZoom typically charges $299 per year for registered agent service. However, LegalZoom offers a free LLC formation service package (plus your state’s fee).

30-Second Summary of Our Review

LegalZoom might be the most recognizable name in the online business services market, as they’ve served millions of customers and do plenty of advertising. They offer a wide array of products and features that can make your life easier as an entrepreneur, including registered agent service.

While LegalZoom has good offers for some other services, it charges $299/year for registered agent service. By contrast, ZenBusiness charges just $199.

LegalZoom Strengths

• Lots of experience and high customer volume – Not many competitors can say that they’ve served millions of customers, but LegalZoom can. They have a lot of experience that gives them an advantage over most companies in this industry.
• Many other services available – Few companies offer as wide a variety of services as LegalZoom does. They provide personal services like wills and power of attorney, and of course, they have a vast array of business services as well.

LegalZoom Weaknesses

• High prices – LegalZoom’s registered agent service costs $299 per year, or $249 for the first year if you add it to a business formation package. While there are a couple of competing companies that charge more than that, there are also services with lower price points (like ZenBusiness at $199).
• No valuable features included with LLC formations – Some competitors add valuable features to their LLC formation packages, like ZenBusiness’ addition of ongoing compliance assistance in our premium packages. With LegalZoom, the added features rarely add up to much.

Pricing & Additional Features

LegalZoom charges an annual fee of $299 to serve as your registered agent, although if you purchase business formation service from them, they’ll provide your first year for $249. In addition to the essentials of registered agent service, they also include a compliance calendar for annual reports and tax deadlines.

LegalZoom vs Other Registered Agent Services

There are several aspects of LegalZoom’s services that we appreciate, but overall there are quite a few competing companies that offer more affordable registered agent services.

LegalZoom typically charges $299 per year for this service. Meanwhile, ZenBusiness will provide your registered agent service for just $199. For more information on your other options, take a look at our guide to the top registered agent services available.

Online Customer Reviews

We were able to find more than 10,000 reviews for LegalZoom’s services, with the three largest collections of feedback belonging to Sitejabber, Consumer Affairs, and the Better Business Bureau. The majority of these reviews are positive, as LegalZoom maintains an average rating score of roughly 4.3 out of 5 across the three sites.

In their positive reviews, LegalZoom clients often comment on the helpful support they received from LegalZoom representatives, frequently thanking them by name. However, in their negative reviews, clients often complain about the poor quality of customer support, so it seems this aspect of their business is a bit inconsistent.

Customer Service Quality

In our experience, their phone support is good, as we’ve received thorough and accurate responses from their service reps whenever we’ve called them with questions or concerns.

On the other hand, we’ve also tested their email support, which is a different story. We’ve actually waited over a full week to get a response to emails in the past, and when LegalZoom does respond to email inquiries, it’s often just a form email that doesn’t actually answer our questions.

In short, we can see why they have a mixed reputation in this regard because our own experiences with them have been hit-or-miss as well. That said, we always appreciate their long hours of availability, as LegalZoom’s support team is available on evenings and weekends when some competitors are out of the office.

Main Reasons to Use LegalZoom

If you prioritize experience and customer volume, LegalZoom is an option. The best argument in their favor is the “millions of customers can’t be wrong” reasoning, which does have some merit. We also appreciate the fact that, like ZenBusiness, LegalZoom offers a free LLC formation package.

Main Reasons Not to Use LegalZoom

Do you prefer to use services that can save you some money? ZenBusiness charges $199/year for registered agent service, whereas LegalZoom typically charges $299/year.