Read the Nationwide Incorporators vs IncFile LLC review below or get Mark Cuban's recommendation (ZenBusiness) for $0 + state fee.
Starts at $0 + state fees and only takes 5-10 minutes
Nationwide Incorporators and IncFile are two of the most popular options for online LLC formation services. They’re both good companies to consider, and they’re both worthy of forming your business. Still, each company has some advantages over the other.
First off, IncFile offers a free LLC formation service (all you have to pay is your state’s fee), while Nationwide Incorporators charges $200. Furthermore, IncFile includes a full year of registered agent service with any LLC formation purchase, which you’d need to order separately from Nationwide Incorporators. However, Nationwide Incorporators has attorney-reviewed documents that IncFile can’t compete with.
To learn more about these two popular LLC service providers, read on to discover all the relevant details that set them apart.
1) Affordable: Both of these service providers can form your new LLC for much less money than a traditional law firm. Compared to hiring a business attorney to draft and file your formation papers, Nationwide Incorporators and IncFile can both save you hundreds of dollars.
2) Customer Support: Of course, saving some money is great, but it’s not everything. Instead of going it alone, Nationwide Incorporators and IncFile provide assistance from their customer service representatives. If you encounter any questions or concerns, simply call their support agents to get the answers you need.
3) Experience: Experience matters. Fortunately, both of these companies have plenty of it! IncFile and Nationwide Incorporators have each helped form many businesses over the years, meaning they have the expertise and the know-how to get the job done right.
4) Efficiency: Do you need your LLC formed as quickly as possible? Nationwide Incorporators and IncFile both have expediting options available that can cut your turnaround times from weeks to days in many states, for an extra fee of course.
5) Additional Services: Are you seeking additional business services with your LLC formation, like registered agent service or foreign registration? Both IncFile and Nationwide Incorporators offer many business solutions that ensure you don’t have to use multiple companies to acquire the services you need.
6) Positive Customer Reviews: Do you prefer to read customer reviews before making purchases? While these companies definitely have differing volumes of feedback — Nationwide Incorporators has just a small handful of reviews, while IncFile has thousands — both of them receive highly positive reviews from their clients.
Alternative LLC Service
Use ZenBusiness, Mark Cuban’s favorite LLC service. $0 + state fee.
IncFile starts its pricing with a free LLC formation package, while Nationwide Incorporators offers a $200 plan as its baseline package.
The answer to the question, “Would you rather pay $200 or nothing,” is an obvious one. However, depending on your unique needs, the extra expense of Nationwide Incorporators may be worth it to you. While IncFile offers some valuable features with its LLC formation packages, Nationwide Incorporators has some of its own advantages in this area.
Nationwide Incorporators’ main claim to fame is their “attorney-powered” services, which means your LLC formation documents will be drafted and/or reviewed by a licensed business attorney before they’re sent to your state for processing. They also include some sample forms that you can customize to fit your business.
On the other hand, IncFile’s advantage in this area is that they include a full year of registered agent service with any formation package.
For many of our readers, the year of registered agent service offered by IncFile is the prize here. In fact, if you want to add registered agent service with Nationwide Incorporators, you’ll have to call them to inquire about their pricing model. However, if your business is complex or if you operate in a highly regulated industry, the attorney review provided by Nationwide Incorporators is valuable.
IncFile opened back in 2004, and they’ve served 800,000+ customers since then. Nationwide Incorporators is a smaller company that doesn’t have a comparable volume of customers, but they still have plenty of experience as they’ve been around since 1997.
Nationwide Incorporators CEO and owner Robert E. Stenson has been a corporate attorney for more than 25 years, which is experience you get to take advantage of as a customer. Stenson handles many services himself, reinforcing their “Attorney-Powered” slogan. Overall, their support offering is quite strong, as they have a level of expertise that most competitors can’t match.
IncFile’s customer support is pretty good too, but they obviously can’t match this level of expertise. Also, IncFile can have some long wait times, as we’ve had to wait over 24 hours to get a response from them at times. Their phone support is usually pretty responsive, but it seems like they hardly ever check their email. We have sent multiple customer support emails that IncFile never answered.
Both of these companies base their turnaround times on your state’s ability to process formation paperwork. You can find estimated processing times on their websites for both standard and expedited services, and for the most part, Nationwide Incorporators and IncFile are about even in this area.
IncFile has a convenient real-time order status tracking tool available on their website. Nationwide Incorporators doesn’t have a comparably fancy tool, but you can still check your order status at any time by logging into your account on their site.
Every LLC in America is required to designate a registered agent, which is a person or business entity that receives important document deliveries (like service of process) from your state government, informs you of the receipt, then forwards the documents to you.
This is so crucial because the state needs to have a reliable means of contacting your business at any time.
IncFile provides your first full year of registered agent service at no extra charge when you purchase any of their LLC formation packages, and after that, they charge $119 per year. Nationwide Incorporators also offers registered agent service, but they don’t include this feature with your formation package. Their pricing for registered agent service is not available online, so you’ll need to call them to get more information.
There are only a few reviews for Nationwide Incorporators available online, but they’re all positive. IncFile has a similarly positive slant to their feedback, but with nearly 34,000 reviews. This difference in quantity is no surprise, of course, seeing as Nationwide Incorporators is a smaller operation than the big-business IncFile.
All of IncFile’s products and services are available for convenient, easy ordering on their website. With Nationwide Incorporators, you’ll need to contact them via phone for some features, as they don’t offer all of their services online.
Both of these companies offer a few of the same additional business services, like business licensing, foreign qualification, registered agent service, operating agreements, and seller’s permits. However, IncFile provides its clients with a much wider selection of additional services that Nationwide Incorporators doesn’t offer, including annual reports, dissolutions, business accounting service, and trademark protection.
Nationwide Incorporators and IncFile are both capable of forming your new LLC quickly and conveniently. Either of these companies can save you hundreds of dollars over hiring an attorney to draft and file your articles of organization.
It wouldn’t surprise us if some of you are still undecided, because both of these are strong LLC service providers. With that in mind, we’ll conclude this comparison guide with a brief discussion of some scenarios that might lead you to prefer one over the other.
Do you prefer to use a free LLC website (just pay your state’s fee)? Perhaps you want the convenience of registered agent service bundled in with your formation? These are a couple of the most common reasons why people like what IncFile has to offer.
Do you feel more confident ordering services from a company that has attorney document reviews on all purchases? This is the main reason to use Nationwide Incorporators, and it is a rather unique advanced feature.
$0 LLC Service
Start your LLC today with us at ZenBusiness
The most popular LLC formation package from IncFile is their free Silver package, which includes the entirety of the LLC formation process along with a year of registered agent service.
This package is a bargain because it truly is free — all you’ll pay is your state fee. If you’d rather add some additional features, the $149 Gold package is also pretty appealing, as it adds an EIN and an operating agreement.
IncFile, one of the most popular LLC formation websites, has formed more than 800,000 businesses since 2004. Check out the comparison reviews below if you’d like to see how this company stacks up to other good LLC websites.
IncFile compared to:
One of the drawbacks of IncFile’s service is that it does not offer assistance with state-specific compliance requirements like publication. When we called them to clarify this, they told us that publication requirements “need to be taken care of with the state directly.”
Thankfully, Nationwide Incorporators does offer publication service, although you’ll need to contact them for a pricing quote. Otherwise, ZenBusiness is the LLC formation service to use if you want help with NY publication requirements. For more information on our favorite New York LLC publication services, check out our full guide on this topic.
Neither IncFile nor Nationwide Incorporators attempts many upsells at all, which is always a welcome attribute. So many of their competitors go to great lengths to get you to order additional services or upgrade your LLC formation service package, but these companies don’t really do this at all.
Nationwide Incorporators isn’t entirely clear when it comes to their refund policy. In their own words, they state that they “will gladly correct any errors we have made at no cost to you by providing you with revised documents or forms or re-filing any documents. We take great pride in our work and the service we provide.”
IncFile’s refund policy is pretty restrictive. They will only grant refunds if you request one before they send payment to your formation state, which typically happens within 24 hours of placing your order, and even then they keep a processing fee of $30. After they transfer money to your state government, their refund window is closed.
Like most of their competitors, Nationwide Incorporators and IncFile both base their own turnaround times on the capability of each state to process LLC formations.
With that in mind, your estimate could be as quick as a few days or as long as several weeks. Either way, it’s not likely that there will be much of a difference between Nationwide Incorporators and IncFile in this category.
You certainly can, and quite a few entrepreneurs do form their own businesses. On the other hand, we really appreciate the peace of mind we get from hiring professional services because we trust their expertise and know they’ll get the job done right. In addition, each state sets its own rules and regulations for LLC formations, so it’s not always simple to figure out what you need to do.
Plus, services like us at ZenBusiness offer a discounted LLC service, as long as you cover the state fee.
Best LLC Service
Customers ❤️ ZenBusiness
over 500,000 customers agree!