Nationwide Incorporators vs LegalZoom

Quick Summary

With Nationwide Incorporators and LegalZoom, you’re getting two of the top LLC formation services available online. Either one of them would be easy to recommend, so there’s really no wrong choice here. Still, they have some advantages over each other that may influence your decision.

LegalZoom’s entirely web-based services give them a convenience advantage over Nationwide Incorporators, who require you to call them and purchase certain services over the phone. In addition, LegalZoom is the biggest name in the LLC formation game, with unrivaled customer volume and brand power.

However, if the attorney-powered aspect of Nationwide Incorporators appeals to you, we would entirely understand if you prefer them to LegalZoom.

6 Things They Have In Common

1) Affordable: With either of these companies, you’ll save a significant sum over hiring a traditional law firm. Nationwide Incorporators and LegalZoom are both able to form an LLC for a fraction of the cost of an attorney, and given the nature of LLCs as relatively simple structures, you may not even need a lawyer to draft and file your formation documents.

2) Customer Support: Saving money is great, but the whole point of an LLC service is to make your life easier. With Nationwide Incorporators and LegalZoom, you get access to their comprehensive customer support systems that can help with any questions or concerns you may have.

3) Guaranteed Service: They both offer strong guarantees that can back you up if any problems arise. LegalZoom has a 100% satisfaction guarantee that provides you with a refund if you’re unhappy for any reason, while Nationwide Incorporators will correct any issues until you’re satisfied.

4) Experience: If experience is a priority for you, these companies should put your mind at ease. They’ve each helped form thousands of businesses, and they both have years of experience in the LLC formation services industry.

5) Additional Services: Do you have other business services on your to-do list, like federal tax ID (EIN) obtainment or registered agent service? No need to track down other providers for these or many other services, as Nationwide Incorporators and LegalZoom both offer plenty of other business solutions.

6) Educational: If you would like to learn more about business solutions including formations, ongoing compliance, or taxation issues, these companies both have online learning centers where you can find loads of free info on these and many other topics.

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Pricing

LegalZoom’s pricing starts at $0 (plus state fee), which is quite a bit more affordable than Nationwide Incorporators’ baseline price point of $200.

Clearly, this is a rather significant difference in pricing, as Nationwide Incorporators costs more than twice as much as LegalZoom does. While everyone would obviously rather pay $0 than $200 for similar services, the fact remains that these companies have pretty different offerings when it comes to LLC formation services. Let’s take a look at the other categories in this competition to see if Nationwide Incorporators can close the gap.

Features

Nationwide Incorporators includes some sample forms in their base package, like meeting minutes and an LLC operating agreement that you can customize. For their part, LegalZoom includes a banking resolution that can help you open business checking or savings accounts.

Aside from these relatively minor differences, Nationwide Incorporators has attorney reviews of every document they draft for you, which is a rather unique advantage that LegalZoom’s LLC service packages can’t match.

It’s hard to place a dollar value on how much it means to have a business attorney draft and/or review your LLC formation documents, but we can tell you that it definitely provides significant peace of mind.

Experience

Nationwide Incorporators has more than 20 years of experience, and their CEO Robert E. Stenson has 25+ years of experience as a business lawyer. They are a solid mid-sized company with the resources to form an LLC with ease.

On the other hand, LegalZoom is one of the industry leaders. Since they opened in 1999, they’ve helped more than 2 million business clients.

Customer Support

With Nationwide Incorporators, you’re just a phone call away from company owner Robert E. Stenson, who handles many steps of your formation personally. He’s also often personally available to answer any questions you may have from 9 am to 6 pm ET on weekdays.

LegalZoom’s service department has many helpful professionals answering their phones, but as such a large company it’s no surprise that some of their support reps are better than others. One thing that is consistently great is their extended service hours, which run from 8 am-10 pm ET on weekdays and 10 am-7 pm ET on weekends.

Turnaround Times

Like most providers, Nationwide Incorporators base their processing times on the requirements of your state of formation. There is no convenient place to find their turnaround time estimates on their website, but you can always contact them and ask.

With LegalZoom, their turnarounds are based on what level of LLC service you purchase from them. Their top-tier Express Gold package has estimated processing times of 7-10 business days, while customers who choose Standard get 15-day turnarounds, and Economy customers have their orders processed in about 30 days.

Order Tracking

Neither of these companies has anything particularly fancy when it comes to order status tracking tools, but they do both have simple systems that can inform you of the status of your LLC formation.

Registered Agent Service

Every LLC in America is required to designate a registered agent, which is a person or online business service 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.

While Nationwide Incorporators does offer registered agent service, you’ll have to contact them to order it or get a price quote. LegalZoom allows you to order registered agent service from their website, which costs a flat rate of $299 per year ($249 for the first year if added to an LLC formation package), which is on the high end of the scale compared to the majority of their competitors.

Customer Reviews

We could only find six online reviews for Nationwide Incorporators, though they are all quite positive. LegalZoom has more than 6,000 reviews available online, and its reputation for customer feedback has improved significantly in the last few years. LegalZoom used to have a mixed bag of reviews, but recently, their feedback has become much more heavily slanted toward positive reviews.

Ease of Use

Some of Nationwide Incorporators’ services, such as registered agent service, are only available over the phone and cannot be ordered online. LegalZoom definitely has the advantage in the realm of convenience, as all of its services are available from its simple and user-friendly website.

Additional Services

Nationwide Incorporators and LegalZoom both have some additional business services available, and there’s quite a bit of overlap between their offerings. For instance, either one of these companies can help you with business licensing, registered agent service, foreign registrations, operating agreements, and more.

However, LegalZoom offers many services that Nationwide Incorporators doesn’t offer, like doing business as (DBA) names, 501(c)(3) applications, trademark services, and corporate supplies. In addition, LegalZoom offers quite a few personal services like last will and testament, divorce papers, and power of attorney.

Which LLC Provider Wins?

With either Nationwide Incorporators or LegalZoom, you’re getting a strong LLC formation service at a reasonable price. Still, some of you may remain undecided, so to close, we’ll walk through a couple of different scenarios that may sway your decision in one direction or the other.

➥ Choose LegalZoom if You Are:

Looking for experience? LegalZoom is a more established company with big-name brand power. They also have lower price points for their baseline LLC formation package.

➦ Choose Nationwide Incorporators if You Are:

Does the idea of attorney-drafted and/or reviewed documents appeal to you? Nationwide Incorporators is unique in this field for their lawyer-powered filings, so if this is important to you, they’re a good choice.