Northwest Registered Agent vs. BizFilings

In this Northwest Registered Agent vs. BizFilings comparison guide, we’ll discuss their main commonalities and differences. By doing so, we hope to make your decision a bit easier by helping you decide which LLC service has your best interests in mind.

Do Northwest and BizFilings offer good value?

Northwest Registered Agent and BizFilings are both popular and reputable LLC formation services. Either one of them can easily form your compliant LLC, and they both have reasonable rates, especially compared to hiring a lawyer. However, each has its advantages.

Northwest Registered Agent has personalized customer support, with a level of customization few competitors can match. Furthermore, Northwest receives strong customer feedback, whereas BizFilings has very few reviews available at all. Overall though, BizFilings is a decent alternative to Northwest Registered Agent, especially if you’re looking to save some money with a company that also offers state-specific compliance assistance.

Would you like to get some more info before making your decision? Read on to find out everything you need to know about these two LLC formation service providers.

7 Things They Have in Common

1) Affordable: With either Northwest Registered Agent or BizFilings, you’ll save money compared to hiring a lawyer to draft and file your formation documents. Seeing as the LLC isn’t a terribly complex business structure, you may not even need an attorney’s expertise to begin with.

2) Customer Support: While saving money is always great, you don’t want to go it alone, either. These service providers both have customer support networks that can answer your questions, saving you lots of wasted time hunting down answers on your own.

3) Experience: Northwest Registered Agent and BizFilings have each formed thousands of LLCs, so you can be confident in their abilities to form your LLC in a compliant, efficient manner. They have the expertise necessary to get the job done right.

4) Efficiency: Are you in a rush to get your LLC formed? That’s no problem for service providers like Northwest Registered Agent and BizFilings. They both offer expedited service (for an added cost, of course) that can dramatically speed up the turnaround time for your LLC.

5) Registered Agent Service: These two companies both include registered agent service with their LLC formation packages. BizFilings includes six months of registered agent service with its $99 Basic LLC service package, while Northwest Registered Agent throws in a year with its $225 package.

6) Additional Services: These providers have plenty of other services available to help you maintain your LLC’s compliant status. From foreign qualifications to LLC operating agreements, Northwest Registered Agent and BizFilings have you covered.

7 ) Security: Both of these companies care about your online security. BizFilings secures its website using Norton Web Security, while Northwest Registered Agent runs its own servers and has its own in-house coders and developers.

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Pricing

Northwest: At $225, their price point is high compared to many competitors. Still, the inclusion of a full year of their registered agent service is a good feature that makes their pricing more attractive. Once the first year is up, the registered agent service will renew at $125 per year.

BizFilings: Starting with their $99 Basic package, which includes six months of registered agent service (which costs $220/year after that), their packages are all a bit on the expensive side compared to 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

Northwest: Northwest Registered Agent has been around since 1998, and since then, they’ve served 2+ million customers.

BizFilings: BizFilings is an experienced company with more than 500,000 business formations since it opened in 1996.

Customer Support

Northwest: Northwest offers phone and email support. We first tested their email support, and while it took nearly 24 hours to receive an email back, the response was detailed, and the rep went beyond simply answering our question and checking off an email response. We also called and received similarly impressive service. The representative who answered the phone took the time to ask for details so that he could give us the most accurate answer.

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.

Turnaround Times

Northwest: When you select your state from the dropdown menu of the application, an estimated turnaround time will display on the screen. Most states have expedited service available for an additional fee, so you’ll see two turnaround times on the order form.

BizFilings: BizFilings structures their processing speeds to vary depending on how much money you spend on their services. Their cheapest package has a 4-6 week turnaround, which you can cut to 7-10 days with their more expensive plans. They do also offer expedited processing, which is a $60 upcharge for them to “prioritize your order above non-expedited orders,” plus the state’s expediting fee.

Customer Reviews

Northwest: Northwest Registered Agent doesn’t have a ton of customer feedback, but they do have around 800 reviews, and they’re mostly positive.

BizFilings: BizFilings has very few reviews available online ― in fact, we were only able to find a couple dozen reviews on any third-party review websites.

Ease of Use

Northwest: The application process with Northwest is streamlined and easy to follow. You simply enter your personal info and business details and pay for the order. There aren’t any upsells, and Northwest only offers one LLC formation service package.

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 unobtrusive, and don’t feel too pushy. 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

With either Northwest Registered Agent or BizFilings, you’ll have access to a selection of additional services that can help you build, maintain, and expand your new LLC. They have quite a few services in common, as you can order registered agent service, annual reports, foreign qualifications, operating agreements, EIN acquisition, and more from either one of these companies.

However, there are also some exclusive services offered by each company that the other one doesn’t provide to their clients. For instance, only Northwest offers mail forwarding and virtual office services, while only BizFilings provides services like dissolutions, amendments, and entity conversions.

Which is the better service to form an LLC?

With Northwest Registered Agent and BizFilings, we’re discussing two popular LLC formation services. They’re both experienced, and they’re capable of forming your new LLC in an efficient and effective manner.

Because they’re both solid options, some of you may remain undecided. With that in mind, we’ll cap off this comparison by briefly touching on some of the main reasons you may prefer one company or another.

➥ Choose Northwest Registered Agent if:

Do you want a year of registered agent service bundled in with your formation? Are you interested in positive customer reviews? These are two reasons people sometimes choose Northwest.

➦ Choose BizFilings if:

Are you looking for a company that handles every state-specific step of the LLC formation process? Interested in forming your LLC for $99 (+ state fee) instead of $225? BizFilings could be worth a look.

🎉 Choose ZenBusiness if:

If you’d like to form your LLC with ZenBusiness, we’re here to help. We offer LLC formations starting at $0 (+ state fee), and we have 12,000+ positive customer reviews available online. Form your LLC quickly and get more tools to start your dream business.