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Northwest and Swyft Filings are two of the most popular companies in the LLC services industry, and we’re quite confident in their abilities to efficiently form your compliant business entity. Each of these companies has its own advantages when compared to each other.
While Swyft Filings does have much lower prices, they don’t include registered agent service with their LLC formation packages, which Northwest does. In addition, Northwest has high-quality customer support with a highly personalized approach that Swyft Filings can’t compete with.
Would you like to learn the details that set these service providers apart, as well as the common characteristics they both share? Read on as we discuss all the information you need to make a decision between these two respected companies.
1) Affordable: With either Northwest or Swyft Filings, you’ll save a significant amount of money on your LLC formation compared to hiring a business attorney to handle your formation process.
2) Positive Customer Feedback: Although Swyft Filings has a higher volume of feedback, both of these companies receive high average rating scores in their customer reviews, which indicates a strong level of client satisfaction.
3) Efficiency: Whether you choose Northwest or Swyft Filings, you’re getting a service provider that’s capable of processing an LLC formation quickly. If you’re in a hurry, they both have options available that can speed up your formation.
4) Experience: Both Swyft Filings and Northwest have helped form thousands of businesses over the years, and they both have plenty of expertise. You can definitely trust them to have the experience they need to form your compliant LLC.
5) Trustworthy: These are both entirely legitimate operations with strong track records. These aren’t fly-by-night companies, but rather they’re well-respected entities with plenty of expertise to get the job done right.
6) Additional Services: LLC formation is far from the only service offered by Northwest and Swyft Filings. They both have tons of other services available, from registered agent service to foreign qualifications and much more. They’re one-stop shops for business services.
7) Customer Support: While the ways they go about providing it vary quite a bit, these two services both have customer support networks that can answer your tough questions. Why go it alone when you can get help from Northwest or Swyft Filings?
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Northwest: At $225, their price point is quite high compared to many of their 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.
Swyft Filings: Swyft Filings starts their pricing for business formation service at $49. However, this package includes very little beyond the basics of formation, as there is no registered agent service or annual reports included in this plan. Swyft Filings actually does not offer registered agent service in any of their formation plans, and it costs $149 to add it on. While we don’t think their $299 Premium package is worth the money, their $149 Standard plan is enticing because it includes EIN acquisition, a custom operating agreement, and a banking resolution.
Northwest: Northwest was formed in 1998, and since then they’ve served more than 2 million customers. They also indicate on their website that they deal with hundreds of new LLCs and corporations every day.
Swyft Filings: As for Swyft Filings, they opened in 2012, but it’s difficult to find any more information than that. Swyft Filings does not share many details about its company history.
Northwest: They’re available via phone or email, and while they can sometimes take a little bit to respond (up to a day in our experience), their expertise is undeniable. Instead of outsourcing their support to a call center, Northwest’s experienced and knowledgeable reps personally walk you through every step of the business formation process.
Swyft Filings: They also offer support via phone or email, although Swyft Filings also adds a web-based chat option. We have plenty of experience with all three of these options, and we’ve always felt that they respond quickly and accurately. They don’t elaborate on their responses as much as some other support departments, and they certainly don’t have the customization of Northwest, but they do a good job of providing customer service in general.
Northwest: Northwest Registered Agent clearly displays turnaround time estimates for both standard and expedited processing on the very first page of their order form, so you always know roughly how long your formation will take and how much it will cost to speed it up if necessary. Their turnaround times are quite fast compared to many other companies in this industry.
Swyft Filings: They pledge to prepare and file all business formation documents within one business day, which is a nice touch. Like Northwest, their turnaround times are based on each state’s capabilities, so in some states, they can form a business in just a few days, but in others, it takes several weeks.
Northwest: Northwest receives mostly positive customer reviews. We found nearly 400 reviews of their services, and the vast majority of their feedback is quite positive. Still, for a company with millions of customers, we had hoped for a slightly higher volume of reviews.
Swyft Filings: While Northwest has impressive feedback, Swyft Filings takes things a step further. They have more than 36,000 reviews online, and they still maintain high rating scores.
Northwest: With Northwest, the business formation process couldn’t be much easier. All you need to do to get the ball rolling is provide them with some basic information about yourself and your business, and that’s it.
Swyft Filings: Swyft Filings also provides solid ease of use, with a quick and simple process that takes 15 minutes or less in our experience.
Both of these companies provide a vast array of services beyond simply forming your LLC. For example, they both offer registered agent service, annual reports, business license research, and foreign qualifications. However, they also both provide some services that the other company lacks.
Northwest Registered Agent offers its clients mail forwarding and virtual office services, which Swyft Filings does not offer. On the other hand, Swyft Filings will help you with apostille and entity conversions, services Northwest lacks.
Northwest and Swyft Filings have plenty of common characteristics that make them two of the top LLC formation services available, but they also have some major differences that set them apart. If you haven’t yet made up your mind between them, let’s finish this comparison by quickly describing some scenarios that may sway your opinion one way or the other.
Regardless of which one you ultimately choose to help form your LLC, we think you’ll be quite pleased with the service you receive from these companies.
If receiving a reliable registered agent service for your business at no extra cost is a priority for you, Northwest is a good option. Their personalized customer support is a solid selling point as well.
Does their strong customer feedback appeal to you? This is a good reason to choose Swyft Filings. And, of course, their lower prices are appealing, especially for customers who don’t require registered agent service.
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Northwest’s prices are higher than many competitors, as Northwest charges $225 (plus the state’s fee) to form an LLC. They only offer one package for LLC formations, but it includes everything you need to get your business off the ground — a name availability check, the preparation and filing of your formation documents, and a year of registered agent service.
Yes and no. Northwest doesn’t offer to handle state-specific requirements entirely, but they do offer significant assistance with them. If, for example, you need to complete New York’s publication requirement, Northwest encourages you to use their Albany, NY address as an “address for service of process” or a “principal office.”
They then provide you with step-by-step instructions to help you complete this requirement. However, Northwest leaves you on your own to do all of the legwork. On the other hand, Swyft Filings offers to handle this entire process on your behalf.
If you’d like more information on the best options for New York LLC publication services, including ZenBusiness, check out our full guide on this topic.
We appreciate both of these companies in this regard, as neither of them gets pushy with upsells like some of their competitors do. For example, LegalZoom pushes more than $1,000 in upsells on its customers, while Northwest and Swyft Filings mostly avoid doing this.
One of the biggest advantages Swyft Filings has over its competitors is its excellent refund policy. With their 100% satisfaction guarantee, they ensure that any customer who requests a refund will receive one. They don’t have time limits on their guarantee (you’ll often see 30-day or 60-day refund windows with other companies), and they don’t charge cancellation fees either.
As for Northwest, they have a flat $25 fee for refunds, which they refer to as a “You changed your mind fee.”
Generally speaking, these companies are pretty close when it comes to turnaround times. However, we’ve noticed that Swyft Filings is often a bit slower than Northwest if you order their standard processing, but their expedited speeds can be faster.
Of course, you can. In fact, thousands of American entrepreneurs form their own business entities each year. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with doing this, we will caution that because each state is allowed to create its own rules regarding how LLCs are formed, there is some variance from state to state regarding how an LLC is formed. There are plenty of LLC formation services that can help, including some who will handle it for free as long as you pay the state filing fee.
Northwest Registered Agent has a handful of advantages, but the biggest one in our opinion is its personalized customer support. As for Swyft Filings, their biggest advantage over Northwest is pricing, as Swyft Filings can form your LLC for $176 less than Northwest charges.
Either of these services can help you quite a bit with your future compliance needs. Northwest offers registered agent service for $125/year (after the free year you receive with your formation plan), and they will also provide annual reports for $100.
Swyft Filings also offers both of these features, as they have a $149 annual fee for registered agent service, and their annual report service is available at a rate of $99.
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