Northwest Registered Agent vs. Swyft Filings

Do Swyft Filings and Northwest Registered Agent offer good value?

Northwest Registered Agent and Swyft Filings are two popular companies in the LLC formation services industry, and we’re confident in their abilities to efficiently form your compliant business entity. Each of these companies has its own advantages.

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 personalized approach that Swyft Filings can’t quite 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 companies and a top competitor.

7 Things They Have in Common

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 (for an additional fee, of course).

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 trust them to have the experience they need to form your compliant LLC.

5) Trustworthy: These are both legitimate operations with strong track records. These aren’t fly-by-night companies, but rather they’re 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 several 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 questions. Why go it alone when you can get help from a company like Northwest or Swyft Filings?

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.

Swyft Filings: Swyft Filings provides its customers with a free (+ state fee) package for LLC formations, although it comes with no additional features. Its $199 Standard package adds EIN acquisition, an operating agreement template, and a banking resolution, while its $299 Premium plan adds a company alerts system, digital corporate kit, document templates, and a business website package from SquareSpace.

Experience

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

Swyft Filings: Swyft Filings was created in 2015 by a pair of serial entrepreneurs. To date, the company has helped form 300,000+ LLCs, corporations, and nonprofits.

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.

Swyft Filings: They provide phone, email, and chat support from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET on weekdays. We reached out via each channel to see for ourselves how their response times were, as well as to determine the quality of their support. We were impressed with the response times for all, although the answers we received were rather basic.

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.

Swyft Filings: Swyft Filings promises same- or next-business-day processing. This doesn’t guarantee faster processing once paperwork reaches the state but rather helps ensure that they never take more than a day or so to submit your documents to your formation state. In general, Swyft Filings’ turnaround times are often a day or two faster than some competitors.

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.

Swyft Filings: Client feedback is one of their major strengths because they have 36,000+ reviews available online, and more than 90% of them are either 4- or 5-star ratings.

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.

Swyft Filings: After you choose your entity type and state, you’ll walk through a series of screens where you fill in your contact info, business type, and whether you’ll have employees before choosing which of Swyft Filings’ three LLC formation service packages you’d like to buy. You’ll also encounter upsells for registered agent service, a business license research package, EIN acquisition, an operating agreement template, faster processing, a business banking package from Bank of America, and an H&R Block tax consultation. Then, you can review the information you provided before checking out.

Additional Services

Both of these companies provide additional 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.

Which is the best LLC service for you?

Northwest and Swyft Filings have plenty of common characteristics, but they also have some major differences that set them apart. If you haven’t yet made up your mind, let’s finish this comparison by quickly describing some scenarios that may sway your opinion.

➥ Choose Northwest Registered Agent if:

If receiving registered agent service along with your LLC formation is a priority, Northwest could be worth a look. Their personalized customer support is a solid selling point as well.

➦ Choose Swyft Filings if:

Does their strong customer feedback appeal to you? Interested in a free (+ state fee) LLC formation? Swyft Filings might be a fit for you. In general, it’s a good Northwest Registered Agent alternative.

🎉 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.

Get Started with ZenBusiness

Starts at $0 + state fees and only takes 5-10 minutes