Rocket Lawyer vs IncFile
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Do Rocket Lawyer and IncFile Offer Good Value?
Both Rocket Lawyer and IncFile are good LLC formation services. With either option, you’re getting a reputable company that provides high-quality LLC formation service. Still, there are some differences between them.
First and foremost, IncFile’s cheapest LLC service package is truly free (all you’ll pay is your state’s fee) compared to the $99.99 price point offered by Rocket Lawyer. In addition, IncFile includes more features, like a full year of registered agent service at no extra charge.
6 Things They Have In Common
1) Affordable: Both of these providers are capable of forming a new company at a far lower cost than a lawyer will charge you. You can save hundreds of dollars with Rocket Lawyer or IncFile.
2) Customer Support: Cutting costs is great, but with Rocket Lawyer and IncFile, you’re still getting strong customer support. Instead of wasting time hunting for answers on your own, you can direct your tough questions to their customer service reps.
3) Experience: These are two highly experienced companies. Rocket Lawyer has served millions of customers, while IncFile is also no slouch with more than 800,000 customers served. With track records like this, these operations are as legitimate and trustworthy as they come.
4) Additional Services: Both are capable of helping your company with many other business solutions beyond forming an LLC. From registered agent service to federal tax ID number (EIN) obtainment, these companies are one-stop business service shops.
5) Positive Customer Reviews: If you like to read customer reviews before making a purchase, both Rocket Lawyer and IncFile have quite a bit of feedback for you to peruse, and it’s mostly positive in nature. It’s not hard to get an idea of what your customer experience will be like with either company.
6) Educational: Whether you end up becoming a customer or not, IncFile and Rocket Lawyer both offer lots of free information on their websites. If you need to know more about business formations or compliance requirements, the info is right at your fingertips.
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Side-by-Side Comparisons
Pricing
IncFile: If you’re seeking a combination of business formation and registered agent service, IncFile bundles these features together for free (plus state fee). IncFile and ZenBusiness are two of the only companies in the industry forming businesses for free. After the free year of registered agent included in your formation package, you can renew this service for $119 per year, which is also a competitive rate. If you want them to supply your federal tax ID number (EIN) and some business documents as well, their $149 Gold package is a well-rounded collection of features.
Rocket Lawyer: As opposed to having their clients select one of several LLC service packages full of various features, Rocket Lawyer just offers one formation service plan. It costs $99.99 and includes no additional features other than the basics of formation. If you’re interested in their legal services plan for $39.99 per month, they offer free business formation service for new subscribers or discounted service if you’re already a customer. They provide registered agent service as well, for a reasonable annual price point of $149.99.
Experience
IncFile: IncFile has plenty of experience but doesn’t handle the same high volume of customers that Rocket Lawyer does, as IncFile has completed 800,000+ business formations since 2004.
Rocket Lawyer: Rocket Lawyer is one of the industry giants, with an unrivaled 20 million customers served since it opened in 2008.
Customer Support
IncFile: With IncFile, you can receive customer support by phone, or you can email them. We’ve used both of these options many times, and we’ve found that they always have fast response times via phone, and their representatives are both knowledgeable and helpful. However, IncFile’s email support is essentially nonfunctional, as we’ve had several messages go unanswered for weeks. You can access their customer service team from 10 am to 7 pm ET on weekdays.
Rocket Lawyer: Rocket Lawyer’s support reps are available via phone, email, or their web-based chat application. They always reply to our queries quickly, and their representatives really know their stuff. One aspect of their customer support that we appreciate is their extended support hours, which run from 9 am to 9 pm ET every weekday.
Turnaround Times
Incfile: With Incfile, they guarantee that they’ll prepare and file your articles of organization or incorporation within one business day of receiving your order. Like most competitors in this industry, they base their turnaround times on how quickly each individual state processes new business formations. With this in mind, their formation service can take just a couple of days, or it could take several weeks. Incfile also offers expedited service if you’re in a hurry.
Rocket Lawyer: Rocket Lawyer has a similar method for generating turnaround time estimates, and they provide a helpful reference guide to each state’s average processing speed, both for standard and expedited service. We appreciate their transparency, and their formation speeds are roughly comparable to most competitors.
Customer Reviews
IncFile: IncFile has nearly 34,000 reviews available online, and they’re almost entirely positive in nature. Clearly, this company is popular with its customers.
Rocket Lawyer: Rocket Lawyer gets strong reviews from its customers. They have nearly 7,000 reviews across the web, and their average rating scores are quite high.
Ease of Use
IncFile: It’s always rather easy to use IncFile’s services. As you walk through the process of ordering their services, you just need to select your formation package, provide them with some basic information about yourself and your business, and they’ll take care of the rest. Their order form is customized based on which state you’re forming in, and there are links sprinkled throughout the application that explain what some of the various features entail.
Rocket Lawyer: Especially considering the fact that they just have one business formation package available, it’s certainly simple to select your plan and get the ball rolling on your formation. Navigating through all of their add-on options can be a slight hassle, but overall we still find that it only takes about ten minutes to complete your order.
Additional Services
There is quite a bit of overlap between these companies when it comes to additional services, as they both offer registered agent services, annual reports, and other common business services. However, Rocket Lawyer also has some unique services that IncFile doesn’t provide, due in part to their commitment to providing a wide variety of both business and personal services.
For example, Rocket Lawyer offers its clients a broad selection of services to assist them with things like home ownership, estate planning, and divorce. They also provide access to business attorneys for consultations. These are all services that IncFile does not offer.
Which Is the LLC Formation Service for You?
Rocket Lawyer and IncFile offer similar services, but they certainly differ in some important areas. Depending on your specific needs, you may have already decided which one you prefer.
We understand that some of you may remain undecided, so let’s close by reviewing some situations that might lead you to prefer one or the other.
➥ Choose IncFile if You Are:
If you prioritize getting the most bang for your buck and would like a free LLC formation service, IncFile is well worth a look.
➦ Choose Rocket Lawyer if You Are:
If you want access to a plethora of online legal services by opting into their subscription plan, Rocket Lawyer will be a strong choice to start an LLC.
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FAQ's
When choosing from IncFile’s LLC formation packages, we typically favor their Silver package, which is free (plus state fee). This option provides you with your LLC formation itself, along with 12 months of registered agent service.
If you want some more advanced features and don’t mind spending a bit more, you might like their Gold package ($149 + state fee), which adds an EIN and an operating agreement, along with some other features like an S corporation tax election.
Is IncFile the best LLC service? That’s one of our most asked questions. For a close-up look at how they compare to other top-rated LLC services, check out our comparisons below:
Unfortunately, they do not. While some of their competitors like ZenBusiness provide a comprehensive formation service that takes care of every possible step in the process, IncFile does not offer assistance with state-specific requirements for NY publication.
When we called them to clarify, they said that publication requirements “need to be taken care of with the state directly.” For what it’s worth, Rocket Lawyer does offer publication service, although their price point for this service ($299) is much higher than the rate ZenBusiness charges ($200).
For those of you looking for the best New York LLC publication services, check out our full guide on that topic.
Both of these companies do a pretty good job of avoiding the nonstop upsells that make some of their competitors hard to trust.
The only minor exception to this is that Rocket Lawyer does make several attempts to get you to upgrade to their legal services subscription plan, but because the subscription includes free LLC formation service for new subscribers (and has a 7-day free trial), we don’t really have much of a problem with this.
Rocket Lawyer has a solid refund policy. As long as you request your refund within 30 days of your initial purchase date, they will provide a refund with no questions asked.
IncFile has a more restrictive policy, unfortunately. If you order LLC service from them, you can only request a refund before they submit payment to your formation state, which typically happens within 24 hours, and there is a $30 processing fee involved. After they’ve sent your payment to the state, there are no more refunds available.
The turnaround times for Rocket Lawyer and IncFile are nearly identical because they both use the same criteria to calculate them.
Both of these companies base their processing estimates on how quickly each individual state processes LLC formations, so although one or the other may be a day or two faster in a few isolated states, in most states they are very close competitors.
You always have the option to form your own LLC without any assistance, and quite a few entrepreneurs do choose this route. We don’t typically recommend the DIY option to our readers though, because the rules and regulations regarding LLC formations vary from state to state, and it can be a hassle to learn the exact requirements of your formation state.
In addition, the DIY route doesn’t provide the same peace of mind that we receive from hiring an cost effective LLC service.
IncFile has one big advantage, and that’s its overall pricing and value. With IncFile, your money simply goes farther than it does with most competitors, as IncFile has a plan that bundles together formation service with a year of registered agent service for free.
As for Rocket Lawyer, their more reliable and responsive customer support is an advantage over IncFile, and their customer volume is unrivaled in this industry.
Oddly enough, Rocket Lawyer does not offer annual report service to their clients, but they do have registered agent service available for $149.99 per year.
With IncFile, you can get registered agent service for $119 per year after your free first year, and their annual report service costs $88 (plus state fee). Overall, IncFile is the better option for ongoing compliance assistance.
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Great experience all around
Great experience all around! Very helpful in starting my business.
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Easy to use. Completed with no prior experience on how to set up LLC.
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