Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom
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6 Things They Have In Common
1) Affordable: LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer both fill that gap between the DIY option and hiring a lawyer. You won’t be on your own, and you’ll still save hundreds of dollars over hiring a business attorney.
2) Customer Support: Speaking of not going it alone, one of the biggest benefits of hiring an LLC formation service is that they have customer service reps who are available to help solve your problems. If you have questions or concerns, they’re just a phone call or email away.
3) Experience: Both Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom have customers that number in the millions. They both have a ton of experience and impressive customer volume.
4) Additional Services: After your formation is complete, these companies still have a lot to offer entrepreneurs. From registered agent service to tax ID numbers, from licensing to ongoing compliance, Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom can provide many services your company might need.
5) Guaranteed Services: LegalZoom has a 100% satisfaction guarantee that you can leverage at any time within 60 days of your purchase, while Rocket Lawyer has a similar guarantee that covers you for 30 days. Many of their competitors offer you no such assurances.
6) Educational: If you require additional assistance or just want to learn more about the business world, both of their websites include a wealth of information on all sorts of issues that might affect your company down the road.
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Side-by-Side Comparisons
Pricing
LegalZoom: It charges at least $0 to form an LLC. It also has loads of upsells, and none of its formation packages include any registered agent service, which has a variable price point that ranges from $249-299 per year as an add-on feature.
Rocket Lawyer: They take a different approach to providing business formation service than most of their competitors. Instead of having several formation packages to choose from, Rocket Lawyer only provides one option, which is their general formation plan priced at $99.99. This package includes no features beyond the simple forming of your business entity, although they do offer plenty of add-on features. However, if you want to subscribe to their legal services plan for $39.99/month, they will provide free formation service for new customers and discounted service for existing clients. As for registered agent service, it’s available for $149.99 per year.
Experience
LegalZoom: LegalZoom has served more than 4 million customers since it started offering online business services in 2001, with about half of those being business clients.
Rocket Lawyer: While that’s already quite impressive, Rocket Lawyer is on another level, with 20 million customers served since 2008.
Customer Support
LegalZoom: You can access LegalZoom’s customer support team via phone or email. We have experience with both of these options, and while we’ve always been impressed with their phone support, their email support has long response times, and in our experience, they just send out form emails that don’t really answer our questions. Their customer service team is available from 8 am to 10 pm ET on weekdays and 10 am to 7 pm ET on Saturdays.
Rocket Lawyer: Rocket Lawyer provides customer support by phone, email, or web chat. Their response times are always fast, and the representatives we’ve spoken to are both knowledgeable and friendly and provided high-quality customer service. Overall, we have no complaints about Rocket Lawyer’s support network. You can reach them from 9 am until 9 pm ET, Monday through Friday.
Turnaround Times
LegalZoom: Most companies in this industry base their turnaround times on which state you’re forming in ― depending on your state’s capabilities, it could take anywhere from a few days to several weeks. However, LegalZoom instead bases its formation speeds on how much you spend on its services. Their cheapest package takes around 30 business days (six weeks), while their most expensive formation plan takes 7-10 business days.
Rocket Lawyer: Unlike LegalZoom, Rocket Lawyer’s formation speeds are based on each state’s actual turnaround times. They even have a page on their website where they provide average processing times for every state, with both standard and expedited estimates.
Customer Reviews
LegalZoom: We found 6,000+ reviews for LegalZoom, and while they do have some negative reviews mixed in, a majority of this feedback is positive. Their satisfied customers often talk about how convenient and easy to use LegalZoom’s services are.
Rocket Lawyer: Similarly, customer feedback is a big pro for Rocket Lawyer. They have 7,000 reviews online, and they also have a high ratio of positive reviews, much like LegalZoom does. Their clients rave about the value they receive from Rocket Lawyer.
Ease of Use
LegalZoom: LegalZoom’s ordering policy is somewhat confusing and almost feels like it operates backward. What we mean by this is that LegalZoom has you enter your personal information, then make your way through quite a few upsell attempts, all before you’ve even selected which formation package you want to buy. How do you know which additional services you want before you choose your base package? We’re not sure either. At any rate, the way they structure their order form can result in some sky-high prices by the time you work your way through all the upsells to choose your package.
Rocket Lawyer: Considering that they only offer one formation package, it’s very easy to choose which one you want to buy! While it can be a bit of a hassle to navigate through all of their many additional services, it’s still a quick and easy process that only took us about ten minutes to complete. They also mostly avoid upsells, which we always appreciate.
Additional Services
These companies offer many of the same business services, as they both provide registered agent services, foreign qualifications, LLC operating agreements, and more.
In addition, LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer both offer many personal services, like last will and testament, divorce papers, and power of attorney. They can even hook you up with an attorney consultation. Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom offer more services than any of their competitors, which is a nice bonus if you’re looking for a one-stop shop.
Which Is the LLC Formation Service for You?
Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom are two of the top LLC formation services online, and they have a bunch of features in common. Of course, there are also quite a few differences that may sway your opinion one way or the other.
Along those lines, let’s finish by reviewing some scenarios that might lead you toward choosing either Rocket Lawyer or LegalZoom.
➥ Choose LegalZoom if You Are:
With their extended service hours, LegalZoom is a top pick for entrepreneurs who can’t take the time out of the business day to get their questions answered. In addition, LegalZoom offers a lower price point for LLC formation service than Rocket Lawyer.
➦ Choose Rocket Lawyer if You Are:
Are you impressed by Rocket Lawyer’s legal services subscription plan? If so, this company is a good choice, as very few competitors can match what Rocket Lawyer provides in this area.
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FAQ's
While they don’t have these services listed anywhere on their website, when we called Rocket Lawyer’s customer support team, we were pleased to learn that they do indeed offer to handle state-specific compliance requirements like publication.
We will note that their publication service is pretty costly though. At $299, this price point does not include newspaper expenses or county fees. For what it’s worth, LegalZoom offers no assistance with publication requirements.
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.
LegalZoom is a very popular and well-known LLC service. To get a glimpse of other top LLC formation services, check out our comparisons:
In our opinion, Rocket Lawyer doesn’t attempt any upsells other than their frequent reminders that you should sign up for their subscription plan.
Ultimately, it’s pretty sensible because their subscription service is a huge part of their business model, and it does provide legitimately good bargains for the right type of customer.
As for LegalZoom, they attempt more upsells than just about any other company in this industry. You’ll need to navigate your way past $1,080 worth of upsells before you even select your LLC formation package. Seeing as you haven’t chosen your package yet, you don’t even know what else you need when they’re presenting you with the upsell attempts.
Rocket Lawyer has a somewhat convoluted refund policy. On one hand, they say that they will provide refunds if they’re requested within 30 days of your initial purchase, but on the other hand, they specify that no refunds will be provided for “incorporation-related services.”
LegalZoom, however, has one of the best refund policies in the industry. It’s nearly identical to the ZenBusiness guarantee! If you request a refund within 60 days, they will grant it within just five business days.
Because these two services use entirely different methods of coming up with their turnaround times, the answer to this question varies considerably based on what state you’re forming your business in.
LegalZoom’s turnarounds are based on which level of service you purchase from them: Economy takes 30 business days, Standard takes 15 business days, and Express Gold takes 7-10. Rocket Lawyer’s processing times are based on the actual capabilities of each state to process LLC formations, so in some states, they’re much faster, and in other states, LegalZoom might have an edge.
You sure can, and many entrepreneurs do in fact DIY their own LLC formations. The main reason we don’t typically advise that our readers do this is that each state has its own rules and regulations for how an LLC should be formed, and there is no uniform way to form an LLC across the country.
Due to this, you would need to familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of your specific state’s requirements, which can take more legwork than you might expect. On the other hand, you can hire a reputable LLC formation service, sometimes at a discounted rate.
We think Rocket Lawyer’s greatest advantage is its superior overall pricing models. Rocket Lawyer can save you money on both registered agent and incorporation services compared to LegalZoom.
As for LegalZoom, they really don’t have any significant advantages over Rocket Lawyer, but they do have a minor edge when it comes to their extended customer support availability.
You can access a variety of tools and features with LegalZoom to help you maintain your good standing into the future. Their registered agent service costs anywhere from $249 per year to $299 per year, depending on your exact situation, and they also sell annual report service for the low rate of $55.
With Rocket Lawyer, you can get registered agent service for a flat yearly rate of $149.99, but they do not offer annual report service at all.
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