ZenBusiness reviews its own products and services and compares them to others in the industry.
ZenBusiness reviews and compares Northwest Registered Agent and ZenBusiness for LLC formation. ZenBusiness offers free formation (plus state fees) with extensive customer reviews while Northwest charges $225 with one year of registered agent service included and offers more personalized support.
Starts at $0 + state fees and only takes 5-10 minutes“Northwest Registered Agent” is the registered trademark of Northwest Registered Agent, LLC
Last Updated: October 30, 2025
*Mr. Cuban may receive financial compensation for his support.
ZenBusiness and Northwest Registered Agent are both popular and reputable LLC formation services. Either can easily form your compliant LLC, and both have reasonable rates, especially compared to hiring a lawyer. However, each has its advantages.
We offer LLC formations starting at $0 (+ state fee), while Northwest charges $225. Furthermore, we have 25217 positive customer reviews available online, while Northwest has about 800. In other words, there’s a reason we’re such a popular alternative to Northwest Registered Agent.
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.
1) Affordable: With either ZenBusiness or Northwest Registered Agent, you’ll save a significant amount of money on your LLC formation compared to hiring a business attorney to handle your formation process.
2) Great Customer Feedback: Although we have a higher volume of reviews than Northwest does, both of these companies receive high average customer review ratings.
3) Valuable Features: Both companies have feature-rich LLC formation service packages that include advanced features.
4) Customer Support: These two services both have customer support networks that can answer your tough questions. Why go it alone when you can get help from ZenBusiness or Northwest?
5) Efficiency: These companies both work quickly and can get your formation processed with the state in a matter of weeks or even days.
6) Additional Services: Both Northwest and ZenBusiness have many other services to help you focus more on building your business and less on paperwork.
ZenBusiness: We offer LLC service for free (just pay your state’s fee). If you’re looking for some advanced features, our $199 Pro package adds ongoing compliance assistance, an operating agreement template, an employer identification number (EIN), and faster processing. You also might like our $299 Premium plan, as it adds a business website builder, a domain name, a business email address, and 25+ business document templates.
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.
ZenBusiness: We were founded in 2015 in Austin, Texas. Since then, we’ve served over 850,000 customers. We’re a public benefit corporation that provides grants to help our customers kickstart their businesses.
Northwest: Northwest Registered Agent has been around since 1998, and since then, they’ve served 2+ million customers.
ZenBusiness: ZenBusiness provides access to our customer service team by phone, email, or web chat. We have expanded availability that even includes Sundays — very few competitors have any weekend availability. We pride ourselves in continuously improving the quality and responsiveness of our customer support, and we believe we compare favorably to the vast majority of competitors in this area.
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.
ZenBusiness: With ZenBusiness, all formation speeds vary based on state capabilities. Also, if you’re in a hurry, you can choose one of our premium packages to speed things up a bit. When compared to other formation services, we are usually either just as fast or slightly faster. To find out your turnaround time, simply plug in your state and immediately see your estimated processing speed.
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.
ZenBusiness: ZenBusiness excels when it comes to customer feedback, as we have 25217 reviews available online, and nearly all of them are positive. Our clients are clearly satisfied with our services, and they frequently praise our efficiency, along with the general ease of use provided by our platform.
Northwest: Northwest Registered Agent doesn’t have a ton of customer feedback, but they do have around 800 reviews, and they’re mostly positive.
ZenBusiness: It’s important to us to make the LLC formation process as simple as possible. All you have to do is choose your LLC package from our three options, provide us with some information about yourself and your business, select which add-on services you’d like, and pay for the order. It doesn’t get much easier than this.
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.
Both ZenBusiness and Northwest Registered Agent provide access to many additional business services, and there’s a considerable amount of overlap between these companies’ offerings. For instance, either can help you with employer identification number (EIN) acquisition, annual reports, foreign registrations, and more.
However, each has some services that the other doesn’t provide. ZenBusiness offers bookkeeping and accounting services, which Northwest doesn’t. On the other hand, only Northwest provides its customers with virtual office services.
ZenBusiness and Northwest Registered Agent are two popular online LLC formation services, and both can efficiently and effectively register an LLC. If you’re still undecided between these companies, let’s look at a couple of scenarios that might help you determine which one to choose.
Do you want registered agent service packaged in with your LLC formation, and you’re willing to pay a bit extra to get it? Northwest could be worth a look.
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 25217 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
Compare ZenBusiness Plans
$0
+ state fees | does not renew
Starter
Standard
$199
+ state fees | renews at $199/yr
Pro
Most Popular
$349
$399
Save $50
+ state fees | renews at $399/yr
Premium
Best Value
*Processing times are based on receiving complete information. ZenBusiness processing times do not include Secretary of State processing times, which can vary.**SPECIAL OFFER – After the initial free period ends, this service automatically renews at the regular price. You can cancel at any time before or after the introductory period ends.
It’s hard to not be a fan of our Starter plan because it’s $0 as long as you pay your state’s required fee. If you’re looking for some more advanced features, our Pro package ($199 + state fee) adds ongoing compliance assistance, EIN acquisition, an operating agreement template, and faster filing. Meanwhile, our Premium package ($299 + state fee) adds a business website builder, a business email address, a domain name, and 25+ business document templates to the Pro package.
You can, and many entrepreneurs do form their own LLCs every day. However, we appreciate the peace of mind we receive from using a reputable formation service. In addition, each state has its own rules and regulations for LLC formations, so there can often be more legwork than people might expect.
Would you like to take a look at a couple of other options? Check out our comparisons of ZenBusiness to other top-rated LLC services, LegalZoom and Incfile:
Northwest charges $25 as a convenience fee for processing refunds, or as they call it, a “You changed your mind fee.” On the other hand, we have a refund policy that’s one of the most reasonable in the industry. While many competitors have vague refund policies or even refuse refunds outright, we offer a 60-day money-back guarantee with no fees.
The main advantage of ZenBusiness is our offer of a free business formation service (state fee not included). We’re only aware of a few other companies in this entire industry that can match this offer.
Meanwhile, Northwest’s biggest advantage is its experience. They’ve been around longer and formed more businesses than we have.
You can get assistance with ongoing compliance issues from either of these companies. We charge $199 as an annual fee for registered agent service in any state, and we also provide annual report service for $100. Northwest offers registered agent service for $125 per year. They also offer annual report service, which is available for $100 plus state fee.
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Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.
Written by ZenBusiness Editorial Team
The ZenBusiness Editorial Team has more than 20 years of combined small business publishing experience and has helped over 850,000 entrepreneurs launch and grow their companies. Our writers and business formation experts are dedicated to providing accurate, practical, and trustworthy guidance so business owners can make confident decisions.
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