Is Incorporate.com Legit?
The limited liability company is an increasingly popular business structure in America, with thousands of new LLCs being formed every day. The LLC is effectually a hybrid business type, occupying the space between the rigid formalities of a corporation, and the casual nature of a general partnership or sole proprietorship.
While you can create your own LLC, the process for doing so varies from state to state, so there’s no uniform process for forming one. This can make it complicated and time-consuming. Some entrepreneurs choose to hire a business attorney to form their limited liability companies, but this route can be expensive, costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees.
The other option is to hire an LLC formation service to form your company. There are many companies that offer limited liability company formation services online, and it’s sometimes difficult to determine which one has your best interests in mind. If you’re looking to form your own LLC, but you’re not quite sure where to turn, we hope that our comprehensive reviews can help you decide.
In this review, we’ll take a close look at Incorporate.com, one of the top service providers in the industry. Are they the right service to form your new LLC?
About Incorporate.com
Incorporate.com opened in 1899, and they’ve served 750,000+ clients since then. Over the years, their name has changed several times ― from Corporation Service Company to The Company Corporation to Incorporate.com ― but the core business has stayed the same.
The mission statement on the Incorporate.com website states that “It’s a cruel world out there for the small business owner. And we can relate because we’re entrepreneurs, just like you. We work with business owners throughout their companies’ life cycles, helping them overcome the obstacles blocking effective compliance. And we provide the kind of thought leadership and guidance that will inspire and encourage their continued success, no matter the odds.”
A fun fact about Incorporate.com is that they guarantee their services with a unique feature: their $75,000 Corporate Compliance Guarantee. With this guarantee, your purchase is protected against filing defects caused by negligence on the part of Incorporate.com. If your filing is found to be invalid through their fault, they will resolve the issue or pay you up to $75,000.
30-Second Summary Of Our Review
Incorporate.com is one of the oldest companies in the business services industry, as they opened for business well over a century ago, in 1899.
Unfortunately, their LLC formation service is quite expensive, costing twice as much as some competitors without adding enough valuable features to make their price point worthwhile. Incorporate.com doesn’t have good customer reviews either, making them an unappealing option for LLC service, especially with so many high-quality competitors in this market.
Incorporate.com Strengths
- Tons of experience – Seeing as Incorporate.com has been around since the 19th century, they have longevity that very few companies in this industry can compete with.
- Solid customer support – We have plenty of experience with Incorporate.com’s customer service department, and they never let us down. They’re always able to quickly answer our tough questions.
Incorporate.com Weaknesses
- High prices – Simply put, their prices are far too high to consider using their services. Some of their competitors offer similar (or better) LLC formation plans for a mere fraction of the rates charged by Incorporate.com.
- Poor customer feedback – Customer reviews are not an advantage for Incorporate.com. Most of their online reviews are negative.
- Not all advertised features are actually included – If you read the fine print on their package selection screen, you’ll discover that you actually need to purchase registered agent service and annual report service for an additional $385 to access all of the advertised features.
Pricing & Additional Features
Before we begin this section, we’d like to point out that you will not receive all of the features Incorporate.com advertises for these packages unless you also purchase registered agent service, which is a $235/year additional fee.
Furthermore, even though their website doesn’t tell you this, you cannot purchase their top two packages without also buying registered agent service. These packages also require an additional $150 yearly fee for annual report service. With these factors in mind, the prices and features listed below are the actual costs and services you will receive from Incorporate.com, not the ones they advertise.
- The Starter ($79) – This package includes only the preparation and filing of your articles of organization.
- The Essentials ($574) – This package includes all features of The Starter package, then adds registered agent service, a federal tax ID number (EIN), an LLC kit and seal, an online compliance dashboard, and annual report service.
- The Works ($654) – This package includes all features of The Essentials package, then adds a business license research package, along with a custom LLC operating agreement.
Incorporate.com vs Other LLC Services
We’ll go ahead and be blunt: we have never advised any of our readers to use Incorporate.com for LLC formation service. Their prices are way too high, they don’t include enough valuable features, and their customer feedback is a mixed bag at best.
For more information about better options, take a look at our Zen Business vs LegalZoom comparison guide which looks at two of the top companies in the industry, or check out our list of the top LLC formation services available online.
Online Customer Reviews
For a company that’s been open for well over 100 years, and has served over 750,000 clients, it’s surprising that there is so little customer feedback available for Incorporate.com. We found just 19 reviews on third-party sites, with 14 on the FitSmallBusiness website and another five from the Better Business Bureau, and only one of those 19 reviews is positive. Their unsatisfied clients often discuss how high Incorporate.com’s prices are, and also complain that registered agent service is sometimes added onto their formation service orders without the client’s consent.
Customer Service Quality
Overall, we were pleased with the quality of Incorporate.com’s customer support department. They offer support over the phone, via email, or using their online chat function. With all three options, we received efficient responses. Their representatives were pleasant to talk to, while also seeming quite knowledgeable, and expanding upon their answers as necessary.
Main Reasons to Use Incorporate.com
If experience is the only thing that matters to you, it could make some sense to use a company that’s been around since the 1800s.
Main Reasons Not to Use Incorporate.com
If you want to save money, or if you appreciate positive customer feedback, or if you dislike misleading advertising, you should probably look elsewhere. We do not recommend Incorporate.com to anyone for LLC formation service.
Our Recommendation – Incorporate.com Scores 3.6/5
We’re not impressed with what Incorporate.com has to offer their LLC formation clients. Their prices are so high that you might as well hire an attorney to form your LLC rather than purchase their upper-tier packages. Furthermore, their packages are misleading and threadbare, they don’t have good customer feedback, etc.
There are many other companies that can do a better job for less money than Incorporate.com. Specifically, you could go with Zen Business and get your LLC formation for just $39, while also receiving a full year of registered agent service.