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.
If you want to form an LLC in the United States, you will need to designate a registered agent. The role of the registered agent involves the usage of their address as your official business address, which means they’ll receive important document deliveries on your behalf, including court summons and other official correspondence from your state government.
There are many companies that offer cheap LLC formation services and registered agent services online, and it’s sometimes difficult to determine which one has your best interests in mind. In this comparison, we’ll take a close look at LegalZoom and InCorp. Which one is the better choice to form your new LLC and provide registered agent service?
30-Second Summary Of LegalZoom VS. InCorp
When you discuss online incorporation services, the first name that comes to nearly everyone’s mind is LegalZoom. That’s because they’ve served millions of customers, and they also advertise heavily across several different mediums. LegalZoom’s pricing models are more costly than many of their competitors, and they do not include registered agent service with any of their LLC formation packages.
InCorp is best known for their impressive registered agent service pricing, which starts at just $99 per year, and they also offer volume discounts. They have plenty of experience and a large roster of active registered agent clients. While InCorp does provide LLC formation service, it’s a somewhat uninspired barebones offering.
Overall, InCorp beats LegalZoom’s pricing by such a wide margin for registered agent service that it overwhelms LegalZoom’s slight advantage for LLC formations.
We Recommend Zen Business
These LLC Services vs Other Options
LegalZoom is the #4 company on both our LLC formation services guide, as well as our list of the top registered agent services. As for InCorp, they ranked #12 on our list of the best LLC formation services, and they came in sixth on our registered agent service guide.
Our top overall pick is Zen Business, due to their incredible low prices and their outstanding customer feedback. If you want to see how they stack up to LegalZoom, check out our Zen Business vs LegalZoom comparison guide. To see our entire comprehensive guide to LLC formation services, this review runs down our top 14 options, including a spotlight on Zen Business.
Pricing & Additional Features
InCorp:
- LLC formation ($99) – InCorp only has one LLC formation service package, which costs $99 plus state fee. It just includes the basic elements of forming a company: a business name availability check, and the preparation and filing of your articles of organization.
- Registered agent ($99/year) – If you purchase one year’s worth of registered agent service from InCorp, they will charge you a flat rate of $99. However, if you prepay for future years of service, they’ll cut their rates as follows: 2 years ($89.10/year), 3 years ($80.52/year), 5 years ($66.56/year). One unique feature of InCorp is their EntityWatch system, which provides real-time information regarding the status of your business entity, and also helps prevent corporate identity theft. They also provide access to a convenient compliance calendar.
Who should use their services? We think InCorp’s registered agent service offering is appealing to any entrepreneur looking for reasonably priced service. However, we’re not quite sure who they’re trying to appeal to for LLC service. Their formation package is underwhelming and hard to recommend.
LegalZoom:
- LLC formation (starts at $79) – LegalZoom starts with the essential elements of formation, including the full preparation of your articles of organization, and the filing of the completed documents with your state. LegalZoom also includes a banking authorization letter to help you open business checking and/or savings accounts.
- Registered agent ($299/year) – LegalZoom charges an annual fee of $299 to serve as your registered agent, although if you purchase business formation service from them, they’ll provide your first year for $159. In addition to the essentials of registered agent service, they also include a compliance calendar for annual reports and tax deadlines.
Who should use their services? If you prioritize using the most popular service with an incredible amount of brand power, LegalZoom should be a good fit. Just don’t expect them to blow you away with low prices or a vast array of features.
Total Price for LLC Formation + 1 Year Registered Agent
InCorp: $198 (plus state fee)
LegalZoom: $238 (plus state fee)
Customer Satisfaction
InCorp: We were able to track down 95 reviews for InCorp, as they have 61 reviews on the Better Business Bureau website, along with another 34 on Facebook. Their reviews are decent, but not spectacular. In their positive reviews, InCorp clients discuss the quality customer support they receive, and also highlight the company’s ease of use. On the other hand, they do have some negative reviews that mostly revolve around customers having difficulties canceling their services.
LegalZoom: We were able to find over 1,400 reviews for LegalZoom’s services, with the three largest collections of feedback belonging to Sitejabber, Consumer Affairs, and the Better Business Bureau. While the 859 reviews on Sitejabber are more often positive than negative, the 395 reviews on Consumer Affairs are split about 50/50, and the 174 reviews on BBB are almost all negative.
Quality of Customer Service
InCorp: You can access InCorp’s customer support representatives via phone, email, or web-based chat. If you prefer support in Spanish, they have bilingual reps available during all standard operating hours, which at InCorp run from 9am to 9pm ET every weekday. No matter which method you prefer for contacting their support department, they have quick response times, and their representatives are friendly and helpful.
LegalZoom: LegalZoom has a bit of a shaky reputation when it comes to customer support. In our experience, their phone support is quite good, as we’ve received thorough and accurate responses from their service reps whenever we’ve called them with questions or concerns.
On the other hand, we’ve also tested their email support, which is a different story entirely. We’ve actually waited over a full week to get a response to emails in the past, and when LegalZoom does respond to email inquiries, it’s often just a form email that doesn’t actually answer our questions.
Company Stats and Track Record
InCorp: InCorp was founded in 1998, and with over 125,000 active registered agent clients, they’re the fourth-largest national registered agent service in America. InCorp also provides business formation services, and their EntityWatch compliance management feature is a unique benefit.
LegalZoom: Since they formed in 1999, LegalZoom has served around 3.6 million customers, which includes the formation of more than one million businesses. They also have tremendous brand power and corporate reach thanks to their extensive advertising efforts.
Final Scores and Our Recommendation
We Recommend Zen Business
InCorp (3.9/5): InCorp is one of the best registered agent service providers in the entire industry, as their low price points and valuable features are a winning combination. Their LLC formation service is underwhelming though.
LegalZoom (3.8/5): LegalZoom’s prices aren’t great, especially considering the rather minimal feature sets included in their packages, and they receive mixed feedback from their clients. They’re the right choice if you prioritize customer volume and brand power above value-per-dollar.
Our Favorite Service – Zen Business (4.9/5): While we really appreciate some aspects of both LegalZoom and InCorp, Zen Business is actually our favorite LLC formation service. For just $39, they’ll provide the full formation process of your LLC, while also including a year of registered agent service. It’s one of the lowest price points in the industry for this combination of features, and you won’t have to sacrifice anything when it comes to features.