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 LLC formation 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 LegalInc. Which one is the better choice to form your new LLC and provide registered agent service?
30-Second Summary Of LegalZoom VS. LegalInc
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.
Legalinc is rather unique in the way they provide their services, as their registered agent and LLC formation services are entirely automated. Their services are reasonably priced, and their formation service also includes access to a convenient dashboard where you can add a number of valuable features.
Overall, while LegalZoom’s pricing for LLC formation service is a bit more affordable, LegalInc’s registered agent service is far cheaper than LegalZoom’s overpriced offering. For this reason, we’ll give the advantage to LegalInc.
We Recommend Zen Business
These LLC Services vs Other Options
LegalInc ranks as our #13 registered agent service, and they didn’t quite make the cut for our top 14 LLC formation services guide. As for LegalZoom, they occupy the #4 spot on both of those guides.
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 article runs down our top 14 options, including a spotlight on Zen Business.
Pricing & Additional Features
LegalInc:
- LLC formation (starts at $99) – LegalInc’s one business formation package provides a business name availability check, along with the preparation and filing of your articles of organization. In addition, their convenient automated dashboard makes it so easy to form a company that you can fill out their entire order form in just five minutes.
- Registered agent ($129/year) – Their registered agent service is fully automated, which makes them an effective middleman in the process ― for business services providers looking for a backend registered agent service, Legalinc makes for a solid option. They also offer specialized service for companies with complex requirements for registered agent service ― if interested in this option, call them for pricing and further details.
Who should use their services? We think LegalInc is a good option for businesses that have extensive registered agent service requirements that typical registered agents can’t handle. They’re also a good option if your company sells business services and you’re looking for a backend provider.
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
LegalInc: $228 (plus state fee)
LegalZoom: $238 (plus state fee)
Customer Satisfaction
LegalInc: We were only able to find nine reviews of Legalinc’s services, all on Google. Only two of those reviews have any text (one with six words, and one with nine words), while the other reviews are just a star rating with no accompanying explanation. Therefore, we are unable to meaningfully analyze such a limited amount of client feedback.
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
LegalInc: With Legalinc, you can access their customer support team via phone, email, or web chat. We tested all three options and found that their response times are quite quick, as we spent very little time waiting for them to respond to our queries. In our experience, their representatives are courteous and knowledgeable, and were able to answer our questions efficiently and accurately.
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
LegalInc: There is not much information available online regarding Legalinc’s track record. Through their LinkedIn page, we were able to find out that they opened for business in 2012, and that they’re located in Frisco, Texas. According to LinkedIn, Legalinc has between 11-50 employees, but we could not find any information about how many clients they’ve served.
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
LegalInc (3.9/5): Legalinc’s fully automated approach to formation service is intriguing, and their LLC formation package is fairly priced, while including access to their convenient online dashboard. Still, they don’t stand out from the pack enough to make them a widely recommended service.
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 both LegalZoom and LegalInc, 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.