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by Benjamin AronsonWhen it comes to incorporation services Incorporate.com is the oldest fish in the sea. And while wisdom often comes with age, it’s only a small part of what makes a company the best for your needs.
In this review, we are going to go over the essentials and point out the good, the bad, and the ugly of Incorporate.com. We will give you the most objective information so that you can decide whether or not Incorproate.com is the right filing service for you.
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Incorporate.com, based in Wilmington, Delaware, has been around since 1899. They were formally known as The Company Corporation and according to their website, they have helped form over 750,000 businesses through LLC formation. That’s a long time and a lot of businesses!
Despite having been around for well over a hundred years, they don’t have many online reviews.
In fact, most of their reviews are not very flattering at all, and much of this has to do with their pricing and billing practices (more on that below).
Let’s dive in and talk more in-depth about how much filing costs, how long it takes to form an LLC, and if Incorporate.com is a good LLC service for your business.
Before we dove into our Incorporate.com Review we asked ourselves the following:
Those were the questions that we kept in mind while we were analyzing features, their customer support, track record professionalism, and overall value.
Based on our research and the guidelines above, Incorporate.com is an overall expensive LLC formation service in relation to other competitors like Incfile or LegalZoom alternatives. They have over a hundred years of experience and know what they are doing, but they have very heavy additional costs to the top two packages (The “Essentials” and “Works”) and they lack an expected amount of transparency.
The formation packages that Incorporate.com offers are very misleading and result in much higher “final costs” than what is advertised. We feel that as a professional filing business, Incorproation.com should be much more transparent. Skip down to the Incorporate.com Formation Package Pricing for more information.
If price is an important factor when choosing a filing service, consider looking at BetterLegal or Northwest Registered Agent alternatives.
Let’s take a second to understand where Incorporate.com offers value, and where they come short.
Experience
Incorporate.com is an LLC formation service that was established in 1899 and is one of the most seasoned LLC formation services out there. With over 120 years of LLC filing and over 750,000 businesses filed, they are a field leader when it comes down to experience and customer support.
Turnaround Times
Incorporate.com does not promise same-day filing, but they are very transparent as to their preparation and filing capabilities. With every business order they receive, Incorporate.com provides a time estimate as to when the LLC will be properly registered and ready to go.
We filed an LLC using their Starter package and their estimates were accurate about the time it would take to process the LLC. From our experience, it is very nice to have a company that makes a promise and keeps it.
Customer Support
Incorporate.com is known to have good quality customer support, so we decided to put them to the test (not to mention, we had some questions about their “transparency”). There are 3 main methods to reach them, chat, email, and via phone. They responded almost immediately when we reached out by chat and took a little over 24 hours to receive a response via email.
Our team called Incorporate.com on a Wednesday during working hours. They answered almost immediately and gave a very professional response to the question, “What would be the best state to form an LLC if I do business in Texas“. Although there aren’t so many customer reviews, we put their customer support to the test and they passed.
Online Learning Center
Incorporate.com has an in-depth online learning center that offers very valuable information to founders and business owners. This is 100% free for readers and provided a ton of value, something that many formation services lack.
No Registered Agent Service Included
Incorporate.com doesn’t offer registered agent service in any of the packages that they offer. In fact, the registered agent service is an additional cost of $235 per year! Many competitors charge anywhere from $119-$149 and almost all LLC services offer registered agent service in a formation package.
Annual Report Service Not Included
Incorporate.com offers annual reporting, as LLCs are required to file an annual report in order to stay compliant, but Incorproate.com charged an added cost. Annual report service costs an additional $150 to the overall yearly cost. This is a very high price point for annual compliance.
Usually, when companies offer LLC package pricing, it’s because you can save money by bundling services. And who wouldn’t want to save money, especially when you’re trying to form an LLC!
But business owners need to look carefully at the options that Incorporate.com is offering. Their prices are significantly higher than some of their competitors and lack some of the services the competitors offer.
Similar to Incorporate Fast, Incorporate.com offers 3 main formation packages that cover a variety of online services:
Important note: As mentioned above, Incorporate.com is a corporation service company that offers difficult to understand pricing formation. So difficult that we had to get on the phone with customer service in order to clarify.
In order to purchase the Essentials and Works LLC packages, customers are required to hire Incorproate.com as a registered agent for an additional $235 a year. On top of that, the annual report service is an additional cost of $150 a year even though it is a service that is listed in those two plans.
We called Incorporate.com to clear up this confusion and in order to give you the most information, we calculated the total cost of each LLC package.
This package is the first-tier offering from Incorporate.com. For $99 plus the cost of the fees in the state you’re starting your business, you receive the following:
LLC Formation Documents
These are the documents required by the state that you wish to form you’re LLC. They will create and file your articles of organization on your behalf.
$75,000 “Corporate Compliance Guarantee”
The Corporate Compliance Guarantee is included with all of their LLC packages. This guarantee says that if a court finds errors caused by Incorporate.com, they will fix the problem or pay you up to $75,000 (not available to North Carolina businesses). That sounds like a decent offer and makes a person feel a little better about trusting Incorporate.com to handle your important documents!
But that’s also a lot of hoops to jump through to be reimbursed for an error that wasn’t your fault.
Access to CSC Navigator
This tool helps you comply with state laws by letting you know when LLC filings are due. It also allows you to store your documents online and gives you easy access to online payments and order tracking.
This feature also sounds helpful, but like many things in life, you need to look at the fine print! It says, “This service is available only to customers who choose incorporate.com as their registered agent service”.
Hmm, what’s that about, you ask?
While many LLC/corporation-forming services include a free registered agent service for one year, Incorporate.com does not. So you can’t actually access the CSC Navigator for the fee of $99; you need to spend additional money by paying for their registered agent service.
This will set you back an additional $235!
So far, we’ve reviewed several LLC filing companies which include FREE registered agent service for one year when you use them to form your company. These include Harbor Compliance, Incfile, Inc Authority, and ZenBusiness, among others.
In our “Best Registered Agent Services” article, we reviewed five services. Every single one of them was cheaper than Incorporate.com’s registered agent services.
If the CSC Navigator feature is important to you, you’ll need to shell out the starter package($99)+ registered agent ($235)= $334 + state filing fees!
That’s a big increase from what they have listed on their website!
This LLC package costs $249 plus the cost of state filing fees. For that price, you get everything included with the Starter package, plus:
The Corporate Kit and Seal
The Corporate Kit and Seal is an organization tool to help you keep all your important LLC documents together. If you’re prone to losing things, it could be helpful to know all your important paperwork is in one place.
An Employer Identification Number (EIN)
An Employer Identification Number (EIN) is an important tax id number for your business. However, other business formation services offer it as a cheaper add-on or include it for a lower total price. You can also apply for one yourself fairly easily, rather than paying the upcharge and having them do it for you.
Annual Report Preparation and Filing
The annual report service is an essential part of making sure your business is compliant with the laws in your state. But wait – don’t forget about the fine print!
To take advantage of the annual reports service, you must not only use Incorporate.com as your registered agent (an additional cost of $235), but you must also pay them $150 to file this annual report for you, in addition to the state cost!
So let’s do some quick math:
Essentials Package ($249) + Registered Agent Fee ($235) + Annual Report Service ($150) = $634 plus your state filing fees to take full advantage of everything the Essentials LLC Package has to offer.
The Works package is the most extensive LLC package Incorporate.com has to offer. For the price of $349, you can get everything in the Start and Essiantils Package plus:
Business License Research Package
Incorporate.com will research in order to help you find out what permits, licenses, or registrations your business might need to get started and remain in good standing. With the business license research package, Incorpate.com can help you find the forms you need to fill out for your business.
Operating Agreement
An Operating Agreement is a legal document that outlines the operations of your LLC, who manages it, owner percentage, how profits and losses are distributed, how to change registered agents, and more. The operating agreement is almost always a requirement when opening a business bank account. If you’d like, you can skip out on this perk and find an operating agreement template online.
However, don’t forget about that pesky fine print! You are still required to shell out the extra bucks for the Registered Agent Service and the Annual Report fee.
Works Package ($349) + Registered Agent Fee ($235) + Annual Report Service($150) = $734 plus any state fees to take advantage of all the perks of the package.
One exciting thing that Incorporate.com offers on its website is a plethora of free information. Incorproate.com has a Learning Center that has information on filing in every state, guides to tax laws, and information about keeping your business compliant.
While we recommend checking with your federal, state, or local authorities to make sure you’re following the laws, their Learning Center can be an excellent resource for digging in and finding information that could be helpful for you’re business.
Even if you don’t use their services, this could be a valuable resource for double-checking that you’re filing all of the correct forms for your LLC.
We mentioned earlier that there aren’t many customer reviews out there. However, Incorporate.com does have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
Only one complaint is visible on the website, and it references being billed too frequently for services.
Incorporate.com has plenty of customer reviews on their website, but these may or may not be trustworthy.
Scam Report has several positive reviews, but the negative review listed also mentions problems with billing. In this case, the customer was billed even after they canceled the service.
If you do choose to use Incorporate.com for your business, we suggest checking your records to make sure you aren’t getting billed more often than you should be.
Incorporate.com is available and easy to get ahold of and has a chat feature on their website along with a phone number and email address if you get hung up. Customer service is one area they appear to excel in.
Incfile is a well-established online legal services company that can get your LLC up and running starting from a price of $0 plus state filing fees. After more than 15 years of business incorporation and 500,000 happy clients, you bet you can trust them with your money (no matter how little you give them).
And just like Harbor Compliance, they also offer a full year of registered agent service.
If you’re interested in Incfile, take a look at our Incfile vs LegalZoom review and see how they compare.
ZenBusiness is one of the top business formation services. The company was founded back in 2015 by 3 entrepreneurs driven to help small business owners incorporate.
ZenBusiness offers an unbelievably affordable price point of $49. They undoubtedly make the 5 best incorporation companies.
We paid close attention to customer feedback with our research. Almost every review that we read was positive when it came down to business incorporation at ZenBusiness!
ZenBusiness does a great job of giving legal online service. To be honest, it was hard to find a single negative aspect of their business. However, we noticed that they aren’t completely accurate with their turnaround time estimates. Truth be told, they are usually faster than their advertised turnaround time.
Bottom line, ZenBusiness can help you incorporate your business fast, easy, and cheap. If you’re stuck between Incfile and ZenBusiness, see how they compare.
Northwest Registered Agents aren’t just another online formation service. It’s the real deal for small businesses and startups with a price point starting at $225 pulse state filing fess.
Northwest Registered Agents are one of the most transparent filing companies, and as an added bonus, they also offer one year of registered agent service for free.
Also, make sure you read our Northwest vs ZenBusiness comparison if you’re torn between the two.
Using an incorporation service is a no-brainer for a busy startup owner.
They take all the nitty-gritty paperwork off your desk and leave you free to keep working on your ideas.
Incorporate.com might be right for you if:
But, I must say that I uncovered many negative aspects to Incorporate.com such as:
If you do end up using Incorporate.com, we’d recommend using the Starter Package only, and finding a less expensive company to use as a registered agent. We would not recommend the essential or works packages.
When forming an LLC, it’s important to get the legal services that your business needs. You want your paperwork filled out correctly, and you want to make sure you haven’t missed anything important.
On that note, Incorporate.com has a positive track record and consistently gets the job done.
While Incorporate.com has been around for generations, the cost of doing business with them is much higher than other incorporation companies.
I must say, it was very irritating how they use the fine print to try to add services on and make businesses pay extra money for things they thought were included in the package.
Part of LLC formation is being careful with your budget, especially in those first few months as you’re working on getting your ideas off the ground. And while we recommend using an incorporation service, Incorporate.com has prices far and above what other companies have to offer. Checkout Inc Authority, they have a formation package that costs $0 plus state filing fees!
After hours of research, calling customer support, and forming an LLC with Incorporate.com I must say that I find it very hard to recommend Incorporate.com.
They are a very experienced LLC formation service, and if that is the most important aspect for you, then Incorporate.com is a great fit.
But when it comes down to transparency, and cost, Incorporate.com doesn’t come close to the better LLC formation services. If you’re stuck and you cant find a quality LLC formation service, check out ZenBusiness and Inc Authority or Swyft Filings.
How much is incorporate.com?
Incorporate.com will charge you a minimum of $99 plus state filing fees for their Started LLC formation package. The most expensive package can make its way up to $734 for initial LLC filing.
Is it expensive to incorporate with incorporate.com?
When comparing LLC filing costs of Incorporate.com to other formation businesses, Incorpoate.com has proved to be more expensive than the average incorporation company.
Benjamin is the Co-Founder and CEO of FinancePond. He worked at a private accounting firm before he created FinancePond. Benjamin is an entrepreneur at heart and firmly believes in strong personal finance and investing education. He has a passion for finance and his goal is to cut out the fluff and make personal finance simple for everyone.
