ZenBusiness reviews its own products and services and compares them to others in the industry.
While the DBA does have some disadvantages compared to LLCs and corporations (primarily, the lack of personal asset protection that these entity types provide), it can still be a good fit in certain situations, especially if your state provides exclusive naming rights for DBA holders.
There are dozens of online services offering to obtain your DBA for you in exchange for a reasonable fee, freeing you up to spend more time running your business. To make it easier to decide which of these services you should use, we dug deep into the details of each company’s offer. The following is a collection of the best DBA filing services available online.
Many of the same companies offering reasonably priced online LLC formation services also provide DBA filing services. For most businesses, the process is quite simple. All you need to do is provide your chosen company with some basic information about your business — like your principal office address and your desired name — and they’ll fill out and file the paperwork with your state.
Most companies offer similar price points for DBA filing services, and the vast majority of them also provide comparable feature sets. However, that’s not to say that there isn’t plenty setting these companies apart. Let’s take a look at the best DBA filing services available today (plus a couple of honorable mentions) and discuss why they’re better than the competition.
Here at ZenBusiness, we offer DBA filings in 20 states. If your state is one of these, we have a great deal for you. We offer one of the industry’s lowest price points for DBA services, and we have many other positive attributes as well.
If you value positive customer feedback, you’ll love our services, as we have more than 12,000 positive reviews available on reputable third-party review websites. In addition, we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee with a 60-day window for refunds, and we don’t charge any cancellation fees.
We also offer top-notch customer support. If you have any questions or concerns, our helpful and responsive representatives are available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET on Sundays. Finally, we have a commitment to giving back that you won’t find with many competitors. We’re a public benefit corporation that provides $5,000 grants to help our customers kickstart their businesses.
LegalZoom is the biggest name in the business services industry, but its pricing is often higher than many competitors for some services. However, in the case of DBA filing services, LegalZoom performs pretty well. Its $99 price point is on the lower end of the industry norms, and LegalZoom is one of the most experienced companies you’ll find in the online business services marketplace.
LegalZoom also has an impressive 100% satisfaction guarantee that promises to refund any unsatisfied customer’s service fees within 60 days — it’s nearly identical to our refund policy at ZenBusiness. Furthermore, the company has extended customer support availability that includes weekends, and it also receives mostly positive customer feedback.
LegalZoom also includes publication services for free. Seven states — California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania — require entrepreneurs to file a notice of their new DBA names in reputable local newspapers. If you use LegalZoom’s DBA service in one of these states, they’ll handle the publication step for you (just pay any relevant government and publishing fees) and file your proof of publication with the state. However, there are also several great LegalZoom alternatives available.
Incfile hits the same $99 price point as LegalZoom but without the free publication service offer. In addition, there are 12 states in which Incfile doesn’t offer DBA services.
This company still has plenty of advantages compared to some other DBA filing services. For instance, Incfile has a good reputation for customer feedback, with roughly 75,000 positive reviews all across the web.
While Incfile also can’t match LegalZoom’s experience level, it does have a significant amount of expertise in its own right, with more than 1 million businesses served since the company was formed in 2004. If this company doesn’t feel like the right fit for your DBA, check out some Incfile alternatives.
Swyft Filings is another company offering $99 DBA filing services and it balances some of the attributes you’ll find with the three companies we’ve already discussed.
Like ZenBusiness and LegalZoom, Swyft Filings has a generous refund policy that provides a full refund of their service fees with no questions asked if you’re unhappy for any reason. Also, Swyft Filings has tens of thousands of positive reviews available online.
MyCompanyWorks also charges $99 for DBA service. This company has good customer feedback, with more than 4,000 reviews available online and mostly positive scores.
The other aspect of MyCompanyWorks that we appreciate is how responsive their customer support system is. If you contact them during business hours, they’ll usually reply within 20 minutes. Some competitors can take days to get back to you.
If saving money is your top priority, Direct Incorporation could be worth a look. Offering DBAs in 35 states, they’re one of the only companies in this industry (along with us at ZenBusiness) that undercuts the $99 price point offered by the other options in this guide.
However, despite a long track record, Direct Incorporation has a very small collection of customer feedback available on reputable third-party review aggregator sites, and many of their few dozen reviews are negative. That said, Direct Incorporation has plenty of experience and we trust them to register a compliant DBA name.
We also have a state-specific choice to point out in our Honorable Mentions category. For those of you seeking DBA services in Nevada, the following option might be worth a look.
IncParadise provides a few services in all 50 states, but its DBA filing service is only available in Nevada. That said, IncParadise has an affordable $75 price point for this service that undercuts every competitor we’re aware of, and they also offer fast turnaround times thanks to their location in Nevada.
These aren’t the only advantages of IncParadise. They also offer reasonable rates for registered agent service, and their customer reviews are mostly positive, albeit in a small volume.
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.
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