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Are you looking to form a new limited liability company (LLC), but you’re not sure which of the many formation services can best assist you? Companies like Filenow and Incfile/Bizee can do the heavy lifting for you, but how do you know which one you should use?
In this Filenow vs. Incfile/Bizee LLC service comparison, we’ll walk through their main commonalities and differences. By the time you’re done reading, we’re confident that you’ll know which one is the right choice to form your new LLC.
Incfile/Bizee and Filenow are both good LLC formation services, and either one of them can form a compliant entity. However, Incfile/Bizee has a few advantages, starting with its pricing for LLC formation service. Incfile/Bizee offers an LLC service package for $0 (+ state fee), whereas Filenow charges at least $49.
Another important point to note is that Incfile/Bizee has tens of thousands of positive customer reviews available online, while Filenow has around 600. If you would like to learn more about these two service providers, read on to discover all the relevant details.
Incfile/Bizee: Incfile/Bizee will help you form your business for free while also providing a year of registered agent service. Once the first year is over, the registered agent service will renew for $119 per year. In addition, their $199 Gold package and $299 Platinum package both include valuable features that make them options as well, even at their higher price points.
Filenow: At $49, Filenow’s baseline price point for LLC formation service isn’t bad. Filenow’s Premium package costs $199 but it might be a better deal than its Starter package, as it adds several valuable features like registered agent service and EIN acquisition.
Incfile/Bizee: Incfile/Bizee’s experience level is high, as they’ve helped form more than 1 million businesses since they opened in 2004.
Filenow: We were unable to glean much information about Filenow’s background or experience level. However, the company does have 600+ mostly positive reviews available on Trustpilot.
Incfile/Bizee: Incfile/Bizee offers phone and email support, which we tested. Incfile/Bizee’s phone support is typically responsive and helpful. However, its email support is much less responsive. Some of our emails have gone unanswered, and several of the responses we have received are just form emails that don’t directly address our questions.
Filenow: Filenow offers customer support via phone or email. You can also use its web-based chat application or fill out the contact form on its website. Their representatives are knowledgeable and courteous, and they’re available from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET on weekdays.
Incfile/Bizee: With Incfile/Bizee, turnaround times vary based on each individual state’s formation speeds. This can be as quick as a few days in some states or could take several weeks in others. You can also add expedited processing to speed it up, although the price will vary by state.
Filenow: With Filenow, turnaround times depend on two things. First, each state has its own timelines for processing LLC formation paperwork. Secondly, Filenow processes LLC formations a bit quicker if you order the Premium package instead of the Starter.
Incfile/Bizee: Incfile/Bizee doesn’t just have hundreds of customer reviews available online, they have 75,000+ of them. Furthermore, their feedback is mostly positive, with critical reviews in short supply.
Filenow: We found 600+ reviews of Filenow’s services on reputable third-party review websites, and the majority of them are positive. Overall, most customers seem pleased with the service they receive from this company.
Incfile/Bizee: As you walk through the process of signing up for Incfile/Bizee, your steps are personalized based on the state you live in and the type of business you wish to establish. There are hyperlinks throughout the application to learn more about a specific question or entry on the form. There are a few upsells and third-party offers to navigate through, but if you opt into any of them, your total price is immediately updated on the screen.
Filenow: The first step with Filenow is to choose your entity type (LLC, corporation, S corp) and state. Then, you’ll choose which of Filenow’s two business formation packages you’d like to purchase. From there, you’ll walk through a couple of screens that ask for your personal details and basic business info, followed by a very long series of 11 upsell attempts. Once you finally make your way through Filenow’s exhaustive upsells, you can pay for your order.
With either Filenow or Incfile/Bizee, you have access to a selection of additional services that can help you grow and maintain your business. As you might expect, these companies offer many of the same services, as either can help you with ongoing compliance assistance, operating agreement templates, registered agent service, and more.
However, there are also some services that are only available from Incfile/Bizee. For instance, Incfile/Bizee provides its customers with business accounting services, which is a feature that Filenow lacks.
Filenow and Incfile/Bizee have many similarities in the way they provide LLC service, but they also differ in a few key ways. Furthermore, depending on your specific needs and priorities, your preference may vary.
If you’re not yet decided between Filenow and Incfile/Bizee, let’s review a couple of scenarios that may sway you in one direction or the other.
If you prefer using a smaller company instead of one of the industry giants, Filenow could be worth a look. In general, they are a good Incfile/Bizee alternative.
If you’re looking for low prices and registered agent service from a company with lots of positive reviews, Incfile/Bizee might be a good choice for LLC service.
If you’d like to form your LLC for free (+ state fees), we’re an excellent choice. We also have a much higher volume of positive customer reviews than Filenow. Form your LLC quickly and get more tools to start your dream business.
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The most widely recommended LLC formation package offered by Incfile/Bizee is their Silver plan, which is free if you pay your own state fee. With this option, you’ll receive a year of registered agent service in addition to your formation.
Incfile/Bizee doesn’t provide assistance with publication requirements. We called their customer support department to make sure, and they told us that state publication requirements “need to be taken care of with the state directly.” Filenow doesn’t offer to help with this requirement, either. For more information on your options, check out our New York publication service.
In our opinion, Incfile/Bizee does a good job of avoiding annoying upsells throughout the ordering process. Incfile/Bizee does include some upsells as you work your way through the order form, but they’re usually tastefully presented. Unfortunately, Filenow has an extensive series of upsells, with 11 upsell attempts scattered throughout its order form.
Filenow’s refund policy is very strict. They don’t actually offer refunds at all — they only allow exchanges for certain products and services (not including LLC formations), and even then, you have to request one within 30 days.
Incfile/Bizee’s refund policy isn’t generous, either. They only allow customers to request refunds before they’ve sent your payment to the state, which they say is often within 24 hours. Even if you squeeze your refund request into this tight window, there’s a $30 processing fee. Once they’ve submitted your money to your formation state, the refund window is closed.
Would you like to take a look at a few other options and see if Incfile/Bizee is as good as other options? Check out our comparisons of Incfile/Bizee to other top-rated LLC services:
Both companies have similar turnaround times because they’re both primarily based on each state’s formation speeds. In addition, Incfile/Bizee and Filenow both offer faster internal processing for customers who purchase their premium packages rather than the cheapest options.
You can. In fact, plenty of people do form their own LLCs without assistance every day. However, we simply like to caution our readers that because every state has its own requirements to form an LLC, it can be a hassle to familiarize yourself with the details of your state’s specific rules and regulations.
In addition, we appreciate the peace of mind we get from hiring a professional service because we trust their expertise. Services like ours at ZenBusiness can form your LLC for free as long as you cover the state fee.
In our opinion, Filenow’s 600+ positive customer reviews are an advantage over many competitors, although Incfile/Bizee has them beat in this area. As for Incfile/Bizee, its biggest advantage is its free LLC formation service package that still includes a year of registered agent service.
Filenow offers registered agent service for $119 per year, and it provides annual report service for $99 per year. Incfile/Bizee has a higher price for registered agent service, at $119 per year, and it has a $99 rate for annual reports.
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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