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Formation Facts

What the state wants, and what it costs.

Methodology

How these briefings are made

Formation Facts sets each state's official numbers beside the services that file for you, and puts the services in order by their three-year price first and the amount of upkeep their price covers second. The state numbers come first, each tied to its source; the services are ranked afterward by a published five-part method.
Briefing by the Formation Facts team

Where the state numbers come from

Before anything appears on a page, we find it on a state fee schedule, a state form or in the statute itself. Next to each number you will see where it was found and the month we last confirmed it. Scroll to the bottom of any state briefing and you will find the same sources gathered into one list.

How the 50-state rank works

Three ranks are on offer. The LLC rank adds the filing fee to the reports due in years 2 and 3 (a report due every two years is counted once) and to any minimum tax charged yearly. The agent rank looks at a single year, which means the yearly report fee and any minimum tax. The foreign LLC rank adds the registration fee to the reports in years 2 and 3. Some costs have no fixed price, newspaper publication being the usual example. We describe those in the briefing and keep them out of the totals. When two states land on the same total they share a rank, and the lowest total is always rank 1.

How we rank the services

  1. Price over three years (33%). What the service bills beyond the state fee in the first three years, based on the first-year and renewal prices on its own site. Because every service passes the same state fee along, that fee is shown but not scored.
  2. Upkeep the price covers (26%). How much of the ongoing upkeep the price handles: the registered agent, the state report and the EIN application.
  3. Renewal terms (15%). Whether the price stays put after year one or rises.
  4. Fit with the state (14%). How well the plan suits the state's report timing, penalties for late filing and registered office rules.
  5. Plain statement of the state fee (12%). Whether the state fee is quoted on its own and billed at cost.

If two services score within a few points, the entry points to the criterion that decided it.

Which services you will see

Mainstay Filing turns up in every state briefing, since it works in all fifty states. Next to it you will find the registered agent brands that were built around your state. A service makes the list for a topic only when its own website offers that service at a posted price, and each briefing shows the date that price was looked up.

What you will not find here

There are no customer ratings or quotes, and nothing here is legal or tax advice. When we put one service above another, that is our own editorial opinion, reached through the criteria listed above.