ZenBusiness is one of the best LLC formation services on the market
Introduction
Any successful business starts with a dream. The next big decision is to decide on the type of business you want to structure. You can structure a sole proprietorship, a limited liability company (LLC), or a corporation. Let’s dive into our Zenbusiness review.
From that point on, planning and registration become a step-by-step process of jumping through logistical and legal hoops. You need the relevant licenses and permits to register your business; you also need a registered agent. Then you need an operating agreement to outline the company’s management, ownership, and structure. Only then can you get the business up and running. These legalities are tedious and time-consuming, so companies in the US take all these responsibilities from you, allowing you to concentrate on running your business.
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Who Are ZenBusiness?
Zenbusiness is a public benefit corporation that takes entrepreneurs from that business dream, guides them through the business formation, registers the business on their behalf, and provides ongoing financial help to run the business successfully.
Since its inception, the company has overtaken its competitors by offering low-priced plans with high-quality service. They are one of the few business formation services that provide three-tiered programs.
The combination of fantastic customer service, competitive pricing, and simple LLC formation plans makes ZenBusiness one of the best LLC services.
ZenBusiness — Mission and Values
ZenBusiness’s mission revolves around diversity, equity, and inclusion. The organization’s purpose is to embrace different opinions from different equity groups and make everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or culture, feel appreciated and included.
The company’s values embrace empathy, innovation, impact, and self-care.
Empathy is one of ZenBusiness’s values because they help lead customers through the barriers of starting a business onto the path of success. Innovation is a core value because they are constantly changing products and services to meet the needs of their customers. ZenBusiness aims to impact people’s lives by putting the well-being of their staff and customers first. They believe that self-care comes before business formation.
As a Public Benefit Corporation, ZenBusiness balances profits with social responsibilities. It cares for all those involved inside and outside the business. The company’s social responsibility takes the form of generous grants to underserved communities and businesses.
About ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness is an online business formation service that helps large and small business owners register, manage and run businesses. There are many businesses in the US that start and manage limited liability companies (LLC), and many surveys that assess these LLC formation companies. ZenBusiness wins many of the top awards in these surveys. They have been nominated as the best LLC service for several years running.
If you need a registered agent service, a business domain name, an operating agreement, or other LLC services for your business entity, ZenBusiness comes highly recommended.
Here is a summary of what they do:
Business Planning
ZenBusiness offers standard operating procedures (SOPs) to start a new business. They guide customers through the costs of forming an LLC or corporation and how to apply for the relevant business licenses and permits. They offer assistance in writing business plans, researching the business market, and applying for financial assistance.
Business Structure
ZenBusiness offers comprehensive business formation services, including registered agent services, operational agreement services, and Doing Business As (DBA) registrations.
Doing Business
ZenBusiness keeps your business compliant; they register state filing fees, they get sorted with registered agent services, they provide an annual report and a tax filing service. They have an application, the ZenBusiness Money App, and tutorials to assist with your finances, accounting, and bookkeeping requirements.
Growing Your Business
ZenBusiness shows customers how to grow and expand their business into different states, buy more companies, and find the necessary funding.
ZenBusiness — Products and Services
ZenBusiness’s corporate and LLC services outclass their competitors because they have three affordable packages that are easy to use and come with added features. Plans start at $49 per year, excluding state filing fees. The premium package costs $299 per year, excluding state filing fees.
Each plan is structured to include complete preparation and filing of the business and one year of annual report service. The company’s invoicing app is free on the essential package, allowing you to organize and send invoices easily.
Starter Plan
Once you fill out the forms online and pay the $49 per year fee, ZenBusiness will file your LLC documents for you. This bottom-tier plan takes two to three weeks to process. The standard business filing service includes checking if the business name is available, search tools, speed, phone and email support, and online access to your documents.
ZenBusiness charges a further $99 to be appointed as your registered agent, and if you choose this add-on, ZenBusiness will receive all legal documents and forward them to you. The plan also reminds you to send in your annual report preventing an unnecessary fine.
The Starter Plan includes operating agreements and a certified public accountant (CPA) evaluation to help you choose the most suitable accounting and bookkeeping software for your business. This plan is flexible in that you can pay extra for faster service, an employer identification number (EIN) registration, and website hosting. At the end of the year, there is a notification to file your LLC again.
Pro Plan
For $199 per year plus state filing fees, ZenBusiness’s Pro plan provides expedited filing and prepared and filed EIN documents. You can then get your tax ID number quicker.
The worry-free compliance service is included in the Pro plan. ZenBusiness takes care of all ongoing state filings, and they offer two amendment filings per year. Amendments to filings are updating your personal details or business ownership.
The Pro plan is also flexible, and you can expedite filing, request a website, or apply for a domain name, all for added fees.
Premium Plan
The Premium plan is a great option for business owners who want access to everything offered in the Starter and Pro plans and more. It significantly speeds up the filing process and has some attractive additions. These additions include a rush filing service, which speeds up the process to a few days, a 5GB business email address using your business’s domain name, and an elementary customized website.
With the Premium plan, Zenbusiness offers an all-inclusive legal service to handle all of the work that comes with starting a new business, all forms of business filing, and a registered agent service. The plan costs $299 per year, plus state filing fees.
Comparison of the Three ZenBusiness Plans
| Cost of Services | Starter Pack | Pro Pack | Premium Pack |
| $49 | $149 per year | $249 per year | |
| Time to Process | 2-3 weeks | 5-8 working days | 2-4 working days |
| Limited Liability Filing | Included | Included | Included |
| Registered Agent Service | Included | Included | Included |
| Obtaining EIN | $70 | Included | Included |
| Operating Agreement | Included | Included | Included |
| Expedited Filing | $50 | Included | Included |
| Rush Filing | $100 | $100 | Included |
| Worry-Free Compliance | $119 per year | Included | Included |
| Business Website | $100 per year | $100 per year | Included |
ZenBusiness Pros
Flexibility
ZenBusiness gives you the option to add any service to any package. You can request expedited filing, EIN filing, website services, or compliance services.
Transparent Pricing
ZenBusiness’s add-on costs are listed below:
- Registered agent services cost $99 per year as a separate item
- Compliance and registered agent services cost $149 per year
- Expedited filing speed costs $50
- Rush filing speed costs $100
- The banking resolution template costs $30
- EIN filing costs $70
- Compliance service as a separate entity costs $119 per year
- Business website costs $100 per year
- A domain name costs $25 per year
Customer Service
ZenBusiness’s call center, 1-844-493-6249, is available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (CT) on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (CT) on Sundays. They also have live chat support at zenbusiness.com, and their email address for customer service is [email protected].
Reviews show that ZenBusiness’s email support service answers within one business day. The extended customer support hours are a standout benefit that few competitors follow.
Customer Reviews
ZenBusiness seems only to get positive reviews and mainly four and five-star ratings. There are numerous reviews on the website. ZenBusiness achieves 4.7 out of 5 stars from Trustpilot and 4.8 out of 5 stars from Google.
The dominant feedback from the reviews is that the ZenBusiness platform is extremely easy to navigate, and the mentorship that ZenBusiness gives with LLC formation packages is faultless.
60-Day Refund
You can request a money-back guarantee within 60 days of applying. State fees are not refunded. This is a unique selling point for ZenBusiness as many LLC services don’t offer a refund, and if they do, their refund policy expires after 30 days.
No Long-Term Contracts
There are no long-term contracts when using ZenBusiness. If you wish to cancel ZenBusines’s services, you can do this at any time with no penalties.
ZenBusiness Cons
Some Negative Reviews
The few negative reviews center around recurring charges for a registered agent service that you may have wanted to cancel. Another comment is that LLC formation services focus on one-state businesses. The slow speed of the starter plan compared with competitors’ starter plans is not well received.
Ancillary Services Are Not Always Needed
ZenBusiness’s ancillary services are considered somewhat superfluous or irrelevant to the core business. Criticism focuses on financial guides like the document entitled – Learn how to accept a business credit card payment for your small business.
ZenBusiness is not a website building specialist, and although their prices to build a website are competitive, you get what you pay for, which is an elementary website. There are many talented website builders elsewhere.
Ancillary Services Are Not Financially Competitive
Domain name registration and web hosting are slightly more expensive than competitive platforms. It costs $99 to appoint ZenBusiness as your registered agent, and there are cheaper options. The EIN service is somewhat more pricey than some competitors’ prices.
Recurring Fees
When the registered agent fees are included for free, there is a danger of the client forgetting to cancel the subscription. This results in recurring fees for the subscription. To rectify, this ZenBusiness should improve prompts and reminders to clients that the subscription is going to be renewed.
One-Off Fees Or Subscriptions?
Customers have commented on poor communications about one-off fees compared with subscriptions in the three packages.
- Their Starter plan has a yearly subscription that covers annual filing services. If you renew this for a further year, it costs $119. All other renewed formation packages are the same price as the first-year price.
- Their Pro plan has a yearly subscription covering annual filing services and a Worry-Free Compliance.
- Their Premium plan is a yearly subscription that covers website hosting, business email, a URL domain name, and domain privacy.
ZenBusiness Competitors
ZenBusiness is undoubtedly one of the best LLC services around. Their competitors have a different pricing structure and offer services in other specialized areas.
$49 + State Fees
Varies By State & Package
$39 + State Fees
Varies By State & Package
$0 + State Fees
Varies By State & Package
Rocket Lawyer specializes in legal advice and legal services, and if needed, you get access to a qualified lawyer. The starter plan costs $39.99 per month, and you get a 7-day free trial.
You can become a member of Rocket Lawyer and can hire a lawyer at a reduced fee (up to 40% off), and their registered agent service has a 25% reduction for members. Non-members pay $149.99-per-year for a registered agent service and $99.99 for LLC incorporation filing.
LegalZoom is a large, established branded company dealing in online legal services. It has three plans to choose from when creating an LLC. The three plans cost $79, $329, and $349. It is more expensive than ZenBusiness and less personal. All three plans include a digital tracker, seven days a week lifetime customer support, and an entrepreneur’s business newsletter.
Incfile is a reputable LLC filing service, which is free except for state filing fees. The free package includes a year of registered agent services as well as all the preparation and filing of your state’s articles of organization. Their higher-tier packages cost $149 and $299.
Northwest Registered AgentServices is a family-owned business that operates nationwide. They are more expensive than some of their competitors. Still, they have valuable selling points such as privacy of your details and the luxury of personal service from a corporate guide® who takes customers through the entire process.
Conclusion
Overall, we determined that ZenBusiness is one of the best LLC formation services on the market. It offers affordable packages (starting at only $49) that provide entrepreneurs with all the essential LLC services they need to get started in business.
ZenBusiness provides a seamless and professional LLC formation and incorporation at an affordable price. You operate the formation process entirely online. It is easy to follow the prompts to form an LLC or corporation, and you can do this without paying out large amounts of money.
Once you have registered your business, ZenBusiness reminds you of upcoming filing deadlines with alerts, so you remain compliant and avoid fines. Their registered agent services receive and distribute all legal documents and regulatory forms. With ZenBusiness, you can enjoy timeous annual filing and submittal and remain compliant and on the right side of Government regulations.
ZenBusiness’s CPAs deal with all your accounting needs, giving you access to a library of business documents and tutorials on starting a business.
ZenBusiness offers the best LLC services because it has many things right with the business formation. Even though they are the most inexpensive LLC formation company, they have not compromised on service or made their platform uncomplicated and user-friendly. They are a company that gives back to society, their staff, and their customers. That in itself says so much about ZenBusiness.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get information from my ZenBusiness registered agent?
You can contact the registered agent on 1-844-493-6249 or at [email protected].
What is ZenBusiness’s point of differentiation?
ZenBusiness provides a great service for the most affordable price. It has many 4 and 5 star reviews for quick and professional customer support.
What is the ZenBusiness Worry-Free Guarantee?
ZenBusiness’s Worry-Free Guarantee is committed to handling your filings, annual report, and up to two amendments. This helps with compliance deadlines and gives you peace of mind.
Which LLC package do you recommend?
The ZenBusiness Pro plan is a good plan for new businesses. It offers everything you will need to register and run your business.
What is an EIN Number for an LLC?
An employee identification number or EIN is a federal tax ID number. It is issued to businesses by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and used for tax purposes.
Do I need an EIN?
If you are the only business owner in your LLC, you don’t need to get an EIN. The IRS considers any single-member LLC owner as a sole proprietorship. You can then use your social security number instead of an EIN to file your taxes.
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