ZenBusiness vs. LegalZoom
LegalZoom is an online legal technology company that helps customers get the legal help they need without necessarily having to find a lawyer. LegalZoom offers more than just business formation services, but to make a fair comparison between their service and ZenBusiness's, we'll focus only on its features.
Similar to ZenBusiness, LegalZoom offers three price points for its LLC filing services (Economy, Standard, and Express Gold), but the basic ZenBusiness LLC costs less. For example, ZenBusiness's Starter plan costs $0 for first-time business filers and has a turnaround time of 2-3 weeks, while LegalZoom's Economy plan costs $79 and has a turnaround time of 20 days.
When it comes to customer satisfaction, both ZenBusiness and LegalZoom seem to be winning customers over. Each company has an “Excellent” rating on Trustpilot, but ZenBusiness has a slight edge with an average of 4.7 stars across his 13,000+ reviews. LegalZoom gives him an average of 4.6 stars with over 3,000 reviews. (It's worth noting that LegalZoom reviews are from customers who may have used the company for legal services completely unrelated to running their business.)
Based on price and customer reviews, we recommend ZenBusiness over LegalZoom for anyone looking for a simple business formation service. On the other hand, if you need additional business services like legal assistance or intellectual property registration, you might want to check out LegalZoom.
If you want to know more about online legal help services, read our LegalZoom review.
ZenBusiness vs. Bizee
Bizee (powered by Incfile) is more similar to ZenBusiness than LegalZoom, as it focuses solely on helping entrepreneurs form their businesses. Bizee's website boasts that the company offers “the fastest and easiest way to form an LLC” and is “simple, affordable, and fully supported. ” I promise.
Looking at the cost and features, Bizee is definitely a tough competition for ZenBusiness compared to other business formation services. Bizee is definitely faster, promising customers that order processing will begin the next business day at no additional charge.
And when it comes to cost, Bizee's first-year special price on the basic Silver package is free (yes, it's free). Silver includes his LLC filing, registered agent, and other business formation services for state fees only, and automatically renews for $119 each year (ZenBusiness' starter package does not renew).
Neither Bizee's Silver nor ZenBusiness' Starter packages include an operating agreement or EIN. However, ZenBusiness Pro and Premium plans include his EIN. You can add an operating agreement to your ZenBusiness LLC starter package for $125. You can add an EIN for an additional $99. Bizee's Silver customer can add an operating agreement to his package for $40 and his EIN for $70.
Next, we turned to customer reviews. ZenBusiness has more “good” reviews on Trustpilot than Bizee. Of his over 10,000 reviews on ZenBusiness, 86% were excellent and only 3% were “poor.” Meanwhile, of Bizee's more than 15,000 reviews, 84% were “very good” and 4% were “poor.” That being said, Bizee has over 72,000 reviews for Shopper Approved and maintains an excellent rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars. (ZenBusiness is not rated on this site.) Both companies have a 4-star rating or higher based on Better Business Bureau reviews, but his ZenBusiness Bizee has over 200 complaints.
Based on customer reviews, we recommend using ZenBusiness over Bizee depending on your business needs. However, Bizee is a more affordable option, and we found both options to be great for forming an LLC.
If you want to know more about Bizee, you can read our full Bizee review here.
ZenBusiness vs. Swyft filing
Another competitor in the online business formation space is Swyft Filings, which was founded in Houston in 2015. According to the company's website, Swyft Filings helps you “start your business with confidence” and promises to be affordable, fast and easy. Compared to other services, Swyft Filings offers affordable prices and fast processing times.
At first glance, Swyft Filings' Basic package is quite similar to ZenBusiness LLC Starter. Swyft Filings' Basic costs $49 and promises faster processing times of 7 to 10 business days compared to ZenBusiness's 2 to 3 weeks.
The biggest drawback is that Swyft Filings' lower tier package does not include a registered agent or operating agreement. If Swyft Filings is required to act as your registered agent, there will be an additional fee of $149 per year. Adding an operating agreement costs $35.
Another drawback is that Swyft Filings customer service is only available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST, whereas ZenBusiness customer service is available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays are only available from 10am to 7pm CST.
Both Swyft Filings and ZenBusiness appear to have thousands of happy customers, have many positive customer reviews, and are rated “Excellent” on TrustPilot. ZenBusiness' rating carries more weight with his over 10,000 reviews compared to his 6,000+ reviews on Swyft Filings.
If you are new to the business formation process and think you could benefit from a provider with extended support hours, you may want to choose the ZenBusiness LLC option. That being said, ZenBusiness and Swyft Filings are both solid choices for forming an LLC. Read the full Swyft Filings review here.
