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When someone wants to form a company of any form, whether it is LLC or any other kind, they need a good reliable service to do so. Two of the best service companies there are for forming a business are ZenBusiness and IncFile, but although both of them are good, there are minor differences that will set these two apart. Since everybody needs the best of the companies for their business, it is best to put ZenBusiness vs IncFile.
Parameter | ZenBusiness | IncFile |
Minimum price | Starting at $49 | Starting free |
Maximum price | $299 | $299 |
Score | 4.8/5 | 4.8/5 |
Years of experience | 6 years | 17 years |
Free registered agent | ✔ | ✔ |
Business compliance | ✔ | ✔ |
File tax returns | ✔ | ✔ |
Prices and Affordability
When it comes to prices, IncFile is obviously much more famous than ZenBusiness, because it is free, and not many business-forming service companies are at that price. But ZenBusiness also has a very low price when compared to its other competitors. ZenBusiness's cheapest plan starts at the price of $49, which is absolutely nothing for forming a business. Of course, you should pay attention that the state fee for forming a business will be added to these prices. With ZenBusiness being as cheap as $49 and IncFile being free, we can arguably say that both of these services are affordable to anyone who wants to form a business, but what about their other plans?
Both of these companies will offer further plans and services, but they are going to cost more than their starting prices. However, both ZenBusiness and IncFile have the same price for their best plan, and they generally have the same prices. Here are the prices of their bundles along with their services.
In the image for packages of IncFile, pay attention to the original price of the packages and ignore the state fee (The state fee in this image is $205 for the state of New York.) The prices are free for the silver plan, $149 for the golden plan, and $299 for the platinum plan.
For ZenBusiness, the prices are $49 for the most basic bundle, $199 for the pro bundle, and $299 for the premium bundle.
Basic Packages
Parameter | ZenBusiness | IncFile |
Price | $49 | Free |
Filing speed | Slow | Standard |
Free registered agent | ✔ | ✔ |
Filing the articles of organization | ✔ | ✔ |
Annual report | ✔ | ✔ |
Advanced name searching | ✔ | ✔ |
First off, both of the basic services come with a free registered agent for a whole year. After a year of free registered agents, IncFile will charge $119 for a registered agent. ZenBusiness's fee for a registered agent can be either $99 or $149 if the customer wants "worry-free compliance."
Registered agents from both of these companies are very experienced, and there is no way of saying which company has the best registered agent services. The price of both companies is also fair compared to other competitors.
ZenBusiness also comes with annual report services with its basic plan, but for IncFile, the price for an annual report is $88 per year. This is why while IncFile’s most basic package is free, ZenBusiness’s basic plan gives more value than IncFile.
Another important difference is the filing speed, and in IncFile, all the files no matter their plans, get filed at an equal speed. Because of that, no matter which plans you get, they all will be filed at a standard rate and speed.
In ZenBusiness, the better a plan is, the sooner it will get filed, and they will be in a higher priority, so if someone gets their basic plan because the people with more expensive plans will get filed sooner, there will be more people ahead of them in the queue, so the process is much slower. There will be more about how long the speed of formation takes for each company.
The Best and Second-to-Best Plans
When comparing ZenBusiness versus IncFile, there is really not much of a difference between their two plans, and they both offer the same services. There will be more about the services they both offer further in this article.
The only difference that can be found between these two companies is in their best and most expensive plan. ZenBusiness's ultimate plan does offer a business website to the customer with a domain name, but IncFile only offers a domain name without a website.
Services and Features
Both ZenBusiness and IncFile offer similar features and services.
Parameter | ZenBusiness | IncFile |
Registered agent | ✔ | ✔ |
Articles of organization | ✔ | ✔ |
Operating agreement | ✔ | ✔ |
EIN tax number | ✔ | ✔ |
Banking resolution | ✔ | ✔ |
Business emails and numbers | ✔ | ✔ |
Business bank account | ✔ | ✔ |
Domain Name | ✔ | ✔ |
Business website | ✔ | ✔ |
Annual report service | ✔ | ✔ |
IRS form 2553 | x | ✔ |
Overall Value
As mentioned about the basic packages, ZenBusiness does include the annual report service on its package, but IncFile charges $88 for the same service. ZenBusiness's basic package is more valuable than IncFile. In terms of packages, ZenBusiness's package seems to be always one step ahead of the IncFile. Even their best plan offers an extra business website, and it is at the same price that IncFile is offering its best plan. While it is possible to form a business for free with IncFile, ZenBusiness tends to add more value to the business.
Speed of Formation
ZenBusiness: The speed of a business formation depends on the turnaround time of that state which is possible to find out by connecting to that state. But as mentioned, ZenBusiness also has its own filing times, which depends on the plan a customer buys. For the most basic plan, ZenBusiness takes the filing really slow, which is, of course, mines the state turnaround time. If someone wants their filing to be faster, they can purchase the rush filing service, and the prices range from $49 to $99. Although ZenBusiness still files the documents fast or even faster than most of its competitors.
IncFile: The matter of turnaround time is not the same with IncFile, and they promise to file the documents to the state in the matter of one business day, no matter the plan. There are some times where they put the customers on hold for a couple of days, but they have a list that will tell how long it is going to take for them to file for each state. You can see some examples in the picture below. IncFile is definitely a faster option in the formation speed of ZenBusiness vs IncFile. The expedition price is the expedition price that the state takes to make the turnaround time faster, and it is not related to IncFile.
IncFile has a faster filing, but no need to mention that expediting the filing with ZenBusiness's rush service will make the process much faster than IncFile because the file is only behind other rushed files and not everyone.
Customer Service
ZenBusiness: There are three ways to contact ZenBusiness's support. Via phone, email, or even online web chat application on ZenBusiness's website. There have been no complaints about ZenBusiness's customer service, and they tend to answer as quickly as possible in the time of their working hours. The supporters are very friendly, and they are all experts, and they will attend to any problem and fix it immediately. Their customer support is one of the finest in the industry, and it will be of great assistance for beginners.
IncFile: IncFile also has customer support available via mobile phone and email. Some people mentioned that the support might take some time to answer, but some others said they got an answer right away. Anytime the supporters answer, they tend to solve any kind of problem, and they are highly friendly and experienced. There is no place for a surprise with the amount of experience this company has. The customer support is not as fast-responding as ZenBusiness, but it is still one of the best customer supports in the industry.
User Experience and Track Record
IncFile: Incfile is one of the most experienced company services available to this day. They have been working since 2004, and they have launched and formed more than 500,000 businesses to this day. They have more than 30,000 reviews on Shopperapproved, with an overall score of 4.8 out of 5.
Sadly, IncFile's page on Trustpilot is not as good as its page on Shopperapproved, but there are not a lot of bad reviews on their page, and it might just be different from what you read on Shopperapproved.
It is unknown why there is this conflict between IncFile reviews on Shopperapprove and Trustpilot, but the number of great reviews on Shopapprover cannot be ignored, and it is certainly one of the biggest positive numbers that there is for a company’s services.
ZenBusiness: On the other hand, ZenBusiness is one of the newest companies, and they have been working since 2015. The fact that they have been working less than most of their competitors does not affect their functionality, and they are as good as or even better than most of their competitors. They have more than 7,000 reviews on Trustpilot, and most of them are positive, with an excellent score of 4.8 out of 5. They have one of the best reviews.
Putting reviews of ZenBusiness versus IncFile, both companies have a 4.8 out of 5 score, and although IncFile is more experienced, ZenBusiness lacks no expertise
Ease of Use
ZenBusiness: Forming a business with ZenBusiness is fairly easy and straightforward. The only thing that needs to be done is choosing a package, filing some applications with some personal business information, and things such as a business name, and then paying the fee. As easy as that, the business is formed.
IncFile: Similar to ZenBusiness, creating a business with IncFile is also easy, and it is just filling applications with personal or business info and clicking. Throughout forming the business, the customers will not only get to choose from a package but choose which further features they might need. Basically, it is possible to customize a package with different services and features.
None of these companies overdo advertising of the third-party companies that are very disturbing. In terms of ease of use, both of these companies are just filling out forms and clicking which is as easy as it gets.
When to Choose ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness is one of the best business-forming services companies in the industry. It is cheap and affordable, and it is highly trustable. It returns a great amount of value out of the money spent as an investment in the business. Its amazing customer support is of great help for beginners, and it will be a big assist for them. If someone wants a long-lasting business with a lot of long-term goals and wants a great amount of value out of it, investing in ZenBusiness is the better way to go. ZenBusiness is best at holding a business.
When to Choose IncFile
IncFile is also one of the best companies for forming a business. When comparing ZenBusiness vs IncFile, IncFile has the advantage of being possible to start a business for free. They have a rather good customer support, and they will still form a business as fast as other companies without spending any money. When someone wants to start a business with short-term goals, or with hesitation, IncFile is the best option to go for. They are highly experienced and they can be of great guidance when starting off. They can also continue to follow their business plan once they are more sure about it, and expand their business. IncFile is best at starting a business.
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