Incorporate.com Review
The consequences of choosing the wrong registered agent or LLC formation provider can be severe. You may face fines and even the dissolution of your company if you miss compliance deadlines or file the wrong documents with the state.
Thankfully, Incorporate.com is here to help. You should be able to determine if this trusted provider is best for you through our Incorporate.com review.
Pros
- Depth of experience — Incorporate.com has worked with over 700,000 businesses since their founding in 1899. Their experience over time has provided them with enough knowledge to tackle all your LLC business-related queries.
- Customer Support Accessibility — Their customer support can be accessed by way of phone, email, and webchat. Due to their regular availability, your business can rely on them to respond to your queries promptly.
- Online Portal — The online portal allows you to track the status of your services. This is an innovative feature from Incorporate.com that many competitors do not have.
- Corporate Compliance Guarantee — Incorporate.com has a compliance guarantee as part of its LLC formation services. If your LLC is sued and you are personally liable, Incorporate.com will reimburse you up to $75,000 for legal fees.
- Comprehensive Guides — Their website has numerous comprehensive guides for you to understand how to form an LLC or business, state regulations, industry-specific text, tax filing, and more. Incorporate.com has a separate section called ‘learning center’ on its website to promote a simpler understanding of company incorporation.
Cons
- Registered Agent Service Not Included With LLC Formation — Even though Incoporate.com is a registered agent service, this service is not included in their LLC formation packages. They offer it as an added service instead. This may be much more expensive than their competitors’ who have them for free when you form an LLC.
- Upselling — Incorporate.com does not include several features in their plans which leads to more upselling in the process. Once you opt for a feature, you are prompted to purchase added ones like a compliance kit, seal, tax number, business research, reporting, and more.
- Pricing — Incorporate.com has affordable fees for its basic package but this does not include many aspects that competitors have at this price. It also has an annual cost of $235 and state fees for its registered agent service which is much higher than its competitors.
Features of Incorporate.com
Like any other provider, Incorporate.com offers basic LLC formation and registered agent services. Moreover, they offer additional services for companies like applying for tax formation, EIN, and helping corporations with meeting compliance requirements. We did a review of these features to help you decide.
Preparation And Filing Articles For Your Business
Incorporate.com provides LLC formation services which would help you get every form you need to start an LLC corporation in your state. They will also help you submit your filing in your state of formation. Due to their long-standing experience in the industry, they are extremely efficient and they work well at completing the process in forming LLCs.
Name Availability Check through Incorporate.com
Every business or corporation has to check with their state before they claim a name and form a company. Incorporate.com makes it easier as there is an option to search through the state’s database to check the availability of the business name you like.
Online Access To Company Documents
One of the top-notch features Incorporate.com has is an online portal where businesses can store and access LLC formation documents and registered agent service files. We recommend you use this as you form your company.
Federal Tax ID Number (EIN)
A federal tax ID or EIN number is similar in a way to a social security number for your business. Incorporate.com can help you get an EIN number from the IRS for your business, which you would use to pay taxes, hire company employees, open bank accounts, and file other business activities as well.
Incorporate.com Customer Support
Its customer support officers are very responsive and one of the best we would recommend. They are available at any time via phone, email, and chat. With their commitment to finding the answers their clients need, the team has helped by responding to corporation queries within 24 hours.
While other top LLC formation companies might be unresponsive through email, we find that this channel has helped more customers get the information they need about the process.
Incorporate.com Comprehensive Guides
The company’s website is a good resource if you need help on the process of forming and maintaining an LLC business. There are various guides to walk you through the different types of business structures, tax elections [1], corporation licenses and business names.
If you’re just starting to form your company, it’s best to use and review these resources on the website.
LLC Kit And Seal
You’ll get one binder with your company name on it, decorative seals, stock certificates, and sample documents you can use. The seal is customized with your company’s name and date of incorporation.
Business License Research Package
Incorporate.com offers a feature to help you identify permits, licenses, and tax registrations that will be required for an LLC company to function. This also includes assistance in filling the applications required for these permits and licenses.
Incorporate.com provides good quality business license research services. Most companies do not provide this. The ones that do categorize it as a separate service.
Operating Agreement
The operating agreement, which Incorporate.com will draft for you as well, defines the ownership structure of your business. You can edit the document to update your LLC operations according to what you like.
Annual Report
Incorporate.com offers services that will help your business to keep track of annual reports. The company can also complete the filing every year.
This way, you’ll be on time and there is a lower risk of missing deadlines. Every state would require businesses to share a compliant annual report and most could revoke your license if your business fails to do so. Through the report, you can also ensure that your business is in good standing.
Incorporate.com Pricing
Incorporate.com offers three formation packages for the purpose of LLC formation and incorporation.
Do note that the company can automatically include registered agent services in any of the three plans. There are also some features that are only available if Incorporate.com is your registered agent for the company.
The Starter Package
The Starter package costs $99 + state fee. Basic LLC formation services are included in this pricing.
This Incorporate.com package includes services like preparation and filing of business documents, access to their online portal, name availability check and access to the CSC Navigator feature. CSC Navigator is a dashboard that is used to track due dates for your document filings.
You also get the $75,000 Corporate Compliance Guarantee to cover legal fees if you are sued. This guarantee is not available for North Carolina, though. You must opt for the registered agent services a well to have this benefit.
Due to the simplicity and low cost of the services at $99 + state fee, we recommend the starter package for entrepreneurs looking for the basics. This package is also the most popular one for those who are just getting started.
The Essentials Package
For the Essentials package, you are required to pay $199 plus state fees. They provide more requirements along with the ones in the Starter 99 package.
This package includes annual reports and filing services, the corporate kit, and EIN numbers. The annual report preparation is only available if you use Incorporate.com as your registered agent.
The Works Package
The Works package costs $279 plus state fees. It offers extra features along with all of the ones included in the Essentials bundle, like the EIN.
The business license research package and operating agreement service are offered to all incorporations.
Registered Agent Service
A registered agent is a crucial business formation service provided by Incorporate. You have to pay $235 per year with state fees.
Incorporate.com Refunds And Cancellations
When it comes to refunds and cancellations, we found that Incorporate.com has not provided enough clarity in their terms and conditions. But from our reviews of their refund policy and customer reviews, Incorporate.com will refund the entire amount back to you if you cancel the services before they submit the LLC forms to the state.
If you cancel after the submission of the documents, Incorporate.com will determine the percentage of the fees you can receive as a refund. If you want a clearer cancellation policy, you may opt to get Incorp’s services instead.
How Does Incorporate.com Compare To Other Registered Agent Services?
Incorporate.com has many competitors that provide similar business formation service packages. Most service providers also offer a free year of registered agent service to businesses at a similar pricing.
The most popular companies are Legalzoom, Northwest, and ZenBusiness. These have a similar market share in the industry. Legalzoom is the most popular LLC service provider with a good amount of businesses formed. Their customer support is also better compared to other LLC service providers.
Following Legalzoom is ZenBusiness, a service provider that charges the lowest pricing plans but still boasts top-quality services. ZenBusiness offers an accessible and affordable LLC service with positive feedback from businesses across different platforms.
Northwest Registered Agent might not charge the lowest but its fees are still way cheaper than Incorporate.com. It includes a year of the registered agent service. It also has some of the best customer reviews.
Unlike some competitors, Incorporate.com does not offer the option to have a same-day or expedited delivery. They do provide you with an estimated turnaround time after your order as soon as all the information they need has been received.
In summary of our reviews, Incorporate.com is not the lowest-priced provider. You can find another service that includes more features for a similar price. However, Incorporate.com still is proud of its good quality services. Decent customer reviews also make it worth considering as a provider.
Is Incorporate.com Trustworthy?
Incorporate.com is a trustworthy provider that has outstanding customer service available through phone, webchat, and email. Every one of their packages has additional resources that you can refer to for compliant LLC filing. A compliance guarantee is also included.
You can easily customize your own plans by adding extra features. You can also choose a package that suits you the most, based on business needs and demands.
Incorporate.com Customer Reviews
Incorporate.com has been operating for about a century and has developed a good reputation in the field. It is quite new, like its fellow business service provider, the Incfile company. Despite having worked with over 700,000 businesses and LLCs, they do not have lots of reviews. The few ones that they have are not as exceptional as some of its competitors.
Through our research, we found that they received good reviews from businesses in the early 2010s. However, they have barely received a positive review since then despite having advanced website features that set them apart from their competitors.
Moreover, several Incorporate.com review sections have mentioned that the providers lack in the features and customer service for the price they demand. Many customers have shared poor customer service experiences and billing customers without notifications.
However, Incorporate.com does not actively encourage its customers to leave reviews, and customers that do leave a review do so to express their frustration after a negative experience. While we do need to take current online reviews into account, this might not paint a complete picture of the service quality of Incorporate.com.
Here are some Incorporate.com review ratings across several platforms.
- Yelp (30+ reviews) — 2 stars out of five
- FitSmallBusiness (10+ reviews) — 1.5 stars out of five
- Better Business Bureau (5+ reviews) — 1 star out of five
Incorporate.com Review Conclusion
Incorporate.com stands out for its Corporate Compliance guarantee and its CSC Navigator feature that helps you keep track of compliance deadlines. You also get digital delivery of your documents which means faster turnaround times to receive your documents.
Aside from that, Incorporate.com surprisingly does not have many reviews across various review websites. Many of the current review ratings are also negative. However, this may not fully indicate the quality of the services offered by the company.
