Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom

You’re convinced that you can’t go wrong choosing between Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom, but you can’t decide which one to go for. Individual reviews for these online providers don’t help because you already know they’re good value for money.

If you find yourself stuck between some good legal service options, our comparison of Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom should help you decide on the better legal service provider for you.

However, after testing many of the different online legal services options, I’m confident that ZenBusiness is a better alternative than both of those options.

>>> Read My Full Zenbusiness Review Here

Advantages of Rocket Lawyer

Rocket Lawyer offers legal advice through its online portals and call services. Based on our experience, here are a few advantages in using their online legal services:

• Rocket Lawyer has services including real estate plans, reviewing legal documents, incorporation, and registered agent services.
• Rocket Lawyer has a Call Service and has trained each agent on-board to help small businesses with online legal issues and give them legal advice on the phone.
• This LLC provider offers a free 30-minute legal consultation with an attorney. This can be done online or by calling Rocket Lawyers’ service.
• There is a 7-day free trial for companies to file their LLC and get registered agent services. This trial is best for users who want to see how the system works first.
• Rocket Lawyer has a legal health score, a service introduced to check how far an LLC company is based on legal services, which include having legal documents or contracts in writing.
• Rocket Lawyer provides action plans to support companies in the case of any legal mishaps.
• Rocket Lawyer offers LLC formation with added online legal services from real attorneys at affordable fees. Based on our experience, their attorney services are simple yet top-notch, which is best for those who have no LLC formation experience.
• They offer registered agent service for any online legal advice by Rocket Law.

Advantages of LegalZoom

LegalZoom offers access to many features that are best for small business ventures as well as large LLC companies. The following assessment of top LegalZoom features are important to note when going through your options for online legal services:

• LegalZoom has an online interview process available that helps simplify the legal service process for any question you may have.
• Discounts, which provide 25% off on attorney fees, are available with LegalZoom. Lawyer and LegalZoom discounts are convenient for small LLC businesses trying to save money.
• One simple way LegalZoom makes their service better is by offering customers a variety of templates. It has a library that has 1600+ templates, ranging from billings to agreements such as NDAs or even LLCs. LegalZoom wills are also very popular.
• LegalZoom has fixed formation fees, which makes it easier for LLC business owners to decide if they can afford it beforehand. The per year cost is an affordable llc service for many businesses.
• The LegalZoom software has a series of questions for small business owners and consumers to better suit their needs, along with registered agent service for LLC.
• Legal Zoom will only charge a one-time payment. There are no hidden charges for any legal service a business owner acquires.
• Refund policy is executed if the client does not like their attorney services.

Features

Next, we will review which is the better LLC company between LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer in terms of service features.

Customer Service

Based on our research, some customer reviews stated that LegalZoom representatives did not provide answers to their questions nor did their customer support team help in a productive way, especially through email.

However, the company has longer working customer service hours than its competition and quicker response time to any question in the webchat even though its team only works on weekdays.

On the other hand, the customer service of Rocket Lawyer has been proven to be exceptional in hundreds of reviews due to their online and calling service plan. They have representatives present in case they need to answer customer questions.

Rocket Lawyer also has its customer service team within the US. Getting legal help from attorneys ensures peace of mind for customers who may have specific questions with filing, LLC setup or formation. With one call or email to Rocket Lawyer, you can access all the information, attorney advice, and support that you need.

Reviews of Rocket Lawyer’s 30-minute free legal advisory service are also excellent. This is one key differentiator in the customer support that Rocket Lawyer provides. And while their website doesn't say they offer extra state requirements like New York Publication, their customer support is more than happy to help with handling these company documents.

Legal Forms

Both Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom offer new legal forms that you can edit and download in Microsoft Word-compatible formats.

Rocket Lawyer provides you 1 year of storage for the forms. If you need to, you can also e-sign the forms through email — a feature that LegalZoom does not use.

Rocket Lawyer offers you step-by-step guidance to the forms if you need support with filling them one by one. However, you can only use this new service at a premium. Rocket Lawyer charges an average of $39.95 for each form if you are not on their Premium plan, which is expensive especially when compared to the more affordable $14.95 fee for LegalZoom.

You can also opt for a monthly subscription for LegalZoom forms which are priced at $7.99 in fees per month.

LLC Formation And Registered Agent Services

Both Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom, like other top registered agent services, offer services to help you create LLC companies in any state.

For their clients’ best interests, LegalZoom has a top-notch system where a business owner’s documents and legal proceedings are double-checked before submission to keep mistakes out of the way. They have top document experts who read through the entire paperwork, which, as suggested by many, have proven to put their consumers right at ease.

LegalZoom also offers additional features that their business customers can use. This includes free monthly copyright filings, along with access to their library of 160+ legal documents. Moreover, the service can provide access to many top tax professionals and offers annual business evaluations by lawyers, with the latter especially considered a top selling point for the company.

As mentioned, Rocket Lawyer has also introduced a legal health score system for businesses. This information helps companies review where they stand in terms of legal services regardless of the size of their business.

Rocket Lawyer will provide a basic guide once it informs a client of their legal health score. This can help customers plan and set right any new problems that the Rocket Lawyer service has identified.

IP Services

LegalZoom offers access to intellectual property services such as patent services, utility patent assistance, design patent assistance, provisional patent application, and trademark registration for entrepreneurs who want to start their LLC company.

Meanwhile, Rocket Lawyer does not include intellectual property legal services in its packages.

Pricing

In this LegalZoom vs Rocket Lawyer pricing comparison, I’ve set the two companies side by side to show the differences in pricing when it comes to the prepaid online legal services and business formation services they offer.

Just one thing to note, all plans exclude state fees.

LegalZoom Pricing

Economy

According to their website, LegalZoom’s economy package starts at $79. However, you also have to pay for state fees which may vary depending on the state you are incorporating your business in.

The specific features that they offer with this package are business filing and name check, LLC guide for next steps, articles of organization, and lifetime customer support.

This package has a turnaround time of 30 days.

Standard

This package includes a turnaround time of 15 days and costs $329 in value and state fees. The package includes official certificates, seals, and deluxe organizer, and guarantees faster filing in general.

For another perspective regarding standard package prices, I’ve got a separate LegalZoom versus Incfile review that you could check out.

Express Gold

This package includes the fastest delivery time of 7 to 10 days, but this one also comes at a higher price of $349 which is not yet inclusive of state fees. The services the Express Gold package offers include express shipping and rush processing with the state secretary.

If you want to use LegalZoom’s registered agent service, the value of the Express Gold package begins at a cost of $299 per year. In comparison, another service I reviewed is the Swyft Filings, with a premium package offer that also costs $299 per year.

Prepaid Plans

You’ll find two options available for prepaid Legal Zoom legal plans, which are the Business Advisory Plan and the Legal Advantage Plus.

If you need advice from a lawyer about business matters such as business formation, contracts, copyright, and tax advice, you could use the Business Advisory Plan which will charge you a total of $375 when billed once a year or $432 if billed twice a year.

If you are in need of personal online legal service, such as estate planning, family matters, finance issues, or employment issues, you can start with the Legal Advantage Plus for $119.88 per year. You can also choose to be billed $71.94 twice per year.

Both these services offer free 30-minute consultations with a lawyer and review of legal documents of up to 10 pages. You can especially use these reviews to make sure there are no problems with business formation.

Rocket Lawyer Pricing

Without a membership, Rocket Lawyer’s registered agent services are available at $149.99 per year while LLC formation service costs $99.99 in value.

Premium Plan

The main offer that Rocket Lawyers have is the Premium plan. This package costs $39.99 per month and offers unlimited legal documents with a 25% discount on registered agent services.

There are free 30-minute attorney consultations and free incorporation services for new members. Any subsequent LLC formation services will have a 25% discount excluding state fees. This is a great deal considering that its competitors, like the Northwest Registered Agent, offers incorporation services starting at $225.

Aside from the unlimited documents, this business formation package by Rocket Lawyer also includes Document Defense, a service for lawyers to enforce legal agreements [1] which would otherwise cost $9.99 in value without a membership. A lawyer can review the situation and send or respond to letters on your behalf.

If you do need to hire an attorney, you get a 40% discount from Rocket Lawyer. You can also get a 7-day free trial of the Premium Plan before deciding to upgrade.

You can see that the pricing model is very different between the two companies, Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom. While Rocket Lawyer’s main offer is a monthly subscription, you can get a fixed fee with LegalZoom for various legal services excluding state fees.

If you go for Rocket Lawyer’s Premium package, you can get your LLC formed for free. The regular price (without state fees), if you are not a new member, is more expensive compared to the Basic package of LegalZoom, ZenBusiness, and others. However, its registered agent service is much cheaper.

Rocket Lawyer does offer a personalized kit and seal if you pay an additional $99 which includes stock certificates, corporate seal, company binder with your company name in gold letters, and sample business forms. LegalZoom includes this in its Standard package.

If you ask the Rocket Lawyer support team, you can also get help for extra state requirements like New York Publication.

LegalZoom also has additional features such as the Smart Employer packages for HR services and the Total Compliance package. The latter renews your registration with the state every year and helps you manage key tasks such as corporate minutes. For another point of comparison, check the plans offered by Incfile.

Refund Policy

Both LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer have refund policies, but the two differ in some ways.

LegalZoom offers a refund in case of any problems with its legal advisory or proceedings. However, refunds are only valid within 60 days of payment, although it is free, unlike Bizfilings, which processes refunds for a $50 fee.

Rocket Lawyer offers refunds on its legal services membership within 30 days of payment. However, payments for incorporation filings or registered agent services are not eligible for any refunds.

Turnaround Time

LegalZoom’s turnaround time depends on the package you choose. The more expensive packages have VIP processing and express shipping.

The Express Gold package has a 7 to 10-day turnaround time while the Standard package has a turnaround time of 15 business days. Meanwhile, the Basic package has a turnaround time of 30 business days.

For Rocket Lawyer, the turnaround time depends on the state you are incorporating your business in.

Overall, the turnaround of documents, legal forms, and other services in Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom services depends on the package or the state.

Upsells

Like most services, you would also encounter upsells in Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom.

Rocket Lawyer has a core subscription service that will try to upsell you to if you are a small business that is only going for an incorporation service or registered agent service.

However, LegalZoom has more upsells as it will try to convince you to purchase more additional legal services that Rocket Lawyer already covers in its subscription package.

If you don’t like upsells very much, Rocket Lawyer is the clear winner in this Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom comparison.

User Interface

Let’s compare Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom in terms of user interface.

LegalZoom’s business formation services website walks the user through various questions in order to help them understand the legal process better.

The software used provides you with a form to gather information about your needs before showing you a list of appropriate services. A screenshot of the legal form will be shown to you on the right portion of the screen. This is updated in real-time as you sign your information in.

It doesn’t ask for an email address when starting the LLC formation process. The company also describes each step in the process so your questions are lessened.

This is helpful if you want to make sure you have all the right information you need to continue the process you’re wary about any upsells. The process of filling in the form is also much faster and efficient according to many reviews.

On the other hand, the Rocket Lawyer website requests the user to choose a plan which includes the free trial and premium plan, after which the customer can look through the legal documents and services and choose what fits their needs.

While Rocket Lawyer also updates a screenshot of the form in real-time, you usually have to scroll down to view it before continuing on with the process.

If you get confused at any point, you may contact Rocket Lawyer to help you through the process. This is easy especially with their on-call service available.

Overall, the user interface for both Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom is user-friendly and efficient.

Customer Reviews

Here are the customer ratings for LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer.

LegalZoom Customer Ratings

Birdeye: 3.9 out of 5.0

ConsumerAffairs: 3.6 out of 5.0

Sitejabber: 4.6 out of 5.0

Rocket Lawyer Customer Ratings

Birdeye: 2.9 out of 5.0

ConsumerAffairs: 3.9 out of 5.0

Sitejabber: 4.4 out of 5.0

In this comparison of Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom customer ratings, LegalZoom generally has higher customer ratings for its online legal service.

Conclusion

There is no clear winner between the two in this Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom comparison as the best option still depends on your needs.

If your company is an independent small business that only needs basic online legal service, which could mean legal forms, business formation service, state filing, and registered agents, then LegalZoom may be the better choice to create an LLC company.

If you need ongoing legal help and want to immediately be in contact with an attorney when needed, then you can start with Rocket Lawyer. Its unlimited consultations are one of their main value points over the competition. Their packages also include additional legal services for free or at a discount which may be helpful for any small business that needs to expand or is undergoing changes.