Are you starting a business for doctors, lawyers, engineers, chiropractors, accountants, or another licensed profession? If so, you might need to form a professional corporation or limited liability company (LLC) to operate your company in compliance with state law.
PLLCs and PCs vary considerably from state to state, and the PLLC isn’t even available in all 50 states. However, depending on your state and profession, you may be required to form a professional entity rather than a standard LLC or corporation.
While you can form your own PLLC or PC, this option can be quite complicated, especially if you don’t have any experience forming businesses. Some entrepreneurs prefer hiring an attorney to form a professional entity, but this can be extremely expensive.
Our preferred option is to hire a business formation company to handle the process, saving money compared to hiring an attorney but gaining peace of mind and convenience over the DIY route.
Is LegalZoom the right company to handle your professional business entity formation? Or can one of its competitors better serve your needs? Let’s find out!
A Brief Overview of Professional LLC and Corporation Services
PLLC and PC formation services aren’t nearly as common as those for traditional entities, and many of the companies that offer some of the most popular business formation services (like ZenBusiness, Northwest Registered Agent, and Incfile) don’t offer PLLC/PC formations at all.
That said, there are still quite a few reputable companies offering PLLC and PC formation services. While some of these companies use the exact same pricing model they use for traditional entities, some others add PLLC- and PC-specific surcharges that significantly increase their price points.
LegalZoom PLLC and PC Formation Service Review
Let’s quickly review its pros and cons before we dig into the details.
Pros
- Solid pricing model for PLLCs
- Tons of experience
- Satisfaction guaranteed
- Strong customer feedback
Cons
- Mediocre pricing for PC formations
- No online ordering for PLLCs/PCs
The LegalZoom Professional LLC and Corporation Formation Service
For $129, LegalZoom will form your new professional LLC, but it charges $199 to incorporate your PC. While these packages do not include any other valuable features to speak of, they’re still a solid value for this service due to the reasonable price point, especially for PLLCs.
While LegalZoom has higher-priced business formation service packages for standard LLCs and corporations with more included features, it only has one package for PLLC/PC formations.
Overall Pricing and Value:
We only know of two companies in the entire industry that form PLLCs and PCs for less money than LegalZoom. However, those companies — Swyft Filings for $49 and Rocket Lawyer for $99.99 — both significantly undercut LegalZoom’s pricing, especially for PCs.
When you compare LegalZoom to most competitors though, this company offers more value for this service than most.
Track Record:
LegalZoom has more experience than the vast majority of its competitors. For instance, it says it has more than 1 million subscribers to its registered agent service, which is an impressive customer volume considering the high pricing model. In addition, LegalZoom has formed more than 2 million business entities over the years.
When it comes to customer feedback, LegalZoom does pretty well but not great. We tracked down around 6,500 reviews of its services on reputable third-party review websites. While LegalZoom does receive more positive reviews than negative ones, there are competitors with both a higher volume and a higher quality of feedback.
Customer Support:
There is no other company in this industry that provides more access to its customer support team than LegalZoom. Just check out how long its support availability hours are:
- Weekdays: 8 am to 10 pm ET
- Weekends: 10 am to 7 pm ET
With LegalZoom, you’ll never have to take time out of your busy workday to contact customer support. With the longest hours of availability in the business services industry (and it’s not even a little bit close), this company offers greater access than any competitor.
How is the quality of LegalZoom’s support? We have never had any complaints, although we will note that, due to the large size of this company, its support is less customized and personalized than some competitors.
Ease of Use:
Do you prioritize using a tech-savvy company with an intuitive user interface and a super-simple ordering process? Look no further than LegalZoom. This company offers an easy-to-use website and plenty of advanced tech to help your business stay on the cutting edge.
That said, LegalZoom’s user-friendly web design won’t help you much with your PLLC or PC formation because these services aren’t available online. While you can order a standard LLC or corporation online, you’ll need to contact customer support to purchase a professional entity formation package.
What Are LegalZoom Customers Saying?
As we mentioned earlier, we found about 6,500 mostly positive reviews for LegalZoom. We will note that this is a smaller volume of reviews than some competitors have available (like Swyft Filings’ 36,000 reviews), and the quality of LegalZoom’s reviews lags slightly behind these companies as well.
We found plenty of customers who seem pleased with the service they receive from LegalZoom. These people often discuss how helpful LegalZoom’s support network is and how easy it is to use its services.
On the other hand, we also found a decent chunk of reviews from people who were not as satisfied. These customers talk about things like high price points and inconsistent customer support. Overall, LegalZoom’s customer satisfaction reputation is definitely more good than bad, but it’s not all sunshine and roses either.
Our Final Thoughts
LegalZoom is a popular choice for professional LLC and corporation formations. We always appreciate this company’s extensive experience and extended customer support availability.
If you would like to examine your other options for PLLC/PC formation service, our guide to the best professional business entity formation services has the information you seek.