Do ZenBusiness and Northwest Registered Agent offer good value?

ZenBusiness and Northwest Registered Agent are both popular and reputable LLC formation services. Either can easily form your compliant LLC, and both have reasonable rates, especially compared to hiring a lawyer. However, each has its advantages.

We offer LLC formations starting at $0 (+ state fee), while Northwest charges $225. Furthermore, we have 12,000+ positive customer reviews available online, while Northwest has about 800. In other words, there’s a reason we’re such a popular alternative to Northwest Registered Agent.

Would you like to get some more info before making your decision? Read on to find out everything you need to know about these two LLC formation service providers.

6 Things They Have in Common

1) Affordable: With either ZenBusiness or Northwest Registered Agent, you’ll save a significant amount of money on your LLC formation compared to hiring a business attorney to handle your formation process.

2) Great Customer Feedback: Although we have a higher volume of reviews than Northwest does, both of these companies receive high average customer review ratings.

3) Valuable Features: Both companies have feature-rich LLC formation service packages that include advanced features.

4) Customer Support: These two services both have customer support networks that can answer your tough questions. Why go it alone when you can get help from ZenBusiness or Northwest?

5) Efficiency: These companies both work quickly and can get your formation processed with the state in a matter of weeks or even days.

6) Additional Services: Both Northwest and ZenBusiness have many other services to help you focus more on building your business and less on paperwork.

Side-by-Side Comparisons

Pricing

ZenBusiness: We offer LLC service for free (just pay your state’s fee). If you’re looking for some advanced features, our $199 Pro package adds ongoing compliance assistance, an operating agreement template, an employer identification number (EIN), and faster processing. You also might like our $299 Premium plan, as it adds a business website builder, a domain name, a business email address, and 25+ business document templates.

Northwest: At $225, their price point is high compared to many competitors. Still, the inclusion of a full year of their registered agent service is a good feature that makes their pricing more attractive. Once the first year is up, the registered agent service will renew at $125 per year.

Experience

ZenBusiness: We were founded in 2015 in Austin, Texas. Since then, we’ve served 500,000+ customers. We’re a public benefit corporation that provides $5,000 grants to help our customers kickstart their businesses.

Northwest: Northwest Registered Agent has been around since 1998, and since then, they’ve served 2+ million customers.

Customer Support

ZenBusiness: ZenBusiness provides access to our customer service team by phone, email, or web chat. We have expanded availability that even includes Sundays — very few competitors have any weekend availability. We pride ourselves in continuously improving the quality and responsiveness of our customer support, and we believe we compare favorably to the vast majority of competitors in this area.

Northwest: Northwest offers phone and email support. We first tested their email support, and while it took nearly 24 hours to receive an email back, the response was detailed, and the rep went beyond simply answering our question and checking off an email response. We also called and received similarly impressive service. The representative who answered the phone took the time to ask for details so that he could give us the most accurate answer.

Turnaround Times

ZenBusiness: With ZenBusiness, all formation speeds vary based on state capabilities. Also, if you’re in a hurry, you can choose one of our premium packages to speed things up a bit. When compared to other formation services, we are usually either just as fast or slightly faster. To find out your turnaround time, simply plug in your state and immediately see your estimated processing speed.

Northwest: When you select your state from the dropdown menu of the application, an estimated turnaround time will display on the screen. Most states have expedited service available for an additional fee, so you’ll see two turnaround times on the order form.

Customer Reviews

ZenBusiness: ZenBusiness excels when it comes to customer feedback, as we have more than 12,000 reviews available online, and nearly all of them are positive. Our clients are clearly satisfied with our services, and they frequently praise our efficiency, along with the general ease of use provided by our platform.

Northwest: Northwest Registered Agent doesn’t have a ton of customer feedback, but they do have around 800 reviews, and they’re mostly positive.

Ease of Use

ZenBusiness: It’s important to us to make the LLC formation process as simple as possible. All you have to do is choose your LLC package from our three options, provide us with some information about yourself and your business, select which add-on services you’d like, and pay for the order. It doesn’t get much easier than this.

Northwest: The application process with Northwest is streamlined and easy to follow. You simply enter your personal info and business details and pay for the order. There aren’t any upsells, and Northwest only offers one LLC formation service package.

Additional Services

Both ZenBusiness and Northwest Registered Agent provide access to many additional business services, and there’s a considerable amount of overlap between these companies’ offerings. For instance, either can help you with employer identification number (EIN) acquisition, annual reports, foreign registrations, and more.

However, each has some services that the other doesn’t provide. ZenBusiness offers bookkeeping and accounting services, which Northwest doesn’t. On the other hand, only Northwest provides its customers with virtual office services.

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Compare Packages

Identify the LLC package and services that fit your needs and then get started.

Starter

Premium

Starter

$0

Premium

$349/yr

Starter

File in 2 to 3 weeks **

$0

PLUS STATE FEES

Premium

File in 1 to 5 days **

$349/yr

PLUS STATE FEES

Top Features

More InfoWe do everything needed to file your application with the state and make your business official. Standard LLC Filing
More InfoWe’ll file your paperwork quickly and accurately. If there are any errors with your filing, our team will do what’s needed to make it right. 100% Accuracy Guarantee
More InfoKeeps you compliant with all state-required annual report and amendment filings to maintain LLC protections and avoid fines. Worry-Free Compliance
More InfoThis essential document is like the constitution for your business. Operating Agreement
More InfoOur fastest service puts you to the front of our line of filings. Our Fastest Filing Speed
More InfoOur team will secure your EIN from the IRS so you can open a business bank account, hire employees, and pay taxes. EIN
More InfoIncludes over 25 templates for contracts, service agreements, waivers, and more. Business Documents
More InfoGet online with a website builder tool optimized for traffic and customers. Business Website Builder
More InfoBuild and protect your brand by registering a private domain name that matches your business name. Domain Name with Privacy
More InfoStay organized and give your business more credibility with a business email. Business Email Address

File in 2 to 3 weeks **

1 year free, then $199/yr*
+$99
+$79
+$99
+$99
+$15/mo
+$35/yr
+$25/yr

File in 1 to 5 days **

*SPECIAL OFFER – Get Starter for $0 plus state fees. Includes one optional free year of Worry-Free Compliance that renews at $199/yr.
**These filing times are averages and include our processing times and Secretary of State turnaround times which vary by state.

Which is the right service for you?

ZenBusiness and Northwest Registered Agent are two popular online LLC formation services, and both can efficiently and effectively register an LLC. If you’re still undecided between these companies, let’s look at a couple of scenarios that might help you determine which one to choose.

➦ Choose Northwest Registered Agent if:

Do you want registered agent service packaged in with your LLC formation, and you’re willing to pay a bit extra to get it? Northwest could be worth a look.

🎉 Choose ZenBusiness if:

If you’d like to form your LLC with ZenBusiness, we’re here to help. We offer LLC formations starting at $0 (+ state fee), and we have 12,000+ positive customer reviews available online. Form your LLC quickly and get more tools to start your dream business.

Get Started with ZenBusiness

Starts at $0 + state fees and only takes 5-10 minutes

Frequently Asked Questions About ZenBusiness and Northwest Registered Agent

  • It’s hard to not be a fan of our Starter plan because it’s $0 as long as you pay your state’s required fee. If you’re looking for some more advanced features, our Pro package ($199 + state fee) adds ongoing compliance assistance, EIN acquisition, an operating agreement template, and faster filing. Meanwhile, our Premium package ($299 + state fee) adds a business website builder, a business email address, a domain name, and 25+ business document templates to the Pro package.

  • You can, and many entrepreneurs do form their own LLCs every day. However, we appreciate the peace of mind we receive from using a reputable formation service. In addition, each state has its own rules and regulations for LLC formations, so there can often be more legwork than people might expect.

  • Would you like to take a look at a couple of other options? Check out our comparisons of ZenBusiness to other top-rated LLC services, LegalZoom and Incfile:

  • Northwest charges $25 as a convenience fee for processing refunds, or as they call it, a “You changed your mind fee.” On the other hand, we have a refund policy that’s one of the most reasonable in the industry. While many competitors have vague refund policies or even refuse refunds outright, we offer a 60-day money-back guarantee with no fees.

  • The main advantage of ZenBusiness is our offer of a free business formation service (state fee not included). We’re only aware of a few other companies in this entire industry that can match this offer.

    Meanwhile, Northwest’s biggest advantage is its experience. They’ve been around longer and formed more businesses than we have.

  • You can get assistance with ongoing compliance issues from either of these companies. We charge $199 as an annual fee for registered agent service in any state, and we also provide annual report service for $100. Northwest offers registered agent service for $125 per year. They also offer annual report service, which is available for $100 plus state fee.

Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.

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Written by Team ZenBusiness

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