Comparison Summary
| Service | Price | Legit? | Value | Free Agent? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 ZenBusiness | Starts at $0 | Yes | Excellent | No |
| Rocket Lawyer | Starts at $99.99 | Yes | Fair | No |
Before we dive into this comparison of ZenBusiness and Rocket Lawyer, let’s briefly talk about what a good overall value for an LLC formation service looks like.
While there are a lot of services like LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer that charge $79+ to form an LLC, there are a few services that’ll create an LLC for far less — and still include great features.
ZenBusiness is one of these good deals. While ZenBusiness and Rocket Lawyer are both strong companies with plenty of positive attributes, ZenBusiness offers a free LLC formation package and more valuable features.
6 Things They Have in Common
- Affordable: With either ZenBusiness or Rocket Lawyer, you’ll save a significant amount of money on your LLC formation compared to hiring a business attorney to handle your formation process.
- Great Customer Feedback: Both of these companies receive fantastic reviews from their clients, and both have thousands of reviews available online. When it comes to client satisfaction, both ZenBusiness and Rocket Lawyer really shine.
- Customer Support: These two services both have customer support networks that can answer all of your tough questions. Why go it alone when you can get help from ZenBusiness or Rocket Lawyer?
- Additional Services: Both Rocket Lawyer and ZenBusiness have many other services to provide to your business, from registered agent service to annual reports and much more.
- Efficiency: These companies both work quickly and can get your formation processed with the state in a matter of weeks or even days.
- Informative: ZenBusiness has a blog where we share business tips, information about different entity types, etc. Similarly, Rocket Lawyer has links to many helpful business articles in the “Help” portion of their website.
Side-by-Side Comparisons
Pricing
Rocket Lawyer: Unlike most competitors, Rocket Lawyer does not offer several different business formation packages to choose from. Instead, they provide one general formation package for $99.99, which you can then add features to on an a la carte basis. We will note that if you’re interested in their legal services subscription for $39.99/month, you can receive discounted or even free business formation service as long as you cover the state filing fee.
Experience
ZenBusiness: ZenBusiness is still fairly new, as we opened in 2015. However, we do handle a pretty high volume of business formations, as we’ve already formed 400,000+ entities in those years.
Rocket Lawyer: Rocket Lawyer’s website says that they’ve helped 25+ million people since they opened in 2008, making them one of the most experienced online legal services around.
Customer Support
ZenBusiness: You can contact our support team by phone, email, or 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.
Rocket Lawyer: Rocket Lawyer provides customer support via phone, email, or web chat, and their hours of availability are from 9 am to 9 pm ET. They have quick response times, and their representatives are well-informed regarding the services Rocket Lawyer provides.
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 turnaround time.
Rocket Lawyer: Rocket Lawyer’s formation speeds are determined by how quickly your state can form your business entity. In fact, they have a convenient page on their website where they list average processing times for both standard and expedited service.
Customer Reviews
ZenBusiness: ZenBusiness excels when it comes to customer feedback, as we have more than 10,000 reviews available online, and nearly all of them are positive. Entrepreneurs are clearly happy with our services and frequently praise Zen’s efficiency and ease of use.
Rocket Lawyer: Rocket Lawyer also receives good customer reviews, with mostly positive scores on their nearly 7,000 online reviews. Their customers love how simple Rocket Lawyer makes the formation process, and they often mention how much value they receive from the legal services subscription plan.
Ease of Use
ZenBusiness: There’s nothing complicated about forming a business with ZenBusiness. All you need to do is choose your formation package, provide us with your relevant personal and business information, and select any additional features that you may want. It’s incredibly simple and straightforward.
Rocket Lawyer: On one hand, Rocket Lawyer only has one business formation package, so it’s quite simple to decide which one you want to purchase. On the other hand, it can be a hassle to walk through their additional services. Still, overall it only took us around 10 minutes to complete the entire order form, which reflects how quick and easy the process is with Rocket Lawyer.
Additional Services
These companies both offer broad selections of additional services, although Rocket Lawyer certainly has a wider variety of services available. ZenBusiness and Rocket Lawyer both provide many of the same business services, including registered agent service, EIN acquisitions, doing business as (DBA) names, and documents like operating agreement templates.
However, in addition to its legal services subscription, Rocket Lawyer also provides its clients with a vast array of personal services. They can handle things like last will and testament, divorce settlement agreements, and child care authorization forms.
Rocket Lawyer also has some additional industry-specific business services that ZenBusiness doesn’t offer, like their selection of real estate forms, including lease agreements, eviction notices, and quitclaim deeds.
Which LLC Website to Choose?
There are quite a few common characteristics between ZenBusiness and Rocket Lawyer, but as you can see, there are some significant differences as well.
With this in mind, let’s take a look at some scenarios where you might want to choose one over the other for your company’s LLC formation service.
| Service | Price | Legit? | Value | Free Agent? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 ZenBusiness | Starts at $0 | Yes | Excellent | No |
| Rocket Lawyer | Starts at $99.99 | Yes | Fair | No |
➥ Choose ZenBusiness if You Are:
If you’re looking for a low-cost LLC service and want ongoing compliance assistance with your LLC formation (in our paid packages), ZenBusiness is the obvious choice.
➦ Choose Rocket Lawyer if You Are:
Is experience a major factor for you? Are you interested in their comprehensive legal services subscription? These are a couple of the main reasons why customers choose Rocket Lawyer.
Final Verdict
These are both great companies and each has its pros and cons. If you’d like to do a little more research and see how they stack up to the most well-known service, check out our comparison of LegalZoom and ZenBusiness.
Frequently Asked Questions
Got questions? We’ve got answers.
If I Decide to Use ZenBusiness, Which Package Should I Choose?
Depending on your budget and the needs of your business, your preference for the best ZenBusiness LLC formation package may vary.
First, it’s hard to find any fault with our Starter plan because it’s free (just pay your state’s required fee).
You might also be interested in our $299 Premium plan, which adds ongoing compliance assistance, a custom operating agreement, and a business website package, among other features.
Both are well-rounded and a great deal. (See Packages)
Does ZenBusiness Handle Extra State Requirements Like New York Publication?
We absolutely do. We’re sometimes frustrated by the supposed “top companies” in this industry not offering publication service in states that require it, and we’re committed to helping every entrepreneur complete the LLC formation process quickly and easily. For more information on our favorite New York LLC publication services, check out our guide to the top options.
Does Either of These Services Have a Refund Policy?
Rocket Lawyer has a straightforward refund policy that states that any customer who requests a refund within 30 days of their initial purchase date will receive one. There’s no fine print, and they don’t charge a cancellation fee.
Meanwhile, ZenBusiness has a similar refund policy that is one of the best in the industry. While many competitors have vague refund policies or even refuse refunds outright, ZenBusiness offers a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Can I Just Form an LLC On My Own, Without a Service?
The DIY route is always available to you as an option, and quite a few people do choose to form their own LLCs without any assistance. If you’d like to explore this option, check out our step-by-step guide.
What Is the Biggest Advantage of Each Service?
ZenBusiness offers incorporation service for free (all you need to pay is your state’s fee). This is a unique and highly valuable attribute that few competitors in this industry can match. Rocket Lawyer has a high level of experience. They’ve helped millions of customers over the years, which is a track record that outpaces most competitors.
Which Company Offers More Help With Ongoing Compliance Requirements?
ZenBusiness provides a wide variety of services that can help your business stay compliant down the line. ZenBusiness offers registered agent service for a rate of $99 for the first year and $199 per year after that, while Rocket Lawyer provides this service for an annual fee of $149.99. If you want ongoing compliance assistance like annual report service, ZenBusiness includes it with our Pro and Premium packages, while Rocket Lawyer does not provide this feature at all.
Looking for the Best LLC Service?
We love a good challenge! See how we compare to other LLC services. Our goal is to help kickstart your dream business through discounted LLC services: