Best Free LLC Filing Services (Pay Only the State Fee)

No. Every state lets you file articles of organisation yourself on its Secretary of State website, and in most states it takes about twenty minutes. A service is worth paying for when you want a registered agent whose address is not your home, when you are forming in a state you do not live in, or when you want the annual-report reminders. The state fee is the same either way.

The $0 refers to the service's own fee. You still pay the state: about $40 in Kentucky, $50 in Arizona and Colorado, $100 in Texas plus franchise obligations, $200 in New York before publication costs, $500 in Massachusetts. Free packages also usually include only year one of registered agent service, after which the renewal — $119 to $249 a year — is where the money is made.

They accept legal papers and state notices on your business's behalf at a physical address in the state during business hours. You can be your own, but then your home address goes on the public record and someone must be there. Northwest and Bizee include the first year; from year two the market rate is $100 to $200.

We order the same single-member LLC through each service at its advertised entry package, decline every upsell we do not need, and record the total charged, the number of upsell screens, the date the state approved the articles, and what the renewal notice asks for. We read the operating agreement each one produces and call support with the same two questions.