Incorporate.com Review: Is It the Better Choice for 2024?

The Bad Outweighs the Good With Incorporate.com

Incorporate.com will complete and file your Articles of Organization, the state-required paperwork to launch your Limited Liability Company (LLC). You’ll also receive access to an online library of your LLC’s documents. For extra fees, Incorporate.com will act as your Registered Agent, give you access to an online dashboard, apply for your Employer Identification Number (EIN), and assist you with company compliance by filing annual reports.

You would think with a century-long experience and history, Incorporate.com would offer prospective business owners looking for LLC formation assistance top-notch service and support. Think again.

Sure, there are some good aspects to Incorporate.com, but the negative aspects overshadow them to the point where you can barely find the good in the dark. We’ve discovered Incorporate.com leaves much to be desired. Everything, it seems, comes at a price, and a high price at that.

If you’re new to researching LLC formation services in preparation for launching your new business, I’d encourage you to read on. You’ll likely learn what not to look for in an LLC formation service. Also check out our list of top recommended LLC formation service providers to find a much better, less expensive alternative, or check out our #1-ranked vendor, ZenBusiness1.

Too High a Price for What You Get

At first glance, Incorporate.com seems to offer a nice set of features, such as a Corporate Compliance Guarantee and a proprietary client dashboard. It also offers some of the same paid add-on LLC services that others do. It’s only when you look into the details, and sometimes not even until checkout, that you find out the features aren’t as attractive as they seem.

With Incorporate.com, everything comes at a price. To get some of the nicer features, you either have to pay for them or pay for something else to access them. All in all, Incorporate.com’s features just aren’t worth the money you have to pay.

Expedited Processing Time, Whether You Want It Or Not

You won’t find how long it takes for Incorporate.com to file your LLC formation paperwork anywhere on its website. I had to contact support to find out the expected timing is 1–2 business days.

However, if your state offers an expedited filing time for an extra fee, apparently you’ll automatically be charged for it during checkout with no option to opt out. So you’ll be charged an extra $50 in Washington, DC, as the image shows, or whatever your state charges. This isn’t explained anywhere on the website and seems a bit disingenuous to me.

EIN Application

Speaking of expedited fees, after charging you to obtain your EIN with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Incorporate.com offers to do it the same day for an extra fee. But it costs almost the same as what you just agreed to pay them to get it for you in a few days’ time. And all of that for something you can do for free by yourself.

If you’d feel more comfortable having someone do it for you, Swyft Filings includes obtaining your EIN in its mid-level package1, the whole of which only costs a bit more than Incorporate.com’s combined EIN fees and gets you a whole lot more than just an EIN.

Registered Agent Services Come With a Bonus

You can hire Incorporate.com to serve as your LLC’s required Registered Agent. On the face of it, the Registered Agent fees seem somewhat comparable to what others charge. But until you go to check out, the “hidden fees” pop up. Unless you’re registered or registering in Delaware, you’ll be charged an extra expedited fee for registering Incorporate.com as your Registered Agent.

Another thing that makes this feature weirdly unique in the LLC formation service field is that purchasing the Registered Agent service is the only way to gain access to Incorporate.com’s proprietary client dashboard. And with service providers like ZenBusiness including an easy-to-use dashboard1 and mobile app for its customers, not to mention charging more than $100 less for Registered Agent services, why bother?

Annual Report Filing Service and CSCNavigator Dashboard

It’s really a shame that Incorporate.com has chosen to gatekeep its CSCNavigator client dashboard behind its Registered Agent services. CSCNavigator is a really useful tool for any business owner. It includes a compliance calendar so you never get behind with annual reports or other required filings. It also serves as an online library for all your LLC’s documents and a reference center for your LLC. You gain live chat support through the CSCNavigator, too.

Incorporate.com also offers annual report filing. It doesn’t cost anything when you sign up, which is a bit misleading. Both Incorporate.com’s fee and your state’s annual fees are due when your report is due. That can be a hefty fee to drop on your budget all at once. A better choice would be to use ZenBusiness for your LLC formation service, as it includes its Worry-Free Compliance program and the user-friendly dashboard free with every plan.

Corporate Compliance Guarantee

The Corporate Compliance Guarantee is another feature that sounds really good on the surface, but once you read the details, gets a bit tarnished. Sure, Incorporate.com will guarantee its work for up to $75,000. But first…

• Your LLC has to meet all state and federal requirements, such as regulations and taxes
• You have to be found guilty of operating an illegal LLC in a court of law
• The court determines that the fault of your illegality lies with Incorporate.com’s services

So there’s no guarantee that Incorporate.com will get your paperwork processed correctly or that you won’t have to pay for costly filing errors. Just that if a court says Incorporate.com messed up, it’ll pay. Several of our top recommended LLC formation service providers offer such a guarantee – no lawyers or judges needed.

Easy? Yes. Deceptive? Also Yes.

As with its features, when it comes to using Incorporate.com’s website, it’s easy to get dazzled by what you first see. The website appears quite informative, and it’s quite easy to navigate. I have no issues for that and give credit for that. It’s the quality of the information, the misleading language used, and the hidden fees that are a great deal less dazzling to me.

Also take note that none of Incorporate.com’s services are available in any language other than English, including LLC formation and customer support.

Getting Started With Incorporate.com

It’s easy enough to get started with Incorporate.com’s LLC formation services as long as you know what you want. You simply click on one of the many let’s get started buttons found throughout the site. That takes you to the beginning of the 5-step ordering process.

The first step is to choose the state where you want to form your new business. You can choose from all 50 states and the District of Columbia using a drop-down menu. Once you’ve selected a state, the page opens up with three package choices: LLC, C Corp, or non-profit. Choose LLC, and you’re on to step 2 to select your package.

Next, you’ll be given several options to customize your package with add-on features such as obtaining your EIN and Operating Agreement. Click the box under each option to choose it. The fee will automatically be added to your cart. Continue on to giving your personal and company info in steps 3 and 4, and finally review your information and choices, pay, and your order is complete.

Easy Ordering Process But Misleading Language and Information

Incorporate.com really pushes forming your company in Delaware. I mean, really pushes it to the point that if you click on the Choosing Your Home State in the box during step 1 of the ordering process, it tells you to reconsider and gives you a short list of Delaware’s benefits for LLC owners.

The online Learning Center has an entire section devoted to incorporating Delaware. The FAQs include “Why should I incorporate in Delaware?” There’s a video titled “Why Delaware is the Best” and more.

There’s a big problem with all this information. Nowhere on the website does it discuss the potential disadvantages of not forming your LLC in your home state. While there are some benefits to forming an LLC in Delaware, especially for Delaware residents, most will want to register with your home state. Doing so will avoid potential pitfalls such as the possibility of extra paperwork, extra fees, or even extra taxes.

Watch Out for Hidden Fees

My accidental slip of the touchpad during the ordering process brought another issue: You’ll be charged more to form your LLC in any state other than Delaware. The starting fees for Incorporate.com’s packages are always more unless you choose Delaware – every package, every state. The fees are the same across the board, just not the same as the fees for Delaware.

Add to that the hidden expedited filing fees, and I was not at all impressed with Incorporate.com’s transparency. You may want to consider looking for more trustworthy LLC formation services like Swyft Filings1. You can also see other great options with reliable information and transparent pricing from our list of recommended providers.

Plan to Pay for What Others Give Away

With Incorporate.com, there’s no “free” plan, where you just pay your state filing fees. There are also added fees for every state but Delaware and the not-so-free annual report filing program. Then, there are the services that other LLC formation service providers include with their free plans, such as access to the customer dashboard, that you just don’t get with Incorporate.com without paying for them.

To be fair and thorough, however, I’ll go through the details of Incorporate.com’s three LLC formation packages. The Starter package includes the filing of your Articles of Organization, the Corporate Compliance Guarantee, and an online library of your documents – all for a pretty hefty fee plus your state’s filing fees. I find it overpriced, considering you can get similar services for free from many other LLC formation companies.

In addition to The Starter package’s features, you’ll receive the annual compliance report filing, your EIN, and the Corporate Kit with The Essentials package. The Corporate Kit includes a zipper-bound binder for holding important documents, a company seal you can use to emboss documents, and blank stock and membership certificates. All of this will only cost you almost twice what you paid for the Starter package.

Go for broke (literally, if you’re a cash-strapped LLC owner) and order The Works, Incorporate.com’s top-tier package for over thrice the price of The Starter package. With this package, you’ll get your Operating Agreement and the business license research service.

As if making you pay for expedited fees and other fees without an opt out wasn’t bad enough, Incorporate.com charges high fees for features and services other LLC formation companies either give you free of charge or include in their reasonably priced packages.

For example, one of our top recommended providers, Tailor Brands1, will charge you the same for its top-tier plan as Incorporate.com does for its mid-level The Essentials package. You’ll also receive all the website creation and design services the company offers.

Helpful in a Not-So Helpful Way

Incorporate.com offers online chat, email, and phone support, as well as a Learning Center with articles and FAQs. It promises prompt professional help when you need it and all messages will be answered in one business day. My experience was…so-so at best, horrible at worst.

Let’s start with the online chat. I never found a time during business hours, evening hours, or weekend hours when it actually worked. The chat window read “Sorry to have missed you. Live Support is not available at this time.” every time I tried.

The Learning Center appears to be very helpful, with the exception of the misleading “Delaware is best” information. Ignore that and move on. There are free guides and checklists to download, free ebooks, and videos in addition to a library of articles on starting an LLC.

Email support was quick with its first response. In less than 2 hours, I had my answer regarding support or services in languages other than English. However, a follow-up message regarding how, or even if, I could opt out of the expedited filing fees went completely unanswered. (It’s been a week, so I’m pretty sure I’m being ignored.)

Phone support was both helpful and a headache at the same time. I called in the middle of a weekday afternoon to be placed on hold for 4 and a half minutes, after which I was offered the option to leave a message. I decided to forgo that and just call back later.

Same day, an hour later, it didn’t even ring, but instead went straight to the message. So I left my question and info and waited. And waited. I called on Tuesday around 2 pm, but their response came at 9:45 am on Friday. So much for the “one business day” promise.

The phone agent was very helpful and polite. She answered my questions professionally – and with a lot of hype about filing in Delaware. She even followed up with an email with three attachments, including information on – you guessed it – filing in Delaware. But the worst part is that she called me multiple times every business day until I finally blocked the number.

All in all, if you have to contact Incorporate.com’s support system, try the email option. As long as you don’t ask questions about the disingenuous pricing, you’ll receive a quick, professional answer.