LLC formation can be challenging if you are all by yourself. Ongoing legal services for your established company may also have some challenges. We, therefore, recommend you find an online legal service provider to help set up and run the legal entities in your company.
ZenBusiness and LegalZoom are some of the legal service providers you can turn to when starting a new company (see also 'LegalZoom Vs. Incfile'). They also offer varied ongoing services, including Registered Agent services.
In our ZenBusiness vs. LegalZoom review, we're going to highlight the notable similarities and differences, experience, customers' reviews, and the services each of the companies offers. We shall also focus on their pricing and customer service.
We're trying to establish the company offering the best LLC service you need to set up and keep your business running.
Similarities
Customer Assistance
Both LegalZoom and ZenBusiness have customer-support technicians who give guidelines to their clients during the business formation process and running of the business.
Legal Information
Both ZenBusiness and LegalZoom have tips for business owners on business formation services and other LLC essentials like registered agent services, articles of organization, and business taxes.
Legal Compliance Requirements
Both companies will let you know of the anticipated legal compliance requirements, such as filing the annual report. ZenBusiness goes further to offer a Worry-Free Compliance service that files the annual report for you.
Services They Offer
ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness is a company formation service that, apart from offering formation services, provides other ongoing services to keep your new business running and in good standing.
It is fast and affordable for small business owners.
Here is a list of the primary services they provide:
Business formation service
Employer ID Number (EIN)
Operating Agreement
Domain Name Privacy
New York Publication
Annual Reports
Business Email
Good Standing certificate
Worry-Free CPA Assessment
Banking Resolution
Business Webpage
Registration of Domain Name
LegalZoom
LegalZoom is an online legal services company offering legal services for small businesses and personal use.
It's suitable for small companies with limited funds to afford a private lawyer.
They have an established reputation with excellent customer reviews.
Some of the key business services they offer are as follows:
Company Formation
Business Compliance
Business permits and licenses
Business Names
Registered Agent
Legal forms and agreement
Copyright
They also offer personal legal services such as:
Finance
Estate Planning
Real estate
Injury and accident
They have an attorney that advises on both personal and business matters.
How They Work
ZenBusiness
If you're starting a business, you can choose one of the ZenBusiness formation packages or create your LLC formation package from the list of services they offer.
After choosing a business formation package, ZenBusiness LLC formation will send you a form to collect your new business entity information. The company will then proceed to organize all necessary documents and file them with the state.
This process is supposed to take the shortest time possible, but the state can delay it due to a backlog of applications. You can pay an additional fee on top of the state fee to speed up your application process.
On approval of the documents, the state will send them back to ZenBusiness. The company will then upload the documents, which you can access in your website dashboard.
ZenBusiness goes further to offer other ongoing services to ensure your business is compliant with the statutory requirements.
LegalZoom
It's simple to form an LLC with LegalZoom. All procedures are done online with their team of experts guiding you through.
You begin by selecting the state you will operate your business from. You'll then have to check for the availability of your business name. This is done automatically, and the feedback is sent to you.
You can incorporate other legal services like the Registered Agent service into your package. Confirm the package and proceed to make payments. After making payments, LegalZoom will take care of everything else. They cross-check all documents before filing to ensure no error exists on them.
Filing the documents with the state approves your business to be official. The time taken to process the document depends on the state you've registered your company.
Pricing
ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness has three pricing options you can choose from:
Starter
For starters, you'll pay $119 per year and $49 (first-year promotional fee) + state fees
The starter package has the following features:
- Registered agent.
- Optimum filing speed.
- Operating agreement
- CPA assessment.
Pro
For this package, you'll pay $179 per year and state fees.
In addition to features provided in the starter package, the Pro package comes with additional packages such as:
Banking resolution.
Business filing service.
Employer ID Number (EIN).
Worry-free compliance.
Premium
For the premium package, you'll pay $299 per year and state fees.
Its features include features in starter and pro packages and the following:
Domain name privacy.
Business domain name.
Rush filing speed.
Business email.
Business webpage.
LegalZoom
The pricing structure for LegalZoom differs from that of ZenBusiness. Each formation service comes with varied packages having their prices varied depending on the state and service offered.
Economy Package
For this package, you'll pay $79 and a state filing fee.
Some of its features include:
- Articles of organization.
- Lifetime customer support.
- LLC Steps Guide.
- Account authorization letter
Standard Package
Standard package pricing is at $329 and state filing fee.
It incorporates all features in the economy package in addition to:
- VIP processing.
- Formal certificates.
- Deluxe organizer.
Express Gold Package
The Express Gold package requires you to pay $349 + state filing fee.
Its features are those in the economy package and standard package and additional features like:
- Express shipping.
- Rush processing.
Experience and Customer Review
ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness was established in 2015, not long from now. Despite its little time in practice, the company has rapidly grown to what it is now.
It has a better score than LegalZoom on customer reviews. It seems customers are more content with ZenBusiness legal services. Most customers appreciate the personalized customer service the company offers. They also enjoy the reasonable prices the company imposes on their services.
LegalZoom
LegalZoom has been in service for quite a long time. It was established in 2001 and has served ever since. Their reputation means they have a better experience than Zenbusiness.
LegalZoom has more reviews than ZenBusiness, both positive and negative, but the majority of them are negative reviews.
According to the reviews, most of the customers complain about their hidden charges charged as add ons. Some customers say they are charged even for the services they didn't receive.
ZenBusiness Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
LegalZoom Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Turnaround Time
The turnaround time for LegalZoom depends on the package you select. The turnaround time for the economy package is 30 days; the standard package has its turnaround time at 15 days, with Express gold being 7-10 days.
Turnaround time for ZenBusiness depends on the individual package. For starters, it takes 6-8 weeks and 4-6 weeks for the pro package. Premium comes last with 2-4 weeks.
Experience
The fact that LegalZoom has been in service since March 2001 means they are more experienced.
The company has served more than 2 million people. They pride in the magnitude of the task they have done - they have handled more than 500,000 consultation tasks.
Zen Business was created in 2015, meaning they are not as experienced as LegalZoom. But within the short period, they have served, they have performed to the best of their abilities. Their positive customers' reviews are testimonials.
Customer Support
LegalZoom has an excellent customer support team that responds to questions and inquiries raised by its customers. You can reach their support team by phone or email. The customer support group will respond to you from Monday to Friday only.
The customer support team for ZenBusiness is all found in the U.S. you can contact them by phone at 1 844 493 6249 or their email.
Dashboard
Legalzoom has a dashboard that allows you to track your order and receive documents from the same interface. Whereas ZenBusiness has a personalized dashboard that will enable you to receive your business documents.
Verdict
Having gone through the comparison review between ZenBusiness and LegalZoom, it's clear that ZenBusiness is more fit if you want to start a new business (see also LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer comparison). On the other hand, if you have some legal knowledge and have confidence in dealing with legal documents and forms, Nolo legal services can also be a good option.
Here are the reasons why we recommend ZenBusiness: