Skip to content
Formation Explained

LLC rules, unpacked for first-time owners.

  1. Main page
  2. How we pick

Behind the rankings

How we rate and rank

Formation Explained picks the services it would use by asking what three years cost, how much of the work the price handles, and whether the price is spelled out before checkout. Below you will find sources, the writing format, the cost arithmetic and the weights.
Formation Explained editorial team

The facts behind the pages

Fees and rules for each state are taken from that state's official documents and linked next to every figure, with a note of when we confirmed it. For company prices we read the pricing each service publishes and show the read date on the page.

How the pages are written

We lead with the short explanation, follow with the details and finish with the source. Any specialist term links to its definition.

What a total includes

Three years of a service equals its first-year price plus two renewals. On the state side, three years adds the filing fee, two years of reports and any minimum tax. We describe publication costs but do not put them in the total because the amount varies.

The scoring weights

  1. What three years cost (34%). We add year one to two renewals using the prices each company publishes. Every filer pays the same state fee, so it is listed separately and does not affect the ranking.
  2. How much work the price handles (28%). We count which recurring jobs sit inside the price: the registered agent, the state report, the EIN application and whether it works in other states.
  3. Prices spelled out (16%). We look for a first-year price, a renewal price and a state fee that you can find before you reach checkout, explained so a first-time owner can follow.
  4. Renewal terms (12%). We compare what you pay in year one with what you pay at renewal. A steady price scores above a cheap start that climbs.
  5. Reach beyond one state (10%). We note whether the service covers one state or all fifty, which matters when your company registers in a second state.

If two services are close, the page names the criterion that decided it and what the lower pick does better.

The order is Formation Explained's own editorial call from these criteria and is not a customer rating.

Who can appear on a list

We compare Mainstay Filing with the agent services built around the state, and a company appears only where it publishes a price for the service in question.

What you will not find

No customer scores, no quoted praise and no legal advice appear here. Our order comes from applying the five checks.