Forming a company involves a lot of paperwork, and hiring a high-profile business formation company will help you have your business up and running in no time. ZenBusiness is an established name in the business formation service world. But is it worth your while?
This ZenBusiness review represents an in-depth analysis of the company’s offers which can help you make an informed decision. Our goal is not only to familiarize you with this company’s services but also to elaborate on what sets it apart from the competitors. Read on to learn if this company is the right choice for you.
Pros & Cons
Pricing Plans
Starter
Pro
Platinum
$49 one time + state fees
$199/year + state fees
$299/year + state fees
ZenBusiness LLC Review: Our Rating
Product/Service Offering — 5/5
Turnaround Time 4/5
Ease of Ordering— 5/5
Customer Service — 5/5
Value for Money — 5/5
Overall rating — 4.8/5
ZenBusiness Review: All About the Company
ZenBusiness is a popular business formation service that provides the tools and expertise to help you start and grow your business. Founded in 2015 in Texas, ZenBusiness offers a customized business formation experience.
The company’s service includes CPA assessment, compliance requirement guarantee, EIN acquisition, registered agent services, and more. As confirmed by numerous ZenBusiness LLC reviews online, the firm offers a variety of affordable packages.
As if that’s not enough, the company is a public benefit corporation that’s actively involved in helping small businesses thrive.
Read on to learn more about the quintessence of the company’s service catalog, how it compares to other leading service providers, what ZenBusiness payment options are at your disposal, and more.
Business Filing Service
ZenBusiness offers an all-encompassing business filing service to help you get started. It collects and submits the Articles of Organizations along with any other paperwork the state requires. While it doesn’t include filing services separately, it charges less for the package than some of its competitors.
ZenBusiness Name Availability Search
Customers can check whether their desired business name is available before filing. In case the name is already claimed by another entity, the agents will contact you and help you find a suitable alternative. This might not seem like an essential service, but numerous ZenBusiness reviews state it’s an excellent addition.
ZenBusiness Name Reservation
Reserving your business name can prove to be very beneficial. Even if you’re still not ready to form your company, ZenBusiness can reserve the business name you want for a certain period. This service isn’t common among the business formation service providers. At ZenBusiness, this perk will cost you $50.
ZenBusiness Registered Agent Service
All ZenBusiness packages include a registered agent service. The company will be the main point of contact for correspondence with the Secretary of State or another official state office. This way, ZenBusiness ensures legal compliance and avoids any potential penalties or fines. What’s more, it keeps all important legal documents sorted in your dashboard so you can conveniently access them anytime. Last but not least, it guarantees customers’ privacy by ensuring all documents are secure.
ZenBusiness Operating Agreement
The operating agreement assigns ownership, protects your assets, and sets the rules that govern your LLC. While not mandatory, having an operating agreement is highly recommended, and many ZenBusiness reviews have described it as beneficial. We particularly love that the company provides an operating agreement specifically customized to the business and state of operation.
Employee Identification Number (EIN)
Getting an EIN is a long road filled with complex paperwork. If you don’t want to add this on top of your responsibilities, you can opt for ZenBusiness’s EIN service. The company can obtain the Employee Identification Number, or Tax ID Number, from the IRS. The service costs $70, which is a fair price compared to the competitors, according to ZenBusiness reviews. The EIN will enable you to open a bank account, hire employees, separate your finances, and more.
Worry-Free Compliance
Included only in the ZenBusiness Pro and Premium plans, the Worry-Free Compliance can be purchased separately or by upgrading the basic package. This service ensures your business complies with the state regulations by providing report alerts and deadlines for compliance requirements. ZenBusiness is one of the few business formation service providers with this kind of guarantee feature.
As per ZenBusiness form LLC reviews, even if you miss a deadline or fail to fulfill a state requirement, the company’s team will arrange an action plan to regain your business’s good standing.
Annual Reports
With the ZenBusiness Annual Reports service, you can rest assured that you’ll get your annual reports filled in accurately and on time. The personalized dashboard gives you a unified view of all your documents for future filings and reports. This service is part of the Worry-Free Guarantee, but it can also be purchased separately for $75, which is a pretty competitive price in the industry. ZenBusiness ratings show that customers save even more time and energy with this amazing feature.
Filing Amendment
If you’re changing anything from business name and address to registered agent and ownership structure, you need to file an amendment with the state secretary. In addition to the annual reports, ZenBusiness provides two free amendments a year, helping you incorporate your business modifications quickly and smoothly.
Free Accounting Consultation
As a new business, you’ll need to set up accounting systems to complete payroll, pay invoices, and more. ZenBusiness provides a free consultation with its Certified Practicing Accountants to help you simplify the task and ensure your accounts are established correctly.
ZenBusiness accounting reviews reveal numerous satisfied customers who testify that the agents’ suggestions were very helpful for setting up and keeping track of the company’s monetary flow.
New York Publication Service
Doing business in New York requires you to comply with Section 206 of the New York State Limited Liability Company Law, which urges you to have a publication service. Therefore, when forming an LLC in New York, you’ll have to issue a notice in two newspapers.
As confirmed by numerous ZenBusiness reviews, the New York Publication service is very useful. It covers publishing announcements in two newspapers for six weeks. In addition, the team will help you navigate the entire process, helping your LLC meet all the requirements on time.
Domain Name Registration
ZenBusiness offers a domain name registration service at a pretty competitive price of $25. The team makes sure you get a unique domain, enabling you to grow your business online. For an additional $10 a year, you can also get domain name privacy and protect your business entities against hacking attacks. According to our ZenBusiness review, prices fall well within the industry standard.
ZenBusiness Ordering Process
The ZenBusiness website is intuitive and easy to use. The ordering process is streamlined and designed to save time — it only takes a minute to fill out the service order form. In addition, the instructions are clear and straightforward. You only need to decide on the package you want to get and provide information about your business.
Several reviews on ZenBusiness mention that the company tries to upsell some third-party services. However, in our experience, we found them to be quite inconspicuous when testing the site. Some competitors are more aggressive with the upselling, but that isn’t the case with ZenBusiness.
As a customer, you get access to a personalized dashboard. There, you can find all your important business-related documents and your business formation certificate.
ZenBusiness Support
We tested ZenBusiness’s customer support and discovered that the agents are responsive and provide knowledgeable answers. The agents’ prompt replies are what people appreciate the most. In addition, customers highlight the politeness and friendliness of the customer service reps.
People are also satisfied with the thorough and elaborate answers to their queries and praise the team’s assistance in preparation and resolving filing concerns. Moreover, the agents offer advice on the best plan for each customer’s specific needs.
ZenBusiness email, phone, and chat support are available from Monday to Friday, 8 am to 8 pm CT, and 10 am to 7 pm on Sundays.
ZenBusiness Turnaround Time
The processing speed of ZenBusiness is based on the type of service package you buy. Keep in mind that the company’s estimates are experience-based and that it doesn’t have control over how fast the specific state will form your business. However, according to our analysis and online reviews, ZenBusiness often provides a faster turnaround than what the estimations show.
For example, if you purchase the Starter Plan, the company estimates that business formation will take approximately 3–4 weeks. With the Pro Plan, it would take 1–2 weeks, whereas the turnaround time for the Premium Plan is only 3–5 days.
You can also start the process with its Expedite or Rush Filing service. This would cost you anywhere between $50 and $100, depending on the state and desired filing speed.
ZenBusiness Pricing Plans
ZenBusiness includes essential business formation services in every plan. The packages are competitively priced.
Each ZenBusiness plan includes:
- Filing service
- Custom operating agreement
- Registered agent service
- Worry-free CPA assessment
Below, you can find the ultimate breakdown of ZenBusiness plans. There are three options — Starter, Pro, and Premium. The customer agents can help you guide your decision about the right package for your needs.
ZenBusiness Starter Plan Review
The starter is the most basic plan ZenBusiness offers. It costs only $49 a month (billed annually) and packs all the features mentioned previously. This makes ZenBusiness by far the most affordable business formation service provider. It includes:
- Standard filing service
- Registered agent
- Operating agreement template
- 100% accuracy guarantee
When purchasing the Starter plan, you get access to the ZenBusiness Registered Agent service. This premium service is available at $99 per year later, which still stands as one of the lowest prices available. Additionally, you get a customized operating agreement template that outlines the rules of operation.
Also, you get the standard filing service which includes business name search and drafts of articles of organization. The accuracy guarantee, which makes the Starter plan even more valuable, is another must-mention in our ZenBusiness Starter review.
ZenBusiness Pro Plan Review
The Pro plan comes at $199 and ups the Starter package with:
- Federal tax ID number
- Expedite filing speed
- Employer ID number
- Banking resolution Template
- Worry-Free compliance
The formation process goes faster with the Pro plan, and as an added perk, ZenBusiness will acquire your federal tax ID number and provide a banking resolution. Thanks to the worry-free guarantee, you don’t have to fear missing important compliance events. According to ZenBusiness solutions reviews, this is the perfect option for entrepreneurs who want a professional team to keep track of their legal status.
ZenBusiness Premium Plan Review
Coming at $299, Premium includes everything from Pro plus:
- Rush filing speed
- Business domain name
- Business website
- Business email address
You get a rush formation speed by purchasing this package, which is an excellent option for entrepreneurs looking to get the business up and running as soon as possible. Additionally, Premium includes third-party partnership offers which help you establish your business credibility online.
ZenBusiness Refund Policy
ZenBusiness doesn’t have a strictly defined refund policy. The company doesn’t refund the fees associated with business formation if the business has already been submitted for filing. If you contact it before that, the company will refund the charge minus the $50 cancellation fee.
Even so, certain conditions should be met. However, ZenBusiness doesn’t reveal what those conditions are. Instead, the team reviews the refund request and decides whether they’ll proceed with it.
ZenBusiness Google Reviews
Though it’s a fairly new addition to the market, ZenBusiness has already gathered an impressive number of online reviews. The vast majority of them are positive. The company maintains a growing online presence which speaks volumes about its professionalism. We considered several online review directories to evaluate what people think of ZenBusiness.
During the research for our review of ZenBusiness, we discovered that the company maintains an average score of 4.7 stars from 8,800+ reviews. We also noticed that the majority of people are delighted with the excellent deals they get with the company and the seamless ordering process. Customers are also pleased to get plenty of helpful tools, resources, and representatives.
On the other hand, most of the poor ZenBusiness ratings refer to a delayed filing, which largely depends on the state. Also, several customers are annoyed by the aggressive upselling, which, in our experience, is not that harsh. A few negative reviews refer to the website design, with several customers reporting that it isn’t intuitive.
All in all, with 94% positive feedback, it seems that customers are pleased with the company’s service and ease of use.
How Does ZenBusiness Compare to Other LLC Services?
There are plenty of trustworthy companies that offer business formation services, but ZenBusiness seems to be the favorite among customers. Affordable and feature-rich, this company has the edge over the competition.
ZenBusiness vs. Incfile
IncFile is another affordable LLC service with tons of positive feedback. It’s a trustworthy service provider that is great for customers who don’t need any add-on services. But how does it compare against ZenBusiness?
Forming the company starts at $0, but you still have to pay the state taxes. The company provides a next business day LLC formation filing in every tier. The team estimates that the formation process might range from five business days to a week, depending on the state. IncFile, however, doesn’t offer a New York Publication service.
All things considered, IncFile might be cheaper than ZenBusiness, but the latter offers greater value for money.
ZenBusiness vs. LegalZoom
LegalZoom is generally a more expensive service provider than ZenBusiness, and it also has more complex plans. Its formation package starts at $79 (excluding state filing fees). With this package, you get organization and filing services, as well as a banking authorization letter.
The most significant difference between LegalZoom and ZenBusiness is that the former charges $99 to $199 for a personalized operating agreement. ZenBusiness provides this service with every order. Another downside with LegalZoom is that it doesn’t offer free registered agents.
LegalZoom has a strong brand power; however, its ratings online are not gleaming. While the company does enjoy numerous positive reviews, the ones on Trustpilot are mixed.
So LegalZoom or ZenBusiness? While LegalZoom is a more recognizable name in the industry, ZenBusiness offers better value at a lower price. Overall, ZenBusiness is a better choice when considering the performance and functions you get.
Is ZenBusiness Worth It?
Overall, ZenBusiness offers excellent value for money. The combination of personalized service, flexibility, low prices, and great customer support has secured the company a spot on the top list of business formation service providers.
While it offers less legal support than some of its competitors, our in-depth analysis confirmed that the company is unbeatable in performance and pricing.