How We Review Registered Agent & LLC Services
Our reviews and comparisons follow a consistent, weighted methodology, so you can trust that every service is judged the same way and that a recommendation reflects real value — not the size of a commission.
Our scoring framework
We score each service against five weighted criteria. The weights reflect what actually costs founders money or causes problems down the line — real price and privacy matter more than marketing extras.
| Criterion | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| True cost (year one + renewal) | 30% | The real first-year price — service fee plus state fee — and, just as important, the renewal price after the first year. |
| What's included | 20% | Formation filing, registered-agent service, and compliance reminders — versus "extras" that are really upsells. |
| Privacy protection | 20% | Whether the service keeps your home address off public state records. |
| Support quality | 15% | Whether you reach real, US-based help or a script — and how quickly. |
| Transparency & upsell pressure | 15% | How clear the pricing is, and how hard the checkout pushes add-ons. |
Scores are relative within the category, refreshed when a provider's pricing or terms change, and never adjusted for commission.
What we test firsthand vs. what we evaluate
We're transparent about the difference between hands-on experience and researched analysis. Where we've personally used a service — for example Bizee, which our editor used to form his own Texas LLC — we draw on that firsthand experience and say so on the page. For services we haven't used end-to-end, we evaluate the published pricing and terms, the live checkout flow, the company's own documentation, the official state requirements, and documented customer experiences — and we don't dress that up as hands-on testing. We never fabricate testing, screenshots, or ratings, and we only use review/rating markup where it reflects genuine evaluation.
The sources we use
For state requirements and fees, we rely on official primary sources wherever possible — Secretary of State and Division of Corporations websites, official filing-fee schedules, and state statutes — rather than competitor blog posts. Fees and rules change, so we date every page and link to the official source so you can confirm the current figure yourself before you file.
How we reach a recommendation
A recommendation is the option that scores best for a clearly defined reader — a privacy-focused founder, a budget-first filer, a non-US resident, or someone switching providers. Because no single service wins for everyone, you'll see us point to a cheaper competitor, or to filing yourself for $0, whenever that's genuinely the better call. A higher commission never earns a better score — see how we make money.
How often we update
We review our most-used pages periodically and after any notable fee or rule change a state announces. Each page shows its last-updated date, and significant corrections are noted on the page.
State fees and service prices move. If a number or rule looks off, email us the page and the correct figure (a link to the official source helps) via our contact page. We verify it, fix it, and credit significant corrections.