What LegalZoom offers
LegalZoom is an online legal-services marketplace with business formation at its center. It can prepare and submit LLC articles, then sell related operating agreements, EIN service, registered-agent coverage, annual-report and license products, attorney plans, forms, trademarks, virtual mail, and other business or personal legal services.
That breadth is its defining advantage. It also means a founder must distinguish the formation order from every subscription and add-on. LegalZoom's standard self-service product is not individualized legal or tax advice, and attorney-plan services have separate scope and terms.
Current LLC packages
LegalZoom's current package table lists:
- Basic: $0 plus state filing fees. It includes an entity-name check, articles preparation and filing, and digital welcome materials.
- Pro: $249 plus state fees. It adds an operating agreement, EIN service, one year of customizable documents and eSignature, a website offer, and 30 days of a business attorney plan.
- Premium: $299 plus state fees. It adds six months of bookkeeping tools to Pro, including invoices, proposals, transaction tracking, and mileage capture.
The government fee is separate and varies by jurisdiction. State approval speed, initial reports, publication, annual reports, franchise taxes, licenses, and local requirements also sit outside the headline formation price.
The subscription footnotes matter
Pro and Premium include 30 days of the Business Attorney Plan, which currently auto-renews at $49 per month unless canceled. Consultations generally cover new legal topics and are subject to scheduling, page, matter, and plan limits; they are not continuing representation of one case.
Premium's bookkeeping tools currently renew at $9.99 per month after six months. A founder who already uses accounting software may gain little from importing data into a temporary tool.
Record each conversion date before checkout. Canceling the attorney plan does not cancel bookkeeping, registered-agent, or other subscriptions, and canceling a vendor service does not dissolve the LLC.
Registered agent and compliance
LegalZoom currently prices registered-agent service at $249 per year. It receives official papers, scans documents, sends alerts, stores records, and offers annual-report reminders. It is a separate product under the current formation comparison.
A reminder is not an annual-report filing. LegalZoom also sells compliance and license services with different scope. No dashboard replaces the need to identify tax registrations, payroll, local permits, professional licenses, foreign qualification, insurance, and internal governance.
At $249, agent service is more expensive than the reviewed ZenBusiness and Northwest renewal prices. The value case is consolidation inside LegalZoom's broader account, not price leadership.
EIN and operating agreement
Pro and Premium include EIN service and an operating agreement. The IRS issues EINs directly for free, so provider service is optional delegation. Basic users can apply after the state forms the entity.
A generic operating agreement can be adequate for a straightforward single-owner LLC, but it may not resolve negotiated multi-owner voting, transfers, capital calls, exits, intellectual property, or special allocations. Those questions warrant an attorney and tax professional before filing or accepting money.
Filing accuracy and timing
LegalZoom's accuracy guarantee says it will correct a filing rejected or made incorrect due to its error at no added charge. That is not guaranteed approval. An unavailable name, inaccurate customer answer, professional restriction, state-law issue, or government delay remains outside the promise.
Provider processing and state processing are separate clocks. Founders should check the chosen state's current estimate and government expedite options before tying formation to a lease, financing closing, payroll date, or regulated launch.
Refunds and account handoff
The current LZ Guarantee allows a filed-product refund request within 60 days of purchase only before government submission. Once any packaged filing reaches an agency, the order can become nonrefundable. Government and third-party charges are not returned after payment.
Initial subscriptions generally have a 30-day refund window, subject to use. An attorney consultation, downloaded form, generated report, or other fulfillment can end eligibility. Read the guarantee for the exact product.
Before closing an account, download the approved articles, operating agreement, EIN confirmation, invoices, and compliance dates. If agent service is canceled, appoint a replacement under state rules.
Current BOI context
Formation checklists can age quickly. Under FinCEN's March 2025 interim final rule, U.S.-created domestic entities and their beneficial owners are presently exempt from federal beneficial-ownership reporting. Certain foreign entities registered to do business in the United States may still report. Use FinCEN's current page rather than an old checklist or upsell.
Where LegalZoom appears on DollarScout
DollarScout's full LegalZoom review scores pricing, ease of use, filing speed, compliance tools, and support. It compares LegalZoom with ZenBusiness, whose strength is a formation-and-compliance dashboard, and Northwest Registered Agent, whose strength is privacy-oriented filing and lower published agent pricing.
DollarScout treats the attorney and bookkeeping inclusions as trials with future charges, separates the $249 registered-agent product, and does not count an EIN as a government service worth paying for when direct IRS application works.
Decision checklist
LegalZoom is a strong candidate when:
- Formation is likely to lead to documents, trademarks, or attorney-plan questions.
- The buyer understands the limits of a plan consultation.
- Every subscription and conversion date is recorded.
- A large provider and consolidated legal account are valuable.
- The registered-agent price has been compared separately.
It is easier to skip when only basic articles are needed, direct filing is comfortable, or a dedicated attorney must negotiate and draft continuing governance.
Editorial conclusion
LegalZoom's Basic package is a credible $0-service-fee filing, while Pro and Premium open a broad legal-services ecosystem. The provider is compelling when a founder will intentionally use documents and attorney access beyond formation.
Its complexity is commercial. The attractive bundle contains several renewal clocks, and the registered-agent price is relatively high. Save the checkout, price two years, and choose each adjacent product independently. LegalZoom works best when breadth is a real requirement, not when the goal is merely to submit the cheapest state form.