LegalZoom vs Bizee vs Northwest: Registered Agent & Formation Pricing Playbook
Three companies sell the same first step: a filed LLC and an agent to keep it in good standing. LegalZoom sells it as a legal platform with attorney access attached. Bizee sells it as a $0 filing with a free first year of agent service. Northwest sells it as one flat price that has not moved in 20 years. The headline prices — $0, $0, and $39 — hide the real comparison: the agent renewal, which runs every year the LLC exists and is where LegalZoom costs about twice Northwest.
Every formation price here was read from the vendors' own pages on November 8, 2026. The two renewal figures come from the vendors' own state guides — LegalZoom's Missouri guide states $249 a year, Bizee's Alaska guide states $149 — each cross-checked against independent 2026 reads.
The price list, read from the vendors
| Service | LegalZoom | Bizee | Northwest | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry formation | Basic $0 + state fee | Basic $0 + state fee | $39 + state fee, one plan | Vendor pages |
| Mid formation | Pro $249 + state fee | Standard $199 + state fee | No mid tier | Vendor pages |
| Top formation | Premium $299 + state fee | Premium $299 + state fee | No top tier | Vendor pages |
| Agent, year 1 | $249 a year, separate | Free with any package | Included in $39 | Vendor pages |
| Agent, renewal | $249 a year | $149 a year | $125 a year | Vendor guides |
| Agent, 5+ states | $249 a year per state | $149 a year per state | $100 a year per state | Vendor pages |
| Operating agreement | Pro and Premium only | Standard and Premium | Included with agent service | Vendor pages |
| EIN filing | Pro and Premium only | Standard and Premium | Free from the IRS, Form SS-4 | Vendor pages |
All prices are US dollars, before tax. State filing fees sit on top of every figure here.
| State | Formation fee | Annual state charge | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wyoming | $100 | $60 annual report, minimum | State schedules, 2026 |
| Delaware | $90 | $400 flat annual LLC tax | Delaware HB 400, 2026 |
| Texas | $300 | $0 franchise tax under $2.47M revenue | State schedules, 2026 |
Worked math uses Wyoming's $100 fee as the baseline; add $200 for Texas, subtract $10 for Delaware — and remember Delaware's $400 annual tax against Wyoming's $60.
LegalZoom: the $0 door and the $249 agent
LegalZoom is the best-known name in online legal services, operating since 1999. Its LLC plans start at $0 plus state fees, and that headline is real: Basic files your articles of organization, runs a name check, and includes a tax consult from 1-800Accountant. It includes no operating agreement, no EIN filing, and no registered agent in any LegalZoom plan.
Pro, at $249 plus state fees, adds the operating agreement and the EIN filing, plus 150-plus legal templates, unlimited eSignatures for a year, a Wix website, and 30 days of unlimited 30-minute attorney consultations. Premium, at $299, adds bookkeeping tools for six months, unlimited proposals and invoices, and income and expense tracking. Both subscriptions auto-renew: the attorney plan at $49 a month after 30 days, the bookkeeping tool at $9.99 a month after six months.
The registered agent is a separate line at LegalZoom, $249 a year, bundled into no formation package. LegalZoom's own Missouri guide states it plainly: "LegalZoom's registered agent service costs $249/year." It includes compliance reminders, document scanning, mail forwarding, time-sensitive alerts, cloud storage, and junk-mail filtering; LegalZoom covers the change-of-agent paperwork and state fees if you switch. LegalZoom publishes no turnaround time on its formation pages — no promised speed to set against Bizee's one-day expedited filing or Northwest's same-day processing.
Bizee: free year one, $149 after
Bizee is the company formerly known as Incfile, rebranded in 2023 with the service, team, and pricing unchanged. Bizee reports 1.5 million-plus businesses served, a 4.8 Trustpilot score, and a 2026 Best Overall LLC Formation Service award from NerdWallet.
Basic costs $0 plus the state fee and files the LLC, with the first agent year free and the first month of Virtual Mail free. Standard, at $199 plus the state fee, adds the EIN filing, the operating agreement, the S-corp election filing, and lifetime compliance alerts. Premium, at $299 plus the state fee, adds expedited filing as fast as one business day, ready-to-use business contracts, a domain name and business email, and a free first-year business phone number.
The free agent year is real, and it ends. Bizee's own Alaska guide states: "When you form your LLC through Bizee, the first year of registered agent service is included at no extra cost. After the first year, the service is $149 per year." Budget the $149 renewal, not the $0 headline. Older comparisons still print about $119 a year; that figure is stale — Bizee's own pages now list $149, confirmed by independent reads in September and October 2026. One wrinkle: a live content test on bizee.com has shown some visitors a free-agent window of 3 to 12 months — check the free period on your own order summary before you pay.
Northwest: one price, $39 and $125
Northwest sells one LLC plan at $39 plus state fees, including the agent for the first year, same-day processing, compliance reminders, and free identity services: a domain name, website, email address, and phone number. Its registered agent page states the renewal price plainly: "We haven't raised our price in 20 years. It's $125/year — no hidden fees or per document charges. For five or more states, it's just $100/year per state."
The $125 covers the local street address for public documents, same-day scanning of everything received locally, up to 10 scans a year of ordinary business mail at no charge, and an operating agreement or bylaws to start from. Northwest holds no outside investors and carries no debt; its Privacy by Default policy shields personal information and never sells client data. Its Google rating is 4.7 out of 5 from 1,881 clients. Northwest does not bundle the EIN — and it does not need to, because the IRS issues EINs free: its LLC guide tells readers to "Get an EIN at no cost with the IRS by filing Form SS-4."
Founder & CEO Insight — Enow A. Jovial
Year one, complete: one Wyoming LLC
Two year-one bills matter: the cheapest path counts filing plus agent only; the complete path counts formation, agent, operating agreement, and EIN.
Northwest's complete bill equals its cheapest-path bill: the $39 plan already includes the agent and the operating agreement, and the EIN costs $0 from the IRS. Bizee Standard lands in the middle at $299: the $199 package buys the EIN and the operating agreement, with the agent free in year one. LegalZoom Pro is the outlier at $598, because the $249 agent fee is charged on top of the $249 package in the very first year.
Three years and five years: where the gap opens
Year one flatters Bizee, because the free agent year hides the renewal. The package is paid once; the agent renews every year after. These totals count vendor fees only — Wyoming's $100 formation fee and $60 annual report are kept out.
The five-year gaps are the decision: LegalZoom costs $955 more than Northwest and $699 more than Bizee; Bizee $256 more than Northwest. The agent fee explains nearly all of it. As agent fees only over five years, the gap is $1,245 against $539, or $706, matching the independent comparison published in October 2026. LegalZoom's agent costs about twice Northwest's — $249 against $125, a ratio of 1.99 — and Bizee's $149 renewal sits 19 percent above Northwest's $125.
Three states at once
An LLC in three states needs an agent in each one, so the agent bill triples while each package is paid once. Using the cheapest path with Wyoming's $100 fee in all three:
Northwest's $100-a-state rate starts at five states — but at five states, five agents cost $1,245 a year at LegalZoom, $745 at Bizee, and $500 at Northwest. Foreign qualification fees and annual reports also apply in each extra state. See our Delaware vs Wyoming vs Nevada LLC annual compliance cost playbook for the state-by-state annual charges.
The traps that move the bill
Three charges move the bill more than any package discount. First, LegalZoom's subscriptions: the Pro attorney plan auto-renews at $49 a month after 30 days — $588 a year if not cancelled, more than the Pro package itself — and Premium's bookkeeping tool auto-renews at $9.99 a month after six free months, or $119.88 a year. Second, Bizee's Virtual Mail: the first month is free, and one 2026 hands-on review reports $29 a month after that, or $348 a year. Third, the renewal itself: Bizee's free agent year ends on its own clock, and LegalZoom's agent renews at $249 a year — the same figure as year one.
The defence is the same against all three: buy the package that already contains what you need, cancel every trial, and calendar the renewal the week you form. An LLC with no agent on the state record can be administratively dissolved.
The decision table
| If you need | Buy | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest first-year cash out | Bizee Basic, $0 + state fee, agent free year one | Bizee homepage |
| Lowest three- and five-year cost | Northwest, $289 over three years | Northwest pages |
| Attorney access and a legal platform | LegalZoom Pro, $249 + $249 agent | LegalZoom page |
| Agents in five or more states | Northwest, $100 a year per state | Northwest agent page |
| EIN and operating agreement bundled | Bizee Standard $199, LegalZoom Pro $249 | Vendor pages |
For the tax side, see our LLC formation tax guide; for agent vs virtual address, see our registered agent vs virtual office guide.
Execution checklist: form once, pay the renewal on purpose
- Step 1 — Pick the state first. Wyoming: $100 to file, $60 a year to maintain. Delaware: $90 to file, $400 a year in tax. Texas: $300 to file. The state fee is the same at every vendor.
- Step 2 — Decide what "complete" means for you. Need an operating agreement and an EIN? LegalZoom Pro and Bizee Standard bundle them; Northwest includes the agreement and points to the free IRS EIN filing.
- Step 3 — Price year one both ways. Run the cheapest and complete paths with your state's fee; the gap is the add-on bill.
- Step 4 — Price years two and three. Add the agent renewal — $249, $149, or $125 — for each year after the first, and compare the three-year totals: $996, $497, or $289.
- Step 5 — Cancel the trials on day one. LegalZoom's attorney plan renews at $49 a month after 30 days; Premium's bookkeeping at $9.99 a month after six months. Cancel the moment you buy if you do not want them.
- Step 6 — Calendar the agent renewal. Bizee's free year ends at $149 a year; LegalZoom renews at $249 a year. Calendar it the week you form.
- Step 7 — Re-check the price on the vendor's page on the day you order. All three vendors change prices without notice; the figure on the page is the only one that binds.
LegalZoom sells a $0 door with a $249-a-year agent behind it and attorney access on the higher tiers. Bizee sells the cheapest first year and a $149 renewal from year two. Northwest sells one $39 plan, a $125 renewal unchanged in 20 years, and the lowest three- and five-year bill. Buy the renewal you are willing to pay every year, not the formation price you pay once.