Method
How units and picks are made
Sources
Units use official state sources only, cited in the text with the month we read them and listed again at the end.
Inside a unit
Each state has three units: forming an LLC, naming a registered agent and registering an existing LLC there. A unit starts with its answer, then gives key facts, our picks, the numbered tasks, what each task costs and a few self-check questions. Over three years the state total is the filing fee, two years of reports and any minimum tax. Publication costs are named but not counted.
Five criteria
- Course fee across three years (34%). The total a service bills over years one, two and three, taken from the first-year and renewal prices it publishes. The state charges the same fee no matter who files, so the course prints it and the grade ignores it.
- Assignments the price completes (31%). How many of the course assignments the price finishes for you: filing the formation or the registration, acting as registered agent, sending in the repeating state report and applying for the EIN.
- Second-year fee (11%). The price from year two on, and whether it stays where year one began.
- Match with the state syllabus (14%). How well the plan suits what the state actually asks: when its report falls due, what a late one costs, what its agent address rule demands and whether a second state may come later.
- Plain pricing (10%). Whether a newcomer can see the whole price before paying, with the state fee shown on its own line at the amount the state sets.
When two services land within a few points of each other, the course names the criterion that settled it and says what the runner-up does better.
Grades are LLC 101 Guide's own editorial marks from these criteria. They are not customer ratings.
Listed services
Lists include Mainstay Filing and the state's own registered agent services, and only services that publish a price.
What you will not find here
Only editorial grades appear here: no customer ratings, no legal or tax advice.