Deciding on the right online legal service for your business can be expensive and time-consuming. If you’re torn between Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom, choosing becomes even more challenging because both companies offer similar business formation services.
Fortunately, our team of experts has extensively studied and compared Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom to make sure you’re making the right decision.
Features of Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom
Company History and Track Record
Founded in 2008, Rocket Lawyer provides legal services to individuals, medium-sized firms, and small businesses. The company has helped over 20 million customers with LLC formation, legal requests, and attorney services.
In contrast, LegalZoom has helped over 3.6 million people get the legal help they need since it opened in 2001. Initially, the company launched only ten products for real estate planning, intellectual property protection, banking resolution preparation, and business formation. However, it has now grown to include an independent attorney network if you need legal advice to register your LLC.
LLC Packages and Registered Agent Service
Similar to the Harvard Business Services, LegalZoom has three LLC packages for its customers: the Economy, Standard, and Express Gold plans. For the Economy formation package, a LegalZoom registered agent will check that your business name hasn’t been taken and file your registration paperwork with the state. It will also create articles of organization and provide a document that will indicate who can open a bank account when registering your LLC.
To ensure everything checks out, LegalZoom will conduct a review before placing the order and include instructions on starting your LLC. Plus, there’s lifetime customer service with the Economy package. The LegalZoom Standard plan includes everything in the Economy registration package plus official certificates, a seal, and a deluxe organizer. Furthermore, this plan comes with faster processing. Finally, LegalZoom’s Express Gold plan includes everything in the Standard plan plus Express shipping and rush processing.
On the other hand, Rocket Lawyer has two options for small business owners looking to form an LLC online. As a customer, you can either subscribe and become a member or use the one-off LLC formation service to address your legal needs.
For non-members, Rocket Lawyer incorporation services will handle the preparation of the operating agreement and filing of articles of organization. These are legal forms that you have to submit to your state to create your business. Also, the company will search whether your business name is available or another business has taken it. It does this by running your business name against the official databases of the state.
As a non-member, you’ll get hard copies of your legal documents when you use Rocket Lawyer. But you can also access the electronic copies any time through the online platform. Members get all the services non-members get. However, Rocket Lawyer LLC formation service charges a lower fee for members per month and per year.
You’ll also get free 30-minute attorney consultations on LLC services and discounts on attorney services. As a member, you can get ongoing legal advice from a lawyer and unlimited legal documents for your small business. Every legal document you create will include Document Defense, which is a review from an attorney.
Whether you’re forming an LLC or another business corporation, you need excellent registered agent services. A registered agent will act as your communications contact and help you send and receive emails, among other functions. Rocket Lawyer offers its members 25% discounts on its registered agent service, considering the massive state fees. The company will also ensure compliance with state laws, and you can get this business formation service in all 50 states.
On the other hand, LegalZoom has its registered agent service as an add-on. Since its inception, over 1.5 million customers have used it to free up time and focus on their business. LegalZoom’s registered agent service also acts as an extra privacy layer to reduce the legal burden of getting legal forms.
When it comes to online legal services, both companies’ LLC formation packages allow you to form an LLC in any state. They also offer additional legal forms (including the operating agreement) that you can edit and download as Microsoft Word documents.
If you decide to become a Rocket Lawyer member, you will get free storage of electronic forms for a year. After this period, you have to pay monthly or per year to get templates and legal documents. In contrast, LegalZoom offers this monthly subscription as an add-on to its business formation customers. Unlike Rocket Lawyer, LegalZoom doesn’t sign the forms through your email.
Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom Pricing
We found that Rocket Lawyer charges simple pricing plans comparable to other LLC such as Direct Incorporation. As a member, Rocket Lawyer pricing includes a flat fee per month or per year. If you’re not a member, you have to pay fees for every service you require. For example, if you need a 30-minute attorney consultation and legal documents to form an LLC, you’ll have to pay for a selection of legal services.
The cost of getting a service as a non-member doesn’t include state filing fees. However, you can check the service through the 7-day free trial. Rocket Lawyer offers 100% satisfaction as long as you contact the team within 30 days. That means they’ll resolve your issue, give you a refund or credit your account for another service. Given these features, they’re a more affordable option when it comes to legal service costs and other services, including IP services. Rocket Lawyer has also built a website where business owners can get free attorney advice, information, and legal documents.
As you would expect, their economy formation package is the cheapest LegalZoom plan, and Express Gold is at the other end of the spectrum. The final cost of any LegalZoom service also depends on the state fees. LegalZoom offers a 60-day money-back guarantee on limited liability company (LLC) formation orders, which is one of the longest among online legal services for small business owners.
Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom Ease of Use
Between Rocket Lawyer and Legal Zoom, Rocket Lawyer has a simpler interface. The website is well-designed, with intuitive spots on where you should click. Our team noticed you would have to fill several forms till you get to the end. And if you’re not a member, the service will upsell some of its features in the process.
If you don’t finish filling the form or stop the incorporation process, the team will send a notification email. Among other reasons, LegalZoom is popular because of its ease of use. It has neat layouts for your legal documents, but they can be tiring to click through. Our team finds that completing legal forms for small business formation can take 15 to 30 minutes.
Like Rocket Lawyer, LegalZoom company formation will send an email for you to complete an order if you stop halfway. The online legal service has more upsells for legal advice and its add-ons. To get started with LegalZoom, you don’t need to enter your email address. The company updates your form as you fill it, and you can find this on the screen’s right section.
Winner: LegalZoom
Customer Support of Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom
When we reviewed Rocket Lawyer vs. LegalZoom, our team found that both companies have decent customer assistance services. Their customer service is similar to other first-class LLC formation services today.
Rocket Lawyer has an informative center where you can get ongoing legal support on the phone. While there’s no email page to reach their team, business owners can fill out contact forms. Then, Rocket Lawyer’s representatives will email you and help to resolve your issue.
Rocket Lawyer’s customer support has extended service hours from 9 am to 9 pm on weekdays. Through the informative center, you can get its 30-minute free legal support as a member. If you ask their team, you can also have state requirements like a New York publication and other state-based factors, including state fees.
Using the email platform, our team discovered that Rocket Lawyer’s representatives are knowledgeable about LLC formation and give useful legal advice. Like Rocket Lawyer and Incorporate.com LLC service, LegalZoom’s customer service is US-based. The phone-support team is available from 6 am to 6 pm Pacific Time (PT) on business days and Saturdays. But you can also submit an email request using the contact form. According to the team, this is the fastest way to get a response.
LegalZoom asks if you’re an existing client on its contact page. And from our team’s research of the online service, we found that they tend to respond less quickly to business owners that aren’t clients.
Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom Additional Services
LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer offer similar services like foreign qualification, estate planning, and more. However, since they aren’t only LLC formation companies, personal legal services and free incorporation are also available. For example, you can create divorce papers, power of attorney, and assistance on last will and testament from LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer.
LegalZoom provides free copyright filings monthly and access to its legal documents. Our team also found out that you can also contact renowned tax professionals or get business evaluations from lawyers with the service.
Aside from this, they offer other intellectual property legal services like copyright, patent, and trademark submissions. The online legal service can also help you handle your EIN registration, which every small business with employees needs in the US[1]. And you’ll have a phone consultation with an attorney through the Smart Employer service.
On the other hand, Rocket Lawyer’s top additional service is the legal health score system. With this information, you can understand where you or your business stands in terms of legal wellness.
If you pay an additional fee on its Standard package, you can also get a personalized seal and kit from Rocket Lawyer. This kit includes stock certificates, a company binder, sample legal document, and a corporate seal. However, Rocket Lawyer doesn’t include intellectual property services in any package, so we recommend checking elsewhere if you need to hire one for this particular service.
User-friendliness - Rocket Lawyer or LegalZoom?
The next thing we’ll discuss on this Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom comparison is the user-friendliness of both sites.
On Rocket Lawyer’s home page, there are instructions on how to perform different tasks. Our team learned that you can learn how to file forms or handle other legal processes from these guides.
Rocket Lawyer makes screenshots of your form while you’re filing it. However, you’d have to scroll to the bottom of the page to see it. The on-call service can also help you through any step you need to clarify on the operating agreement. On the other hand, LegalZoom’s LLC formation website walked our team through different questions. Our research found that this is a good and user-friendly way to learn about the entire business formation process.
Winner: LegalZoom
Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom: Turnaround Times
Even though they are considered as excellent online incorporation service providers, LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer have different turnaround times. For Rocket Lawyer, the calculation is influenced by the state. For example, some states require you to submit tax documents after paying state fees. Considering the backlog and processing time, our team found the turnaround time for Rocket Lawyer services to be 1 to 20 days.
In contrast, LegalZoom’s turnaround time is calculated for each package. For example, the LegalZoom Economy package takes 30 business days to process. Due to the expedited legal services available, the Standard package takes 15 workdays. Lastly, the Express Gold turnaround time is 7 to 10 business days.
Customer Reviews of Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom
Rocket Lawyer has thousands of online customer reviews just like MyCorporation with plenty of positive online reviews. Most of these come from search engine results and other third-party websites like TrustPilot and Better Business Bureau (BBB).
Our team of experts read through this feedback to understand what the customer experience is like. Rocket Lawyer’s ease of use, ongoing legal service, and unlimited legal documents are its top offerings for most clients. These customers were excited that access to legal services go beyond LLC formation at an affordable price per year.
Our experts found that LegalZoom has a similar reputation among its customers. It has gained over 3,000 reviews on third-party websites, most of which customers and small businesses are impressed with the online legal services they offer.
Of course, LegalZoom has no control of the state fees. However, some customers wanted a flat rate for each package instead of paying for package plans and state fees. The fact that they offer legal services such as a free 30-minute consultation, document review and a free trial attracted customers.
Winner: LegalZoom
FAQ
Which is better LegalZoom or Rocket Lawyer?
Rocket Lawyer is better than LegalZoom. The cloud-based platform is one of the best for its comprehensive membership plan, affordable online legal services and responsive customer support.
Overall Winner: Rocket Lawyer
After comparing LegalZoom vs Rocket Lawyer, our experts were convinced that you can use either online company to get the legal services or documents you need. Both offer impressive features. However, basing from our experts’ criteria discussed above, the former is the better option for your legal needs.
Regardless of the state fees, Rocket Lawyer’s membership plan per year is cheaper than all LegalZoom packages. Not to mention the 7-day free trial and the flat fee. Plus, you get top-notch services, legal help, and reliable customer service consistently as a Rocket Lawyer member.
Northwest and LegalZoom are also in close competition when it comes to formation services. What’s the best option? Know the difference between LegalZoom and Northwest in our detailed review here.
