Launching a new business is complicated, but forming your LLC shouldn’t be as difficult. You just need to find the right provider so you don’t end up with penalties and fines.
One of the top LLC companies to register your business today is ZenBusiness. This review will help you have a better understanding of the company and its processes as well as what to expect from their services.
Pros
- Very Affordable Pricing
ZenBusiness offers one of the most affordable LLC services with a starting price of just $49/year (plus state fees). Presently, ZenBusiness is the next most affordable LLC company after Incfile. ZenBusiness is also 100% transparent about its pricing
- Great Customer Reviews/Feedback
One of the company’s major strengths is its hundreds of positive reviews.
- Impressive Additional Service
In its bid to serve customers better, ZenBusiness provides impressive extra services like annual report filing and worry-free assessment in all its pricing packages.
- Partners with organizations
ZenBusiness, in partnership with Kiva.org, provides loans and financial lending to both women- and minority-owned businesses.
Cons
- Years of Experience
Being a relatively new company, ZenBusiness may not have as much experience and brand power recognition as other LLC companies
- No Customer Service on Saturday
You will not be able to get any support for ZenBusiness LLC features on Saturday.
Zen Business LLC Formation Packages
Let’s take a look at using ZenBusiness LLC packages in this review. Like MyCompanyWorks, ZenBusiness offers three pricing packages which are the Starter package or Starter Plan, Pro package, and Premium plan.
Starter
The ZenBusiness formation service Starter package or Starter Plan costs $49/year (plus state fees). Zenbusiness will provide the full formation process of your LLC.
The top services included in this Starter package are business name availability search or name registration, preparation and filing of articles of organization, 12 months free registered agent service, LLC operating agreement template to help you describe the ownership structure of your company and CPA or accounting assessment.
Pro
This ZenBusiness LLC formation service package costs $199/year plus the state fee.
The Pro plan comes with all the features from the Starter package and includes expedited listing service, federal tax ID number (EIN) or the social security number for business entity, worry-free guarantee, banking resolution template, and company document templates which help you describe the ownership structure of your company.
Premium
The services of this ZenBusiness package costs $299/year plus the state fee.
Included in the Premium package are all the features from the Pro plan like federal tax ID number (EIN) or social security number of business entity, in addition to rush filing speed (which enables you to file your transaction in about three working days), hire employees, domain name registration, domain name privacy, business email address and a business website.
Assessment of Zen Business
Pricing and Value
To begin this ZenBusiness review, let’s take a look at our experts’ verdict on their LLC packages’ pricing.
All packages for forming an LLC are billed annually and include business services like business name accessibility search, preparation articles of incorporation services, registered agent service, EIN, business email address, domain name, domain name privacy, business website and banking resolution template.
The annual report of billing is also available in other best LLC services like Incfile or Northwest.
The pricing when forming an LLC with ZenBusiness is highly competitive and the packages are value-for-money because you get everything you need to form an LLC company.
Some service providers such as LegalZoom charge you separately for registered agent service features, which you get free with your ZenBusiness package. LegalZoom’s pricing also starts at $99 which is higher than the cheapest ZenBusiness LLC service package.
Track Record
ZenBusiness LLC service is based in Austin, Texas, and was founded in 2015. It is known as one of the best online incorporation services that has excellent track record and has helped several thousands of popular business owners across the US to form an LLC.
Though ZenBusiness is relatively young, it has proven itself as one of the best LLC services like Incfile and Swyft Filings. Over the years and is intensifying its effort to catch up with competitors that started earlier.
One of ZenBusiness’s advantages is its use of automation. It is one of best LLC formation service company that uses automation to complete most of its business operations.
This and other features we shared makes ZenBusiness as one of the services with the most competitive rates to customer and clients.
Customer Support
ZenBusiness provides lifetime customer support and the team is very helpful. It is similar to Harbor Compliance with on top customer service support.
The ZenBuilder customer support team responds to clients’ messages, questions, or queries quickly. They offers customer support via phone call, email, and live web chat.
Customer services are available during business hours – Monday to Friday from 8 am to 8 pm CT. Although some best LLC services providers don’t provide weekend customer support at all, ZenBusiness does provide customer service only on Sundays from 10 am to 7 pm CT.
On the other hand, the lack of support on Saturdays is a gap as providers like LegalZoom offer support over the weekend.
Ease of Process
ZenBusiness’ business formation services focuses on improving ease of use for its customers. ZenBusiness would not be considered as one of best registered agent service in the state of Delaware without its top-notch online service.
You can form an LLC formation service easily and quickly on the ZenBusiness website.
Once you choose your preferred business type and formation state on the website, the webpage will reload to show your total price and business services. This is the same with any extra options you click on. After compiling your package, you only need to fill out on the order form the necessary information about your business.
The entire process of listing an order form takes about 20 minutes. ZenBusiness also offers a personalized online dashboard which contains important form and documents. It seeks to present information in a less overwhelming way to customers.
ZenBusiness reviews and customer feedback highlight the ease of use that the company provides to those who want to form an LLC for the first time.
Turn Around Time
Though ZenBusiness has an impressive turnaround time, it is based mainly on the pricing package you purchase from them.
ZenBusiness’s Starter package has a turnaround times of about three to four weeks, the Pro package has an expedited filing speed of about two weeks, and the Premium package has a rush filing speed of about three to five working days.
Nevertheless, like other incorporation services including Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom, ZenBusiness’ turnaround times are affected by how fast the state reviews and approves your registering documents.
Overall, ZenBusiness is one of the best in that respect in most states and customer feedback indicate that many clients are satisfied.
For comparison, LegalZoom formation company promises a turn around time of 30 business days for its most basic package and even LegalZoom’s most premium package requires 7 to 10 days.
Worry-Free Guarantee and Refunds
If you’re a busy entrepreneur or you find it hard to stay compliant with the paperwork requirements of your state, ZenBusiness provide a one-year free worry-free guarantee incorporation services, like other reputable LLC services such as Swyft Filings and LegalZoom.
ZenBusiness free guarantee incorporation services includes alerts for annual reports registering, documentation submitted for you (state fee applies), and two amendments per year so you can change your filings for free twice a year, although you may have to pay the state fees for every two amendments per year.
The ZenBusiness free guarantee also covers all the necessary expenses you may incur to remain in good standing should your company miss a state requirement or deadline. ZenBusiness also offers the free guarantee as a stand-alone feature which costs just $119 a year.
In terms of refunds, ZenBusiness has a rather complicated refund policy. According to the refund policy, ZenBusiness would not make any refund or honor dispute or charge-back from clients regarding the fees associated with business formation services once the business filing has been submitted to the state.
However, a refund may be made if the client requests it before the business filing with the state was initiated and if some certain conditions are met. These certain conditions were not specified by ZenBusiness.
Nevertheless, in the case where those “certain conditions” are met, a $50 cancellation fee would be charged anyway.
Features & Services
Here are some other features offered by ZenBusiness:
Registered Agent Services
ZenBusiness provides a one-year free registered agent service in all its LLC packages which can be renewed for $119/year.
You’re required to have one of the superior registered agent services in every state your business has its physical presence. A registered agent acts as a legal contact for your business who receives document deliveries in your behalf and offers his/her address instead of yours for important or legal documents from the state and federal agencies.
You may also decide to be your business’ registered agent, but do note that ZenBusiness offers costless registered agent service for the first year. This feature in particular has been received positively with clients because of their pleasant and smooth experience.
Business Bank Account
The ZenBusiness Pro package and Premium package include banking resolution templates which enables business owners to open business bank accounts. Banks require the LLC banking resolution template before they would allow you to open business bank accounts.
The banking resolution specifies who is authorized to make payments or sign loans on behalf of your company. As a stand-alone, ZenBusiness charges $110 per year for a business bank account. However, the LLC company partners with Radius Bank to offer discounted business bank accounts.
CPA Assessment
ZenBusiness has a worry-free CPA accounting assessment in all its LLC packages which give value to your money.
This worry-free assessment provides free accounting services and tax assessment by an expert and licensed public accountant (CPAs) who will make professional recommendations to clients, help them determine their bookkeeping, free accounting, annual report, and tax needs, and provide them with helpful information to stay organized.
This assessment service is a great way to keep track of all file taxes, annual reports and cash flow in your business. Some top notch LLC service providers do not do this assessment while some offer this service through a third party. However, ZenBusiness handles this service entirely in-house.
Business Tax Prep and Filing
Registering your business is very simple with the help of ZenBusiness. As mentioned in this ZenBusiness review, all packages include the full business tax prep and filing of your articles of organization.
One of ZenBusiness’s licensed CPAs will prepare, review, and file the year-end taxes for your business. ZenBusiness can also handle annual report filing alongside other regular LLC maintenance.
Others
- Operating Agreement Template
ZenBusiness presents you with an operating agreement template that enables you to create and personalize an Operating Agreement of your own. This document defines the structure of your business and sets rules for how it will operate.
- Employer Identification Number (EIN) Service
- Another important service from ZenBusiness is the employer ID number (EIN) service. Although this service is included in the Pro plan and Premium plan, it can also be obtained as a standalone service, which costs $70. ZenBusiness will help you file all the necessary paperwork for obtaining your EIN.
- New York Certificate of Publication
Some states, such as New York, require a Certificate of Publication [1] from new LLCs. Processing and obtaining the Certificate of Publication involves lots of hassle, which is why some LLC companies don’t offer this service.
ZenBusiness provides this service for $200 (including publication fees) and will take on all the necessary procedures for you – contacting the attorneys, county clerk, newspapers, and the Department of State.
If you want to know more about the process of LLC formation services, we suggest reading the article on How to Setup an LLC here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ZenBusiness legit?
Yes, ZenBusiness is legit. The ZenBusiness LLC service is a recognized online LLC formation company with a good standing and overall value. You can verify this by contacting ZenBusiness, visiting its website, look for ZenBusiness customer feedback or looking up for ZenBusiness on the Better Business Bureau website.
You can also go online to look for any ZenBusiness review by customers. Customer reviews are one of ZenBusiness’s greatest and overall value advantages and it has over 3,500 customer reviews and feedback online while maintaining an overall value of 4.7 average star rating out of 5 stars.
Should I use ZenBusiness?
You should use ZenBusiness to form your LLC if you desire an LLC business formation service provider that offers excellent prices, fast document deliveries, necessary services, and great support after business formation. ZenBusiness uses automation for most of its business, which enables the company to offer simple and affordable solutions to start, manage, and grow your new business.
What is ZenBusiness?
ZenBusiness is a Limited Liability Company (LLC) based in Austin, Texas, and founded in 2015. ZenBusiness is the only company that offers all three essential services in all its three packages which are LLC formation, operating agreement template and registered agent services.
Despite being a relatively new addition to the industry, ZenBusiness is considered as the best LLC service for its brand power and track record, having helped thousands of entrepreneurs to form an LLC.
Zen Business Reviews Conclusion
ZenBusiness is the best LLC service that provides quick, affordable, and trustworthy formation services. ZenBusiness offer more value for your money than most other LLC formation companies out there with low prices and high-quality service delivery.
In this review, our business specialists we impressed by their simplified formation process and top-notch customer service. They also offers a business website feature which is useful for any new business owner. The company is dedicated to exceeding client’s expectations as seen in its customer reviews.
Inc Authority is another LLC service which can help you in business formation. Check out our full review of Inc Authority services and packages here.
