Three formation services dominate the short lists in this market, and they represent three different philosophies about what a founder should pay for. Northwest competes on a low renewal and on privacy. ZenBusiness competes on a free start and a guided dashboard. LegalZoom competes on brand and on breadth of legal services. This comparison places their prices side by side, using figures checked on the merchants own pricing pages on October 25, 2026, and ends with a verdict for each kind of reader rather than a single winner for everyone. It is general information only, not legal advice.

The single most useful fact in this article fits in one short paragraph. Formation prices are close, sometimes identical. Registered agent renewals are not close at all. Northwest Registered Agent charges $125 a year after a free first year. ZenBusiness charges $199 a year. LegalZoom charges $249 a year. Because agent service repeats every year and formation happens once, those three numbers decide the yearly ranking, and most of the first year ranking too, more than anything any of the three companies says about its filing service. Run the full figures for your own state in the true cost calculator, and the pattern below will appear with your state fees added evenly to every column.

The prices, side by side

Formation first. Northwest charges $39 plus state fees, a single flat price with agent service included for year one. ZenBusiness Starter charges $0 plus state fees, with Pro at $199 and Premium at $299 for readers who want more features and speed. LegalZoom formation tiers start at $0 plus state fees, with paid tiers above the entry level. On day one, the order from cheapest is ZenBusiness and LegalZoom at the entry tier, then Northwest, and a reader in a hurry could easily stop there and choose on that basis.

The yearly figures reverse the order. Northwest costs $125 every year after, counting the free first year of agent service and the $125 renewal that follows it. ZenBusiness Starter costs $199 every year after, and Pro costs $398 every year after, where the $199 plan price renews each year on top of the $199 agent cost. LegalZoom costs $249 every year after with its agent service, before any legal document or attorney plan add ons are added. In year one the order is Northwest at $39, then ZenBusiness Starter at $199 once its agent add on is counted, then LegalZoom at $249. State fees are excluded from all three totals because they are identical whichever company files your paperwork, and they belong in a state calculation rather than a provider comparison.

The lesson generalises beyond these three names. In this market, the free offer is rarely the cheap offer over any horizon longer than the first renewal. The reader who compares only filing prices will reliably pick a more expensive service while believing they picked the bargain, and the providers pricing pages, read in full, contain everything needed to avoid that outcome.

How each service feels to buy and use

Northwest keeps its purchase short. There is one formation price, agent service is included, and the extras catalogue is small. What it offers instead of breadth is its privacy model. The company address goes on filings where allowed rather than yours, documents delivered to the agent are scanned and passed to you, and the account centres on formation, agent coverage, and compliance dates. Readers who want to be left alone after filing, at a known yearly price, tend to rate this restraint highly.

ZenBusiness builds the most guided experience of the three. Its dashboard organises the obligations of owning an LLC into tasks and reminders, and its tiers let a founder buy more structure as they move from Starter to Pro to Premium. The experience cost is attention at checkout, where optional services appear in sequence and can lift the total well above the tier price if accepted without a plan. Readers who value guidance and will read each screen get the best version of ZenBusiness. Readers who click through quickly may buy more than they intended, a pattern described in the full ZenBusiness review.

LegalZoom presents the largest catalogue and the most persistent offers. Formation is the entry point to legal documents, attorney plans, and a range of services for needs that arise later in a business life. That breadth is genuinely convenient for a reader who uses it. It also means the account experience keeps selling after the filing is done, and the reader who only wanted an LLC will meet repeated invitations to become a broader legal customer. The full LegalZoom review weighs that trade in detail.

Privacy, compared honestly

Privacy deserves its own section because only one of the three builds its offer around it. When you act as your own agent, your address is public. When a commercial agent is used, the agents address is the public one, and on that narrow point all three providers improve on self service. Northwest goes further by treating the agent address model as its identity, using its address across filings where states allow it and designing the service so the founders personal address stays out of the record as a matter of course.

ZenBusiness and LegalZoom both sell agent service that keeps a founders home address off the agent line, and a reader choosing either for other reasons is not choosing to publish their home. The difference is emphasis and price rather than a simple yes or no. Privacy is the headline at Northwest and a line item at the other two, priced at $199 and $249 a year against $125. A reader for whom privacy is the main reason to hire an agent at all will see little reason to pay more for it elsewhere.

Verdict for the reader who wants the lowest cost

Choose Northwest. The math is not close. At $39 in year one and $125 every year after for service and agent coverage, it undercuts ZenBusiness Starter at $199 and $199 by $160 in year one and $74 every year after, and undercuts a LegalZoom route with agent service by $210 in year one and $124 every year after. The only cheaper route than Northwest is no service at all, since filing yourself costs state fees only, and a reader whose budget is the whole decision should consider that baseline seriously before choosing any company. Between services, though, the cost verdict belongs to Northwest Registered Agent, and it holds at every state fee level because state fees add equally to all three.

Verdict for the reader who wants a free start

Choose ZenBusiness Starter, with a condition attached. Its $0 filing is a real service at no service charge beyond state fees, and for a founder who needs to be formed now and has almost nothing to spend today, it solves the immediate problem properly. LegalZoom also offers an entry tier at $0 plus state fees, and a reader already set on that brand can start there too.

The condition is that free refers to the filing, not the company. Decide your agent plan at the same moment you accept the free formation. Keep the providers agent service and you are accepting $199 a year at ZenBusiness or $249 a year at LegalZoom. Act as your own agent and you accept the availability and privacy trade offs described on our best registered agent service page. Plan to move agent service later and the free start can remain genuinely cheap. Drift into the renewal by default and it will not.

Verdict for the reader who wants the best known brand

Choose LegalZoom, knowingly. It is the most recognised name of the three by a wide distance, it has offered legal services at scale for many years, and its catalogue of documents and attorney plans is broader than the other two combined. For a founder who will actually use that catalogue, or who simply sleeps better with the largest brand standing behind the filing, those are real benefits worth a real price.

The price should still be stated in the verdict, because a brand choice made without it is only half a decision. LegalZoom agent service at $249 a year is double the Northwest renewal, its checkout carries the most upsell pressure of the three, and its first year and yearly totals are the highest in this comparison. Pay it as a deliberate premium for brand and breadth and the choice is sound. Pay it by accident, by comparing only the $0 entry tier, and the same choice becomes the most common mistake this site exists to prevent.

Verdict for the reader who puts privacy first

Choose Northwest again, and note that this is the one verdict where price and principle point in the same direction without any trade to weigh. The service built around keeping your address off public filings is also the service with the free first year of agent coverage and the lowest renewal. Privacy first readers do not have to pay a premium for their priority in this comparison. They pay less than everyone else who hires a commercial agent.

Read more in the Northwest Registered Agent review, where the address model and the standalone agent price of $125 a year are covered in full. Readers forming at home, selling to the public online, or working in any field where home and business are better kept separate will find that review the most relevant page on this site after this one.

The bottom line without a single winner

A comparison that names one winner for every reader is usually serving the comparison rather than the reader, so this page ends with the four verdicts above instead of a crown. Lowest cost points to Northwest. Free upfront points to ZenBusiness, with an agent plan attached. Best known brand points to LegalZoom, at a premium its readers should choose with open eyes. Privacy first points back to Northwest. Two verdicts out of four, including the two most readers act on, cost and privacy, land on the same provider, and that fact, rather than any single recommendation, is the honest summary of this three way comparison. Check the current prices before you file, because all figures here were verified on October 25, 2026 and providers can and do change them.