Mainstay Filing vs InCorp

Formation package, $199 a year. We prepare and file your formation, apply for your EIN, serve as your registered agent and prepare and file your annual report every year it's due. The state's own fees are passed through at cost, and the price is the same in year one and every year after.

Registered agent, $149 a year, the same at renewal, for a company that's already formed. Service of process is scanned and uploaded the same business day at no charge, the first three government mailings each year are scanned free, and you get compliance reminders before your deadlines.

From InCorp's own pages: LLC formation is $99 plus state fees, and its registered agent is $129 a year in every state, with prepaid terms that lower the yearly rate (three years at $105 a year). Its annual report service page doesn't list a price. InCorp's fee schedule adds a $15 service of process page fee for each document over 10 pages it receives for your company.

For a new company, three years with Mainstay Filing is $597: the formation, the registered agent and every annual report filing, paid $199 a year. With InCorp, the formation and three years of the agent come to $99 + 3 × $129 = $486, before any annual report filings, which InCorp prices only on request. Whether InCorp ends up lower depends on that unpublished price: in a state with a report due each year, Mainstay Filing costs less over the three years once InCorp's filing price is above $37.

For an agent alone, three years with Mainstay Filing is $447 and with InCorp $387 paid yearly, or $315 prepaid.

Changing your registered agent is a filing with the state that names the new agent and address. We prepare and file it for you, and you pay only the state's own change fee, at cost. If you prepaid InCorp for several years, check its terms on unused years before you switch; the agent role itself moves as soon as the state records the change.

For a company we form, the $199-a-year package also takes over the annual report: we prepare and file it every year it's due, so there's no separate filing service to price each year. For a company that's already formed, our $149 service is the agent role with compliance reminders before your deadlines.

We don't prepare tax returns, run bookkeeping, handle business licenses or rent out a virtual office address. Our registered agent address is for the agent role, and in some states it can't be listed as your mailing or office address. Physical mail forwarding isn't included in any plan; legal papers and the first three government mailings each year are scanned for you.