Incfile Review for 2023

While lawyers cost a lot, new business owners often think they’re necessary when opening up their own company. However, that’s not actually the case. Online business formation services offer a much more affordable alternative for getting the job done. Incfile is among the cheapest and fastest.

Incfile can help you form an LLC, S corporation, C corporation, or nonprofit. Regardless of the entity type you choose, and as many Incfile reviews will tell you, the company will take your business entity creation order and forward it to the appropriate state offices for free. Read on to hear about all its other advantages.

Incfile Overview

Incfile is a well-established LLC formation service that’s been doing an excellent job since 2004. You can rely on Incfile services to take care of any company changes you’d like to make, deal with compliance documents and IRS filing, and even give you a registered agent.

More than 250,000 corporations and limited liability companies have capitalized on Incfile offers to open and run their businesses. If you visit the Incfile website, reviews of its satisfied customers are just a click away. Further proof of its quality is that it made it onto Entrepreneur magazine’s 360 Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America list in both 2018 and 2019.

Incfile pricing plays a big part in the company’s popularity: $0 + state filing fee is the standard price for its legal services for business formation. Let’s see how this basically free LLC formation service stacks up against the competition.

Incfile Packages

Package selection is straightforward. Once you select the type of legal entity you want to form and choose the state you’d like to register your business in, the website personalizes your package prices and the steps that follow. You’ll learn more about the business formation process itself further down in our Incfile review.

Another thing you should know is that all the package prices are fixed, and the only number that does vary is the state filing fee, depending on the state you’re filing in. Incfile’s services don’t cost extra for delivering your business documents to your Secretary of State.

Incfile pricing lets you choose among three available business formation packages, whether you want to form an LLC, corporation, or nonprofit: Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

Silver Package

As Incfile customer reviews can tell you, this package is perfect for anyone with a tight budget who needs LLC formation, setting up a C corp, S corp, or nonprofit, since it costs $0 + state filing fees. No, this is not a scam.

You can also pay to add other services to the Silver package and turn it into a custom corporate kit (by adding unlimited tax consultations or business accounting services, for example). Even with all of that taken into account, it is still a pretty great deal, and you’ll save money in the long run.

Reviews of Incfile will sometimes focus solely on LLC formation services due to their popularity among entrepreneurs. Still, even though the differences are minor, we will also go over the services offered to corporations and nonprofits.

Incfile LLC Formation Services:

• Prepares and files the articles of organization
• Unlimited name availability searches
• Free registered agent service
• Business bank account opening
• Statement and resignation of the organizer
• Online order status tracking
• Next-business-day processing
• Lifetime company alerts
• Electronic delivery of your state filing business documents
• Business tax consultation
• Online access to incorporation documents
• Business website

This is what each of these LLC services entails:

Articles of organization are essential for LLC formation. When they are filed and approved, your LLC becomes an official business entity within the state. Incfile prepares and sends all the organization documents for you.

“Unlimited name availability searches” simply means that Incfile will help you find a unique name for your small business, however long it takes.

As for filing annual reports after you form an LLC, you’ll be happy to find many positive customer reviews of Incfile as a registered agent service. The main reason behind this is that the Basic Silver package costs 0$ + state filing fees, and includes a registered agent dedicated to your company for a whole year. Compared to its competitors, Incfile pricing is quite a bargain.

However, Incfile’s business formation packages and other legal services still come out on top as the most affordable. Since it’s required by law to have a person or legal entity receive legal documents on behalf of your business, finding a good deal for a registered agent service is vital.

Incfile and Bank of America are both highly credible brands in their respective industries, so it makes sense that they would collaborate to help you set up your own business bank account as part of the LLC service. Having a separate bank account for your company proves you and your business are different financial entities.

The statement and resignation of the organizer is an official document that identifies the members of your business. Incfile’s free registered agent service will provide a document in which its representative relinquishes their duties as the organizer, thus giving the actual owner full authority.

Online order status tracking is important because state filing times vary, and electronic delivery of your state filing documents means your documents will be at your disposal as soon as the state returns them.

Online document access is another thing Incfile offers. It is easy to overlook, yet very useful. Losing documents will become a thing of the past for you because all of them will be right there on your online access dashboard. You can also review your company’s information and track your orders.

Incfile offers a 30-minute business tax consultation with a certified tax professional. A significant number of Incfile tax consultation reviews have commended this service, as it is rarely provided for free by other business formation services. It could often come in handy, especially if you’re new to business registration and operation.

Most companies charge extra for quick processing, but luckily not this LLC service. What’s more, lifetime company alerts ensure you don’t miss any crucial filing dates by having to keep track of them yourself.

After completing your order for an LLC service, you will receive an email asking if you’d like to make a business website. This option results from Incfile teaming up with SnapWeb, a web development platform. Remember that you are required to pay $20 per month if you sign up for this professional service.

Finally, you can contact Incfile customer support either via phone or live chat with the Silver package.

Incfile S Corporation, C Corporation, or Nonprofit Formation Services:

All aforementioned LLC formation services are also provided for setting up S corps, C corps, and Nonprofits. Aside from that, the necessary additional IRS Form 2553 is included in all S corporation orders as a free service.

Gold Package

Anyone who reviews Incfile will tell you the Gold package is the most popular. For only $199 + state filing fee, you get all the services you could ever need. We recommend this option to future business owners who want to go beyond the bare essentials and need a moderate amount of assistance in the entire process of forming and growing their businesses.

Incfile LLC Formation Services - Gold:

• Employer identification number (EIN)/Tax ID
• Preparing and filing IRS Form 2553
• Operating Agreement
• Banking resolution
• Gold kit
• Free tax consultation
• Express shipping

Your Employer Identification Number (EIN) is a number that identifies you as an entity eligible for paying business taxes to the IRS. It is a requirement for opening business bank accounts and filing tax returns. Incfile acquires it electronically as a free feature within the Gold package.

Filing an IRS Form 2553 means you are requesting to pay business taxes as an S corporation, which could entail certain tax benefits. However, we recommend utilizing this service only after you’ve used the business tax consultation Incfile offers as part of this tier.

LLC formation packages that include an operating agreement will create a necessary document that lays out the entirety of your LLC’s organizational structure. Incfile customizes this document for your specific company.

The banking resolution regulates the responsibilities and privileges of your business’s members/owners concerning any banking needs or decisions about your company.

With this price package Incfile offers, your documents will be delivered in a business formation Gold kit. This kit includes a binder with your company’s name on it, formation documents, 20 member or stock certificates, a transfer ledger, and index tabs.

Unlike most competitors, Incfile’s LLC service includes free express shipping in its Gold package. Incfile vs. LegalZoom reviews frequently mention this component as one of Incfile’s small but appreciated advantages.

Incfile S Corporation, C Corporation, or Nonprofit Formation Services - Gold:

The only difference from the LLC service here would be the corporation organizational meeting minutes customized to your company’s requirements. Having Incfile prepare these minutes for new business owners frees their time, so they can focus on the critical parts of running a business.

Platinum Package

If you’re the kind of person that likes to make sure that all of their i’s are dotted and t’s crossed, you might want to consider the Platinum package, which offers all the core services of the Silver package and the Gold package, bolstered with some premium additions.

However, considering everything Incfile offers and handles for you in the Gold package, we can’t really see the appeal of the Platinum option. Its added features are few, but its price is half again as much as what you’d pay for the Gold package – $299 + state filing fee, so it’s definitely not an option for those who want to save money on an LLC formation service.

We won’t divide this section into separate segments for those who want to form an LLC and those founding a corporation, seeing as the Platinum package is a composite of the above-described service bundles and the extra features that come with it are the same for all entity types. These features are:

• Expedited filing
• Platinum kit
• Business contract templates
• Domain name + business email

Expedited document filing is invaluable if you’re in a hurry to get your articles of organization and operating agreement through state offices and start making a profit.

You will get the Platinum kit for your documents to be filed in, and over 25 business contract templates drafted by a business attorney will be at your disposal.

Perhaps the most valuable of all these is the domain name + business email feature available as a free service for one year, only with the Platinum bundle. Once the year is up, you can cancel your business email and website or pay to keep the service.

Incfile Customer Support

Incfile customer reviews on Yelp raise a red flag when it comes to Incfile’s customer support. Although the majority are positive and praise the customer support agents, the negative ones are mainly concerned with how long it takes users to get ahold of phone support or an email response.

On the other hand, Incfile’s website states that phone support can be reached on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST (no weekend phone support hours available, even for premium clients) and that agents reply to emails as soon as possible. Therefore, we aren’t sure why the representatives aren’t delivering.

The reason behind the unsatisfactory occurrences could be the sheer volume of inquiries they receive every single day. Admittedly, this isn’t an excuse, but it might encourage you to know that Incfile reviews on the Better Business Bureau are filled with positive user experiences.

Our recommendation would be to stay patient and remember that a lot of phone and email traffic implies there are many people who find Incfile offers the best option for business formation.

Incfile Ease of Use

Incfile prides itself on giving you a quick and straightforward approach to placing orders. The process is divided into three steps: choose an entity type and state of incorporation, select a package, fill out the necessary information about your company (e.g., company owner name, business address, etc.), and you’re done.

Analytic software on Incfile’s website reviews your choices and automatically adjusts the prices based on all the services you selected, so you will never be unpleasantly surprised by any hidden costs.

Incorporation (Turnaround) Time

Each of Incfile’s tiers, including the Silver package, comes with next-day processing at no additional charge. The rest is up to your preferred state’s filing time, which can be bypassed by opting for expedited filing.

Extra Incfile Services and Features

Amendments

The Articles of amendment is one of the business forms needed to change the information contained in your articles of organization/incorporation. For Incfile to handle this for you, it will cost you $99 + state fees.

Virtual Address

You might not be able to immediately find the virtual address service on Incfile’s website, so we suggest looking it up along with Incfile on Google; reviews will also be scarce, but don’t fret.

An Incfile virtual address search will definitely yield results, and the service is solid and offers a virtual mailbox and many other benefits for the low price of $29/month.

Annual Reports

All companies are required to submit annual reports to their Secretary of State. So if you’re strapped for time or simply dislike paperwork, Incfile can help you file a yearly report for $99 + the state filing fee.

Certificate of Good Standing

If you need official proof that your business is registered and in compliance with all of your state’s laws, for the price of $49 + state fees, Incfile can obtain a certificate of good standing for you.

Business License

In case you don’t feel like scouring Incfile BBB reviews to figure out if Incfile’s package for researching business licenses is for you, we are here to tell you that it is money well spent. Figuring out what licenses your business needs can be a headache, so why not let Incfile do it for you? The package is priced at $99.

Foreign Qualification

A foreign qualification is necessary if you wish to operate outside the state your company was formed in. This does not refer to operating outside of the United States. Incfile can take care of foreign qualification for you for $149 + state fees.

Summary

Incfile is an excellent choice if you:

• Are a new business owner
• Need comprehensive assistance but are on a budget
• Prefer one-stop-shop service providers
• Don’t like paperwork and need a reliable registered agent to do it for you

Even though we’ve found a few features we weren’t crazy about, we would wholeheartedly recommend Incfile for anyone that falls into one of the listed categories.