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LLC Price IndexAn itemized ledger of what LLC services cost.

The arithmetic

How we index the prices

LLC Price Index ranks every service by an index of two things: what it bills across three years and how much of the recurring state paperwork that bill covers. Sources first, then the arithmetic, then the weights.
Entries by the LLC Price Index editorial team

What goes in

Official state documents supply the fees and rules; each is linked beside the figure. For services, we use each company's listed prices and print the read date.

The sums

We sum year one and the renewals that follow; after three years that is two renewals. State three-year subtotals count the filing, reports in years two and three and any minimum tax; variable costs are described only. Crossover means the first year one running subtotal overtakes another, within ten years.

The value index

  1. Three-year cost index (38%). Year one plus two renewals, using the prices each company publishes. The state fee is the same whoever files, so it is printed in separate lines and left out of the index.
  2. Coverage per dollar (32%). What the price carries out: the registered agent, the state report filed on your behalf, the EIN application and use of the same price in other states.
  3. Renewal step (14%). The distance between the first-year price and the price after it. A renewal that holds steady scores above a low opening price that rises.
  4. Crossover year (8%). The year when one service's running total goes past another's, read from the running-total table on each page.
  5. Price transparency (8%). Whether the first-year price, the renewal price and the state fee are all shown before checkout.

Where two rows are close, the page says which column separated them and what the lower row does better.

Index order is LLC Price Index's own editorial assessment from these criteria and is not a customer rating.

Listed services

Each state ledger holds Mainstay Filing, which works in all fifty states, and the registered agent services built around that state. A service gets a line only for a service it sells at a published price.

What the ledgers leave out

We print no customer ratings or quotes, and nothing here is legal or tax advice.