How We Compare and Review
What this page covers
You want to know how we put together our comparisons and reviews. This page covers the 6 kinds of pages we publish. The first group covers LLC formation services, registered agents, and state guides. The second covers funding (loans, business credit cards, lenders), grants, and business tools and services reviews. Each kind of page has its own method below. Partners pay us through some links (our affiliate disclosure explains how) at no extra cost to you. Our editorial policy lays out the broader standard.
LLC formation services
For the 15 services on the roundup, we read pricing and renewal terms on each provider's site and walked through the signup flow to payment. The two-year cost adds the state fee, add-ons at checkout, and the renewal after year one. The order is an editorial pick, so the cheapest is not always first. Founder accounts are paraphrased and anonymised. We did not file an LLC with every service. A filing claim would need a filing number, redacted document, or dated screenshot, published here.
- Active Filings
- Inc Authority
- Northwest Registered Agent
- ZenBusiness
- FileNow
- Harbor Compliance
- MyCompanyWorks
- Tailor Brands
- LegalZoom
- Doola
- Rocket Lawyer
- Stripe Atlas
- BetterLegal
- Swyft Filings
- Firstbase
Registered agent services
A registered agent is the person or company that receives legal mail for your business. For the national comparison, we checked the year-one price and the price after year one on each of the 11 services' pricing pages. Each row names its source and the date we checked. On the 50 state pages, we list the state's filing office and the state LLC law. Eleven pages carry a dated price table. The rest show a typical annual range (some also name local agents). We have not used every agent on these pages.
Funding, loans, credit cards and lenders
The rates, fees, and terms on our small business loans and business credit cards pages come from each lender's or issuer's product page. A verification date sits beside each figure on the card roundup. The loans page carries an as of early 2026 note. Each roundup publishes its scoring weights. Guides to loan programs draw on SBA.gov limits and named outside sources, with industry rate ranges marked as of 2026. Some lenders and card issuers pay us affiliate commissions, disclosed at the top of each page. We did not apply for any loan or card.
Grants
The state grant pages cover 50 states, one per state. Each card names the agency that runs the programme and links to its programme page. The sources list points to those pages, most of them government sites. A confirmed grant carries no label. A loan is labelled Loan and a closed programme is marked Expired. The grant matcher sorts programmes into fits and long shots without asking or storing anything personal. Final eligibility is decided by the granting agency. We did not apply for any grant.
Business tools and services
We publish 117 reviews across categories like business banking, payroll, and virtual mailboxes. We read prices on the provider's own pricing page and name the date we read it, so you can tell when the numbers were current. Some reviews also use a regulator's public database for a bank's partner banks. They name the source and the date where it is used. In some reviews, the text says whether add-ons were pre-checked at signup. We did not open accounts or run trials unless the review text says so.
State guides
The fees, forms, and processing times in the 50 state LLC guides, one per state, come from the state's own filing office, named as Filed With in the quick facts box. You will see a "Last Verified" date in that box on the page. We list the processing times the state publishes, but we did not file an LLC ourselves to time it.
How we score
Every review carries a score out of 5. The score comes from five categories: ease of use, pricing and value, features and add-ons, customer support, and a fifth that fits the service (speed for a formation service, account opening for a bank). Some reviews add categories like pricing transparency or privacy. We do not publish category weights. Loan and card roundups explain their own scoring on those pages. State registered agent pages, grant pages and state guides carry no score. Agents are compared side by side on price. Grants are grouped by type and status.
How we use founder interviews
We spoke to founders who had used the services. Their experiences are paraphrased and anonymised (no names, quotes, recordings or star ratings). We report what we heard as patterns, with one concrete fact per claim, such as a price someone paid or a fee they avoided. Where notes were thin for a particular service, we say so, and our coverage of that service is limited.
Walkthrough screenshots
Walkthrough screenshots for each service appear here as we finish capturing them, and each card below says capture pending until then.
Active Filings
Capture pending
Inc Authority
Capture pending
Northwest Registered Agent
Capture pending, bot check
ZenBusiness
- Captured
- Nov 5, 2026
- Screens
- 4
- Upsells seen
- 0
- Stopped at
- the contact details screen
FileNow
Capture pending
Harbor Compliance
Capture pending
MyCompanyWorks
Capture pending
Tailor Brands
- Captured
- Nov 5, 2026
- Screens
- 8
- Upsells seen
- 2 (1 pre-checked)
- Stopped at
- the contact details screen
LegalZoom
Capture pending
Doola
Capture pending
Rocket Lawyer
Capture pending
Stripe Atlas
Capture pending
BetterLegal
Capture pending
Swyft Filings
Capture pending
Firstbase
Capture pending
Corrections
Corrections to this method are listed here when they are made. Readers can report an error by email to [email protected].