How our pricing works (no surprises)
Business-formation companies have a bad reputation for surprise fees, mandatory upsells, and confusing pricing. We've built ours to be the opposite.
The full pricing breakdown
When you check out, you'll see a clear breakdown. Here's an example for a California LLC with an EIN, an Operating Agreement, and a Registered Agent added:
LLC Formation (Standard Processing) $149 California state filing fee $70 EIN service (optional) $79 Operating Agreement (optional) $40 Registered Agent, 1 year (optional) $192 ───────────────────────────────────────────── Subtotal $530 Sales tax (varies by state; calculated live at checkout) ───────────────────────────────────────────── Total Subtotal + any applicable tax
Each line is itemized. Nothing is bundled together to hide a particular charge. Every dollar is accounted for.
What you'll pay
One-time fees (at formation)
Formation processing fee: Standard Processing is $149 (typically 1-4 business days); Expedited Processing is $199 (filed the same business day)
State filing fee: collected with your order and paid to the state on your behalf
Add-ons (optional): EIN $79, Operating Agreement $40, Certified Copy of your formation documents $50 + your state's copy fee, BOI (Beneficial Ownership Information) Report $99, S-Corp election $99
Recurring fees
Registered Agent: $192/year (about $16/month, prepaid yearly), auto-renews annually. Cancel before your renewal date and you pay nothing further. If you cancel after the service has renewed, we refund the unused portion prorated, minus a $49 cancellation fee — and you'll need to file a Change of Registered Agent with your state.
Annual report filing (if you bought this service): per-year fee, billed when due.
That's it. No "platform fee," "compliance fee," or other invented categories.
What you'll NEVER pay
❌ Hidden activation fees after signup
❌ "Verification fees" or "processing fees"
❌ Mandatory upsells you have to decline
❌ Charges for services you didn't explicitly order
❌ Auto-enrollment in services after a "free trial"
❌ Higher renewal price than the original year
You're not charged until you submit and pay
Filling out your application never charges you anything — no funds are deducted from your account until you finish checkout and submit payment. Take your time, compare your options, and come back when you're ready.
If you don't finish right away, your saved application stays available to resume for 30 days. If you ever have trouble logging back in, just request a login link at member login — it's valid for 1 hour and reusable as many times as you need within that hour, so you can request a fresh one anytime if it expires.
How you can pay
At checkout, we accept credit and debit cards, as well as Apple Pay.
Comparison with how competitors price
We've shopped most of the competition. Here are common patterns to watch out for:
"$0 LLC formation, just pay state fees"
The most aggressive bait-pricing. Their $0 tier: - Excludes EIN, OA, BOI, Registered Agent - Often excludes basic things like email confirmation, document downloads, or customer support - The "real" tier (anything you'd actually want) is $250-$400 plus state fees
Compare total out-of-pocket, not headline price.
"Free Registered Agent for your first year, then a steep price hike"
Be careful with this one. The first year is often a loss-leader to bundle into formation, then the renewal price jumps. We charge the same renewal price as the first year — no surprise hike.
"Premium tier required for X service"
Some competitors lock features behind tiers in confusing ways. Need email? Premium. Need document downloads? Premium. Need to upload your own logo? Premium. We don't gate basic functionality behind upgrades.
"Activation fees"
Charged separately from the service fee, usually as a small "$15 setup fee" or "$25 onboarding fee" — pure profit. We don't have any.
Confusing "credit" systems
A few competitors charge credits instead of dollars, making it hard to compare prices. We use real dollars.
Why we price the way we do
Honest pricing keeps customers. Acquisition-driven dishonest pricing churns customers after year 2. We bet on: 1. Charging a fair price up front 2. Showing the full price clearly 3. Building a recurring relationship via the RA service + ongoing compliance 4. Earning recommendations because we don't surprise people
Our economics depend on customer retention. We literally can't afford to nickel-and-dime people because they wouldn't stay 3+ years.
How state fees work
State filing fees are set by each state's Secretary of State, and they vary widely — for example, Kentucky is $40 while Nevada is $425. See the LLC fees by state article for the full, current table.
We pay the state on your behalf and pass through the exact fee. If the state raises the fee, we update our pricing to match. If the state lowers it (rare), we lower ours too.
Sales tax on state filing fees: state filing fees are NOT taxable in most states (they're government fees, not commercial transactions). Our service fee IS taxable in states where we have tax nexus. You'll see tax broken out as a separate line.
How expedited processing works
Our processing fee comes in two tiers: Standard Processing ($149) typically takes 1-4 business days, and Expedited Processing ($199) gets your LLC filed the same business day. The $50 difference is entirely about speed — we work every order as fast as we can, based on its priority and our current filing queue.
This processing fee is separate from your state's filing fee, which is set by the state and costs the same regardless of which processing tier you choose.
Refunds
Detailed in Refund policy. TL;DR: 100% refund if you cancel before we submit your filing to the state. Once we've submitted, the state filing fee is non-refundable and our service fee is earned — except if you report an accidental purchase within 24 hours, in which case we refund 50% of the service fee. Unused add-ons (EIN, Operating Agreement, BOI, etc.) are refundable within 30 days. Refund requests must be made within 6 months of purchase.
Promotional pricing and discounts
We don't run discount codes, referral bonus programs, first-time-customer percentage-off deals, or tiered pricing. The price you see at checkout is the price everyone pays — there's no "Premium" tier to unlock better treatment and no promo code to hunt for.
What we don't do: - ❌ Time-pressure pop-ups ("Only 3 hours left!") - ❌ "Last chance" emails after you abandon cart - ❌ Loud red banners that don't go away - ❌ Fake urgency in general
If you ever see something like that on FormationHub, please let us know via chat or email [email protected] — it's not something we intend to do.
How to compare us fairly
When comparing FormationHub to a competitor:
Add up everything you'd actually use, not just the headline tier: - Formation processing fee + state fee + EIN + OA + BOI + 1 year RA + tax
Check the renewal price of the Registered Agent service (often a hidden cliff)
Check the refund policy
Check what's required vs optional (some competitors auto-add things)
If we lose a head-to-head comparison on price, that's fine — we'd rather have a customer who chose us for the right reasons.
Next steps
See pricing for your state: https://www.formationhub.com/ (auto-calculates total)
Have a competitor's quote and want a comparison? Open a chat and share screenshots — we'll do an honest side-by-side.
Questions about specific fees? Email [email protected].
Related: Refund policy — what's refundable, when, and how fast.