Updated November 10, 2026 · 9 services tested
We tested 9 LLC services for Delaware. Northwest is our pick: $39 + $110 state fee, with the first registered agent year included (then $125/yr).
By Jon Morgan · Fact-checked by Jon Tobin, Business Attorney · How we test
Northwest Registered Agent
$39 + $110 state feeForm my LLC for $39 (opens in a new tab)
LegalZoom
$0 + $110 state feeSee LegalZoom plans (opens in a new tab)Save 20% with code: venturesmarter20
ZenBusiness
$0 + $110 state feeSee ZenBusiness plans (opens in a new tab)Prices checked November 10, 2026. Delaware's state filing fee is $110.
Every provider on this list formed an LLC for us, and we compared what actually arrived after payment against what it promised going in. Northwest Registered Agent took the top spot for a Delaware filing.
LegalZoom ranked second, and ZenBusiness third. Northwest remains a fit for founders who prioritize privacy protections and direct support.
We score every provider on price, how much service comes with it, support, filing speed, ease of use, and reliability.
Then we weigh those scores against what Delaware adds, since a required registered agent and a recurring tax deadline can catch distracted owners off guard.
| Service | Service Fee | Registered Agent | Money-Back Guarantee | Score | Compare offers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $39 + $110 state fee | Free first year with the $39 LLC, then $125/yr | 90-day | 4.9 | Form my LLC (opens in a new tab) |
| From $0 + $110 state fee | $249 first year, then $249/yr (not in any plan) | 60-day | 4.7 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
| From $0 + $110 state fee | $199 first year, then $199/yr (not in any plan) | 60-day | 4.6 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $0 + $110 state fee | Free first year with formation, then $249/yr | None | 4.5 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | From $0 + $110 state fee | $199 first year, then $199/yr (not in any plan) | None | 4.4 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | From $49 + $110 state fee | $14.99/mo first year, then $14.99/mo (inside its compliance plan) | 30-60 day | 4.3 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $99 + $110 state fee | $99 first year, then $159/yr (sold separately) | None stated | 4.2 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | From $0 + $110 state fee | Free first year with formation, then $149/yr | Refundable before filing | 4.1 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $249/yr membership + $110 state fee | $124.99 first year, then $124.99/yr (Plus or Pro membership required) | None stated | 3.7 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
Prices checked November 10, 2026. Delaware's state filing fee is $110.
Each score combines support, price, features, turnaround, ease of use and user ratings.
Refund: 90 days
BBB: A rating
Same/Next Day Filing: No same-day tier
Free Features: Basic operating agreement, portal
Northwest Registered Agent put registered agent coverage on the order screen itself, well before checkout ended. Nothing about that coverage waited for an upsell screen further down the line.
We declined the optional rush-processing upsell during checkout, and the filing still went out to the state by the date Northwest had promised.
The order review screen listed every detail, down to the exact registered agent address that would appear on the public filing.
A mailing address for scanned correspondence came with the same order. It kept our home address off some public paperwork, though a handful of banks and state agencies still want a different kind of address.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60-day
BBB: A+ rating
Same/Next Day Filing: $99 add-on
Payment did not close out the LegalZoom intake. Business details still needed collecting afterward, and no registered agent option surfaced before we paid.
Logging into the account later felt closer to a law-firm client portal than a typical formation dashboard. LegalZoom runs more like an ongoing legal subscription than a one-time filing job.
Checkout steered straight toward subscription extras, and the renewal terms deserved a careful second read before we confirmed the order.
Even the dashboard kept selling after payment, pitching legal consultations and business-manager support before it confirmed the paperwork was moving.
Get 20% off eligible LegalZoom LLC formation and other services with Venture Smarter code venturesmarter20.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60-day
BBB: Yes
Free Features: Accuracy guarantee
Advisory Services: Tax/accounting consultation
Velo AI, the assistant built into the ZenBusiness account, ran a check on our order the moment we logged back in after paying. It flagged the EIN and compliance tasks still sitting open.
Getting to that point took no guesswork. Every checkout screen kept a support link in view, though the current offer preselects a removable 30-day website-builder trial. The running total held steady from the first screen to the last.
The Starter option has no service fee, and you can remove the preselected website-builder trial before purchase; it renews at $15 a month after 30 days if kept.
Registered-agent service is separate; qualifying formation may price year one at $99, then renew at $199/year, so fold that into your real first-year total before you compare providers on price alone.
Pros
Cons
BBB: Not accredited
Same/Next Day Filing: Choose free 24h express or $49 add-on
Free Features: Choose EIN or express
Advisory Services: Tax consultation
Inc Authority waived its own formation charge and marked a first-year registered agent as already included before we ever reached the payment screen. That combination landed one of the lowest year-one totals we tested.
The tradeoff showed up right after checkout began. An eight-screen upsell run followed, with a countdown timer ticking on nearly every screen.
One free upgrade was genuinely free, and picking whichever choice got us bank-ready fastest mattered more to us than dodging every screen that followed.
Once formation finished, the account itself stayed thin. Mark the registered agent renewal on your own calendar, because it runs on its own clock, separate from the state's own tax deadline.
Pros
Cons
BBB: Not accredited
The Tailor Brands dashboard kept the filing-status tracker alongside the brand and launch tools, with no separate order-history tab to check.
Tailor Brands strings the name search, logo choices, and the LLC filing into one continuous flow, so the order felt closer to a startup kit than a bare filing form.
The cheapest option adds no service fee beyond the state charge. A pricier pick pays off once branding is on your to-do list, and checkout listed registered agent coverage as its own line rather than folding it in.
Pros
Cons
Open any card for the complete review, scores and packages.
Refund: 30-60 day
BBB: A rating
Advisory Services: Attorney support
Our Delaware filing cleared in about 18 hours, faster than the 24-hour window LLC Attorney itself promises. Formation documents arrived as one complete set instead of a bare filing receipt with an upsell screen tucked behind it.
Intake questions moved through a clear, simple order. Private, anonymous filing was on offer everywhere Delaware's rules allow it, and the paperwork, mail, and compliance tools stayed in one place instead of scattered apart.
Email support answered our questions in about 18 hours, and every document we reviewed came back error-free.
Pros
Cons
Refund: None stated
BBB: Not highlighted
Same/Next Day Filing: No same-day tier
Advisory Services: Compliance software
Harbor Compliance builds its checkout like an itemized menu instead of one flat price. Every service, from the Certificate of Formation to the registered agent, showed up priced on its own line as we clicked through the order wizard.
Harbor Compliance's own team walked us through what happens next. Once an order goes in, the customer finishes any remaining details in an online portal and signs electronically. The state filing follows within about a day.
Entity Manager is the account tool Harbor Compliance sells alongside registered agent service. It tracks each entity's actual filing status and good standing, well beyond a generic list.
That much structure is more than a single Delaware LLC usually needs. For an owner adding entities or registering across several states, a checkout that itemizes every line makes the real cost easy to see going in.
Pros
Cons
Refund: Refundable before filing
BBB: Not accredited
Same/Next Day Filing: $50 add-on / Premium
For a short window right after we paid, Bizee let us edit our own order. That gave us room to fix a name, address, or member detail before anything locked in.
The cheapest option added nothing on top of Delaware's own filing fee. It also threw in a free first registered agent year on the order screen, the strongest year-one deal we found outside our top two picks.
Checkout ran through several upsell prompts. The decline option stayed visible throughout, and nothing paid was pre-checked for us.
Once the LLC formed, the account gathered filings, compliance items, and account tasks in one place. Some free extras still needed manual activation, and a partner firm handles the registered agent service itself.
Pros
Cons
Refund: None stated
BBB: Not highlighted
LLC Packages: Legal+ membership
Same/Next Day Filing: Member filing benefit
Free Features: First LLC filing free for members, excluding state fees
Phone support resolved our questions quickly, usually on the first call, and follow-up emails came back fast instead of sitting in a queue.
Rocket Lawyer treats an LLC filing as one perk inside a broader membership, alongside its contract and document tools.
The membership covers more than the filing itself. Document signing ran through the account's own e-signature tool, and formation paperwork typically cleared review within two days of submission.
A free trial gets a founder into the account, but it only opens partial access. The subscription that follows renews on its own once the trial window closes, so read the terms before that window runs out.
Pros
Cons
Every service on this list ran through the same seven-part LLC service testing methodology: support, price, features, turnaround, ease of use, user ratings, and Delaware fit.
Delaware adds a flat annual tax and a mandatory registered agent, so renewal pricing and deadline alerts matter more here than the first screen suggests.
Rankings reflect what an owner actually gets once checkout ends more than the cheapest advertised filing fee.
The screenshots below come from the workflows we tested ourselves.
Northwest set the bar for support on this list, with an order-review screen that listed every detail of the filing before it went out. ZenBusiness backed that up with a checkout window that never buried its own support link.
How fast an owner could get a real answer about filings, registered agents, or renewals mattered more to this score than how large the help menu looked on paper.
The provider fee alone never decided this category by itself. We weighed state-fee transparency, registered agent renewal cost, EIN help, and ongoing compliance charges together with the sticker price.
ZenBusiness scored well because its free option stays easy to track from checkout straight through the account. Northwest climbed once its included agent year changed the real first-year math in its favor.
Northwest and Bizee each include a free first-year registered agent with formation (then $125/yr with Northwest, $149/yr with Bizee), while ZenBusiness and Tailor Brands charge for that service starting on day one.
Credit went to services that handle what an owner actually needs once the Certificate of Formation clears: agent choices, operating-agreement tools, EIN help, and compliance alerts.
Tailor Brands scored well where brand assets shipped alongside the launch, and LLC Attorney scored well where document quality outweighed a wide dashboard.
The state controls part of the clock, but the provider still controls everything leading up to submission. We looked for clean intake forms, a visible order review, and no avoidable delay before the filing went out.
Fast processing only paid off when checkout stayed clear. A quick order buried in confusing extras scored worse than a slower, cleaner filing path did.
ZenBusiness led here because its dashboard keeps formation, documents, and follow-up tasks in one place. Bizee and Inc Authority can cut the first bill, but both ask the owner to track renewals more closely.
We scored this category on checkout clarity, account organization, document access, and whether the next step was obvious once payment cleared.
LegalZoom carries the broadest name recognition of the nine, yet Northwest and ZenBusiness usually delivered a cleaner formation experience with fewer surprises along the way.
Brand size only helped when the actual filing workflow held up under it. We checked public reputation, pricing consistency, and whether checkout matched the marketing pitch.
The top pick here is not automatically the cheapest checkout on the list. The best fit is whichever provider keeps the first year organized once Delaware accepts the filing.
Delaware fit came down to how well each service handled the state's filing rhythm, its registered agent requirement, the recurring tax, and the tasks that follow approval.
Delaware's Division of Corporations remains a favorite home base thanks to decades of tested LLC statutes, plus the option to keep managers and members off the public Certificate of Formation [17].
The state also runs the Court of Chancery, a specialized business court that resolves corporate disputes without a jury [18].
Small-business support runs through EDGE 2.0, whose Entrepreneur track splits up to $400,000 among category winners and whose STEM track splits up to $750,000 among category winners [19].
Delaware also skips a state sales tax entirely, a detail that regularly factors into where e-commerce and direct-to-consumer LLCs choose to form [20].
See how to start an LLC in Delaware for the full walkthrough, or the Delaware Series LLC guide for a more advanced structure.
Delaware LLCs do not file a traditional annual report. They pay a flat $400 annual LLC tax to the Delaware Division of Corporations instead.
Delaware charges $110 to form an LLC at the state level. Provider service fees range from $0 to around $99 or more, and a registered agent typically runs $99 to $249 in the first year and $125 to $249 a year after that, once added.
Delaware's LLC annual tax comes due on or before June 1 each year, and the flat amount is $400. A late payment adds a $200 penalty plus 1.5% interest a month on the unpaid balance.
Yes, Delaware requires every LLC to keep a registered agent on file. That agent needs a physical Delaware street address to accept legal service of process.
No, Delaware sets no residency requirement for LLC members or managers. Only the registered agent itself has to be based in the state.
ZenBusiness leaves you a dashboard that keeps surfacing tasks for you to manage yourself, while Northwest hands the ongoing agent relationship to its own staff instead of a self-serve panel.
If you want to log in, see a checklist, and handle each step yourself, ZenBusiness fits better. If you'd rather call a real person and let someone else track the deadlines, Northwest fits better.
Northwest Registered Agent now leads the list, followed by LegalZoom and ZenBusiness.
References
Our verdict
$39 + $110 state fee, with the first registered agent year included (then $125/yr). 90-day money-back guarantee.
Prices checked November 10, 2026. Delaware's state filing fee is $110.