Updated November 10, 2026 · 7 services tested
We tested 7 LLC services for Texas. Northwest is our pick: $39 + $300 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 + $300 state feeForm my LLC for $39 (opens in a new tab)
LegalZoom
$0 + $300 state feeSee LegalZoom plans (opens in a new tab)Save 20% with code: venturesmarter20
ZenBusiness
$0 + $300 state feeSee ZenBusiness plans (opens in a new tab)Prices checked November 10, 2026. Texas's state filing fee is $300.
We established an LLC with every service reviewed in this guide, and Northwest Registered Agent is our top pick for most Texas owners.
ZenBusiness made the running total especially easy to read while we were mid-purchase, but Northwest’s agent coverage, Corporate Guides and known renewal price made the stronger all-around fit.
Northwest Registered Agent earns the privacy nod because one opening purchase covers formation, a full year of agent coverage and an address bundle most rivals sell piecemeal.
Pick Tailor Brands instead when the same signup also needs to produce a logo and a live website.
Six scored categories plus a Texas-specific check decided the final order. They cover support, price, features, turnaround, ease of use, user ratings and Texas fit.
What follows reflects what happened during checkout, the paperwork itself and the account each service left behind.
| Service | Service Fee | Resident Agent | Money-Back Guarantee | Score | Compare offers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $39 + $300 state fee | Free first year with the $39 LLC, then $125/yr | 90 days | 4.9 | Form my LLC (opens in a new tab) |
| $0 + $300 state fee | $249 first year, then $249/yr (not in any plan) | 60 days | 4.7 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
| $0 + $300 state fee | $199 first year, then $199/yr (not in any plan) | 60 days | 4.6 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $0 + $300 state fee | Free first year with formation, then $249/yr | 60 days | 4.5 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $0 + $300 state fee | $199 first year, then $199/yr (not in any plan) | No | 4.4 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $49 + $300 state fee | $14.99/mo first year, then $14.99/mo (inside its compliance plan) | Refund if not submitted within 24 business hours | 4.3 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $0 + $300 state fee | Free first year with formation, then $149/yr | Refund before state filing, less $30 | 4.1 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
Prices checked November 10, 2026. Texas's state filing fee is $300.
Each score combines support, price, features, turnaround, ease of use and user ratings.
Refund: 90 days
BBB: Not accredited; A rating
Same/Next Day Filing: No paid internal-speed tier
Our Northwest Registered Agent order dropped us straight from a confirmation screen into a company-detail checklist.
No detour, no extra upsell screen. The account had the agent details ready, stored every filing document and gave us a real human contact.
Corporate Guides, the support team behind Northwest, field questions once the order is placed.
A companion package called Business Identity adds an address, limited mail scanning, phone, domain, a hosted website and email access for as long as agent service stays active.
A Texas filing still lists governing people and the organizer by name, so no provider erases that public record. What Northwest delivers is a home address kept out of the agent field, plus a renewal cost you already know before you file.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60 days
BBB: A+ accredited
Same/Next Day Filing: Paid one-day provider handling
Free Features: Formation and accuracy guarantee
Our LegalZoom test surfaced an order sequence unlike anything else here. Payment came first, and only afterward did the dashboard start asking for the company details needed to prepare the filing.
Access to real attorneys is the appeal. The account opened the door to licensed lawyers, document review and a large forms library.
It also carried the biggest renewal risk in this lineup once a discounted opening period gave way to a recurring monthly charge.
Nothing in our tested checkout offered registered agent coverage, even though LegalZoom publishes that service on its own site. This provider earns its keep when the goal is ongoing legal questions rather than the cheapest possible filing.
Get 20% off eligible LegalZoom LLC formation and other services with Venture Smarter code venturesmarter20.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60 days
BBB: Accredited
Advisory Services: Business guidance
Of every service we tried, ZenBusiness made the jump from paying to starting post-filing work the smoothest.
Every optional cost stayed visible on the order screen. Declining agent coverage, EIN help or compliance never made the running total harder to follow.
Once the order cleared, Velo AI, ZenBusiness's in-account assistant, read the filing status and surfaced anything left unfinished.
It kept a still-pending state filing clearly separate from services we had never purchased, which is what made the dashboard feel functional rather than like another sales screen.
A first-time owner still has to think about registered agent coverage on this account, since two of the three entry points sell it separately. The working account remains ZenBusiness’s strength, but the full scorecard places it third overall.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60 days
BBB: Accredited
LLC Packages: Free entry plus paid bundles
Same/Next Day Filing: Paid expedite option
Advisory Services: Business advisor
Restraint, more than anything else, is what the Inc Authority checkout demanded of us.
Eight separate full-screen offers, each running its own countdown timer, pushed documents, faster handling, a website and ongoing compliance before we ever reached the account.
The ticking clocks made routine upsells feel like decisions with a deadline.
Once inside the account, the emphasis shifted to picking a generated logo rather than surfacing a useful list of compliance tasks. Keeping the order cheap meant saying no repeatedly and writing down the agent-service cancellation window right away.
Pros
Cons
BBB: Not accredited
Advisory Services: Business coaching
The Tailor Brands dashboard let us track the filing, pull down approved documents and see every purchased service without hunting through email.
Notifications pointed back to the account rather than emailing sensitive formation paperwork as attachments.
Pick this service when the new company needs a logo, a website and social assets alongside the paperwork.
Navi AI, its guided business assistant, keeps brand tasks organized, and paying for a higher level of service connects those same tools to compliance reminders and document storage.
The entry-level queue can hold a filing for close to two weeks before Texas even sees it, and agent coverage is billed on its own.
An owner who only needs Form 205 filed pays for platform features they will never touch. A retailer building a brand at the same time gets real use out of nearly all of it.
Pros
Cons
Open any card for the complete review, scores and packages.
Refund: Refund if not submitted within 24 business hours
BBB: A-rated
Advisory Services: Paid attorney support
Our hands-on review of LLC Attorney found the real reason to buy in the paperwork itself. Several legal documents arrived as one grouped purchase instead of separate line items to click through one at a time.
LLC Attorney's checkout language describes its fast turnaround as provider-side handling rather than a completed state filing, so readers should keep the two separate.
Its "Anonymous & Private Filing" marketing needs a skeptical read too. Texas still puts several identity fields on public record no matter who files the paperwork.
This account suits an owner who wants paperwork and one ongoing compliance relationship more than slick software.
Pros
Cons
Refund: Refund before state filing, less $30
BBB: Not accredited
Advisory Services: Tax consultation on paid tiers
Bizee's checkout made every optional purchase simple to skip, with the running total staying visible the whole time. What came free with the order and what cost extra never blurred together on screen.
The registered agent dashboard was upfront that Republic Registered Agent LLC, a separate company, handles that service. A provider running its own agent service works differently, though legal mail still lands in the account either way.
We said no to expedited handling at checkout, then saw the same offer again right after paying. The account still tracked status, documents and compliance dates clearly. A few free web and mail perks just needed manual setup first.
Pros
Cons
We formed LLCs with every ranked service, paying with our own money and getting no special treatment, so the order path matched exactly what any reader would encounter.
Each provider's optional purchases, application flow, working account, filing-status screens, renewal terms and delivered paperwork went through the same review.
Six scored categories, averaged to one decimal, drive the ranking, and our full testing methodology lays out how checkout records, account observations, support evidence and official state sources feed into that score.
For Texas specifically, we checked every legal claim against Form 205, the Business Organizations Code and current Comptroller guidance, then matched provider pricing against our own receipts and each provider's live pricing page.
Support scored on how fast the first contact turned a checkout question into a real answer, based on the support channels and account messaging each order surfaced.
Northwest earned the top Support score at 5.0. Its Corporate Guides created a named human path, while Velo AI kept ZenBusiness’s filing status readable without a support ticket.
Price weighed the full order, including add-ons, renewals and the realistic first-year total, well beyond the number printed on the first screen.
Northwest and Inc Authority share the top Price score at 4.9. Inc Authority benefits from its stripped-down opening charge, while Tailor Brands and LLC Attorney trail once their renewal structure is counted in full.
Bundled tools counted only when they showed up inside the tested order or the account that followed, never when they sat on a separate marketing page.
Northwest and LegalZoom share the top Features score at 4.9. Tailor Brands and Inc Authority each built a real bundle around their core service, while ZenBusiness also scored strongly.
Northwest paired agent service with a working address and contact set instead of unrelated extras.
Keeping in-house review separate from the state's own queue earned points here. A fast internal read never counted as a fast Texas approval.
Northwest and ZenBusiness share the highest Turnaround score at 4.8, with both keeping provider handling separate from the state queue. Tailor Brands scored lowest of the seven once its slower entry-level queue was factored in.
The easiest flows kept the running total and every earlier answer visible on screen, so changing your mind never meant restarting the order.
Few carts scored as cleanly as ZenBusiness’s, which posted the top Ease of Use mark of 4.9. Northwest followed at 4.7. Inc Authority scored near the bottom, since eight timed screens added friction the higher scorers never asked for.
User Ratings relies on published reviewer feedback rather than anything the team observed directly during testing.
Tailor Brands, ahead of ZenBusiness, holds the top User Ratings score here, with Northwest and ZenBusiness close behind it. Bizee's outsourced agent relationship helps explain its lower standing in this category.
A strong Texas service makes the registered-agent decision explicit and does not imply that an address product hides every public field. Form 205 still lists governing people, the organizer and the registered agent.
The account should also point owners toward the May 15 information-report deadline and separate tax registration from formation instead of blending the two.
ZenBusiness surfaced those next steps most clearly, while Northwest handled the agent and address decision best.
Hiring a formation company is optional every step of the way. Here is the direct path if you would rather form a Texas LLC yourself.
See Texas LLC processing times for a closer look at timing, and turn to the guide on dissolving a Texas LLC when the company eventually winds down.
A Texas LLC formation service is never required. Filing Form 205 yourself is an option, and a provider mainly saves you time by preparing the paperwork, tracking the order and organizing what comes after.
The state's own filing charge is the baseline Texas LLC cost. On top of that, expect any formation-service, registered-agent or optional-document fees you decide to add.
A Texas LLC has to name a qualifying registered agent with a real street address inside the state. That person or organization must agree to serve and stay reachable.
Every Texas LLC files a Public Information Report each year, regardless of whether revenue clears the no-tax-due threshold. See Texas LLC Quick Facts above for the current due date.
Two separate clocks run at once for a Texas LLC: the provider's internal handling and the state's own review. The Secretary of State's own filing tracker is the better source for current processing times than any fixed timeline a provider advertises.
You can form a Texas LLC without hiring a lawyer. Unusual ownership structures, regulated industries or nonstandard tax elections are still good reasons to get an attorney's input.
An EIN costs nothing through the IRS online tool as long as you qualify under its rules. File the Texas entity first, since the EIN application comes after that.
Picking between these seven comes down to what you need most on day one. Northwest Registered Agent is the right default for most first-time Texas owners: it pairs agent coverage with a named human support path and a known renewal cost.
LegalZoom ranks second for owners likely to use ongoing attorney consultations, document review or its forms library, while ZenBusiness ranks third overall and suits first-time owners who want guided online follow-up.
Tailor Brands fits a retailer, studio or online brand that needs a website and visual identity alongside the legal entity.
No single feature decided the order.
Northwest’s combination of support, price and its agent-and-address offering made it the strongest all-around pick, while broader legal access and in-account guidance make LegalZoom and ZenBusiness compelling for more specific needs.
Our verdict
$39 + $300 state fee, with the first registered agent year included (then $125/yr). 90-day money-back guarantee.
Prices checked November 10, 2026. Texas's state filing fee is $300.