Updated November 10, 2026 · 10 services tested
We tested 10 LLC services for Wisconsin. Northwest is our pick: $39 + $130 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 + $130 state feeForm my LLC for $39 (opens in a new tab)
LegalZoom
$0 + $130 state feeSee LegalZoom plans (opens in a new tab)Save 20% with code: venturesmarter20
ZenBusiness
$0 + $130 state feeSee ZenBusiness plans (opens in a new tab)Prices checked November 10, 2026. Wisconsin's state filing fee is $130.
We formed an LLC with every service reviewed here and scored all ten on a six-category system.
Northwest Registered Agent came out on top for Wisconsin owners who value a Corporate Guide's manual filing check and a first year of registered agent service included with formation.
LegalZoom ranks second for owners who expect to use its legal tools after filing. ZenBusiness ranks third as a guided online option, with a dashboard that keeps post-approval tasks visible.
The ranking below reflects what happens after checkout instead of just the advertised price.
Wisconsin's filing rhythm, the DFI's online-only discount and the annual report tied to the calendar quarter of formation make it useful to compare human support and follow-up tools alongside the starting price.
| Service | LLC Fees | Registered Agent Price | Money-Back Guarantee | Score | Compare offers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $39 (our exclusive link) + $130 state fee | Free first year with the $39 LLC, then $125/yr | ✓ Full 90-day refund policy | 4.9 | Form my LLC (opens in a new tab) |
| $0 starting price + $130 state fee | $249 first year, then $249/yr (not in any plan) | ✓ 60-day money-back guarantee | 4.7 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
| $0 starting price + $130 state fee | $199 first year, then $199/yr (not in any plan) | ✓ 60-day money-back guarantee | 4.6 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $0 starting price + $130 state fee | Free first year with formation, then $249/yr | ✓ 60-day money-back guarantee | 4.5 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $0 starting price + $130 state fee | $199 first year, then $199/yr (not in any plan) | ✗ | 4.4 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $49 to start + $130 state fee | $14.99/mo first year, then $14.99/mo (inside its compliance plan) | ✓ Between 30 and 60 day refund guarantee | 4.3 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $0 starting price + $130 state fee | $596 first year, then $596/yr (billed $149 a quarter; not in any plan) | ✓ 60-day money-back guarantee | 4.2 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $0 starting price + $130 state fee | Free first year with formation, then $149/yr | ✓ Refundable before state payment (typically 24h); minus $30 | 4.1 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | Rocket Legal: $39.99/month; Rocket Legal+: $239.88/yr or $19.99/month + $130 state fee | $124.99 first year, then $124.99/yr (Plus or Pro membership required) | ✓ 30-day money-back policy | 3.7 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $79 to start + $130 state fee | $119 first year, then $119/yr (year one included with Entrepreneur or Complete) | ✓ Full 90-day refund policy | 3.6 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
Prices checked November 10, 2026. Wisconsin's state filing fee is $130.
Each score combines support, price, features, turnaround, ease of use and user ratings.
Refund: 90 days
BBB: BBB A rating
LLC Packages: Just 1 package
Same & Next Day Filing: No
Free Package Features: No features in free tier
Advisory Services: No
Our Northwest Registered Agent order moved through an invoice, a confirmation email and a company-detail review before a Corporate Guide verified everything by hand.
That human verification step is why Northwest edges ahead once privacy and agent support matter more than the lowest first screen.
A person checks the filing details before anything ships to the state.
Once approved, the documents land in the account instead of an inbox we have to search, which matters in Wisconsin, where a missed agent notice can turn into real deadline trouble.
One tradeoff involves the business address itself. Northwest can keep a personal address off the public filing where state rules allow it. A bank or a state form may still ask for a real principal office separate from the agent address.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60-day money-back guarantee
BBB: Has A+ BBB rating
Same & Next Day Filing: No
Our LegalZoom account came with document templates, attorney-consult access and a bookkeeping app called LZ Books, well beyond a bare formation receipt.
Payment did not close out the order the way it does elsewhere. LegalZoom asked for business details after checkout cleared, so the filing was not truly done the moment the card ran.
The attorney and bookkeeping perks also renew once their trial windows end, so put that date on the calendar.
Once the Wisconsin filing is done, the legal forms and consults stay in the same account. They're there whenever the business needs them.
Exclusively for Venture Smarter users, apply code venturesmarter20 to enjoy 20% off LLC formation and other services at LegalZoom.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60-day money-back guarantee
BBB: BBB accredited company
Same & Next Day Filing: With Pro & Premium plans
Advisory Services: Consultation on accounting
ZenBusiness remains a guided online formation option for Wisconsin owners. The checkout stayed calm all the way through.
Phone and chat stayed visible, and the order summary never hid a line item. Nothing was pre-selected as a paid upgrade before payment.
The dashboard is a useful part of that guided experience. Velo AI ran an account check on first login and flagged the missing EIN and the unpurchased compliance plan.
It turned both into a short task list instead of leaving us to hunt for what came next. That saves time once the annual report becomes the owner's job to remember.
The one real gap is registered agent service. Starter does not include it, so full privacy from day one always costs extra on top of the base filing.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60-day money-back guarantee
BBB: BBB accredited company
Same & Next Day Filing: ~ Depends on premium package chosen
Advisory Services: Dedicated private banking specialist
Inc Authority is the bargain pick only if every screen gets read slowly. In our test, the first payment stayed at the state fee alone, and a full year of registered-agent coverage showed up already included.
Inc Authority hides its catch before final checkout. Inc Authority makes the filer choose one free extra, then walks through a run of individually priced upsells on separate timed screens.
Picking the free option that unlocks a faster path to a bank account makes sense for most owners. Declining the rest is usually the right call unless the reason is obvious.
There is also not much of a dashboard once the order is placed. The registered-agent renewal is the one date worth calendaring before the free year runs out.
Pros
Cons
Refund: No
BBB: No
Free Package Features: LLC filing and a complimentary 30-day bookkeeping trial
Advisory Services: Business coaching available (all plans)
Tailor Brands makes the most sense when the LLC is one piece of a bigger public launch.
Testing put formation progress, documents, logo work, a website builder and marketing assets inside the same dashboard. None of it was scattered across separate tools.
A first-time owner who needs more than Articles of Organization gets something concrete for the extra spend instead of vague branding language. The dashboard actually keeps the launch tools organized next to the formation paperwork.
Annual Compliance also turned out to be a real filing service rather than a reminder email, which counts once the state expects a report back.
Checkout discipline is what costs the most attention here. Lite processing can run slow if it is not upgraded, and each useful addition past the base filing adds its own line to the bill.
Pros
Cons
Open any card for the complete review, scores and packages.
Refund: Between 30 and 60 day refund guarantee
BBB: Has A BBB rating
Same & Next Day Filing: No
Advisory Services: Paid attorney support add-on available
We called LLC Attorney's support line during testing and reached an advisor within minutes. A follow-up email question took closer to a full day to get a complete answer back, so the phone is the faster channel when something is actually urgent.
That kind of direct access to a person is the payoff for a first-time filer who wants document confidence over a polished software account.
Wisconsin is simple to start on its own, but the annual-report reminder still has to come from somewhere once the account stops feeling new.
The tradeoff is scope. This is not a broad dashboard product, so owners chasing ongoing reminders, brand tools or a large support portal will find more of that with ZenBusiness or Northwest.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60-day money-back guarantee
BBB: No
Same & Next Day Filing: Premium tier only
Free Package Features: LLC filing along with lifetime support
Advisory Services: No
Contacting Swyft Filings support during our test got resolved on the first try, with replies landing in well under 10 minutes. The order-tracking screen kept the filing status current without us having to call back and ask.
A first-time filer needs to watch total cost past the first screen. Registered-agent pricing sits outside the base filing, so it is worth annualizing before comparing Swyft against Northwest, Bizee or ZenBusiness on total year-one cost.
It is a reasonable middle option, though ZenBusiness has a deeper dashboard for owners who want more post-filing tools.
Pros
Cons
Refund: Refundable before state payment (typically 24h); minus $30
BBB: No
Same & Next Day Filing: Platinum tier only
Free Package Features: Business tax consultation
Advisory Services: Free tax consultation (1 hour)
Bizee tested better than a bare pricing table suggests. Checkout split every upsell onto its own screen and kept a visible decline option next to each one, with no box checked by default.
In practice, Bizee ships a free first-year registered agent (then $149/yr) and a dashboard that tracks filings, mailbox setup, contract templates and compliance tasks in one place.
A 24-hour order-change window also gave us room to fix a name or address entered wrong before it locked in.
Follow-through is the catch. Free extras like the domain and mailbox need manual activation.
The registered agent is a third party rather than Bizee itself, and the contract templates come with a plain disclaimer that they are not customized legal advice.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 30-day money-back policy
BBB: BBB accredited company
Same & Next Day Filing: No
Free Package Features: No features at the free level
Advisory Services: Ask-a-lawyer through email & 30-minute phone consultation each month per new matter (subscription)
Phone support resolved our Rocket Lawyer questions on the first call during testing, and email replies from an Incorporation Specialist came back fast too.
Formation is only one line on the account. The rest of the value sits in the document library and attorney access that come with the membership.
A first-time owner who expects to need business documents soon after opening will get real use out of that library.
If Articles of Organization are the only goal, the membership structure makes the comparison against a plain filing service much less attractive.
Treat this as a legal-document subscription with formation attached rather than the cheapest way to file on this page.
Pros
Cons
Refund: Full 90-day refund policy
BBB: BBB A+ rated
Same & Next Day Filing: Yes
Free Package Features: No free extras available
Advisory Services: Trademark consult & tax webinar (1 hour)
Our time in the MyCompanyWorks account felt smaller-scale than the bigger names on this page, in a good way. The dashboard and startup checklist stayed out of the way instead of pushing extra products at every screen.
For a first-time filer, that is enough when the state filing is the main job and the owner already has a plan for tax, licensing and registered-agent questions.
It does not carry the tested AI follow-up that ZenBusiness offers or the privacy system built around Northwest.
Use it when a more traditional filing service fits better than added brand tools or legal subscriptions.
Pros
Cons
We scored the services using the same LLC service testing methodology applied to every state page: Support, Price, Features, Turnaround, Ease of Use and User Ratings, plus a seventh Wisconsin Fit category.
Wisconsin's annual report is easy to miss if a provider treats formation as the finish line, so the fit score checks for that specifically.
The order below reflects what a new Wisconsin owner gets after checkout rather than the number on the pricing page.
These screenshots show two moments we checked closely across every provider: the account tools available right after payment and how clearly a dashboard organizes what still needs attention.
Support scoring measured how fast an owner could get a real answer about a state filing, a registered-agent notice or a renewal, rather than how many contact channels a provider lists.
Northwest leads Support at 5.0, followed by LegalZoom at 4.9 and ZenBusiness at 4.7.
Northwest's Corporate Guides verify filing details by hand before anything ships to the state; ZenBusiness's Velo AI flags what still needs attention after an owner logs back in.
MyCompanyWorks remains the lowest-rated provider in this lineup for support.
Price weighed the entry cost against what showed up later: registered-agent renewals, EIN help and any compliance product the checkout tried to add on. Northwest and Inc Authority tie for the highest Price score at 4.9.
LegalZoom scores 4.4 and ZenBusiness 3.8 after provider fees, state charges, registered-agent costs and renewal terms are considered. ZenBusiness starts at $0, while paid plans and optional services affect the full-year cost.
Features credited real post-filing tools, registered-agent options, document storage, compliance tracking and EIN help, over anything that only sounds broad on a marketing page.
Northwest and LegalZoom tie for the highest Features score at 4.9, with registered-agent and legal-document support serving different needs.
ZenBusiness and Inc Authority score 4.7; ZenBusiness pairs Velo AI's account checks with a documents center and banking integration, while Tailor Brands earns credit for launch-ready brand assets.
Turnaround looked at the provider's own intake and review speed, since the state controls the rest of the timeline once a filing is submitted. Northwest and ZenBusiness tie for the highest Turnaround score at 4.8, followed by LegalZoom at 4.7.
ZenBusiness's paid expedited tier helps owners who cannot wait on standard processing; a rushed order with confusing add-ons scored lower even when the advertised speed looked competitive.
Ease of use covered checkout clarity, dashboard organization and whether the next step was obvious the moment payment cleared.
ZenBusiness stands alone at the top of this category.
Its dashboard kept formation status, documents and follow-up tasks in one place, while Bizee and Inc Authority can lower the first bill but ask the owner to track renewals more closely on their own.
User Ratings folded in public reputation, pricing consistency and whether checkout matched what the marketing promised.
Tailor Brands tops User Ratings outright this time, with Northwest and ZenBusiness close behind in a near-tie.
All three gave owners a cleaner formation experience than LegalZoom, whose broader brand recognition didn't stop its checkout from asking for business details after payment had already cleared.
The Wisconsin-specific test was whether a provider's dashboard or reminders actually caught the state's own filing rhythm: the registered-agent requirement, the calendar-quarter annual report and the DFI's online filing discount.
The fit check therefore looks beyond the initial checkout price to whether an owner can arrange registered-agent coverage and keep the annual-report deadline visible after the Department of Financial Institutions accepts the filing.
Source: the SBA Office of Advocacy 2025 Wisconsin State Profile, itself compiled from BLS Business Employment Dynamics and FFIEC CRA Aggregate Data.
Source: the Wisconsin Department of Revenue tax rate schedule, covering the personal income, corporate income, manufacturing and agriculture credit, and sales tax figures above.
Wisconsin owners don't have to hire a formation service to start an LLC in Wisconsin. Here's what filing it yourself looks like.
Forming an LLC in Wisconsin costs $130 for an online filing of the Articles of Organization through the Wisconsin One Stop Business Portal, or $170 by mail through the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions.
There is no publication requirement and no separate franchise tax at formation.
Online Wisconsin filings are typically approved within one to two business days of submission through the DFI.
Mail filings take longer because of processing and return mail time; expedited handling is available at the DFI for a $25 fee added to the standard filing charge.
Wisconsin requires every LLC to appoint a registered agent with a physical Wisconsin street address under Wisconsin Statutes § 183.0115.
The DFI does not act as default agent, so the appointment must be filled either by an eligible individual or by a registered agent service.
Wisconsin LLCs file a $25 annual report each year with the Department of Financial Institutions.
The report is due in the calendar quarter of the LLC's formation anniversary. An LLC formed in April, for example, files by the last day of June every year.
A Wisconsin LLC defaults to pass-through taxation, so the LLC itself pays no Wisconsin income tax; members report their share on personal returns at rates from 3.50% to 7.65%.
An LLC that elects C-corp status pays the flat 7.9% Wisconsin corporate income tax instead.
Switching from a sole proprietorship to a Wisconsin LLC is a two-step change: file the Articles of Organization with the DFI to create the LLC, then move the sole-proprietor bank accounts, licenses, and contracts into the LLC's name.
Sole proprietors keep unlimited personal liability until the LLC takes over.
Northwest Registered Agent is our first choice for most Wisconsin LLC owners. The first year of registered agent service (then $125/yr) is included, and a Corporate Guide checks filing details before they reach the state.
LegalZoom ranks second for owners who expect to use its legal document library or attorney consults.
ZenBusiness ranks third for owners who prefer guided online formation and a dashboard that keeps post-approval tasks visible. LLC Attorney makes more sense when reviewed documents matter most.
Choose the service whose support and ongoing services fit what you plan to use after the Articles are accepted.
References
Our verdict
$39 + $130 state fee, with the first registered agent year included (then $125/yr). 90-day money-back guarantee.
Prices checked November 10, 2026. Wisconsin's state filing fee is $130.