ZenBusiness vs LegalZoom

Danka Delić
18 Min Read

So you’re about to start your first LLC, and you’re looking for straightforward and reliable legal services?

If like most young entrepreneurs, you’ve narrowed down your search to ZenBusiness vs LegalZoom, we’re here to help you make your final choice.

Stay with us and get your side-by-side comparison of these two renowned companies’ general characteristics, features and services, price lists, customer experiences, and more.

ZenBusiness vs LegalZoom: Quick Side-bySide Comparison

Refer to our quick reference table to get a broad idea of what you can expect from each of these online legal wizards.

 ZenBussinessLegalZoom
Established20152001
BBB RatingAA
SupportPhone, email, chatbotPhone, direct online message to an agent, chatbot
Free trialNoNo
Mobile appNoiOS, Android
Satisfaction guarantee100% accuracy guarantee

60-days money-back guarantee

60-day money-back guarantee
Legal adviceYesYes
Individual servicesAvailableAvailable
LLC formation packageStarting from $49Starting from $79

You’ve probably noticed right away that LegalZoom LLC formation pricing by far exceeds the one of ZenBusiness. However, with LegalZoom’s successful marketing strategies and well-established reputation, this doesn’t come as a surprise.

As we can see from this table, LegalZoom is also far longer in business.

Still, with its well-rounded LLC services and competitive prices, ZenBussiness undoubtedly stands its ground in the field.

Products and Services

One of the best approaches you can take to choosing the right legal firm is to make your selection based on specific products and services. It’s simple — if you give the advantage to the firm that offers relevant products and covers most of your legal needs, you’re sure that your money won’t go to waste.

Of course, expenditures should also be considered. For example, ZenBusiness is at times much cheaper than LegalZoom. But if you choose based solely on which company offers the most affordable assistance, you might end up with the unplanned costs of hiring several firms to cover several legal fields.

So let’s see what exact products and services these two companies offer and which fields of expertise are pertinent to which of them.

Services that both companies cover

We’ll start with the main products that both ZenBusiness and LegalZoom offer. If these are the products you seek, giving the advantage to one company over the other may solely be a matter of your preference or, perhaps, the economical aspect.

So, you won’t be mistaken if you choose any of these companies for:

  • LLC formation — Whether your choose LegalZoom or  ZenBussiness for your LLC formation, you can rest assured that your limited liability company is in professional hands. One of the few differences is, ZenBusiness will charge you less.
  • Launching of C or S corporation — Starting your own corporation has never been easier, thanks to these two legal experts. On top of that, you can find valuable legal advice and educations on their official websites.
  • Building your own DBA brand — Think big from the start! Your DBA name can make a significant difference in the development of your brand and business itself. But, will you choose ZenBusiness or LegalZoom to assist you with DBA registration? It won’t matter much by the end of the day.
  • Starting Sole Proprietorship — Necessary guidance and formation of Sole Proprietorship are available with both of these companies.
  • Creating an operating agreement — Help your small business grow faster by setting the ground rules for your new or existing LLC.
  • Getting all the business licenses — Ensuring that your business runs smoothly and legally with all the necessary paperwork is possible with both LegalZoom and ZenBusinesss.
  • Registered agent services —  Both companies offer registered agent services. However, you should know that having a LegalZoom agent will cost you at least twice as much as having one with ZenBusiness.

What ZenBusiness excels at?

While your ZenBusiness vs LegalZoom for LLC formation decision may primarily rely on the price differences, here are the services in which ZenBusiness truly excels.

  • Making a business plan — It’s your first time creating a business plan? Don’t worry. With ZenBusiness’s clear instructions and business plan template, you will become a business plan pro in a day.
  • Market research — Knowing your market is as important as knowing your business. Understanding this, ZenBusiness has created a tool to facilitate quick and effortless market research and competitive analysis for your small business. Thanks to it, you can alter your business plan to attract more potential customers and increase profit.
  • Branding your business — One thing ZenBusiness is arguably better at than LegalZoom is business branding. Aside from regular branding services such as business name revision and reservation, ZenBusiness additionally provides you with a domain, a website, and an official business email. All this at a more than reasonable price.

LegalZoom extended field of expertise — personal legal services

While ZenBusiness concentrates solely on LLC and other business-related services, LegalZoom takes care of your personal legal needs, as well.

Here listed are the most prominent of LegalZoom personal legal services.

  • Wills and estate planning — Not many alternatives to LegalZoom include estate planning services. But if you think about it, it is a relevant segment to consider, whether starting a business or not. Aside from different estate plan bundles, last wills, and testaments, with LegalZoom, you’ll be able to form quality living wills and living trusts.
  • Divorce services — You can start your divorce procedure confidentially and effortlessly with LegalZoom.
  • Name change — For less than $140, you can create a new name and legally use it in all financial and government documents.
  • Prenuptial agreements — LegalZoom pricing may seem a bit high at times, but they are almost insignificant compared to how much you can save in the long run with the right legal help. A well-formed prenuptial agreement is a perfect example of that.
  • Visas and green cards —  Apply online with the help of LegalZoom from the comfort of your chair.
  • Bankruptcy management — Sometimes, you’re just one professional piece of advice away from a solution for your financial difficulties. Speak to an independent attorney via LegalZoom and manage your debts, assets liquidation, and more in a highly informed manner.
  • Personal injury claims — Get access to the necessary forms plus legal advice.
  • Real estate products — What many LegalZoom competitors lack, including ZenBusiness, are adequate real estate legal products. So if you’re looking for residential lease documents, property deed transfer, or ways to solve your real estate disputes, LegalZoom should be your choice.

Pricing

The principal difference in ZenBusiness versus LegalZoom pricing strategies is that LegalZoom promotes its individual services, while ZenBusiness concentrates on its LCC formation plans.

To avoid confusion, LegalZoom also offers different business (and even personal) packages and bundles, but it doesn’t emphasize them as much. Instead, it offers you a long list of specific services to choose from.

Plans and packages comparison

To quickly get a better idea of how these two company charges differ, let’s first compare their main business packages.

ZenBuiness and LegalZoom LLC Formation and Filing Packages
ZenBusinessStarter

Preparing and filing LLC
Annual reports
Operating Agreement
100% accuracy warranty
(Takes 2-3 weeks)

 

$49

Pro

Everything from Starter
+
Expedited speed (1-2 weeks)
Worry-free annual compliance
Employer ID number
Banking resolution template

$199

Premium

Everything from Pro
+
Rush speed (3-4 days)
Business website
Domain name
Domain name privacy
Business email

$299

LegalZoomEconomy

Preparing and filing LLC
Articles of organization
LCC Next Steps Guide
Peace of Mind Review
Lifetime customer support

$79

Standard

Everything from Economy
+
Deluxe Organizer
VIP processing
Official certificates and seal

$329

Express Gold

Standard package
+
Rush processing (7-10 business days)
Express shipping

$349

It’s worth noting that ZenBusiness charges the same regardless if you’re forming an LLC or a corporation. LegalZoom LLC formation cost, on the other hand, significantly differs from a corporation formation cost.

ZenBusiness charges $49 for both. Whereas LegalZoom charges $79 for LLC formation and filling and $149 (almost double) for corporation formation and filling.

Individual LegalZoom business-related services

Let’s now take a look at some specific LegalZoom business-related services and their fees.

Nonprofit formation$99
Establishing a DBA$99
Legalzoom registered agent services$299 a year
Annual report$55 per report
Corporate dissolution$129
Necessary business licenses$99
Trademark registrationStarting from $249
Copyright registrationStarting from $114

In the meantime, ZenBusiness includes some of these legal services in its packages, with no additional fees applying.

LegalZoom personal legal services

If you’re more interested in personal legal services such as wills, trusts, and legal advice for divorces and real estate disputes, this is what you can expect.

LegalZoom will and testament$89
Living trust service$279
A living will$39
Change of legal name$139
Property deed transfer$249
Residential lease$29
Online divorce servicesVariable fee (depends from case to case)
Visas and green cardsVariable fee

Keep in mind that ZenBusiness offers business-related services exclusively. So for personal assistance, such as these above, consult LegalZoom.

Ease of Use

It’s fair to say that both companies have user-friendly interfaces.

In most online ZenBusiness reviews, clients mention how easy it is to scroll through its well-organized and informative website pages. Furthermore, the landing page is not crowded, and both textual and graphic content are arranged tastefully.

LegalZoom reviews don’t fall much behind this.

Both users and professional reviewers agree that nearly anyone can enjoy the simplicity and straightforwardness of either of these websites. Still, if we would’ve wanted to be super particular in this matter, we’d give the slight advantage to ZenBusiness.

Our reasons for such a verdict are the following:

  • ZenBusiness has a personalized dashboard in the center of its landing page that makes all your searches instant.
  • Its well-rounded and affordable legal service packages save your time and money.
  • Most users agree that LegalZoom LLC fees and related services, even though carefully listed, are all scattered around the main LegalZoom menu. This could make your search for adequate and complete service time-consuming. Besides, the prices tend to pile up this way.

Customer Support

When it comes to customer support, both companies employ highly competent, polite, and helpful agents.

LegalZoom live-support customer service is available Monday – Friday, 9 AM – 9 PM ET and Sundays from 11 AM – 8 PM ET.

LegalZoom live customer service has slightly better office hours since you can reach it every day. The office hours extend from 10 AM to 8 PM ET during business days and from 10 AM to 7 PM ET during the weekends.

If you prefer chatting, both LegalZoom and ZenBusiness have chatbots available for your convenience.  Additionally, you can reach ZenBusiness through the email available on their official website.

Customer Reviews

Here’s where things get interesting.

We run through tens of LegalZoom reviews for LLC and other services, followed by pricing and customer support-related customer feedback. And then we run through tens more for ZenBusiness.

Conclusion:

Everything is relative!

LegalZoom reviews — From five-star service praises to one-star payment-related issues, you could get the feeling that sometimes customers are talking about two completely different companies. However, the customer ratings are quite high across most reliable reviewing platforms such as TrustPilot, ConsumerAffairs, and BBB.

ZenBusiness reviews — are a bit more even, although there are the occasional bumps on the road here too. Still, all in all, ratings on TrustPilot are much more voluminous and considerably higher than for LegalZoom.

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Final Verdict

Making the final decision between ZenBusiness and LegalZoom for LLC or other legal services can be difficult.

But if you take the right approach to it, not necessarily.

Our advice is to start from your central legal concern. Ask yourself — What is my top priority? And then consider which of these two companies better specializes in that particular area of expertise.

After that, you can carefully weigh other pros and cons of both companies and add them to your list. Always write everything down. That way you can keep better track of your findings.

Also, you should write down all the individual services you might need in the future and calculate their total cost. So, are these individual services better for you financially? Or you’d save more by taking a premium membership, for example?

In the contest of ZenBusiness versus LegalZoom, we deem ZenBusiness better for:

  • Those starting their first LLC or corporation (because of its simplicity of use and straightforward pricing)
  • Purely corporate legal needs
  • Those who trust public opinion above all
  • And, if you don’t mind the lack of customer support on Saturday

On the other hand, you should probably opt for LegalZoom if:

  • You have at least some experience with business legal matters (so that you can differ between services that you really need and those you don’t)
  • There are personal legal matters to resolve
  • You want to make use of the extended LegalZoom working hours
  • You seek a company with well-established reputation and, therefore, somewhat higher security

Finally, if you have some other questions and concerns, you can always contact LegalZoom or ZenBusiness representatives. Get all the necessary clarifications that might help you with your final choice.

FAQ
Is ZenBusiness accredited?

ZenBusiness has been BBB accredited since 2019. Furthermore, it has an A rating by the Better Business Bureau.

Is ZenBusiness a good registered agent?

ZenBussines is among the most popular and most widely used online registered agent services. On top of that, it has admirable ratings across the most prominent reviewing platforms. All this definitely speaks volumes about the company.

If I decide to use ZenBusiness, which package should I choose?

Most customers agree that the Pro ZenBusiness plan is the best plan you can choose. It offers all the necessary services at reasonable prices.

How much does LegalZoom cost?

Legalzoom prices range from around $30 to several hundred dollars, depending on which type of service you choose. The company also offers different plans and bundles to which you can subscribe.

Is LegalZoom good for starting a business?

Yes, LegalZoom is a reliable and affordable company. It provides online legal services and documents necessary for starting a business. However, when it comes down to hiring ZenBusiness vs LegalZoom for starting a business, we find ZenBusiness a bit easier to use and considerably more cost-effective.

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