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Unless you want to risk your personal assets when you do business, it’s always better to just incorporate your business instead. That way, your personal assets won’t have to cover your business debts and liability damages.
Incorporating is actually a rather simple process if you’re sensible enough to have a professional incorporation service helping you. You can apply online, the incorporation service does much of the work, and you can concentrate on starting your business the right way. The fees for incorporation services are even quite reasonable.
But it does matter which incorporation service you choose, which leads us to this choice between MyCorporation and ZenBusiness. Which one will better suit your needs? Let’s find out, using several crucial factors as the basis for comparison.
Brand History and Reputation
Much like with every other type of professional service, you have to know for sure that the supposed expert you’re hiring is actually an expert in the job you hired them for. You can get proof of that by checking the brand history, since being in the incorporation service industry for years proves that the brand does know what it’s doing.
You should also check how many customers they’ve served during all those years since the number of customers served tends to correlate with the actual expertise of the brand.
Finally, you should make sure that most of those customers were actually satisfied with the service they got. That means you need to look for lots of satisfactory customer reviews.
MyCorporation
The MyCorporation brand is among the oldest in the incorporation service industry, as many of their current competitors came out after the millennium started. MyCorporation started in 1998.
They’ve served a lot of customers over the years, and in fact, they remain one of the most popular options today. They’ve served more than a million customers already, and that’s no small thing. Many of their competitors still haven’t served 100,000 customers yet.
Surprisingly, with a million customers served you don’t actually find too many customer reviews on MyCorporation. It’s as if their marketing department isn’t really concerned about encouraging their customers to post gushing reviews. While many of the other popular brands have thousands of customer reviews, you may only find hundreds of MyCorporation customer reviews. At least most of these reviews are positive, which confirms their expertise.
MyCorporation’s Official Website
ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness, in contrast, started only in 2015. Compared to MyCorporation, it’s basically a newbie in the incorporation service industry.
Yet even though they’ve only been operating for 6 years or so, they’ve become spectacularly popular. They’ve already helped more than 80,000 customers, and you’ll find more than 5,000 customer reviews on ZenBusiness. They’re mostly positive, leading to an average score of 4.8 out of 5.
ZenBusiness actually doubled its revenues in 2020, even when the entire world was locked down with the Covid pandemic. That means they can expect even more business once the pandemic crisis is over.
Investor confidence in the ZenBusiness brand is quite high, judging from how much seed money the brand has received in the last few years. They got $4.5 million investor money in 2018, $15 million in 2019, and $55 million in 2020. They’re poised to grow their business to handle the increased customer numbers in the coming years.
ZenBusiness’s Official Website
Winner: MyCorporation (tight race)
This is a close call, and it may even be fair to just say that these 2 brands tied in this area.
It’s true that ZenBusiness is among the most popular incorporation services right now, and they’re doing great. They may be new, but they’ve already established a terrific reputation in the industry. They also have lots of seed money to make sure that they grow their brand to handle the greater number of customers they’re expecting in the coming years.
MyCorporation doesn’t have a lot of customer reviews, but then most of those reviews are extremely positive. What’s really impressive is that they’ve managed to serve more than a million customers in just over 2 decades. No other brand comes even close. That attests to their consistency in providing quality incorporation services year after year.
Incorporation Costs and Value for Money
Exactly what kind of incorporation services are these 2 brands offering? Check out the features of their various incorporation packages, along with the costs. Just keep in mind that quoted costs don’t include the state fees, which vary depending on the state you’re filing in.
MyCorporation
Package | Cost | Features and Services |
Basic | $99 + state fee |
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Standard | $124 + state fee | All the Basic features, plus:
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Deluxe | $224 + state fee | All the Standard features, plus:
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Premium | $324 + state fee | All the Deluxe features, plus:
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You unfortunately don’t get the free registered agent services included in the Basic package, but at last that’s part of the Deluxe and Premium packages. You can add the registered agent service as an extra option with your Basic package, but that will set you back an additional $120.
ZenBusiness
Package Option | Cost | Features and Services |
Starter | $49 + state fee |
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Pro | $199 + state fee | Starter package features, plus:
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Premium | $299 + state fee | Pro package features, plus:
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Here you get the registered agent services as part of all the incorporation packages. In the second year, that will cost you $119 per year.
Winner: ZenBusiness
It seems clear that you pay less and get more with ZenBusiness. The difference is quite stark when you compare the Basic package from MyCorporation with the Starter package from ZenBusiness.
You don’t get the registered agent service as part of the MyCorporation $99 Basic package, so with that service add-on included you’re paying $219 in the first year. But with ZenBusiness, you only pay $49 with the registered agent service already included.
Ease of Process
It’s important that you’re able to use the incorporation service website easily. You should be able to find out what the total costs are and info about the services you’re getting, without too much hassle.
MyCorporation
The MyCorporation website is all about transparency, so you’re clear about what you’re getting and how much you’re paying. It’s easy enough to use the website, even for newbies.
You start by picking what type of corporation you’re planning to form, and the state you’re filing in. You’re then led to the incorporation packages, listing the features and the cost for each package. Add-ons are also listed, with the cost for each option. At the end of the whole process, you then get a few more additional add-ons to pick from.
You get a running total of the costs as you pick additional options to add to your features, and you also get the exact state fee added to the total. That means you won’t get a sticker shocker when you finally get the total costs. You find out the total cost before you have to enter your business info, which is very convenient.
ZenBusiness
Get to the ZenBusiness website, and you’ll easily find the available incorporation packages set side by side. The features for each package are listed, and you can click on each feature to get more information. Each package also lists the available options, with the prices and explanations also shown. Each time you check on an add-on, the cost is added to the running total cost.
Winner: Tied
Again, both brands do well with their website design and information presentation. You’re not slowed down by being forced to enter your business information before you get the costs. In addition, the site also offers clarification regarding each feature listed. Both websites offer information freely, so you’re not blindsided by the costs and feature limitations in the end.
Formation Speed
Admittedly, much of the wait involved in the incorporation process is because of the state government. These offices are inundated with applications each day, and they only have so many state employees to handle the workload. Due to the pandemic, many states reduced the number of state employees handling these applications.
So, it’s not surprising that the wait can last for several weeks. But it sure helps if the incorporation service can start processing your application as quickly as possible. This is the problem with the more popular brands, however—your application goes at the end of a rather long line. But you may be able to go with an expedited filing service for an extra fee.
MyCorporation
MyCorporation offers standard waiting times, which can last a week or even 6 weeks. Again, it depends mostly on the state.
But MyCorporation does offer an expedited filing service for an extra $100. That can cut down on the total waiting time by 85%, according to MyCorporation.
ZenBusiness
With ZenBusiness, you may have to wait about 3 to 4 weeks for the whole application process to finish. ZenBusiness is popular, so you’re at the back of a long line.
But if you go with the Pro package, you get the expedited filing service. Basically, you overtake the customers opting for the standard filing service which cuts down the waiting time to maybe 1 to 2 weeks. If you stick with the Starter package, this service is still an available option for an extra $50.
With the Premium package, you get the rush filing service. With this feature, the total waiting time is reduced to perhaps 3 to 5 business days. If you want to get this with your Starter package, it’s available for an extra $100.
Winner: ZenBusiness (by a nose)
In most cases, they both offer similar waiting times. ZenBusiness may be more popular, but they’re growing their company to handle the extra demand for their services.
Still, with the expedited service with ZenBusiness, you really cut down on the waiting time, which may be worth the additional $50. With the rush filing service, the total wait gets cut really short. The waiting time reduction isn’t as great with MyCorporation, even though you also pay $100 extra.
Customer Support
How helpful are these brands when you have questions and concerns? Customer support should be easy to contact, with prompt and clear replies.
MyCorporation
You can contact their customer support through the phone, on weekdays from 7:30AM to 4:30PM PT. You’ll get polite service with clear answers, and you can always ask follow-up questions as you talk.
You can also send an email, but you’ll have to fill up a rather fussy contact form. Your response will arrive within 24 hours, and you get straight answers to your questions. But you don’t get a lot of details, unlike if you talk over the phone (and you can ask additional questions on the spot).
ZenBusiness
You can contact their customer support by phone, on weekdays from 9AM to 7PM (Central Time). They’re even open for calls on Sundays, from 10AM to 7PM.
Unlike MyCorporation, ZenBusiness also offers a chat service with their customer support. It’s available from 8AM to 8PM (Central Time), and on Sundays from 10AM to 7PM.
With email, the wait doesn’t exceed more than 24 hours, and the email response is quite detailed. If you send the email early enough in the morning, you may even get a response that same day.
Winner: ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness offers chat, but MyCorporation doesn’t. Their email responses are very detailed, and you may even get a response on the same day you send your email message. They’re also available for calls on Sundays.
Conclusion: ZenBusiness Wins
It’s true that MyCorporation is a terrific brand, which explains their continuing popularity over the years. That’s why it scores similarly with ZenBusiness in almost all areas.
But ZenBusiness offers lower prices with registered agent services included in all packages. It’s this reason why they’ve become so popular in such a short time. Add their superior customer support, and it’s quite clear that ZenBusiness is just a bit better than MyCorporation.