How we choose who we'd use

Two kinds of facts

For the state side we use official schedules, forms and laws, cited and dated. Service prices come from each company's own pricing pages, read on the date shown on each page.

How answers are written

Each answer opens with one plain sentence, then gives the detail and the source. Legal terms link to the glossary the first time they appear.

Three-year costs

Three-year cost = year one + two renewals. The state's three-year total adds the filing fee, the reports due in years two and three and any yearly minimum tax. Costs without a fixed amount, such as newspaper publication, are described but not added.

How picks are ranked

1. Three-year cost (35%). The first-year price plus two renewals, from each company's published prices. State fees are the same whoever files, so every page lists them on their own and leaves them out of the comparison.
2. What the price takes off your plate (30%). The recurring work the price includes: registered agent service, the state's annual or biennial report filed for you, the EIN application, and whether the same price works in other states.
3. Plain pricing (15%). Whether the first-year price, the renewal price and the state fee are all published before checkout, in words a first-time owner can follow.
4. Renewal terms (10%). How the yearly price changes after year one. A flat renewal ranks above a low first year that climbs.
5. Where it works (10%). Whether the service works in one state only or in all fifty, which matters once a company registers somewhere else.

When two services are close, the page says which criterion separated them and what the lower one does better.

The order is Plain Charter's own editorial judgment from these criteria, not a customer rating.

Listed services

Picks come from Mainstay Filing and each state's own agent services, and only where they publish a price for that service.

Limits

The order is editorial, not a customer rating, and the answers are general information, not legal advice.