Formation services comparison
What you actually pay each major US LLC formation provider over three years, with the components broken out. This is the page Block 6 of the landing page points at. The advertised starter price you see on each provider's homepage is not the three-year total cost; this page is the three-year total cost.
The figures below are illustrative. The customizer calculates your specific 3-year cost based on your country, formation state, business model, and whether you take or skip each optional provider upsell.
Three-year total cost by path
| Path | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | 3-year TCO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| doola — Total Compliance | $1,797 | $2,499 | $2,178 | $6,474 |
| Northwest — formation + RA + basic compliance | $400 | $300 | $305 | $1,005 |
| Bizee — Silver plan + Operating Agreement + EIN + RA | $700 | $440 | $440 | $1,580 |
| DIY — New Mexico + $35/yr registered agent | $85 | $60 | $60 | $205 |
The spread between the most-bundled path (doola at $6,474) and the most-DIY path (New Mexico DIY at $205) is roughly 30×. Choosing doola Total Compliance over the DIY path costs $6,269 over three years; that money is buying convenience, not better filings. Whether that convenience is worth $6,269 to you is a real question with a real answer for your specific situation — but the question is not visible if you only see the $297 starter price on doola's homepage.
What's in each path
doola — Total Compliance includes formation, registered agent, EIN application support, a US business-address mail-forwarding service, and an annual subscription that bundles Form 5472 preparation, bookkeeping, and compliance reminders. Subscription pricing: $1,500/year on top of the formation starter. The Total Compliance plan is the plan doola actually pushes to foreign-owned LLCs because the unbundled "starter" does not cover Form 5472 preparation, and Form 5472 is the filing you most cannot afford to miss.
Northwest — formation + RA + basic compliance is the unbundled approach to the same compliance posture. Formation: $39 + state fee (Wyoming $100, New Mexico $50, Delaware $90). Registered agent: $125/year. Operating agreement template: included. EIN: free to file yourself with Form SS-4 (Northwest offers paid EIN filing assistance for $200; we typically skip). Form 5472 preparation: not bundled; either DIY (the IRS instructions are followable for most simple foreign-owned single-member LLCs) or pay a cross-border CPA $400–$800/year. Northwest's reputation among non-US founders is consistently high.
Bizee — Silver + Operating Agreement + EIN + Registered Agent is the mid-bundle Bizee tier. Formation: $0 + state fee (Silver). Operating agreement: $40. EIN preparation: $70. Registered agent: $119/year (waived first year as part of Silver promotion). The "free formation" upsell pattern is well-documented; the actual three-year cost lands around $1,580 when the additions you actually need are added.
DIY — New Mexico + $35/yr registered agent is the cheapest defensible path for foreign-owned LLCs that do not need formation-state brand recognition. Formation fee: $50. Registered agent: $35/year (low-end providers; verify reliability before committing). Operating agreement: written from a free template. EIN: filed yourself via Form SS-4 by fax or mail. Form 5472: filed yourself using the IRS instructions, or by a cross-border CPA at $400–$800/year (the CPA cost is the same line item across all four paths if you choose to outsource it).
The CPA line item for Form 5472 preparation is not in the table above because it's path-independent — whichever provider you choose, you either DIY the filing or pay a CPA. Including it would inflate every column equally. The table compares provider-specific costs.
What the table does not capture
The CPA / advisory cost for cross-border tax review, which is independent of formation provider. Conservative bookkeeping: budget $400–$1,000/year for a cross-border CPA who actually understands foreign-owned single-member LLCs. Many CPAs charge less than that and many know less than that.
The cost of mistakes. A missed Form 5472 is $25,000. A failed Mercury onboarding might mean a more expensive backup banking option. A poorly-chosen formation state for your specific use case might mean refiling. None of these are in the table; they should be in your planning.
Your time. The DIY path is $205 of cash and several hours of your own time across the year. The Total Compliance path is $6,474 and almost no time. Whether your hour is worth more than $1,500 is the actual question.
What we will not say
We will not say one provider is better than the others. The pricing transparency is the point; the choice is the reader's. We have affiliate relationships with doola, Northwest, Bizee, Mercury, and Wise — those relationships are disclosed on the affiliate disclosure page and the rankings on this page are unaffected by commission.
What to do next
Run the customizer to get your specific 3-year cost based on your country, formation state, and business model. Pair this read with the Form 5472 trap guide and the filing deadline tracker.
Sources
- doola, US LLC formation pricing and Total Compliance plan pricing.
last_verified: 2026-05-28. Source: doola.com. - Northwest Registered Agent, LLC formation and registered-agent pricing.
last_verified: 2026-05-28. Source: northwestregisteredagent.com. - Bizee (formerly Incfile), Silver plan and add-on pricing.
last_verified: 2026-05-28. Source: bizee.com. - Wyoming Secretary of State, LLC formation and annual report fees.
last_verified: 2026-05-28. - Delaware Division of Corporations, LLC formation fees and franchise tax.
last_verified: 2026-05-28. - New Mexico Secretary of State, LLC formation fees.
last_verified: 2026-05-28.
This page was last updated 2026-05-28. Provider pricing changes; the figures above are illustrative of the structure of pricing, not a guarantee of current pricing. Re-verification cadence: 90 days.
Last updated 2026-05-28.