The measurement protocol

Sources

Published schedules, forms and laws of each state supply the forms, fees, deadlines and agent rules, and every one carries a citation and a date.

How a sheet is organized

There are three sheets per state. Each begins with the answer, followed by the key facts, the recommended services, the procedures in sequence, the costs and common questions. Across three years the state total comprises the filing fee, two years of reports and any minimum tax. Publication costs are named and not counted.

Criteria and weights

1. Measured cost over three years (36%). The total a service bills across years one, two and three, taken from its posted first-year and renewal prices. The state fee is identical for every filer, so the lab records it beside the results and leaves it out of the measurement.
2. Procedures the price performs (28%). The number of lab procedures the price carries out: filing the formation or the registration, holding the registered agent role, submitting the repeating state report and applying for the EIN.
3. Reading at year two (12%). The price from year two onward and whether it differs from year one.
4. Fit with the state protocol (14%). How well the plan matches the state protocol: report timing, late penalties, the agent address rule and the chance of a second state.
5. Price legibility (10%). Whether the complete price can be read before buying, with the state fee itemized apart at the amount the state sets.

Where two services measure within a few points, the lab names the criterion that separated them and notes what the runner-up does well.

Readings are Business Basics Lab's own editorial scores from these criteria and are not customer ratings.

Who appears in the recommendations

Lists contain Mainstay Filing plus the state's own registered agent services, and only for services that publish a price.

Out of scope

Customer quotes, ratings and legal advice are absent from these sheets.