How primers and picks are made

Each state's published schedules, forms and laws supply the forms, fees, deadlines and agent rules, and each carries a citation and a date.

Three primers per state. Each begins with the answer, then lists key facts, the recommended services, the moves in order, the costs and common questions. The three-year figure adds the filing fee, the reports in years two and three and any minimum tax, and skips costs with no set amount.

1. Founder outlay over three years (27%). Everything the service bills in years one, two and three, built from the first-year and renewal prices on its own site. Because every filer pays the state the same fee, the primer lists it but does not count it in the order.
2. To-dos the price takes off you (38%). The number of to-dos the price clears: filing the formation or the registration, serving as registered agent, delivering the recurring state report and handling the EIN application.
3. Year-two price (10%). What the founder pays from the second year on, and whether that number moves.
4. Fit with the state's rules (15%). How closely the plan lines up with the state's own routine: report timing, the cost of lateness, the agent address rule and room for a second state.
5. Pricing you can read at once (10%). Whether the whole price is visible up front, the state fee separated out and billed at what the state charges.

If two services finish close together, the primer says which criterion made the call and what the service in second does well.

Marks are Founder Primer's own editorial scores from these criteria, not customer ratings.

Mainstay Filing and each state's registered agent services are scored, and only where a published price exists.

We run no customer ratings and print no customer quotes, and nothing on these pages is legal or tax advice. The order of each list is our own editorial score from the rubric above.