Maybe I'm the only one who cares, but every thread about ZenBusiness is about the $0 formation or whatever the intro price is. Fine, great. What I can't find is anyone talking about what the renewal actually costs and whether the registered agent fee creeps up after year one. Anyone been through a renewal cycle with them and can say what they actually paid? Feels like the formation price is the bait and nobody wants to mention the rest.
LLC Renewals
I keep seeing ZenBusiness recommended, but nobody talks about renewals
Registered agent renewals went up for me quietly last year. Not a huge jump but enough that I noticed. They send a reminder email that's easy to skim past.
Your state's annual report fee is the bigger deal and nobody mentions that either. ZenBusiness can't change that, it's the state. What they charge for their own service on top is the part that's murky.
lol the $0 thing is so obviously a funnel. not saying it's a scam, it's just marketing. read the fine print, people.
See that's my thing though, I DID read the fine print and it still wasn't clear what year 2 looks like without adding their registered agent service. Maybe I'm bad at reading fine print.
I run my LLC through them and I ended up just being my own registered agent after year one to avoid the fee. Only works if you have a real physical address you're fine putting on public record, though. Some people don't want their home address out there, which is fair.
That's the tradeoff nobody spells out. Free-ish formation, then you're kind of anchored to their agent service because switching is a hassle. Not impossible, just a hassle.
wait you can just be your own agent? I thought you needed a service
Depends on the state but generally yes. You just need a physical street address in the state, during business hours, willing to accept service of process. A lot of people use themselves without realizing it's allowed.
A friend of mine used a mailbox service and it nearly bit them because some states don't accept a commercial mail drop as the agent address. Nothing to do with ZenBusiness but worth knowing before you go DIY.
I've had ZenBusiness about 3 years. The renewal itself was painless, honestly. The number changed from what I expected but not by a lot. The annoying part was the upsell emails trying to bundle compliance stuff I'd already handled.
This is helpful, thanks. So the consensus is the state fee is unavoidable and the agent fee is optional if you're willing to be your own agent. I wish their pricing page just said that in plain English instead of making me feel like an idiot for asking.