LegalZoom has a lot of things going for it but also has a lot of shortcomings that cannot be overlooked. It is without a doubt one of the most patronized and established legal service website, but it has also fallen short on numerous occasions, especially for users who do not subscribe to the premium packages. Our LegalZoom review gives you the necessary details you need to make your decision.
So is LegalZoom worth it? LegalZoom is definitely a legit company and an established brand. However, LegalZoom is more expensive than the competition and is not really worth it unless you pay extra for the premium packages. Even though they have cheaper packages, it will cost you $349 to form an LLC with LegalZoom if you’re a serious business.
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About LegalZoom
LegalZoom.com is a website dedicated to providing legal help to individuals who either run, or intends to, run a business. They also help in other legal affairs such as filing a trademark application, writing a will, creating a trust, filing bankruptcy and so on.
It is obvious that LegalZoom’s business is simply to help their customers with whatever legal filings they wish to get done, but not much after that, as you’ll see in the disclaimer below.
They also help with LLC formation, “C” and “S” corporation, and DBA filing, and provides an option to speak with a lawyer or tax professional.
The company spends a great deal on marketing and outreach, and have been featured on websites such as Huffington Post, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and so on.
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Disclaimer
Even though they help with certain legal services, LegalZoom disclaims on its website to not be a law firm, or a substitute for one.
The company can’t provide advice, explanation, recommendation, etc. about legal remedies, defense, and strategies.
Pricing
LegalZoom has a tiered pricing package that begins with the “Economy” package, and then the “Standard”, followed by the “Express Gold” package.
1. Economy – $79 + $50 CO Filing Fee
The Economy Package provides you with a federal name availability search, articles of association preparation in Colorado, LLC filing, digital tracker, The Next Step guide, and customer support.
2. Standard – $329 + $50 CO Filing Fee
The Standard Package includes all available features in the Economy Package plus: business newsletter, deluxe organiser, and official printed certificates and seal.
3. Express – $349 + $50 CO Filing Fee
The final package provides these additional perks alongside the ones already mentioned above: VIP processing, priority filing, Express shipping, lifetime customer support every day of the week, and an authorisation letter alongside some miscellaneous discounts.
There are also other features available as add-ons to each tier, among these are:
• operating agreement for $99,
• operating agreement + EIN – $159
• operating agreement + EIN + a license charge – $199
• Registered Agent Service – $159
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Our Recommendation
First of all we strongly feel that LegalZoom’s Standard Package is essentially a waste of space; merely a placeholder for the three-package tier to achieve completion.
As such we would either recommend the Economy package for small businesses looking to get the basic necessities of LLC registration and legal support, and the Express package for big businesses who need a lot of other functional features.
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Benefits
1. Experience – LegalZoom is an established brand with plenty of experience in the field. While their overall review may not be so favorable, it is large enough to show that they do indeed have a large customer base.
2. Reasonable Pricing – Not only is LegalZoom’s pricing a lot more favorable than a law firm, it is also relatively cheaper than a lot of its competitions such as [RocketLawyer].
3. Ease-of-use – This is at the same time an advantage, and a disadvantage for LegalZoom. The website seems to well-optimised for desktop users, at the detriment of mobile users.
4. Easy Process – The entire documentation process is relatively easy and pain-free.
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Shortcomings
- Transparency – On review aggregator websites such as TrustPilot, customers of LegalZoom complained of hidden charges and lack of transparency.
- Pricing Flaw – There is also the fact that some of the services LegalZoom provides as standalone, add-on services are available at a discount or as a part of a package with other similar companies.
- Customer Service – A lot of verified users complained about the relative lack of existence of a functional customer service. From the pricing tiers, it would seem customer services is more optimised for higher paying customers.
Reviews
LegalZoom has a low score of 1.7/5 from 52 verified-user reviews on TrustPilot. Here are some of the things they had to say:
You cannot contact this company
You cannot contact this company. It’s impossible. I’ve tried calling a dozen times, and they never call me back – they just pretend to call back and then immediately hang up so you can’t answer. Complete scumbag tactics from a horrible company.
Thank you for holding….for eternity
I used legal zoom to form an LLC. The address was wrong in all the documents. Getting them to revise internal documents that had nothing to with state notification was impossible and of course I had to do all state amendments myself.
They wasted my time for a week
They wasted my time for a week, took my money and did nothing but get my order incorrect. I had to cancel my order and they seemed not to care a bit.
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Verdict
LegalZoom has a lot of things going for it but also has a lot of shortcomings that cannot be overlooked. It is without a doubt one of the most patronized and established legal service website, but it has also fallen short on numerous occasions, especially for users who do not subscribe to the premium packages. LegalZoom provides you with legal services and documents at relatively cheap prices.
Our final take on the matter, then, is that if you feel like working with an established brand and do not mind paying for premium services, then LegalZoom would be a perfect fit.
But for those who, for some reason or another, do not want to pay so much, looking into alternatives such and [Incfile] and [RocketLawyer] may be the best line of action.
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In case you’re still unsure as to what LLC formation company to go with, feel free to check out our other in-depth reviews and comparisons: