Comparison
1 Day EIN vs LegalZoom
The short answer: LegalZoom is a large general legal company serving mostly Americans, and we are built only for founders outside the US. LegalZoom takes several weeks for the EIN and does not provide a US business address at all. We issue the EIN in 1 business day and include the address.
What each costs
| 1 Day EIN | LegalZoom Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| LLC registration | Yes | Yes |
| State filing fee included | Yes | No |
| EIN included | Yes | Yes, $79 extra on the free plan |
| Time to receive the EIN | 1 business day | Several weeks |
| Guaranteed, or your money back | Yes, 72 hours | No |
| Registered agent, first year | Included | $249/year extra |
| US business address, first year | Included | Not offered |
| Works with no SSN or ITIN | Yes | Limited |
| IRS Form 5472 and 1120 filing | $200, or included in the plan | Not offered |
| Year one, all in | $399 | About $598 |
| Each year after | $50 | $249 |
| Three year total | $499 | $1,096 |
Based on a Wyoming LLC for a founder living outside the US. Competitor pricing is taken from published rates in August 2026 and can change. Please check their current pricing before you decide.
The address problem
LegalZoom does not provide a US business address.
For someone living in the US this does not matter, because they already have one. For someone living in Morocco or Pakistan or Indonesia it matters a great deal. Mercury, Stripe and PayPal all expect a real US street address on the application, and a foreign residential address is the single most common reason a non-resident gets refused.
We provide a real US street address, not a PO box and not a virtual mailbox resold from somebody else. Mail sent to it is received, opened and scanned by us, and delivered into your document portal.
The filings LegalZoom does not do
LegalZoom does not offer Form 5472 with the pro-forma 1120.
This is the filing that every foreign-owned single-member LLC must make each year by 15 April, whether or not the company traded. The penalty for not filing starts at $25,000. If you form through LegalZoom you will need to find somebody else to do it.
We charge $200 for it, or $350 a year for the Compliance Plan covering the agent, the address, the annual report and the 5472 together.
Where LegalZoom is better
LegalZoom is a large, long-established company with real lawyers available. If your question is a legal one rather than a formation one, they can help and we cannot. We are not lawyers and we do not give legal advice.
They also cover all 50 states. We form in Wyoming and Colorado only, because those two are the right answer for almost every non-resident and we would rather do two states properly.
If you live in the United States, LegalZoom is probably a better fit than we are. We are built for people who do not.
Questions