What Claude (Anthropic) with web search answered for business formation services (startups) on 2026-10-14

Claude (Anthropic) with web search claude-opus-5 asked 2026-10-14

Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included.

The question asked, verbatim: best business formation services for startups

Brands named, in the order the engine gave

1. Clerky recommended
   Clerky - My top pick for anything that will take outside investment.
2. Stripe mentioned
   Stripe Atlas - $500 one-time, including the Delaware filing fee and next-day expedited processing.
3. Stripe Atlas mentioned
   Stripe Atlas - $500 one-time, including the Delaware filing fee and next-day expedited processing.
4. EIN mentioned
   EIN in 1-3 days with a US SSN, but 15-45 days without one.
5. Firstbase mentioned
   Firstbase - Pick this over Atlas if you're a non-US founder who wants the whole back office: US entity, EIN, US business address with mail scanning, registered agent, and ongoing compliance.
6. Northwest recommended
   Northwest Registered Agent - My default recommendation for LLCs, and the one I'd give a friend.
7. Northwest Registered Agent recommended
   Northwest Registered Agent - My default recommendation for LLCs, and the one I'd give a friend.
8. LegalZoom mentioned
   $39 + state fees with a full year of registered agent service included, which is the real differentiator: LegalZoom doesn't bundle registered agent in any package and charges roughly $249/year for it separately.
9. ZenBusiness mentioned
   ZenBusiness - The best of the cheap/automated tier.
10. all-in-one mentioned
    Good if you want the all-in-one dashboard with website/banking add-ons.
11. Bizee mentioned
    Bizee (formerly Incfile) - Worth a look purely on price for a bare-bones filing;
12. Rho mentioned
    - Rho - The 10 Best Incorporation Services for Startups in 2026 (https://www.rho.co/blog/best-incorporation-services)
13. Wolters Kluwer mentioned
    - Wolters Kluwer - Northwest Registered Agent review (https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/bizfilings/northwest-registered-agent-llc-review)

Sources the engine cited

The answer, as recorded

The right answer depends almost entirely on one fork: are you raising venture money (→ Delaware C-corp, clean cap table matters more than price), or building a bootstrapped/small business (→ LLC, price and registered agent matter most)? Here's who I'd actually name, in order. ## If you're raising VC money **1. Clerky** - My top pick for anything that will take outside investment. It was built by startup lawyers specifically to produce documents that pass investor due diligence: Delaware C-corp, founder stock with vesting, 83(b) elections, IP assignments, and later your safes and priced rounds. It's not the cheapest, but the thing you're buying is *not having to pay a law firm $10k to clean up a broken cap table* later. Used heavily by YC-adjacent companies. **2. Stripe Atlas** - $500 one-time, including the Delaware filing fee and next-day expedited processing. Incorporation lands in 1-2 business days; EIN in 1-3 days with a US SSN, but 15-45 days without one. You get the Delaware C-corp, registered agent, standard founder docs, 83(b) filing help, and a Stripe account. Best value in the category if your structure is simple and conventional. **3. Firstbase** - Pick this over Atlas if you're a non-US founder who wants the whole back office: US entity, EIN, US business address with mail scanning, registered agent, and ongoing compliance. Noticeably pricier, but it solves the "I have no US presence" problem end to end. ## If you're forming an LLC **4. Northwest Registered Agent** - My default recommendation for LLCs, and the one I'd give a friend. $39 + state fees with a *full year of registered agent service included*, which is the real differentiator: LegalZoom doesn't bundle registered agent in any package and charges roughly $249/year for it separately. Northwest has been doing this since 1998, uses your address instead of selling your data, and their support actually answers. No aggressive upsell funnel. **5. ZenBusiness** - The best of the cheap/automated tier. Free formation + state fees, documents to the state in about 2 business days, and a decent dashboard for ongoing compliance. Registered agent is only bundled in the $399 Premium tier, so Northwest usually wins on true total cost. Good if you want the all-in-one dashboard with website/banking add-ons. **6. Bizee (formerly Incfile)** - Worth a look purely on price for a bare-bones filing; free formation plus a year of registered agent. The tradeoff is heavier upselling and more inconsistent service quality than Northwest. ## Who I'd skip, and why **LegalZoom** gets named in every listicle because it's the oldest and biggest brand (since 2001, 9M+ legal needs served), and it's genuinely the right call if you want on-demand attorney consultations bundled with formation. But for plain formation it's slower (1-2 weeks to file vs. ~2 days) and more expensive once you add the registered agent you'll need anyway. Brand recognition isn't worth the markup here. **One thing nobody selling you a package will say:** if you're a single-member LLC in your home state, you can file directly with your Secretary of State for just the state fee, get your EIN free from the IRS in 10 minutes, and be done. The formation services are selling you convenience, a registered agent, and ongoing compliance reminders - all legitimate, but the filing itself isn't the hard part. The hard part is founder vesting, 83(b) timing, and your operating agreement, which is exactly why the VC-track recommendations above are worth real money and the LLC-track ones mostly aren't. Sources: - [Rho - The 10 Best Incorporation Services for Startups in 2026](https://www.rho.co/blog/best-incorporation-services) - [Startup Savant - 8 Best Online Incorporation Services for Startups](https://startupsavant.com/best-incorporation-services-for-startups) - [LLC University - ZenBusiness vs LegalZoom](https://www.llcuniversity.com/zenbusiness-vs-legalzoom/) - [ZenBusiness - Northwest Registered Agent vs LegalZoom](https://www.zenbusiness.com/northwest-registered-agent-vs-legalzoom) - [Wolters Kluwer - Northwest Registered Agent review](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/bizfilings/northwest-registered-agent-llc-review) - [Rho - Stripe Atlas review](https://www.rho.co/blog/stripe-atlas-review) - [LLC University - LegalZoom alternatives](https://www.llcuniversity.com/legalzoom-alternatives/)

Near this answer

The same question, recorded on other dates: 2026-10-12, 2026-10-11, 2026-10-09, 2026-10-07, 2026-10-04, 2026-10-02, 2026-09-30, 2026-09-27, 2026-09-25, 2026-09-23, 2026-09-21.

business formation services, asked for other audiences: small businesses (asked 2026-10-14).

Other categories with a recorded answer: accounting firms, business coaching services, compliance consulting firms, contract review services.

Markdown edition · JSON record · the question page, with every recording · Answer Watch · AEO Watch

Answer Watch records what one AI answer engine said on one date, nothing more. Each page names the engine and the model, carries the date the question was asked, and lists the brands that appeared in the answer in the order the engine gave them, with the sources it cited. It is a measurement, not a ranking, not a recommendation and not a claim about the world. Brands that did not appear in an answer are not named on any public page. Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included.