Start an LLC yourself, or use a service? (2026)
Filing yourself costs the state fee and your time. A service adds a price and takes on the filing, the agent and the reminders. Mainstay Filing, our best overall pick, is $199 in the first year and the same at renewal.
What changes
- State fee: the same either way.
- Registered agent: you need an in-state street address; 7 states let you act as your own agent when you meet the address rule (Colorado, Delaware, Kansas, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Washington).
- EIN: free from the IRS either way.
- Reports: 6 states have none; elsewhere someone has to remember the date.