Method
How LLC Unpacked opens up the services it ranks
Where the figures come from
Anything a state decides is taken from that state's official paperwork, linked beside the fact with the month it was last confirmed. Service prices are the ones companies publish on their own price pages, shown with the date we read them.
How each page is built
Top layer first: a one-line answer. Under it, the figures. At the bottom, the source. A term you may not know links to the decoder.
How totals are built
A three-year cost is year one plus two renewals. State total over three years: filing, two reports, minimum tax where one exists. Costs without a set price are described but never added.
What gets weighed
- Total across three years (34%). The first-year price and two renewals, read from each company's own pricing. Every filer pays the same state fee, so it is itemized separately and stays out of the ranking.
- What is inside the price (29%). Which recurring jobs ship with the price: registered agent, state report, EIN application and use beyond one state.
- Price laid out in the open (14%). First-year price, renewal and state fee should be readable before checkout, without digging.
- How the renewal behaves (12%). A flat renewal beats a low first year that rises afterward.
- How far it reaches (11%). A single state or all fifty. It counts once a second state enters the picture.
When two services are close, the page names the layer that separated them and what the runner-up does well.
LLC Unpacked scores are the site's own editorial view of these layers and are not customer ratings.
What gets opened up
Each state page opens up Mainstay Filing, which serves all fifty states, next to the registered agent companies built around that state. A company is ranked only for a service it prices publicly.
What is not in the box
Customer ratings and quotes are not inside, and neither is legal or tax advice. The order is our editorial view of the five layers.