LegalZoom vs EntityEngine: filing vs operating record
LegalZoom forms the entity. EntityEngine runs the company around it. These are two different jobs — LegalZoom is a mature, nationwide legal-services provider with attorneys on call, while EntityEngine is a younger system of record for the governance, documents, and deadlines that pile up after the filing clears.
LegalZoom is very good at getting a filing done and selling the services around it. EntityEngine connects the entity to the decisions, documents, deadlines, and AI context that come after — so the filing is the first row in a record, not a receipt.
Governance that LegalZoom does not sell
Bylaws and resolutions are a $99 drafting product at LegalZoom. EntityEngine runs the meetings, the committees, the roll call, the votes, and the minutes that produce those resolutions in the first place.
Organization-wide AI
LegalZoom AI works at the document and product level. EntityMax reads across the live organization record — entity facts, decisions, documents, signatures, and deadlines — and answers from all of it at once.
Ongoing, not one-off
A la carte services are priced per transaction and end when the transaction ends. EntityEngine is built around the ongoing record: what was approved, by whom, under which document, and what is due next.
What LegalZoom does well
The most complete front door in online business formation
LegalZoom has made forming a business genuinely easy for a very wide market, and the depth behind it is real. LLC, corporation, and nonprofit formation with a published Basic tier at $0 plus state filing fees. A 501(c)(3) exemption application service. An independent attorney network of 130+ vetted lawyers licensed across all 50 states. Compliance packages that actually file your annual report rather than just remind you about it.
Published, buyable prices: LLC Basic $0, Pro $249, Premium $299, all plus state filing fees
Real attorney access — unlimited 30-minute consults on new matters, $469 billed annually or $259 for six months
Compliance Filings at $199/yr auto-files the annual report; Compliance Concierge at $999/yr is white-glove
A full a la carte menu: EIN $79, operating agreement $99, registered agent $249/yr, licenses $99/yr, virtual mail $29/mo
A 100% Accurate Filing Guarantee that covers re-filing at no cost when an error is theirs
Where teams outgrow the fit
The product menu stops at the document
LegalZoom sells legal services and filings extremely well. What it does not sell is the running record of a governed company. Its business-operations catalog covers formation, filings, licenses, mail, books, eSignature, and attorney time — but nothing for board meetings, committees, roll call, votes, minutes, or a cap table. Bylaws and resolutions are available as a $99 drafting product, which produces the document but not the governance process that legitimately generates it.
No board portal, meeting workflow, voting, or minutes product in the business-operations catalog
No cap table or equity management — that need routes to a dedicated platform
Bylaws and resolutions are one-time document creation, not an ongoing board record
LegalZoom AI is scoped to documents, product discovery, and attorney matching rather than your whole company record
Each need tends to arrive as another line item, which is efficient to buy and harder to keep in one place
How EntityEngine approaches it
The filing is the first entry in an operating record
EntityEngine starts from the entity and keeps going: the board and committees, the meetings and votes that produce resolutions, the minutes, the document vault, the signature flow, and the compliance calendar — all reading from one record that EntityMax can query. Formation self-serve is live today for Delaware and Florida LLCs, with other states and entity types rolling out, so this is a narrower front door than LegalZoom by design.
One record across formation, board and committee governance, meetings, decisions, documents, and compliance dates
Live video meetings, roll call, quorum, voting, and minutes run inside the same record rather than as separate document purchases
EntityMax answers across the whole organization record — it assists and drafts, it does not file with any agency
Package around the engines your organization actually uses instead of buying each filing as its own transaction
How to choose
Which one fits your situation
Choose LegalZoom if
You need to form in a state EntityEngine does not serve self-serve yet — LegalZoom files nationwide with a 100% Accurate Filing Guarantee.
You want a licensed attorney available on demand: 130+ vetted independent attorneys across all 50 states, $469 billed annually.
You want someone to actually submit your annual report, not just remind you — Compliance Filings is $199/year.
You want a published price and a checkout button today, starting at $0 plus state filing fees for a Basic LLC.
Choose EntityEngine if
Your company has a board or committees, and the meetings, votes, resolutions, and minutes need to live in one durable record.
You want formation facts, decisions, documents, signatures, and deadlines in one place an AI assistant can actually read across.
You are forming a Delaware or Florida LLC and want the governance layer running from day one.
You would rather operate the ongoing record in-house than buy each piece of it back as a separate transaction.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Feature
EntityEngine
LegalZoom
Entity Formation
LLC formation
Delaware and FloridaOther states rolling out
Basic $0 + state filing fees
Corporation formation
Rolling outTemplates built; not yet self-serve in any state
Economy / Standard / Express Gold; price varies by state
Nonprofit formation
Rolling outTemplates built; not yet self-serve in any state
Articles, name search, and EIN included in all tiers
501(c)(3) exemption application
Form 1023 prep is on the roadmap
$595 standard, $795 expedited, IRS fee included
EIN application service
$79, or included in Pro
Operating agreement
Limited pilotStandard Delaware agreement is not generally available yet
$99, or included in Pro
Registered agent
Bring your ownEntityEngine is not the agent of record
$249/yr with mail scanning
Governance & Records
Board and committee directory
Meetings, roll call, and quorum
Includes in-app video
Digital voting and resolutions
Board packet builder
In-packet PDF viewing and annotation are not enabled yet
Minutes
Bylaws and resolutions drafting$99, document creation only
Document storage and templates
Public external share links are off
150+ templates; unlimited storage with registered agent
E-signature
Add-onPriced separately
1 year of unlimited eSignature included in Pro and Premium
Equity and cap table
Not available to customers today
Not in the product menu
Compliance
Compliance deadline calendar and alerts
Annual report filed for you
Tracked, not filedWe surface the deadline; you file
Auto-filed under Compliance Filings, $199/yr
Good standing status
BetaDerived from your own overdue requirements, not scraped from any Secretary of State; automated recheck is still being rolled out
Certificate ordering
BOI / beneficial ownership
Tracked as a deadline typeNo filing flow
Reporting service offeredIts BOI page states US companies are not currently required to report to FinCEN
Business licenses
BetaLicense checkout is not open yet
$99/yr, or $299/yr bundled with compliance filings
Expertise & AI
Licensed attorney access
EntityEngine is not a law firm and does not give legal advice
130+ independent attorneys licensed in all 50 states
AI across your whole organization record
EntityMax assists and drafts; it does not file with any agency
AI is scoped to documents, products, and attorney matching
AI document review and summarization
Doc Assist
AI-accessible tools for outside assistants
No public API or MCP surface yet
24 published MCP tools
Slack notifications
Pricing & Packaging
Published pricing you can buy today
Packaging is scoped with you
Pricing model
Engines + scale blocks
Packages + a la carte services
Multiple entities on one account
One entity per plan
Priced per filing
Bookkeeping and tax services
LZ Books and tax preparation services
Pricing Approach
A published catalog versus a packaging conversation
LegalZoom publishes its prices and you can buy them today. EntityEngine does not publish a price list — packaging is worked out with you around the engines and scale you need. That is a real advantage for LegalZoom if you want to check out this afternoon.
EntityEnginePackage Builder
EntityEngine treats formation as one engine inside an organization operating system. Pricing is not published on the site today; packaging is scoped with you.
Choose engines: formation, governance and meetings, compliance, documents, signatures, AI
Scale with user, entity, and board-seat blocks
Each plan covers one entity — additional entities are separate plans
Built for founders, operators, directors, counsel, and accountants working from one record
No public price list yet, so expect a short conversation rather than a checkout
LegalZoomPublished packages plus a la carte services
LegalZoom lists prices openly. Formation tiers are $0 / $249 / $299 plus state filing fees, and the business-operations catalog prices each service individually.
LLC formation: Basic $0, Pro $249, Premium $299, all plus state filing fees
Operating agreement $99 · EIN $79 · registered agent $249/yr · business licenses $99/yr
Business Compliance Coverage $199/yr, or Compliance Concierge $999/yr
Business Attorney Plan $469/yr or $259 per six months; the 30-day trial in Pro auto-renews at $49/mo
501(c)(3) exemption application $595 standard or $795 expedited, IRS filing fee included
The honest difference is scope, not value. LegalZoom prices a set of discrete legal services and delivers them nationwide. EntityEngine prices an ongoing operating layer — governance, meetings, decisions, documents, and compliance dates — around a formation footprint that is still expanding state by state.
In depth
LegalZoom vs EntityEngine: a deeper look
LegalZoom is the right call when the filing is the job
If the immediate need is a correctly filed entity in a specific state, with a named price and a guarantee behind it, LegalZoom is hard to beat. Formation starts at $0 plus state filing fees, the catalog covers the adjacent needs — EIN, operating agreement, registered agent, licenses, virtual mail — and a licensed attorney is one subscription away.
Published prices remove the sales conversation entirely.
The independent attorney network covers all 50 states, which no software layer replicates.
Compliance packages actually submit the filing rather than only reminding you it is due.
EntityEngine is the right call when the record is the job
A formation filing creates a living entity, and that entity accumulates obligations: board and committee seats, meetings that need quorum, votes that become resolutions, minutes that need to be approved, documents that need signatures, and dates that need watching. EntityEngine holds all of that in one place so the approval and the document that authorized it stay attached to each other.
Formation data flows into documents, records, tasks, and compliance workflows.
Governance actions stay connected to the entity record that authorized them.
Counsel, finance, directors, and operators work from the same durable history.
The two can sit side by side
Plenty of companies form through LegalZoom, keep LegalZoom as registered agent and attorney plan, and still need somewhere for the board record to live. Nothing about EntityEngine requires you to move a filing or cancel a service. You can upload the formation documents and operating agreement into the vault, enter your officers and directors in the board directory, and run governance from there.
Keep your registered agent and attorney plan where they are.
Bring the formation paperwork in as the starting record.
Add board, meeting, document, and compliance workflows on top.
What EntityMax can and cannot do
EntityMax reads across the organization record — entity facts, decisions, documents, signatures, and upcoming deadlines — which is a wider context window on your company than a document-scoped assistant has. It is an assistant, not a filing agent: it can draft, explain, and surface, but it does not submit anything to a state or federal agency on your behalf.
Ask what was approved, by whom, under which document, and what is due next.
Get drafts and summaries grounded in your own records rather than generic templates.
Any actual government filing is still a human action.
FAQ
LegalZoom vs EntityEngine: FAQ
When is LegalZoom the better choice?
Often. If you need to form in a state EntityEngine does not serve self-serve yet, if you want a licensed attorney on call, if you want someone to actually file your annual report, or if you want a published price you can pay today, LegalZoom is the better fit. Its Basic LLC tier is $0 plus state filing fees and its attorney plan runs $469 billed annually.
Is EntityEngine a LegalZoom alternative?
Partly. It is not a like-for-like replacement — EntityEngine does not offer registered agent service, EIN filing, or attorney advice. It is an alternative for the layer LegalZoom does not sell: board and committee governance, meetings and voting, minutes, the document record, and the compliance calendar around a formed entity.
Which states can EntityEngine form an entity in?
Self-serve LLC formation is live for Delaware and Florida today, with additional states and entity types rolling out. LegalZoom files in every state, so if your state is not covered yet the practical path is to form through LegalZoom and bring the record into EntityEngine.
How does EntityEngine pricing compare to LegalZoom?
LegalZoom publishes its prices and you can check out immediately. EntityEngine does not publish a price list on the site yet — packaging is scoped with you around the engines, users, and board seats you need. If price transparency is a requirement, that is a point for LegalZoom.
Does EntityEngine handle BOI / beneficial ownership filings?
No. EntityEngine tracks BOI as a compliance deadline type but has no filing flow. Note that as of March 2025 FinCEN no longer requires US-formed companies to report beneficial ownership information; the requirement now applies to foreign companies registered to do business in the US. LegalZoom offers a BOI reporting service and says the same thing about the current requirement on its own BOI page.
Can I keep LegalZoom as my registered agent?
Yes, and for now that is the expected setup. EntityEngine is not the agent of record for your entity. LegalZoom lists registered agent service at $249/year including mail scanning and annual report reminders, and nothing about using EntityEngine requires you to change it.
Does EntityEngine manage a cap table?
Not today. Equity and cap table features are not available to customers on the platform right now. LegalZoom does not offer cap table management either, so if that is a core need, a dedicated equity platform is the right tool for it.
Every LegalZoom price and capability on this page comes from a page we fetched and read. Where we could not verify a claim, we say so instead of asserting it.
LLC pricing packages — LegalZoomhttps://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-formation/llc-pricing.htmlLLC tiers Basic $0 / Pro $249 / Premium $299 plus state filing fees; Pro inclusions (operating agreement, EIN, 30-day attorney trial auto-renewing at $49/mo, 150+ templates, unlimited eSignature)
Business operations services — LegalZoomhttps://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-operations/A la carte catalog and prices: compliance $199/yr, virtual mail $29/mo, licenses $99/yr, operating agreement $99, EIN $79, registered agent $249/yr; absence of any board, meeting, voting, minutes, or cap-table product
Registered agent service — LegalZoomhttps://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-operations/registered-agent-overview.htmlRegistered agent at $249/year with mail scanning, annual report reminders, and document storage
Annual report and compliance filings — LegalZoomhttps://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-operations/annual-report-overview.htmlCompliance Filings $199/yr auto-files annual reports; $299/yr adds licenses and permits; Compliance Concierge $999/yr; compliance alerts and the 100% Accurate Filing Guarantee
Beneficial ownership information report — LegalZoomhttps://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-operations/beneficial-ownership-information-report.htmlA beneficial ownership information reporting service, and the statement that US companies and persons are not currently required to report beneficial ownership to FinCEN while foreign-registered companies still must
Business Attorney Plan — LegalZoomhttps://www.legalzoom.com/attorneys/Attorney plan pricing of $469 billed annually or $259 per six months; 130+ vetted independent attorneys licensed in all 50 states; unlimited 30-minute consults on new matters
Corporation pricing packages — LegalZoomhttps://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-formation/inc-pricing.htmlCorporation tiers Economy / Standard / Express Gold, price shown after selecting a state; Express Gold includes 30 days of attorney advice auto-renewing at $49/mo
Nonprofit incorporation pricing — LegalZoomhttps://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-formation/nonprofit-pricing.htmlNonprofit tiers Economy / Standard / Express Gold, each including articles of incorporation, name search, and EIN
501(c)(3) filing service — LegalZoomhttps://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-formation/501c3-application-overview.html501(c)(3) exemption application at $595 standard or $795 expedited with the IRS filing fee included
Bylaws and resolutions — LegalZoomhttps://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-operations/bylaws-and-resolutions-overview.htmlBylaws and resolutions offered as one-time document creation at $99 standard or $199 rush, with no ongoing board record keeping
AI capabilities and MCP tools — LegalZoomhttps://www.legalzoom.com/aiDoc Assist document review, and 24 published MCP tools scoped to knowledge, formation, attorney assistance, estate planning, templates, and document review rather than account-wide company management
Create an LLC online — LegalZoomhttps://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-formation/llc-overview.htmlThe 100% Accurate Filing Guarantee wording and the bundled service list across formation tiers
See EntityEngine for yourself
If you need a filing in any state today, LegalZoom is the faster answer. If you need the board, the minutes, the documents, and the deadlines to live in one record, start here and tell us what your organization actually runs on.