Updated October 18, 2026 · ForgeCue Editorial Team

Top company formation services compared

180 software products, ranked on the terms we checked.

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Top company formation services compared
#	Software product	Score	Features	Key facts	Actions
11	ZenBusiness Business website builder 30-day special offer: 30-day free trial	9.2/10	Beginners Small business Free plan	Package price from: $0 State fee included: No Registered agent: included with Premium plan, add-on for Starter and Pro	Review Compare Visit
12	Beacon Nonprofit	9.1/10		Package price from: $99 State fee included: No Registered agent: Included in BeaconComplete	Review Compare Visit
13	Your Company Formations	9.0/10	Small business	Package price from: £2.48 State fee included: No Registered agent: not included in entry package	Review Compare Visit
14	doola Get Back to Building: up to $600 on all plans	8.8/10	Beginners Small business Free trial	Package price from: $237 State fee included: No Registered agent: first year included, then renewal	Review Compare Visit
15	Ownr Ownr helps entrepreneurs in Canada incorporate, manage and grow their businesses, from registration to compliance.	8.5/10	Small business	State fee included: No Jurisdictions: Canada	Review Compare Visit
16	Enkeltpersonforetak.no Enkeltpersonforetak.no helps people in Norway start a sole proprietorship (enkeltpersonforetak) and says it handles the registration for free.	8.5/10		State fee included: No	Review Compare Visit
17	Conson Group Conson Group provides Hong Kong company registration, company secretary, virtual office and accounting and tax services, with 25 years of experience and seven offices in Hong Kong.	8.5/10		Package price from: HK$1,700 State fee included: No	Review Compare Visit
18	Starte AS Norwegian guide and service for starting an aksjeselskap (AS), with steps for registering and running a limited company.	8.5/10	Free plan	State fee included: No Jurisdictions: Norway	Review Compare Visit
19	NCH	9.6/10	Beginners Small business	State fee included: Yes Registered agent: 1 year Turnaround time: 1 day	Review Compare See alternatives
20	Earth Class Mail	9.5/10	Small business	Package price from: $29 Registered agent: Not included Legal entity: LegalZoom.com Inc	Review Compare See alternatives

About Top company formation services compared

Company formation is where a new business first commits money to a legal entity, so this ranking puts entry price and renewal price in front of everything else. It covers 159 brands and asks each one the same questions: what a package costs when a founder signs up, what that package costs when it renews, and what the fee covers, including the state fee. The main trade-off is rarely speed. It sits between a low opening price that quietly leaves the government charge outside the package and one that bundles it, and between a service that forms companies in a single market and one that covers a long list of them. Package prices in this category run €0 to €1,495, and the median package price among the brands scored is €78.49. Support and audience matter just as much: some brands answer by email alone, others run a phone line, a chat and a help centre. Every entry below says where a brand can file and what its fee includes, so a reader can add up the real first year cost before choosing.

How we picked

Our scores rest on three signals: cost at 40%, offer at 40%, and trust at 20%. Cost and offer carry the same weight, so a cheap entry price cannot rescue a thin package and a rich package cannot excuse an expensive start. Trust is what separates services that look alike on price once the ranking gets close. Each signal is built from the fields this category turns on: package entry price, whether the state fee sits inside the package, the model offered, the support channels listed, and the audience served. The median package price among the brands scored here is €78.49, and the state fee is left outside the package by 62.2% of them, which is why that line carries so much weight. Sources are the published pricing, coverage and support pages of each provider, alongside site data on prices, models and support channels. Partners are listed first, and the brands after them follow in score order. Nothing gets blended: an entry price stays an entry price, a renewal price stays a renewal price, and where a package bundles a fee, the entry says so.

How we rank

What to look for

The opening fee: Package fees are the first thing a founder compares, and the median here is €78.49. The lower quartile sits at €4.34 and the upper quartile at €304.29, so anything far outside that band is either a stripped entry tier or a fuller package. Read the entry fee as the start of a bill, not the bill itself.
State fee inside or outside: A formation price means little until you know whether the government charge is inside it. Here 37.8% of the brands include the state fee and 62.2% leave it out, so a headline package price is rarely the whole figure. This is the clearest way to separate two quotes that look almost identical on the surface.
Free plan or free trial: Two shapes of low cost entry appear on the list: a free plan that stays free and a free trial that ends. Free plans appear on 70.4% and free trials on 33.3%, with the median free trial running 30. A free plan tells you what entry will cost for good, while a trial only tells you how long you can look before paying.
Support after you pay: A phone line matters most when a filing is refused, and 72.7% of the brands offer one. Help centres appear on 40.9%, email on 64.5% and chat on 30%. Read the list as a routing decision, since a service answering by email alone suits a straightforward filing and not much else.
Who the service is built for: Small businesses dominate the category, appearing on 95.9% of the brands here, with beginners on 52.6% and enterprise on 15.5%. A brand serving both is usually the safer choice for a first entity, because the guidance is written for someone doing this for the first time rather than for a finance team.

Frequently asked questions

Which formation service costs least to get started with?+

Several brands here start from $0 or the same figure in another currency, which means a formation service with no entry charge. That is not the whole cost. The state fee is outside the package for 62.2% of the brands scored, and package prices across the data run €0 to €1,495. Add the state fee and the renewal charge to the entry fee before calling any of them the cheapest.

Does the formation price include the state fee?+

It depends on the brand, and this is where quotes diverge most. Across this category 37.8% of brands include the state fee in the package and 62.2% do not. A package that bundles it can look dearer at entry and cost less across the first year. Ask for the state fee as a separate line so two quotes can be compared like for like.

How should I weigh an entry price against a renewal price?+

Treat them as two separate decisions. The entry price covers forming the company, while the renewal price covers keeping it registered, and providers list the two differently. A free plan keeps the entry side low for good, while a free trial only lowers it for a stretch. Where a package carries a recurring service, such as a registered agent billed annually after a first free year, that renewal charge belongs beside the state fee.

Can I form a company outside my own country with these?+

Coverage is where these brands separate most. myGreekTax forms companies in Greece, UKKO.fi in Finland, ifirma in Poland, and ANNA Money and Countingup in Great Britain. Active Filings works across a wide spread of United States jurisdictions, and Bizee is US based. A reader who needs an entity in one specific country should settle the market first, then compare fees, since prices are not comparable across currencies.

What support do I get once a filing is in progress?+

The routes differ brand by brand, and that difference matters more than it looks. In this ranking myGreekTax lists email while OnlyTax lists email, phone and chat, and Countingup adds a help centre to email and chat on email, chat and help centre. A straightforward filing needs little contact, while a refused filing needs a conversation. Match the channel list to the kind of filing being bought.

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