LegalZoom Review (2025): Comprehensive Analysis and Verdict

LegalZoom is most popular for its business formation services and it takes care of all the formation paperwork and formalities from start to end.

During our LegalZoom review, we found that it can help you form all types of business entities, offering assistance with filing and ongoing compliance.

Let’s discuss each briefly.

This is one of the easiest types of business entities to form and does not require a lot of paperwork. In fact, you don’t even need to register your business at the federal government level.

What does LegalZoom offer? LegalZoom will:

• Provide you with legal advice on how to form your Sole Proprietorship and comply with government regulations
• Register your business name with the state government
• Help you acquire the necessary business licenses and permits
• File for doing business as (DBA) if you want that
• Convert your Sole Proprietorship into an LLC or other legal entity

During our LegalZoom review, we found that it has not mentioned a separate pricing plan for Sole Proprietorship formation. It does, however, charge for additional services like acquiring business licenses or filing DBA.

In our LegalZoom review, we found out that the platform specializes in offering LLC formation services. The company offers a free LLC formation plan and its paid plans start from $249 per year + state filing fees, but also include other services.

Here are the services it offers on the Basic plan for LLC formation:

• Business name search, ensuring your LLC name is available
• Business registration with complete paperwork
• Assistance with acquiring business licenses or permits as needed
• Optional DBA filing services for alternative business names
• Compliance reminders for ongoing business needs

Remember, that the additional services cost more and the basic plan only includes business name search and LLC registration. When you check out they will try to upsell these add-on services, so add only the services you really need.

Our LegalZoom review would not be complete without talking about their incorporation services. They will help you form a Corporation with just $149 and state filing fees. Any add-on services are chargeable.

What LegalZoom offers:

• Step-by-step guidance for forming a S corporation or C corporation 
• Filing of documents, such as Articles of Incorporation, to establish your business entity
• Optional services, like creating corporate bylaws
• Guidance on maintaining compliance, such as holding shareholder meetings and issuing resolutions

Given that the paperwork required for forming a Corporation is more complicated than forming a limited liability company, the higher fee is justified. You simply need to give them the information they need and they’ll take care of all the legal formalities.

Based on our LegalZoom review, the process for forming a non-profit organization is slightly different and requires some additional paperwork. As these don’t have a profit motive, they qualify for tax-exempt status and can also apply for grants.

LegalZoom will take care of the following:

• Assistance with filing the necessary paperwork to establish a non-profit organization for $99 plus the state filing fees
• Guidance in obtaining 501(c)(3) status by filing Form 1023 or Form 1023-EZ
• Support for applying for grants and other funding opportunities
• Expert advice on structuring your organization to meet state and federal requirements
• Option for ongoing compliance and additional document preparation

Even for first-time founders, forming a non-profit can be straightforward and accessible with LegalZoom. With their step-by-step process and expert support, you can ensure your organization meets all legal requirements and process for formation.

For businesses operating under a name different from their legal name, filing a DBA is essential. LegalZoom offers straightforward and reliable DBA filing services to help you stay compliant with state regulations.

Here’s what LegalZoom offers under this service:

• Preliminary name search to ensure your desired DBA name is available
• Filing of your DBA application with the appropriate state authorities
• Publishing your DBA name in a local newspaper if your state mandates it.
• Providing proof of publication and a copy of your DBA statement for your records
• Support for renewing your DBA registration when required

That brings us to the end of the business formation services part of this LegalZoom review. One last thing that we want to mention in our LegalZoom review is that they offer a complete 60-day money-back guarantee if you don’t like their services.

In this section of this LegalZoom review, we will cover the intellectual property protection services offered by LegalZoom. Intellectual property is a crucial asset for any business, especially as you begin to grow and develop your brand. 

As you start a new business, you will likely need one or more of these services at some point to ensure your IP remains secure. 

Let’s review each of these services, one by one.

Before you apply for a trademark, you need to ensure that it’s available and not taken up by some other company. This requires extensive research to find the availability of a particular trademark to avoid any potential future conflicts.

LegalZoom trademark search service includes:

• Ranked search results to identify potential conflicts with existing trademarks
• Search involving common law trademarks, ensuring a thorough check
• Attorney guidance and answers to your questions throughout the trademark process

LegalZoom offers three plans for trademark search. For $199, the Federal trademark search includes a complete search of applications with the USPTO. For $299, the federal, state, and common law search provides additional coverage. 

The highest value option, at $649 + federal fees, includes the complete search plus attorney guidance throughout the trademark registration process.  

As a business, you would probably like to trademark your company’s name, logo, or slogan to prevent others from copying them. LegalZoom offers trademark registration services and can help you through the process of getting a trademark.

Here’s how LegalZoom help out:

• Federal and common law search to check trademark availability
• Selection of the appropriate trademark classes by your attorney
• Attorney filing of your trademark application with the USPTO
• Attorney review of post-filing alerts if the USPTO needs additional information
• Free second search if your first trademark choice has issues

LegalZoom uses the help of a professional attorney to complete this process and charge $649 plus the federal fees for this service. Though the price may seem a bit steep at first, it’s still cheaper than hiring an attorney and getting it done yourself.

Just because you obtain a patent or a trademark does not mean that no one will ever file for something similar that may be an infringement. You can’t, however, keep track of all trademark or patent applications that may be potentially infringing.

LegalZoom can help with that which is why we’ve included this service in our LegalZoom review. 

• Monthly reports to alert you of trademark applications that may threaten your brand
• Trademark monitoring across the USPTO database to track potential infringements 
• Monitoring for “knockoff” trademarks, including those that are very similar

LegalZoom offers a trademark monitoring service for $175 per year. If you don’t want to invest in this service every year, you can choose to use this every few years to see if there have been any potential infringements.

If you’ve developed an innovative product or process, a provisional patent can provide initial protection while you work on a full patent application to protect your invention before launching it to the public. 

What LegalZoom offers for provisional patent applications:

• Secure a filing date with the USPTO before someone else can claim your invention
• Obtain the right to use and market your invention as “patent pending” 
• A full year to complete your invention and file a utility patent
• Step-by-step guidance through the application process

This service starts at $199 plus filing fees. LegalZoom handles the entire process, including submitting the application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). You can confidently protect your idea during the early stages.

Similar to patents and trademarks, you can file for copyright for your creative work like books, films, or any other tangible creative work. This helps safeguard your creative work from unauthorized use or distribution. LegalZoom charges $114 plus filing fees for this service. 

What you’ll get under this service:

• Access to consultations with independent attorneys who can guide you through the copyright registration process
• Electronic filing with the U.S. Copyright Office
• Delivery confirmation or notification once the copyright registration form has been received by the Library of Congress

With this protection in place, you can maintain control over how your work is used and have the legal standing to take action against any infringements. If you’re not satisfied with the service within the first 60 days, LegalZoom will offer a refund.