CorpNet is one of the better-run business formation companies in the market and one of the harder ones to recommend on price. Those two things are both true, and most reviews only tell you one of them. I run Ecommerce Paradise, and forming an LLC is usually the first real money a new store owner spends before they have made a dollar. That is true for almost everyone I teach high-ticket dropshipping. So the question is not whether CorpNet is good. It is whether it is worth $100 to $270 more than what you could pay elsewhere for the same legal outcome. Here is my honest answer.
Form Your LLC With People Who Actually Pick Up the Phone
CorpNet holds 4.8 out of 5 across more than 1,200 Trustpilot reviews, with 97% rating it five stars. Packages start at $99 plus state fees.
What CorpNet Is and Who Runs It
CorpNet was founded in 2009 by Philip and Nellie Akalp, an attorney husband-and-wife team based in Westlake Village, California. It employs more than 200 people and has appeared repeatedly on the Inc. 5000.
The founder story is more relevant than usual here, because it explains the service culture. The Akalps launched one of the first online legal document filing services in 1997 out of a Southern California apartment. That company was MyCorporation.com, and they sold it to Intuit for $20 million. Nellie Akalp tells the story herself in her first-person account of the $20 million Intuit sale, which places the closing in November 2005. Worth noting that CorpNet’s own bio page says 2008, so the company is inconsistent about its own history. They launched CorpNet once the non-compete expired.
The short version: these people have been doing exactly this since 1997, and it shows in how they handle customers.
I have formed entities for my own stores and walked clients through this more times than I can count. The thing people get wrong is almost never the filing itself. It is the registered agent renewal twelve months later, or the annual report nobody diarised, and cleaning that up costs far more than doing it right the first time.
CorpNet Pricing
CorpNet sells three formation packages, all with state filing fees charged separately.
| Package | Price | Registered Agent Included | What You Get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $99 | 60 days only | Name check, Articles of Organization prepared and filed, compliance alert tool |
| Deluxe | $219 | First year free | Everything in Basic plus your EIN |
| Complete | $269 | First year free | Everything in Deluxe plus certified copies, custom operating agreement, corporate kit and seal, lifetime support |
Registered agent service on its own runs $149 a year across all 50 states.
Two Costs the Pricing Page Buries
First, CorpNet charges a 3% convenience fee on top of the package price. Its own pricing page states that prices “do not include state fees, shipping and handling, or our 3% convenience fee.” None of the major competitors do this, and most write-ups omit it entirely.
Second, that 60-day registered agent window on Basic is the single biggest gotcha in the lineup. A price-sensitive founder picks the cheapest package, then gets a $149 bill two months later. Basic at $99 plus a year of registered agent at $149 comes to $248, which is more than Deluxe at $219 with the first year included. Basic is the worst value CorpNet sells.
Expedited Processing
Standard internal processing runs 2 to 4 business days. Express adds $150 to every tier. A 24-hour rush adds $250 and is only available in select states. These are CorpNet’s internal times, not your state’s queue, which is the real bottleneck in most cases.
Core Features
Full Service Coverage
CorpNet handles LLC, C-Corp and S-Corp formation, S-Corp election via Form 2553 at $99, DBA filings at $99, EIN acquisition at $69 online or $99 by paper, registered agent service in all 50 states, annual report filing at $99, foreign qualification from $239, and business license research packages from $249.
Trademark work comes with a caveat worth knowing. CorpNet prepares your federal trademark application from $299, but you execute and file it with the USPTO yourself and pay the federal fees. That is application preparation, not filing, and the marketing language does not make it obvious.
The Compliance Portal
Every customer gets a free compliance account that tracks annual report deadlines, franchise tax due dates and state-specific obligations across multiple entities. If you plan to run more than one store under separate LLCs, that multi-entity view is genuinely useful and it does not cost anything.
The Satisfaction Guarantee
CorpNet advertises a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Read what it actually covers. It refunds 100% of CorpNet’s own service fees within 60 days of your order. It excludes state fees, government fees and anything paid to third parties. That is a service-fee guarantee, not a money-back guarantee, and it is a fair one as long as you know the boundary.
Skip the Upsell Maze at Checkout
CorpNet shows itemized pricing upfront instead of hiding add-ons behind a $0 headline, and refunds its service fees within 60 days if you are not happy.
What Real Users Say
CorpNet holds 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot across 1,221 reviews, with 97% rating it five stars and 2% one star. For this category that is exceptional, and the volume is high enough to be meaningful rather than cherry-picked.
On the Better Business Bureau, CorpNet carries an A+ rating. One correction worth making because plenty of other reviews get it wrong: CorpNet is not BBB accredited. The profile says so explicitly. An A+ rating and accreditation are different things.
The praise is unusually specific. Customers name individual reps who went out of their way, describe responses as swift, and repeatedly mention getting real guidance rather than an upsell script when they did not know what they needed. The website copy is plain English, which in this industry is rarer than it should be.
The complaints cluster around three things. Reaching someone by phone is the most common, with unreturned calls and delayed responses coming up across multiple sources. Second, some customers report inaccurate guidance about which registrations they actually needed. Third, and most serious, there are accounts of CorpNet deflecting responsibility when a filing went wrong, including one BBB reviewer who paid around $600 for an unemployment tax registration and spent 18 hours cleaning up errors.
Price comes up constantly too, and that brings us to the real issue.
How CorpNet Compares on Price
This is the section that decides it for most people.
| Provider | Entry Package | Registered Agent per Year | Free First Year Agent |
|---|---|---|---|
| CorpNet | $99 | $149 | Deluxe and Complete only |
| Bizee | $0 | $149 | Yes |
| Northwest Registered Agent | $39 | $125 | No |
| ZenBusiness | $0 | $199 | Premium tier only |
| LegalZoom | $0 | $249 | No |
| Swyft Filings | $0 | Roughly $596 | No |
CorpNet is the only provider in that set with no free or sub-$50 entry tier. Its $99 floor sits $60 above Northwest and $99 above four competitors.
Run year one all-in, excluding state fees. Bizee costs $0. Northwest at $39 formation plus $125 registered agent costs $164. CorpNet Deluxe costs $219 before the 3% fee, so call it $226.
Over three years of registered agent service the picture shifts a little. Bizee comes to $298 with the first year free, Northwest to $375, CorpNet to $447, ZenBusiness to $597, LegalZoom to $747, and Swyft Filings to roughly $1,788. CorpNet is mid-pack on ongoing cost even though it is expensive on entry.
One more thing to factor in. An EIN is free from the IRS and takes about 15 minutes online if you have a Social Security number. Paying $69 to $319 for it is paying for convenience, and it is the main thing separating Basic from Deluxe.
Best LLC Formation Services to Get Started
If CorpNet is not the right fit, these are the three I point people toward most often.
Northwest Registered Agent is my default recommendation for privacy-conscious founders. They use their own address on your public filings instead of yours, and at $125 a year flat their registered agent pricing does not climb at renewal.
Bizee is the value pick. Formation is free plus state fees and the first year of registered agent is included, which makes year one genuinely $0 beyond what your state charges.
LegalNature is worth a look if what you really need is ongoing access to legal documents rather than a one-time filing, since its subscription model covers document generation across the life of the business.
If you want the full breakdown, my guide to the best LLC services in 2026 compares all of them side by side.
CorpNet for Non-US Founders
You do not need to be a US citizen or resident to form a US company, and CorpNet handles international founders. Two constraints matter.
Non-residents can form LLCs and C-Corporations only. An S-Corporation is off the table, because S-Corp shareholders must be US citizens or permanent residents. If you see S-Corp election listed as a CorpNet feature, it does not apply to you.
The EIN is the other piece. The online IRS application requires a Social Security number or ITIN, so non-residents file Form SS-4 by phone, fax or mail instead. The phone route on the IRS international line issues the EIN immediately if your information is complete, fax takes around four business days, and mail takes roughly four weeks. CorpNet’s paper EIN filing tier at $99 is the route that covers this, and the company offers to assist rather than doing the call for you outright.
A registered agent is the piece a non-resident genuinely cannot handle alone, and CorpNet covering all 50 states makes it a legitimate option. That said, if you are forming from outside the US, compare against the specialists first using my rundown of the best formation services for non-US residents.
Who CorpNet Is Actually Right For
CorpNet makes sense in four situations.
You want to talk to a knowledgeable human and you are willing to pay for it. The 4.8 rating across 1,221 reviews is earned, and the praise is consistently about people rather than software.
You are forming something more complicated than a single-member LLC, such as a multi-member operating agreement or a corporation with a real cap table.
You are running multiple entities and want one compliance dashboard tracking deadlines across states.
You are coming through your accountant or bookkeeper. CorpNet’s partner program offers wholesale pricing at 20% to 30% off retail with white-label fulfillment, and the company states it will never contact your clients directly. That channel is the most differentiated part of its business.
Where it does not make sense is the most common case I see. A first-time store owner forming a single-member LLC in one state needs the filing, an EIN, a registered agent and an operating agreement. That is Deluxe or Complete, plus 3%, plus state fees. Northwest does the same job for $164 and Bizee for the cost of your state filing alone.
Before you spend anything, make sure you actually need the entity yet. I walk through that decision in why business formation is non-negotiable for high-ticket stores. The broader financial setup lives in my business formation checklist for high-ticket dropshipping.
The Partner Program Nobody Talks About
If you already work with an accountant or a bookkeeper, this section might save you money without you doing anything differently.
CorpNet runs a reseller and referral program aimed squarely at accountants, CPAs, bookkeepers and business coaches. Resellers get wholesale pricing at 20% to 30% off retail, set their own client fees, and keep their own branding. CorpNet states plainly that it acts as a silent fulfillment partner and will never contact those clients directly. Referral partners take a 20% to 30% commission instead, or can waive it and pass a discount code to the client.
There is no minimum volume, no setup fee and no annual fee, and there is a formation and compliance API for anyone wanting to wire it into their own systems.
Two practical implications. First, if your bookkeeper already resells CorpNet, going through them may cost you less than ordering direct while routing the work through someone who knows your situation. Ask before you buy. Second, if you run any kind of service business alongside your store, this is a legitimate additional revenue line rather than a token affiliate link.
What CorpNet Does Not Solve
Worth being clear about the boundary, because formation companies tend to imply they handle more than they do.
Nothing in CorpNet’s stack is ecommerce-specific. There is no sales tax nexus product, no marketplace registration help, and no guidance on economic nexus thresholds. That matters because multi-state sales tax nexus is the actual compliance problem a growing dropshipping store runs into, usually somewhere around the point it starts doing real volume across state lines. Your LLC filing does not touch it.
CorpNet also does not give you legal advice. It prepares and files documents. If you have a genuine question about liability structure, partnership terms, or whether a particular product category exposes you to regulatory risk, that is a lawyer, and no formation service replaces one.
And forming the entity is not the finish line. Most states require an annual or biennial report, and missing it can push your LLC into bad standing, which is far more painful to unwind than to avoid. CorpNet’s free compliance portal tracks those dates, which is useful, but the responsibility stays with you regardless of who filed the paperwork.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CorpNet BBB accredited?
No. CorpNet holds an A+ BBB rating but is explicitly not a BBB accredited business. Several other reviews state this incorrectly.
What is CorpNet’s cheapest real cost?
Basic at $99 looks cheapest but includes only 60 days of registered agent service. Adding a year at $149 brings it to $248, which is more than Deluxe at $219. Add the 3% convenience fee and state filing fees on top.
How long does CorpNet take?
Standard internal processing is 2 to 4 business days. Express adds $150 and a 24-hour rush adds $250, available in select states only. Your state’s own processing queue applies separately.
Can non-US residents use CorpNet?
Yes, for LLCs and C-Corporations. S-Corporations are not available to non-residents. The EIN is obtained via Form SS-4 by phone, fax or mail rather than the online IRS application.
Does CorpNet file my trademark?
It prepares the application from $299. You execute and file it with the USPTO yourself and pay the federal fees separately.
Where This Sits in the Bigger Picture
Forming the LLC is step one of about fifteen. You still need an EIN, a business bank account, a payment processor that will not freeze you, a seller’s permit where applicable, and supplier applications that will actually get approved.
I walk through the whole sequence in the free high-ticket dropshipping masterclass, which is the fastest way to see how the pieces fit together before you start spending.
If you would rather have it handled, my team sets all of it up as part of the done-for-you store build and launch service.
Bottom Line
CorpNet is a genuinely good company. Seventeen years of operating history, owners who have been in this business since 1997, an A+ BBB rating, and one of the strongest customer satisfaction records in the category. The Complete package at $269 is legitimately good value in isolation, bundling an EIN, certified copies, a custom operating agreement and a full year of registered agent.
It is also the most expensive way to accomplish a simple task, and the Basic tier’s 60-day registered agent window is a trap for exactly the budget-conscious founder it attracts. If you want a human on the phone and you are forming something non-trivial, buy Complete or do not buy at all. If you are a solo founder forming your first single-member LLC and every dollar belongs in inventory or ad spend, Northwest or Bizee get you the same legal outcome for less.
Whichever you pick, get the entity formed before you start applying to suppliers. Most of the distributors worth working with will ask for it, and my guide to finding high-ticket suppliers covers what else they will want to see. If you have not locked in your category yet, start with the high-ticket niches list first.
Ready to Get Your LLC Filed and Move On?
The Complete package bundles your EIN, certified copies, a custom operating agreement and a full year of registered agent service for $269 plus state fees.
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Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
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