These two end up on the same shortlist more than any other pair in this category, and almost every comparison of them opens with the wrong number.
Bizee forms your LLC for $0. Northwest charges $39. That $39 gap is the headline, it is the thing every affiliate table leads with, and it is close to irrelevant to what you will actually pay.
What decides this is the registered agent fee in year two, and one specific detail that neither company states clearly enough on the pages where you make the decision. Here is the comparison done properly, with every figure checked at each company’s own pages rather than borrowed from anybody’s table.
The Published Numbers
| Bizee | Northwest Registered Agent | |
|---|---|---|
| Formation, entry | $0 plus state fee | $39 plus state fee |
| Formation, higher tiers | $199 and $299 plus state fee | None, one flat fee |
| Registered agent, year one | Free with any formation package, stated explicitly | Listed in the package, free year not stated on the pages I checked |
| Registered agent, ongoing | $149 per year standalone | $125 per year, single state |
| Multi-state agent rate | Not published | $100 per state at five or more states |
| Bundled with formation | The filing | Domain, website, phone line, business email, business address, brand protection |
Read the last two rows together, because that is where the actual difference lives. Northwest’s ongoing agent fee is $24 a year cheaper, and its formation fee buys a bundle of things Bizee’s does not include at any tier.
The Detail That Decides It Is Not Clearly Published
Bizee states its position plainly on its own LLC page: with any of its business formation packages, you get one year of registered agent service free. No ambiguity, no asterisk.
Northwest is the one I could not pin down. Its formation package listing includes registered agent service, and its agent page publishes $125 per year, but none of the pages I checked state whether the first year is included at no cost or billed at $125 alongside the $39. Plenty of write-ups assert the first year is free, including one of my own older ones, and it may well be. I am not willing to build your three-year budget on an assertion I could not verify at the source.
So confirm it at checkout before you pay. It is a one-line question and it moves the answer by more than a hundred dollars, which makes it the single highest-value thing you can do in this whole decision.
A free first year, stated without an asterisk
Bizee says a year of registered agent service comes free with any formation package, including the $0 one. Year two is $149.
Three Years, Modelled Both Ways
Since the free-first-year question is unresolved on Northwest’s side, here is the arithmetic under both assumptions. State filing fees are excluded throughout because they are identical whichever service you use and they vary by state.
| Scenario | Year 1 | Years 2 and 3 | Three-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bizee, $0 package, free agent year one | $0 | $149 each | $298 |
| Northwest, if the agent year one is free | $39 | $125 each | $289 |
| Northwest, if the agent is billed in year one | $164 | $125 each | $414 |
If Northwest’s first year is free, the two are $9 apart over three years. That is a rounding error and you should choose on something other than price.
If it is not, Bizee is $116 cheaper over three years. Note which way that gap then moves, because it is the opposite of what you might assume: Northwest is $24 a year cheaper on the recurring fee, so it claws the difference back at $24 a year and draws level somewhere around year eight. If you expect the entity to outlive that, Northwest is the cheaper choice on a long enough horizon even in this scenario.
Either way, notice what the $39 formation fee did to the comparison: almost nothing. It is under a tenth of the three-year cost on either scenario. Anybody ranking these two on the formation fee is ranking them on the least significant number available.
What the $39 Actually Buys
This is where Northwest gets genuinely interesting, and it is the part most comparisons skip entirely because it does not fit in a price column.
Northwest’s LLC page lists a free domain, a free website, a free phone line, a free business email, a free business address and free brand protection alongside the $39 filing. Bizee’s entry package gives you the filing.
Treat those inclusions with appropriate scepticism. A free website from a formation company is not a store you would want to sell from, and a free domain is usually first year only in this industry, so confirm the renewal before you build anything on it. I would not choose a formation service for a bundled website and I would not encourage you to.
The business address is the exception, and it is a big one for anyone reading this site.
The Address Is the Real Prize
A registered agent address exists to accept legal service of process. It is not automatically an address you can publish on a website, put on an invoice, or write on a supplier dealer application. Those are different jobs and most agents do not cover the second one.
Northwest lists a business address as included, and separately lists a business address and mail scanning inside its $125 agent fee. If that address genuinely works for commercial use, it removes a line item that otherwise costs real money. A standalone virtual mailbox runs from around $240 a year at the cheap end, which I broke down in my BusinessAnywhere pricing guide.
Put that in the three-year model and the picture changes shape. If Northwest’s included address covers your commercial use, you are comparing $289 against $298 plus roughly $720 for three years of a separate mailbox. That is not a close call any more.
The qualifier matters though, so I will be explicit about it. Confirm what the included address may be used for, what the mail scanning volume limits are, and whether it can appear publicly on your site and your supplier paperwork. Vendors differ on this and some agent addresses are strictly for service of process. Ask before you assume, because the entire advantage rests on the answer.
For a high-ticket dropshipping store this is not a marginal question. Supplier dealer applications ask for a business address, and a residential one is a common reason applications get declined. I covered that sequence in my guide to getting approved with industrial dropshipping suppliers.
A flat $39, with an address in the box
One formation fee with no tiers, a business address and mail scanning listed inside the $125 agent fee, and $100 per state once you pass five states.
Where Bizee Wins
The free year is unambiguous. Bizee tells you in plain language that any package includes a year of agent service. Northwest does not, on the pages where you decide. Certainty has value, particularly when the alternative is a question you have to remember to ask.
Zero upfront. If cash today is the binding constraint, $0 plus your state fee is genuinely lower than $39 plus your state fee. That matters more to some readers than the three-year total does, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.
A package ladder if you want one. Bizee sells $199 and $299 tiers above the free one. I could not retrieve their full inclusions from the pages I checked, so I am not going to characterise what they contain. If a bundled operating agreement, EIN filing or expedited processing matters to you, price those tiers directly rather than from any comparison table including this one.
Where Northwest Wins
$24 a year cheaper on the recurring fee, forever. Small annually, real over the life of an entity, and the recurring line is the one that compounds.
Multi-state pricing. $100 per state at five or more is published. Bizee does not publish a multi-state rate at all. If you expect to register in several states, that gap is worth modelling before you commit.
One flat fee, no ladder. There is a specific kind of relief in a company that has one price. No tier anxiety, no wondering whether the middle option is the sensible one, no upsell path built into the checkout.
The included address, subject to the confirmation above. Potentially the largest single saving in this comparison, and the one that has nothing to do with either headline price.
The Exit Cost Nobody Models
There is a risk in the bundled-address argument that deserves its own section, because it only becomes visible when you try to leave.
If you take a business address bundled with a registered agent fee, that address is on your website, your invoices, your supplier dealer applications, your payment processor account and your Google Business Profile. It is your address in every system that matters. Stop paying the agent and you do not just lose an agent, you lose the address underneath all of that.
Changing a registered agent is easy. Changing a business address that has propagated across a dozen systems is a genuinely annoying afternoon, and on supplier accounts it can mean re-verification you would rather not trigger. So the bundled address is worth real money and it also raises your switching cost, which is presumably part of why it is bundled.
None of that is a reason to avoid it. It is a reason to decide deliberately rather than drifting into it. If you take the bundled address, you are choosing a slightly stickier relationship in exchange for not paying separately for a mailbox. If you would rather keep the address independent of the agent, buy them separately and accept the extra cost as the price of being able to change either one without touching the other.
The version of this that catches people out is taking a bundled address for the free first year, then discovering in month thirteen that leaving means updating every supplier who has you on file. Decide which you want on day one.
Which One to Pick
Pick Northwest if you need a business address you can publish. Confirm the permitted use first, then treat the bundled address as worth more than the entire formation fee difference. For a store owner filling in supplier paperwork, this is usually the deciding factor.
Pick Bizee if you want certainty about the free year and nothing upfront. The stated free year plus $0 today is a clean, verifiable offer, and there is something to be said for a company that puts the terms where you can read them.
Pick Northwest if you will register in several states. The published $100 per state rate at volume is a real advantage and Bizee offers nothing comparable that I could find.
Pick either if you are forming one LLC in one state and already have an address. At a $9 to $116 spread over three years, this decision does not deserve another hour of your attention. Pick one, form the entity, and go and find a supplier.
Pick neither if the agent fee is what you are optimising. Harbor Compliance publishes $99 for the first year renewing at $149, and prepaying three years at $297 holds the rate at $99. That is cheaper than both of these on the recurring line, and I have priced it in my Harbor Compliance pricing breakdown. It costs me a commission to point that out and it is still the right answer for someone shopping purely on the agent fee.
What Neither One Fixes
Your state’s fees. Identical whichever you choose, mandatory, and larger than the difference between these two services in most states. More importantly, the recurring state obligation, whether that is an annual report fee or a franchise tax, dwarfs both of these over three years. Choose your state on the ongoing cost, not the filing fee.
Your EIN. Both will sell you EIN filing. If you have a Social Security number, you can apply directly through the IRS at no cost. Decline the add-on.
The annual report. Neither entry package includes filing it. Most states require one, missing it eventually costs you good standing, and it is usually a fifteen-minute form you can do yourself.
Deciding whether an LLC is right at all. The Small Business Administration guidance on business structures is a free primer on the choice itself. For how the entity is then treated federally, the IRS guidance on LLCs is the place to start. Both are worth reading before you pay anyone anything.
Common Questions
Is Bizee’s $0 formation really free? The service fee is $0. Your state filing fee is separate and mandatory, as it is with every service in this category including Northwest.
Does Northwest include a free year of registered agent? Its formation package lists registered agent service, and its agent page publishes $125 a year, but I could not find a statement on either page confirming the first year is free. Ask at checkout and get the answer before you pay.
Which is cheaper over three years? Between $9 apart and $116 apart in Bizee’s favour, depending entirely on the answer to the previous question.
Can I use the free formation package and decline everything else? Yes, on both. Both companies make money on add-ons and renewals rather than the filing, and declining the add-ons is allowed and sensible.
Can I switch agents later? Yes. It is a state filing with a modest fee. Neither choice here locks you in, which is worth remembering if a renewal quote disappoints you.
Is the free website worth anything? For a real ecommerce store, no. Build on a platform you control. Treat it as a bonus you will not use rather than a reason to choose.
Related Reading
For the full breakdown of what Northwest charges and what the flat fee includes, see my Northwest Registered Agent pricing guide.
For the wider field around Bizee, my roundup of the best Bizee alternatives covers who each competing service actually suits.
If you are comparing Bizee against a paid formation service rather than a cheap one, CorpNet against Bizee asks whether the $99 filing fee buys anything.
For the agent fee on its own, priced across eight services from their own pages, see my Registered Agents Inc pricing guide, which carries the full verified comparison table.
If cost over three years is your criterion across the whole category, the cheapest LLC formation service that does not cut corners makes this argument at field scale.
For the mechanics, how to form an LLC walks the sequence in order.
Once the entity exists, business formation for high-ticket dropshipping covers what a supplier will ask you to produce.
Ask one question before you pay either of them
What does the registered agent cost in year one, and what does it renew at? That single answer moves this decision by more than a hundred dollars over three years.
Checked at each company’s own pages in September 2026. Bizee’s $0, $199 and $299 formation packages plus state fee are from its homepage, and its statement that any formation package includes one year of registered agent service free is quoted from its LLC page; its standalone agent rate of $149 a year is from its registered agent page. Northwest’s $39 flat formation fee and the listed inclusions of domain, website, phone line, business email, business address and brand protection are from its LLC page; its $125 per year single-state agent rate, its $100 per state rate at five or more states, and its listed inclusion of a business address and mail scanning are from its registered agent page. I could not find a statement on Northwest’s formation or agent pages confirming whether the first year of agent service is included at no cost, which is why the three-year table models both possibilities rather than picking one. Bizee’s higher-tier package inclusions were not retrievable from the pages I checked and are deliberately not characterised here. Harbor Compliance’s $99 first year, $149 renewal and $297 three-year prepay are from its own registered agent page. State filing fees are excluded from every figure and vary by state. Disclosure: the Bizee, Northwest and Harbor Compliance links on this page are affiliate links, so this page earns a commission whichever you choose. Confirm all current pricing directly before you buy.
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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