{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "id": "zenbusiness",
 "name": "ZenBusiness",
 "research_status": "researched",
 "vendor_domain": "zenbusiness.com",
 "category": "Operations & Workflow",
 "task": "Tax & compliance",
 "summary": "US business-formation service — LLC, S corp and C corp filings with no service fee beyond the state's own, and the money in the recurring stack around it: registered agent, compliance service, operating agreement and EIN, each priced individually rather than bundled into tiers.",
 "best_for": "first-time founders who want the paperwork handled and are willing to pay a yearly fee to keep it handled — the a-la-carte pricing means you can start at the state fee plus a registered agent and add only what you actually need",
 "skip_if": "you are comfortable filing with your state yourself and acting as your own registered agent. In that case the state fee is the only unavoidable cost, and the $199/year is buying convenience and a business address rather than anything you cannot do. Also skip it if you need legal advice rather than filing, since a formation service is not a law firm",
 "honest_knock": "The $0 is real for the filing service and it is also the whole commercial idea: what you sign up for at zero has an annual carry that is not shown next to it. A registered agent is a legal requirement in every state, and theirs is $199/year — so the realistic first-year cost of 'the $0 LLC' is the state fee plus $199, before compliance filing at another $199/year. Price the second year, not the first. The second thing to hold in view is that the state fee is the largest and most variable number in the whole exercise, and ZenBusiness cannot change it. It is set by your state, ranges widely, and their own page sends you to a lookup rather than quoting it. Anyone comparing formation services on the advertised price alone is comparing the small half of the bill.",
 "pricing": {
  "status": "public",
  "entry_price": "$199",
  "entry_price_terms": "a year and Worry-Free Compliance $199 a year",
  "from_price_usd_month": null,
  "plans": null,
  "plans_source": null,
  "notes": "(re-verified 2026-09-22 on zenbusiness.com/pricing-products/, where /pricing/ now redirects; every one of the sixteen published amounts unchanged since 25 Jul 2026) Formation itself is $0 plus the state's fee — that applies to LLC, S corp and C corp filings alike, and the state fee is separate, varies by state and is not shown until you pick one. Everything else is priced as its own line rather than bundled into plan tiers. The recurring items are registered agent at $199/year, Worry-Free Compliance Filing at $199/year, and Advanced Compliance Protection at $299/year. One-time filings: operating agreement $99, EIN $99, business document templates $99, rush filing $79 and DBA registration $95 plus state fees. Then business licence report $149, amendment $100, certificate of good standing $100, annual report filing $100 per report, and New York publication $200 for the state that requires it. There is a second catalogue alongside the legal one: business website $129/year, eCommerce website $279/year, business email address $25/year, domain $25/year, domain privacy $10/year, logo kit $60, business banking $5/month and Money Pro with online payments $30/month.",
  "verified_at": "2026-09-22",
  "source_url": "https://www.zenbusiness.com/pricing-products/",
  "schema_offer": null,
  "source_quotes": null
 },
 "free_plan": true,
 "free_plan_evidence": "(re-verified 2026-09-22 on zenbusiness.com/pricing-products/, where /pricing/ now redirects; every one of the sixteen published amounts unchanged since 25 Jul 2026) Formation itself is $0 plus the state's fee — that applies to LLC, S corp and C corp filings alike, and the state fee is separate, varies by state and is not shown until you pick one.",
 "cost_traps": [],
 "compare_with": {
  "name": "Northwest Registered Agent",
  "why": "the standing comparison in this category — both sell formation plus a registered agent, and the decision turns on the recurring fee and what each includes at the entry price rather than on the headline. Check both current price lists yourself before choosing."
 },
 "links": {
  "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/zenbusiness.json",
  "review": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/b2b/zenbusiness-review/",
  "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/zenbusiness/",
  "vendor_site": "https://zenbusiness.com"
 },
 "purchase": {
  "seller": "the vendor",
  "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.",
  "handoff_url": "https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=102801&awinaffid=2880219",
  "affiliate": true,
  "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site."
 },
 "provenance": {
  "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages",
  "researched_since": "2026-07",
  "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.",
  "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters."
 },
 "cost": {
  "status": "not_yet",
  "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost",
  "rules": null,
  "growth": null
 },
 "unknowns": [
  "Plan-by-plan prices are not structured in this record yet; pricing.notes has the full text.",
  "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.",
  "Being verified: free trial and refund terms are not yet matched to a verbatim line on the vendor's own pages. Not matched does not mean there is none.",
  "No computable price rules yet: cost at a given team size cannot be calculated for this product.",
  "Not tested hands-on by us: what the product does comes from the vendor's pages and our reading of them."
 ],
 "verification": {
  "price": "read",
  "free_trial": "being_verified",
  "refund": "being_verified"
 },
 "task_evidence": null,
 "open_questions": [
  {
   "question_id": "zenbusiness:cancellation_terms",
   "key": "cancellation_terms",
   "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "zenbusiness:data_export",
   "key": "data_export",
   "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "zenbusiness:data_location",
   "key": "data_location",
   "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "zenbusiness:minimum_seats",
   "key": "minimum_seats",
   "question": "Is there a minimum number of seats or users on any plan?",
   "status": "open"
  }
 ],
 "vendor_answers": [],
 "agent_channels": {
  "vendor_mcp": null,
  "agent_checkout": {
   "status": "not_found",
   "detail": "No explicit support for purchases by AI agents on the vendor's own pages.",
   "checked_at": "2026-10-07",
   "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout"
  }
 }
}