The LLC Standard

Methodology

How we research and review

Where our numbers come from, how we rank providers, how often we check, and what we will not do.

1. Every number has a source and a date

State fees, IRS procedures and provider prices are held in a single dataset that every page reads from. That is why a price is the same in a review, a comparison table and the cost calculator — and why one correction updates all of them.

  • State fees and deadlines come from the state’s filing office (for example the Wyoming Secretary of State or the Delaware Division of Corporations).
  • IRS procedures — EIN applications, Form 5472 — come from the current IRS form instructions.
  • Provider prices come from the provider’s own published pricing page. Where a provider does not publish a figure, we say so and show the range reported by independent sources.
  • Regulatory changes (such as the FinCEN BOI rule) are checked against the agency and at least one law-firm analysis.

Each fact carries the date it was last checked. The most recent full verification pass was completed on October 28, 2026.

2. What we evaluate in a formation service

We judge providers on the things that matter to an owner who lives outside the US:

  1. EIN without an SSN — whether it is included, charged extra or left to you.
  2. A usable US address — for banks and platforms, not only the registered agent address.
  3. Banking support for non-resident owners.
  4. Form 5472 and tax filing — whether the provider can file the annual return a foreign-owned LLC must submit, and its price.
  5. Three-year cost — formation, state fees, registered agent and subscriptions, modelled with the same assumptions for everyone.
  6. Transparency — published renewal prices, clear cancellation, and how hard checkout pushes add-ons.
  7. Customer outcomes — recurring patterns in public reviews (Trustpilot, community forums), not individual anecdotes.

Our reviews state plainly what they are based on. Where we have first-hand experience with a provider’s process, we say so and add it to the review as dated field notes; we never imply testing we have not done.

3. How rankings are decided

Rankings are assigned "best for" a type of founder, because there is no single best provider for everyone. They are decided on the criteria above before commercial relationships are considered. A provider cannot pay to be included, ranked or reviewed, and we do not show providers our reviews before publication.

4. How often we update

  • Immediately, when a state, the IRS, FinCEN or a provider announces a change we know about.
  • On a regular cycle otherwise, with the "Updated" date on each page changed only when its content changes.
  • On reader reports: email editors@llcstandard.com with a source and we will check it.

5. Limits

We publish general information. US tax treatment depends on facts about your business, and your home country may tax a US LLC in ways we cannot cover for every jurisdiction. Nothing here is legal or tax advice.

Last updated .