LegalZoom vs Rocket Lawyer (2023) – A Comprehensive Review

If you’re an entrepreneur who’s running a business, and at one point you’re looking to file an LLC for your business, you’ve probably stumbled across multiple LLC services and are hesitant to pick one to use. For most people, when they think of “online legal services”, they think of Rocket Lawyer or LegalZoom.

In this LegalZoom vs Rocket Lawyer comparison, we’ll go through two of the most established LLC services and give a thorough breakdown in terms of affordability and value of money.

Both of them offer online legal services that are essential for an LLC formation, but exactly which one is better? We’ll be talking about the comparison of Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom right here in this guide.

Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom

LegalZoom

LegalZoom was established on March 12, 2001, by Brian P.Y Liu in the United States. It has been recognised by Business Insider as one of the world’s most valuable startups in 2011 and Fast Company as one of the most innovative companies in 2012.

In September 2012, LegalZoom formed a partnership with one of the UK-based legal services providers, and in 2015, LegalZoom made their first UK acquisition.

The company now focuses on business formation, estate planning, and the protection of intellectual property.

They also provide online legal service by helping customers create legal documents without the need of hiring a lawyer, as well as offering some of the best registered agent services and attorney referrals.

Not only that, but they also offer more complex but economic online legal services when it comes to business formation, which can be an advantage for small business owners who are looking at a tight budget.

Rocket Lawyer

Rocket Lawyer was founded by Charley Moore in 2008 in California. Similar to LegalZoom, they provide individuals and companies with online legal services such as business incorporation services, estate plans, and legal document reviews.

Since its establishment, Rocket Lawyer provides entrepreneurs with a basic plan and a pro plan. Under the basic plan, the company provided interactive legal templates and step-by-step instructions to help businesses.

Under the pro plan, it gave customers access to consultations, document review, and legal representation from local attorneys.

After the 2008 recession, it switched to a monthly subscription-based model.

LegalZoom vs Rocket Lawyer

Price

LegalZoom has three types of pricing systems in their online legal service: Economy, Standard and Express Gold. The Economy package starts at $79 plus state filing fees and has a turnaround time of 30 days.

The specific features that they offer within this package are business filing and name check, LLC guide for next steps, articles of organization, and lifetime customer support.

The Standard package costs $329 plus state filing fees and has a turnaround time of 15 days. It has very specific online legal service provided in the Economy package, plus a Founder’s Kit, which marks your business milestone to store your important documents, printed on archival paper, and delivered in a package, and a business newsletter.

The Express Gold package is $349 plus state filing fees and has a turnaround time of 10 days. This package includes the fastest delivery time of 7 to 10 days, and it includes express shipping and rush processing with the state secretary.

For Rocket Lawyer, without a membership, Rocket Lawyer’s registered agent services are available at $149.99 per year while the LLC formation service costs $99.99 in value.

However, Rocket Lawyer also has a premium plan that costs $39.99 per month and offers unlimited legal documents with a 25% discount on registered agent services.

You can also get free 30-minute attorney consultations and free incorporation services if you’re a new member.

Any subsequent LLC formation services will have a 25% discount excluding state fees. If you do need to hire an attorney, you get a 40% discount from Rocket Lawyer. You can also get a 7-day free trial of the Premium Plan before deciding to upgrade.

Both companies are very different in terms of their pricing model. While Rocket Lawyer’s main offer is a monthly subscription, you can get a fixed fee with LegalZoom for various legal services excluding state fees.

Both are equally affordable, but Rocket Lawyer has a competitive edge in pricing for business formation legal service. But if you’re just looking for access to legal forms, LegalZoom is the best choice.

Rocket Lawyer is also great at helping customers start their LLCs while saving money on legal fees with their business bundle that includes free incorporation registered agent costs, free trademarking costs, free legal service, and business license discounts.

Customer Support

Based on our research, some customer reviews stated that LegalZoom representatives did not provide answers to their questions nor did their customer support team help in a productive way, especially through email.

In contrast to that, some sources claim that LegalZoom demonstrates a clear advantage when it comes to customer support, citing quicker response times and more personable follow-ups.

They have longer hours when it comes to customer support, which should result in greater coverage, in theory.

Rocket Lawyer’s support is based in the U.S., which usually means a higher quality of customer care. It also has an on-call legal service that allows customers to talk to an attorney with ease.

That’s why it has been proven to be exceptional in hundreds of reviews due to their online and calling service plan. They have representatives present in case they need to answer customer questions.

On the other hand, LegalZoom has longer working customer service hours than its competition and quicker response time to any question in the webchat even though its team only works on weekdays.

On LegalZoom, the entire ordering process should take no longer than 15-20 minutes. If for any reason you are unable to complete an order in one sitting, they will email a link to your saved answers, giving you the option of completing your order at a later time.

We think that both LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer offer informative support centres and provide decent customer services to their users.

Ease of use

Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom are by far the easiest online legal services to use, as their platform can’t get easier to use. Deciding which is better is almost a toss-up. LegalZoom may have the advantage over Rocket Lawyer for its more modern design.

Rocket Lawyer provides unrestricted access to the legal sample library. Through this resource that most other programmes charge for, you can get records. During the free trial, you should receive both an operating agreement and a banking resolution.

Compared to the one-time service fee of LegalZoom, however, Rocket Lawyer is more costly overtime for users who just want to form an LLC.

The website of the Rocket Lawyer asks the user to select a package that includes a free trial and a paid plan, after which the client can browse at legal documentation and services and choose what matches their needs.

Although Rocket Lawyer also updates the form screenshot in real-time, you typically need to scroll down to see it before proceeding with the process.

LegalZoom’s business formation services website walks the user through various questions in order to help them understand the legal process better.

The programme you are using provides you with a form to collect information about your needs before giving you a list of suitable resources. You will be given a screenshot of the legal form on the right side of the page. This will be updated in real-time as you sign up for your details.

When beginning the LLC training phase, it does not ask for an email address. The company also explains every step of the process to reduce your queries.

This is useful if you want to make sure you have all the right details you need to keep up with the process you’re wary of any upselling. According to many reviews, the process of filling in the form is also much quicker and more effective.

Overall, the user interface is user-friendly and useful for both Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom.

Customer Review

Here are the customer ratings for LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer.

LegalZoom Customer Ratings:

  • Birdeye: 3.9 out of 5.0
  • ConsumerAffairs: 3.6 out of 5.0
  • Sitejabber: 4.6 out of 5.0

Rocket Lawyer Customer Ratings:

  • Birdeye: 2.9 out of 5.0
  • ConsumerAffairs: 3.9 out of 5.0
  • Sitejabber: 4.4 out of 5.0

Which is Better? LegalZoom or Rocket Lawyer?

Rocket Lawyer is better for small businesses

Rocket Lawyer is a specialised legal firm that provides all the basics, from legal counsel to legal papers and company registration. It has a monthly subscription model, which ensures you to gain access to company lawyers and unlimited legal documentation for a low monthly fee.

For small businesses that need legal paperwork on a regular basis, this model might be perfect. A monthly subscription can not make fiscal sense for companies with a simple service, however.

Rocket Lawyer also provides companies, company development, real estate, and family matters with legal documentation and services. Some of the business services that Rocket Lawyer provides include:

  • Business Registration: Your limited liability company (LLC), S corporation, or C corporation will be registered by Rocket Lawyer.
  • Intellectual Property: Rocket Lawyer can assist with trademark submissions and copyright submissions.
  • Legal Documents: Their software lets you build and customise your business and personal legal documents with an intuitive platform.
  • Legal Advice: If you have any legal questions, you can ask an attorney a business question or discuss legal issues over a 30-minute flat fee consultation.

The pricing of Rocket Lawyer is simple: either you are a member or not. If you are a member, you get the most features for $39.99 per month.

If you are not a member, you have to pay the full price each time you need a legal document.

We have listed down their prices below for you to find out more on Rocket Lawyer.

Rocket Lawyer pricing:

For $39.99 per month, you get

  • Free Business Registration
  • Unlimited Legal Documents
  • Unlimited Legal Questions
  • Free 30-minute Attorney consultation
  • 40% discount on ongoing Attorney
  • Registered agent: $122.50 per year

For Non-members:

  • Business Registration is $99 per LLC
  • Legal Questions are $49.99 each
  • Legal Documents are $39.99 each
  • Registered Agent Service is $149.99 per year
  • 30-minute Attorney Consultations are $59.99

If your business requires continuous legal services, such as legal advice or legal documents, Rocket Lawyer is the best and most affordable option.

The Rocket Lawyer platform is very intuitive, so don’t expect to have any major complications when creating legal documents. This is reflected in Rocket Lawyer 4.9 out of 5-star ratings for Fit Small Business.

LegalZoom is better for a diverse selection of legal services

Like Rocket Lawyer, LegalZoom is another online legal provider intended to be a one-stop-shop for company legal needs. Small businesses pay a low fixed rate for a number of types of legal work.

Founded in 2001, LegalZoom has helped more than 4 million clients with business registration, legal documents and legal advice.

LegalZoom has the best user experience out of the competition, by far.

Some of the features of LegalZoom include:

  • Business registration: Register your LLC, C-corp, or elect your business as S-corp for tax purposes
  • Intellectual property: LegalZoom provides several IP services including copyright, trademark, and patent submissions
  • Legal documents: The software to create and customize your legal docs is fast and easy to use
  • Legal advice: For a monthly fee, they will connect you with vetted small business attorneys

LegalZoom Pricing:

  • Business registration: $79 to $349 depending on the state and package
  • Legal documents: $59 per document or $7.95 per month for unlimited legal documents
  • Legal document review: $39 per document review
  • Attorney consultations: $375 per year for unlimited 30-minute sessions
  • Registered agent: $299 per year (not included in LLC formation package)
  • Intellectual property: $179 to $2,400 per application

LegalZoom has a wonderful user experience and an intuitive platform. Business registration and LLC training is a breeze, all you have to do is answer a set of simple questions.

It also helps if you learn about legal services with well-written educational resources.

For example, they explain confusing words and legal concepts throughout the business integration process.

We’ve done a comprehensive review on their services for you to learn more about LegalZoom. You should definitely check it out.

Which is the LLC Formation Service for you?

Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom are two of LLC’s best online legal formation services and have in common most of the services they offer, such as a registered agent.

Like other top licenced agents, both Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom provide services to help you set up LLC companies in every state.

Which one, among Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom, is better for you then? The answer, as usual, is not as simple as to pick one. Below, we look at the different scenarios for which each company excels.

For the best interests of their customers, LegalZoom has a top-notch framework in which the records of the company owner and the legal cases are double-checked before submission to keep the flaws out of the way.

They have top document specialists who read through the whole paperwork, which, as many have suggested, has proved to make their customers more relaxed.

LegalZoom also provides extra features that can be accessed by company clients. This provides free monthly patent filings, plus links to their library of more than 160 legal records.

In addition, the programme will have access to a range of top tax experts and provide annual business reviews to attorneys, who in particular are perceived to be the company’s top-selling point.

Rocket Lawyer has also introduced a system of legal health scores for businesses. This information helps companies to examine where they stand in terms of legal services, regardless of the size of their business.

Rocket Lawyer will provide a basic guide as soon as it informs the client of their legal health score. This can help customers plan and resolve any new issues identified by the Rocket Lawyer Service.

Rocket Lawyer is a perfect choice if you’re looking for continuing legal assistance beyond LLC training. It is also perfect for small company owners who do not have a lot of background contracts.

Consider LegalZoom if you choose a more experienced business with better name awareness and are able to pay higher rates.

LegalZoom is a top pick for business owners who can’t waste valuable time answering their questions, as LegalZoom has extended service hours, while Rocket Lawyer is best for small business owners who enjoy great customer service and unrivalled customer numbers.

If you want efficiency in the light of LegalZoom’s new experience, Rocket Lawyer is for you.

If you wish to know more on how LegalZoom compares with their other competitors, you won’t want to miss out on finding out the key differences between BizFillings vs LegalZoom.

Conclusion

It’s really difficult to draw a line between the two in this Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom comparison. The best option still depends on your needs.

If the company is an independent small business that only wants simple online legal resources, i.e. legal forms, business training services, state filings and licenced agents, then LegalZoom could be a safer option to set up an LLC company.

If you need continuing legal support and want to be in touch with a specialist directly when you need it you should start with Rocket Lawyer. It’s unrestricted consulting is one of the key points of value over the market.

Their packages also provide additional legal advice free of charge or at a discount that could be of assistance to any small company that wants to grow or is experiencing transition.

Although both LLC services, Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom, provide strong overall legal services in this comparison and have established thousands of companies, we agree that Rocket Lawyer is a slightly better choice.

However, in the broader context, both are comparable in their own ways.

We hope that our Rocket Lawyer vs LegalZoom comparison has helped you decide on which one provides better legal services, and we strongly recommend that you try out both of these top LLC providers and see which is the best choice for you.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which business formation service offers ongoing legal services?

Thankfully, Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom offer ongoing legal services for past business formation. Regardless, it is highly recommended to check out Rocket’s Lawyer’s legal services for more comprehensive features and attractive deals.

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