Method
Official pages, one retrieval date, three-year arithmetic
Every dollar on this site is from a vendor, secretary of state, or statute page. Third-party reviews were ignored. The live retrieval is 30 August 2026.
Scope
- US LLCs. Not corporations, not nonprofits, not non-US entities.
- Nine state notes with a mailbox sentence, a published change fee, New York's statutory-agent rule, Delaware's virtual-office ban, Illinois' continuous street-address office and anniversary-month annual report, Georgia's April 1 annual-registration clock and amended-AR change path, or North Carolina's physical-office agent, $5 BE-06 change, and $200 April 15 annual report: Texas, Florida, California, Wyoming, New York, Delaware, Illinois, Georgia, and North Carolina. Not fifty.
- Three affiliated vendors (Northwest, ZenBusiness, Bizee) plus LegalZoom as a foil, plus two mailbox vendors.
- Out of scope: legal advice, BOI, coupons, auth, payments.
How 3-year totals are built
| Rule | Application |
|---|---|
| One LLC, one state | Northwest’s $100/year multi-state rate (five or more) is disclosed and not used in the sketch. |
| No state fees in the total | Formation filing fees, franchise taxes, and annual reports are omitted from the 3-year vendor columns. Change fees are in a separate table. |
| Promo vs renewal | Year 1 is flagged when it is an intro ($99 Zen standalone) or a free agent year (Northwest formation, Bizee with formation). Years 2 and 3 use the published renewal. |
| Do not hero $0 | Bizee Basic is a real $0 + state SKU. It is listed last on the formation + RA table and is not the lead comparison. |
| Conflicting dollars | Bizee annual-report service showed $99 and $129. Omitted. Zen mailbox: no published dollar. Omitted. |
| No invented statutes | California does not get a business-hours sentence copied from Texas. Wyoming’s mailbox list is Wyoming’s. |
Primary sources
The briefing kept in this repository (BRIEFING-2026-08-30.md) is the retrieval log. Page-level source lists repeat the official URLs. Start here:
Sources
Official vendor, secretary of state, or statute pages. Third-party “best of” lists were not used. Retrieval dates are on each row.
- Northwest Registered Agent — registered agent ($125/year; $100/year per state at 5+) Retrieved 2026-10-12.
- Northwest — LLC formation Retrieved 2026-10-02.
- ZenBusiness — formation plan pricing (Starter $0; Pro $199/yr; Premium $299/yr; RA add-on $199/yr on all plans) Retrieved 2026-10-02.
- ZenBusiness — registered agent ($99 first year; renews $199/year; FAQ: separate registered agent in each state where the business is registered or qualified) Retrieved 2026-10-12.
- Bizee — registered agent (standalone $149/year; free year 1 with formation packages) Retrieved 2026-10-12.
- Bizee — virtual address Retrieved 2026-08-30.
- Texas SOS — registered agents landing (page moved; see BOC §5.201) Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- Florida Sunbiz — LLC fees (annual report $138.75; after May 1 $538.75; change $25; new Florida/foreign LLC $100 filing + $25 registered agent = $125) Retrieved 2026-10-06.
- Wyoming SOS FAQ — can I be my own registered agent (yes: 18+, reside in WY, physical WY address); registered office may not be a PO box, drop box, virtual address, mail forwarding, UPS, or FedEx (change $5) Retrieved 2026-10-12.
- California Corp. Code §17701.13 — LLC must maintain an office and an agent for service of process in this state; agent is an individual resident of California or a §1505 corporation Retrieved 2026-10-12.
- Traveling Mailbox help center (08.07.2026): virtual mailbox cannot serve as RA address Retrieved 2026-08-07.
- Anytime Mailbox — PO boxes and most virtual addresses do not qualify Retrieved 2026-08-30.
Questions about independence: disclosure. Questions about the desk: about.