Docket 01 · Formation
The company, formed properly — with your eyes on the filing before the state sees it.
A formation is the one part of this business you cannot redo cheaply. Names, entity type, and the agent appointment made in week one follow the company for years. Sethhost prepares the filing, shows it to you complete with its full cost, and files only on your confirmation.
$499 inside Launch, one-time — take the intake quiz or go to checkout.
What is formed
Limited liability companies and corporations, in any of the fifty states, Washington DC, or Puerto Rico. You choose the state and the entity type — we publish each state’s facts on the coverage board, and we never recommend one over another, because that recommendation is legal advice and we are not a law firm.
How the filing runs
- Intake. The quiz records your company name, state, entity type, and owners. Where a name is taken, you hear it from us with alternatives you choose between, not a silent substitution.
- Preparation. The articles and the internal documents — operating agreement for an LLC, bylaws for a corporation — are drafted from your facts.
- Confirmation. You review the exact filing and its itemized cost: our price, the state fee, and the filing processing fee where it applies. Nothing is submitted before you approve it.
- Filing and appointment. The filing goes to the state and CorpNet, Incorporated is appointed registered agent of record, disclosed to you before you ever paid.
Where formation gets more expensive, stated now
Three states add a publication step to formation, and we pre-quote it rather than surprise you: Arizona $299, Pennsylvania corporations $399, and New York LLCs $425 — pass-through charges collected before filing, with the confirmed figure governing your order. The mechanics behind two of those figures: New York publication cost is set by the county of the LLC’s office, and the $425 holds because publication runs in a low-cost county through the registered office siting; the step is completed by filing a Certificate of Publication with the Department of State, and skipping it suspends the LLC’s authority to carry on business in New York. Arizona’s $299 applies only where newspaper publication is required — an LLC whose known place of business is in Maricopa or Pinal county is published by the Corporation Commission itself and does not owe it. If your filing is time-critical, the fulfillment provider’s rush handling can be added where offered: Express +$149 or 24-hour +$299. Rush buys expedited handling only; no filing completion date is promised, because the state’s stamp is the state’s.
The honest edges
Formation makes a company exist. It does not make it compliant, bankable, or tax-ready: the EIN (Docket 03), the compliance calendar (Docket 04), and for foreign-owned single-member LLCs the Form 5472 obligation all follow, and all are handled or tracked inside the same engagement. A bank account is the bank’s decision — we prepare the document pack banks ask for, and we never promise an approval.
Filing processing fee: 3% of the total order amount, charged by our fulfillment provider, CorpNet, where it applies to your order, including on pass-through charges within the order. It is shown as its own itemized line at checkout and is not Sethhost revenue.
Questions on this filing
How long does formation take?
It depends on the state’s own processing queue, which we do not control and will not guess at. Your portal shows the filing’s status as the state records it, and the EIN — not the formation — is usually the long pole: 15–25 business days without an SSN.
Can I form in a state I do not live in?
Yes — that is the normal case for our clients. You may also later need to foreign-qualify in a state where the company physically operates; that is a separate filing, priced at $449.
LLC or corporation?
A real question with tax and fundraising consequences, which is why we do not answer it. Our guides lay out the structural differences; the decision belongs to you or your attorney.