Making the work
Growing an audience
Running the business
doola exists to form a United States company from anywhere, including for a founder with no US address, at $297 a year plus the state's own filing fee. Rocket Lawyer forms a first company free, plus state fees, but its real product is the $149 to $349 a year membership behind it: unlimited legal documents, e-signatures and real time with an attorney. doola bundles the ongoing compliance into its dearer tiers, while Rocket Lawyer sells attorney access that nothing else here offers.
Form the company, then keep its books
Legal documents and a lawyer on a membership
doola | Rocket Lawyer | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $297 | From $149 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing (they differ) | Annual only | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 7 days |
| API | Not stated |
Form the company, then keep its books
doola sets up a US company for somebody who does not have one, including the people doing it from outside the country, and then sells the upkeep that follows. Formation is the cheap part. What costs money is the annual compliance, the bookkeeping and the filings, which is exactly the work that gets forgotten until it is late. Pricing is annual and the state's own filing fee sits on top.
Our note
The state fee is the number this page does not add up for you, and it ranges from under a hundred dollars to several hundred depending on where you file, so the real first-year cost is Starter plus a figure you have to look up. Formation alone is cheap almost anywhere; what you are buying at the dearer tiers is somebody else remembering the annual report.
Only on this side
Legal documents and a lawyer on a membership
Rocket Lawyer is a membership rather than a document shop: the subscription covers unlimited documents, e-signatures and a set amount of time with an actual attorney, which is the part a template site cannot match. For a creator forming a company or reading a sponsorship contract, half an hour of advice is often the whole need. Business formation and registered agent services are priced separately on top.
Pick doola if forming the company is the whole job and a founder has no US address to work from, since that is doola's specialty and Starter costs $297 a year plus the state filing fee. The dearer Tax and Compliance and Business-in-a-Box tiers, at $1,599 and $2,399 a year, then bundle the recurring filings doola expects a founder to otherwise forget.
Pick Rocket Lawyer if the company already exists, or forming one is only part of a wider need for contracts, e-signatures and an actual attorney to ask questions of. The first formation is free plus state fees, and the $149 to $349 a year membership behind it, backed by a 7-day trial, is what a template library or doola's compliance service cannot match: a lawyer included in the price.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.
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| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
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| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
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| Runs on | Web | Web |
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| Covers | Creator Finance, Accounting & Tax, Legal & Contracts | Legal & Contracts, Creator Finance |
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| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
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| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
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| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
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| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
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Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Our note
The membership is worth it in the year you incorporate or sign something serious, and hard to justify in the years you do not. Use the seven days to get one real question answered, which is a fair test of whether the advice is any good.