The year-two renewal is the whole business model. Say it out loud and everything else about this industry makes sense.
- Formation advertised near cost, first-year registered agent discounted, then year two arrives at two or three times the price you expected. - You pay it because switching mid-stream feels like a hassle, and that feeling is the actual product. - Affiliates get paid for signups, not for happy year-two customers, so rankings optimize for the click, not the renewal. - Providers that list renewals next to the formation price deserve your trust everywhere else. - Some registered agent SaaS portals auto-renew silently, so calendar the date the day you sign up.
This is the formation service renewal fees compared view, minus the marketing. The full fee data is at formationcompare.fyi, and my own filing service is $49 plus the state fee, with the post-formation setup, EIN, banking, and registered agent handled for real.