MyCorporation alternatives for non-resident founders (2026)

Who is MyCorporation?

MyCorporation is a US formation service founded in 1999. Owned by Intuit until 2019; now independent. Positions on completeness of services.

Side-by-side: Delewarellc vs MyCorporation

Where MyCorporation wins

• Long operating history (since 1999).
• Broad service portfolio (trademark, business plans, legal docs).

US-resident founders needing the broad service portfolio.

Where Delewarellc wins

• $297 one-time pricing (vs $99/year RA recurring).
• Multilingual support in 5 languages (Bangla, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, English).
• 4-5 bank applications per customer (vs single-bank strategies).
• Founder-led WhatsApp support (vs ticket queues).
• Form 5472 awareness brief at formation.
• Free annual compliance reminders for Year 2+.

Non-residents needing bundled formation, EIN, and banking.

MyCorporation limitations to know about

• No bundled bank applications for non-residents.
• No Form 5472 awareness.
• English-only.

5-year cost comparison

MyCorporation is a competent US-focused option. Non-residents pick Delewarellc for the bundled non-resident workflow.

What does MyCorporation actually include in its formation package?

MyCorporation has been forming US business entities since 1999, and for a stretch it operated under Intuit before becoming independent again in 2019. That long run shows in the breadth of its catalog. A founder who lands on MyCorporation is buying into a service that covers far more than a single LLC filing: the company sells trademark registration, business plan templates, DBA filings, corporate kits, and a library of legal documents alongside the core formation product. For a US-based small business owner who wants one vendor to handle several legal chores, that scope has real appeal, and the company has the operating history to back it up.

The core LLC package itself is straightforward. You provide your entity name, member details, and chosen state, and MyCorporation prepares and files the articles or, in Delaware, the Certificate of Formation with the state. Delaware charges $110 for that Certificate, which sits on top of whatever MyCorporation bills for its service. Registered agent service is sold as a recurring line item rather than folded into a single price. What you generally will not find inside the standard package is a non-resident workflow: there is no bundled application to a US business bank, no Individual Taxpayer Identification preparation, and no built-in handling of the federal information returns that a foreign-owned LLC has to file every year. Those gaps are not a knock on the product so much as a reflection of who it was built for.

How does MyCorporation price its formation, and is it one-time or recurring?

MyCorporation uses a base-plus-recurring model. The headline formation fee covers the one-time work of preparing and submitting your filing, and then the registered agent service renews on an annual basis for as long as the entity exists. Based on the figures in our comparison record, the first-year outlay lands around a $99 base service fee plus roughly $99 for registered agent coverage, before the $110 Delaware state fee is added. That structure is common across the US formation industry and is not unusual, but it is worth understanding clearly before you sign up, because the recurring piece is the part that compounds.

The distinction between one-time and recurring pricing matters more than most first-time founders expect. A one-time fee is paid once and done. A recurring registered agent fee comes back every single year, and it does so regardless of whether your business made money. Delewarellc takes the opposite approach with a $297 one-time price for its formation workflow, which means the headline number is higher than MyCorporation's base fee but does not return as an annual line item in the same way. Neither model is automatically correct. The honest way to compare them is to pick a time horizon, add up everything you would pay under each over that horizon, and only then decide which fits your situation and your tolerance for renewal billing.

Where does the total cost of MyCorporation actually land over several years?

Year one is the least useful number to fixate on, because every formation service front-loads its marketing around it. The figure that decides real cost is the multi-year total, and that is where the recurring registered agent fee does its quiet work. With MyCorporation at roughly $99 per year for registered agent service, a founder who keeps the entity open is looking at a steadily climbing line item that has nothing to do with how the business is performing. Layer in Delaware's own obligations and the picture sharpens further.

Here is a rough multi-year sketch for a Delaware LLC formed through MyCorporation, separating the vendor fees from the unavoidable state costs:

• One-time state filing: $110 Certificate of Formation, paid once to Delaware.
• One-time service fee: roughly $99 to MyCorporation for preparing the filing.
• Recurring vendor fee: about $99 each year for registered agent service.
• Recurring state tax: $300 flat Delaware franchise tax due every June 1, owed by the LLC regardless of revenue.

Across three years that recurring stack is the part that grows, and the registered agent line is the piece a competing one-time provider can eliminate. If you intend to keep a Delaware LLC open for the long haul, run the arithmetic over five years rather than one. A base fee that looks small in isolation can quietly become the larger commitment once the annual renewals are counted, and an upfront one-time price can end up cheaper over time even when its sticker is higher on day one.

What is genuinely good about MyCorporation?

It would be dishonest to wave MyCorporation away, and we will not. The company has a real track record stretching back to 1999, which is a long time to stay in a competitive business. That longevity buys process maturity: the filing mechanics are well-worn, the support staff have seen most ordinary situations before, and the brand carries enough recognition that a US founder is unlikely to feel like they are handing money to a stranger. For a domestic small business owner, that confidence has value of its own.

The breadth of the catalog is the other genuine strength. A US-resident entrepreneur who needs to form an entity, register a trademark, file a DBA, and pick up a few standard legal documents can do all of it through one account rather than stitching together four vendors. The specific things MyCorporation does well include:

• A wide service portfolio covering trademark, business plans, and legal documents under one roof.
• Long operating history that signals process stability for routine domestic filings.
• Support for multiple entity types, including LLCs and C-Corporations, for founders still deciding on structure.
• Familiarity with US-resident requirements, which is exactly the audience the product was designed around.

Where Delewarellc competes is a narrower lane, and we are open about being a competitor in the same formation and registered-agent space. We do not claim to beat MyCorporation on portfolio breadth, because we do not try to. The point of an honest comparison is to show where each tool is the sensible pick, not to pretend one product wins on every axis.

Where is a non-resident founder better served somewhere other than MyCorporation?

The friction shows up the moment a founder lives outside the United States. MyCorporation's workflow was built for people who already have a US address, a Social Security Number, and an existing relationship with the US banking and tax system. A founder in Lagos, Karachi, Manila, or Berlin does not start with any of those things, and the standard package does not close that gap. There is no bundled US bank application, so after formation you are left to approach banks on your own and explain a foreign-owned single-member LLC to an institution that may not understand it.

The tax side is where the cost of that gap turns from inconvenient to expensive. A foreign-owned single-member US LLC must file Form 5472 together with a pro forma Form 1120 each year, and a missed or late filing carries a penalty that starts at $25,000. Our comparison record notes that MyCorporation does not surface this obligation in its workflow, which means a non-resident relying on it for guidance could finish formation without ever learning that the most consequential annual filing even exists. Add the English-only support, and a founder who is more comfortable working through the process in another language is on their own. None of this makes MyCorporation a bad product. It makes it a product aimed at a different person.

How do EIN, banking, and Form 5472 support differ between the two?

These three items are where the comparison stops being about price and starts being about whether the founder can actually operate. The EIN is the federal employer identification number that a US LLC needs before it can open a bank account or file taxes. Applicants without a Social Security Number cannot use the instant online IRS portal and instead submit Form SS-4 by fax or mail, a route that typically takes around 8 to 10 business days. The IRS issues the EIN itself at no charge. What a non-resident is really paying any service for is correct preparation of that SS-4 and the patience to shepherd it through, and MyCorporation's standard package does not center this for the foreign founder.

Banking and the federal information return follow the same pattern. The practical comparison looks like this:

• EIN: free from the IRS via SS-4, roughly 8 to 10 business days for non-SSN applicants. Delewarellc builds this into its flow, while MyCorporation treats it as outside its non-resident focus.
• Banking: no US bank integration on either side as a primary partner, but Delewarellc orients founders toward providers that work with non-residents, such as Mercury, Wise, Relay, Lili, and Payoneer.
• Form 5472 plus pro forma 1120: mandatory yearly for foreign-owned single-member LLCs, with a penalty that begins at $25,000. Delewarellc surfaces this obligation, whereas our record indicates MyCorporation does not.

On beneficial ownership reporting, there is good news that applies regardless of which service you choose: under the FinCEN Interim Final Rule of March 26, 2025, US-formed LLCs are exempt from the Corporate Transparency Act's BOI reporting requirement. That removes one filing that earlier guidance had founders worried about.

Who does MyCorporation actually fit?

MyCorporation fits a US-resident founder who values a single vendor for a spread of legal tasks and who is comfortable with an annual registered agent renewal. If you live in the United States, have a Social Security Number, already understand how to open a business bank account, and you want trademark filing or business-plan tools sitting next to your entity formation, MyCorporation is a reasonable and well-established choice. Its history since 1999 and its broad catalog are real assets for that person, and the recurring fee is a normal cost of keeping the agent service in place.

It fits less well when the founder's starting point is outside the US tax and banking system. A non-resident who needs an EIN prepared correctly, a path to a usable business account, and a clear warning about the Form 5472 obligation is not the audience MyCorporation built its standard product for. That founder will spend the year-one savings, and more, chasing pieces the package leaves out. The right question is not which company is better in the abstract but which one is shaped around your actual situation. For a domestic founder buying a bundle of legal services, MyCorporation answers that well. For a founder abroad forming their first US company, the answer points elsewhere.

How should a non-resident weigh a one-time price against a recurring one?

The cleanest way to decide is to ignore the headline and model the full horizon. Write down how many years you realistically expect to keep the Delaware LLC open. Then, for each service, list every charge that will hit you over those years: the upfront fee, the recurring registered agent fee, and the state obligations that exist no matter which vendor you pick. Delaware's $110 Certificate of Formation is a one-time cost, while its $300 flat franchise tax recurs every June 1, so those baseline numbers belong in both columns and cancel out when you compare vendors.

Once the state items are set aside, the comparison narrows to the vendor charges, and that is where the one-time versus recurring question is decided. MyCorporation's roughly $99 annual registered agent fee is the line that keeps returning. Delewarellc's $297 one-time price is higher on day one but is structured so the formation work is not rebilled annually. Over a short hold the lower base fee can win, while over a longer hold the recurring fee can quietly overtake a higher upfront price. We are a competitor in this category, so take that framing with appropriate skepticism and run your own numbers. The point is simply that an honest cost comparison is impossible without choosing a time horizon first.

What ongoing Delaware obligations apply no matter which service you choose?

It is easy to treat the formation vendor as the whole cost of a Delaware LLC, but the state has its own recurring claims that neither MyCorporation nor Delewarellc can remove. Understanding these keeps the comparison honest, because they apply identically regardless of who files your paperwork. The formation itself is a one-time $110 Certificate of Formation. After that, the state expects an annual flat franchise tax of $300, due every June 1, and a registered agent with a physical Delaware address must be maintained for as long as the entity exists.

For a foreign-owned single-member LLC, the federal layer sits on top of the state layer. The annual Form 5472 with its pro forma Form 1120 is the filing most likely to catch a non-resident off guard, and the $25,000 starting penalty for missing it is why awareness of the requirement is worth more than any discount on the formation fee. A useful way to think about it:

• One-time: $110 Delaware Certificate of Formation.
• Annual to the state: $300 flat franchise tax, due June 1.
• Annual to the vendor: registered agent service, recurring under whichever provider you select.
• Annual to the IRS: Form 5472 plus pro forma 1120 for foreign-owned single-member LLCs.

Whichever service you choose, budgeting for these recurring items from the start prevents the unpleasant surprise of a June franchise tax or a year-end federal filing arriving when you thought the costs were behind you.

How does language and non-resident support change the experience?

Support language is an underrated part of the decision when the founder is not a native English speaker working inside the US system. Our comparison record lists MyCorporation as English-only, which is entirely reasonable for a service built around a domestic audience. For that audience it is a non-issue. For a founder in a country where English is a second or third language, every step that involves interpreting a tax obligation, a banking requirement, or a filing instruction becomes harder, and the room for an expensive misunderstanding grows.

This is less about translation as a convenience and more about whether the founder fully grasps what they are agreeing to. A non-resident who does not realize that Form 5472 is mandatory, or that the EIN route without a Social Security Number runs through a mailed SS-4 rather than the instant portal, can make costly mistakes simply because the guidance was not framed for their situation. A workflow designed around the non-resident case tends to surface these things proactively, in plainer terms, and in more than one language. That is the lane Delewarellc aims at, and it is a different value than the broad domestic legal-services portfolio MyCorporation offers. Both are legitimate, and they are just built for different founders, and the honest recommendation depends entirely on which founder is reading.