Rules
Part of 6 things to weigh up on DBA registration
What best DBA registration tools involves in practice: the parts worth your time
DBA registration services sell an errand, not knowledge: what is actually being offered, how to spot official looking mail, and the terms that cause regret.
What to take away
- Six services do most of the work in this niche: LegalZoom, Bizee, ZenBusiness, Northwest Registered Agent, Swyft Filings and CorpNet.
- All charge roughly $99 to $125 on top of the government fee. Coverage decides between them, not price.
- Government fees are small and set by the office$25 to $45 in most California counties, and $25 at both the New York Department of State and the Texas Secretary of State.
- Renewal is the recurring cost. Monitoring usually rides on a registered agent plan of roughly $100 to $300 a year, and auto-renew is standard unless you cancel.
- Mail that looks official is common around name and annual filings. Verify the sender before you pay.
Named services and what each one suits
Service fees below are typical published rates as of 2026, billed on top of the government fee. That fee goes to a county clerk or a secretary of state, never to the seller. Confirm each figure on the provider's own page before paying.
If you have not settled whether to file at all, what a filing does covers what the record changes and what it leaves untouched.
Typical service fee
- LegalZoom
- from about $99
- Bizee
- about $99
- ZenBusiness
- about $99
- Northwest Registered Agent
- about $125
- Swyft Filings
- about $99
- CorpNet
- about $99, quoted per jurisdiction
Government fee to add
- LegalZoom
- $25 to $45
- Bizee
- $25 to $45
- ZenBusiness
- $25 to $45
- Northwest Registered Agent
- $25 to $45
- Swyft Filings
- $25 to $45
- CorpNet
- $25 to $45 per county
Best for
- LegalZoom
- One owner, one state, form assembled and filed
- Bizee
- Filing bundled with formation and a registered agent
- ZenBusiness
- One trade name in one state, with phone support
- Northwest Registered Agent
- Businesses already using it as their agent
- Swyft Filings
- Owners comparing published turnaround times
- CorpNet
- Several counties at once
The government column shows typical ranges only. The seller never receives it.
DBA Service Offerings vs. Value
What is offered
- Find right office
- Useful if true
- We file for you
- Short form
- Name search
- Registry search
- Publication handled
- Only if applies
- Renewal monitoring
- Useful
- Bundled package
- Itemize
- Protect your name
- Conflates systems
What it is worth asking
- Find right office
- Name office before paying
- We file for you
- Worth an errand
- Name search
- Not a rights search
- Publication handled
- Ask if it applies
- Renewal monitoring
- Auto-renew? Cost?
- Bundled package
- What if unwanted?
- Protect your name
- Filing does not protect
None of these services sells exclusive rights in a name. Rights in trade come from a separate system with separate criteria, described by the USPTO under trademark basics. No filing service is selling you that, whatever the marketing says.
County filings, provider by provider
LegalZoom, ZenBusiness and Swyft Filings file the state register by default. County clerk filings are a quoted add-on, so ask for that price in writing before checkout.
Bizee advertises DBA filing in all 50 states. That points at state registers. County work is confirmed per jurisdiction when you order.
Northwest Registered Agent files trade name paperwork with its own staff and quotes county offices individually. CorpNet quotes per jurisdiction as standard, which is what a multi-county filer needs.
Which office applies is decided by state law and business type, not by the provider. California, New York and Texas all route some filings to county clerks. The wider pattern sits in reading a filing office's pages.
Example: a California county filing with a $99 service
At the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, a fictitious business name statement costs roughly $25 to $45, depending on the number of registrants.
Add a $99 service fee and the total lands near $125 to $145. Newspaper publication, required once a week for four weeks in California, is billed separately by the paper.
The service fee is the larger half of that bill. Most comparison tables leave it out.
Renewals, auto-renewal and the recurring fee
A California fictitious business name statement runs five years, so the next county filing is years away. When it comes, a service bills the same fee again.
Monitoring is usually bundled into a registered agent plan rather than sold alone. Those plans typically publish at roughly $100 to $300 a year. choosing an agent covers what the appointment involves.
Auto-renew is the default on subscription plans. The cancellation window sits in the terms of service, not in the sales copy.
Spotting a notice that mimics an office
Once a business appears on a public register, mail arrives that resembles official correspondence and asks for payment for something unnecessary or free. Name filings and annual reports both attract it.
Spotting Official-Looking Mail
- Does sender name match your filing office?
- Does letter address match office's own site?
- Does office warn about solicitations?
- If in doubt, call office using its site number
- Does the sender's name match the office you filed with?
- Does the letter's address match the address on the office's own site?
- Does the office publish a warning about solicitations? Many do.
The Federal Trade Commission's small business guidance describes the pattern. Its consumer page on avoiding scams covers the tactics.
Call the office using the number on its own site, never the one printed on the letter.
Before you pay: a short checklist
- Get the fee itemized, separate from any government charge.
- Get the county question answered in writing.
- Ask what renews automatically, and how to cancel.
- Confirm that office correspondence comes to you.
- Ask who pays if the office rejects the filing.
The same list applies to the next filing. Our DBA registration checklist runs from the first line to the sign-off.
