What a letter means
Letters are category judgments from (1) dated official price pages, (2) Secretary of State rules and the statute, and (3) the vendor’s published description of how it handles service of process. They are not averages of Trustpilot stars and they are not lab measurements. We would rather publish a conservative C with a citation than a precise 8.4 we cannot defend. We do not publish aggregate ratings.
| Band | Year-1 / year-2 price | SOS street and presence | Process and privacy |
|---|---|---|---|
| A–B | Official sticker is the same in year 2, or the teaser is labeled as a formation bundle. | Vendor says its street — not the owner’s — hits the SOS; claims an in-state office and hours; § 1505 consent is the path in California. | Published SOP scan/forward (portal, courier, same-day notice). Home off the agent line if you actually designate the corporation. |
| C | Year 1 is a teaser; year 2 is a higher published number, or the vendor reserves the right to change renewal. | National commercial agent, but we have not walked the California street this week. | Published SOP path exists; extras (junk-mail shred, “business address”) are out of scope. |
| D–F | We cannot cite a current official price, or year 2 is undisclosed. | P.O. Box, virtual office, or no in-state presence we can point to. Wrong product. | Mailbox / CMRA / marketing-mail product sold as if it were service of process. |
Year-1 / year-2 price
We retrieve the vendor’s official registered-agent page and quote the sticker with a date. Formation-bundle “free year 1” is disclosed as a bundle, not as the standalone price. If third-party 2026 reviews disagree with the official card, we say so and keep the official number. We do not invent LegalZoom year-2 figures the company did not publish.
SOS street and presence
California sources we use: the SOS FAQ, Service of Process, and § 17701.13. We ask: whose street is on the public agent line, is there an in-state physical office with business hours, and does a corporate agent have § 1505 consent. We do not invent a Sacramento suite we have not confirmed on bizfile.
Process and privacy
Service of process and official notices only. Scan, email, FedEx, overnight — if the vendor publishes it, we cite it. Marketing mail, catalogs, and “free business address” add-ons are not graded. Home-address privacy means the owner’s residence is not the agent street. It does not mean the rest of the SOS filing is secret.
What we refuse to publish
- Invented partner codes or prices a vendor did not print.
- Mailbox, CMRA, virtual-office, or Google Business Profile scores.
- A single blended score that hides a year-2 teaser behind a pretty process grade.
- Unsourced location counts presented as our audit.