How to choose an incorporation service.

This question decides your entity, and your entity narrows the field. Investors expect a Delaware C-Corp with the standard document set — if you're on the venture track, look at the C-Corp specialists: Stripe Atlas, Clerky, every.io, or Corply. (New to the entity itself? Start with the Delaware C-Corp guide.)

If you're building a small business, agency, or e-commerce operation and don't plan to raise, an LLC is often the simpler, cheaper structure — and the LLC generalists serve it better: doola is LLC-first, and Firstbase and Stripe Atlas both offer LLCs. Corply and Clerky don't form LLCs at all.

If you want to click through a polished portal yourself, Stripe Atlas is the proven default, and Firstbase offers a similar guided web flow. If your lawyer is running the process, pick Clerky: its attorney-drafted documents are the paperwork stack startup lawyers know best, and it slots into a counsel-led workflow cleanly.

If you work in Claude Code and want the process driven rather than clicked — the agent asks the application questions, explains the standard choices, generates the documents, and chases every cofounder's signature — that's the workflow Corply was built for. Be honest with yourself here: an agent-first flow only makes sense if the terminal is already where you live.

Founders outside the US often need more than a certificate: an EIN without an SSN, a US business address, a mailroom that scans state and IRS mail. Firstbase and doola sell exactly that logistics layer, and it's their genuine strength. Most services — Corply included — handle the EIN path for founders without an SSN, but only the platforms sell you an address and mailroom.

If you need that layer, start with Firstbase or doola — Corply doesn't provide address or mail services.

The certificate is the start, not the end, and this is where the products diverge most. Clerky's moat is the deepest post-formation paperwork library in the space — SAFEs, option grants, hiring documents. every.io's is the finance stack: banking, payroll, benefits, bookkeeping. Stripe Atlas gives you the Stripe ecosystem and a large perks marketplace. doola gives you a compliance subscription that keeps filing your annual paperwork.

Corply's answer is different in kind: after formation, your approvals, documents, deadlines, and company context stay queryable by your agent — the company's records live where you work. If that's valuable to you, nothing else on this list offers it; if it isn't, one of the libraries or bundles above will serve you better.

Three models exist. One-time: Stripe Atlas charges $500 flat, Clerky sells formation at ~$427 with post-incorporation setup at ~$299 or a ~$819 lifetime package, and Corply charges a flat fee with no hourly billing (see corply.dev). Subscription: doola starts around ~$297/yr plus state fees, and Firstbase's ongoing bundle runs ~$199/mo on top of a $399 formation. Free formation funded by services: every.io. (All competitor figures as published, mid-2026 — verify on each product's own site before deciding.)

The question to ask is total cost over the life you'll actually use the product, not the entry price: a cheap subscription held for three years can cost more than any one-time fee on this page.

Most incorporation services are automated portal flows with careful defaults — and for standard situations that's genuinely fine; millions of companies have been formed that way. Clerky adds confidence at the document layer, since its templates are attorney-drafted.

Corply takes a different position: a human reviews every submission before it goes to Delaware — the agent drives the process, but the filing itself is never auto-fired. If a human checkpoint before the state sees your paperwork matters to you, that's a real differentiator; if you'd rather have maximum automation, the portals are faster to that end.

Head-to-heads and pricing detail live in the comparisons index and the Stripe Atlas alternatives roundup.

Since this page is ours, the least we can do is be precise about when not to pick us:

• You want an LLC. Corply forms Delaware C-Corps only. Look at doola, Firstbase, or Stripe Atlas's LLC option.
• You want banking, bookkeeping, or payroll bundled. Corply doesn't sell any of that — every.io and doola genuinely do it better.
• You need a US address or mailroom. That's Firstbase's territory, not ours.
• Your lawyer runs everything. Clerky is the paperwork stack counsel already knows; handing them anything else adds friction.
• You don't work in a terminal. Corply's whole point is that the formation runs from Claude Code. If that isn't your environment, a web portal like Stripe Atlas will fit you better.