Firstbase pricing explained for 2026: formation fees, monthly costs, what's included, and whether the plans make sense for your situation.
By Omer Aydin ·
If you're researching Firstbase pricing before picking a formation service, you're already ahead of most founders. I spent years as a practicing attorney before moving into legaltech development, and the most consistent mistake I watched founders make was choosing a service based on the headline number without reading what sits underneath it. Firstbase is a legitimate product with real strengths. It's also a product whose cost structure deserves a clear-eyed look before you hand over a card number.
This article covers what Firstbase charges, what those charges actually include, where costs compound over time, and how to think about whether that structure fits your situation in 2026.
Firstbase positions itself primarily as an international founder's gateway to the US market. Its portfolio spans businesses from 191 countries, it has supported more than 30,000 businesses, and the companies it has helped form have collectively raised over $3 billion in capital. That track record is real and worth acknowledging.
The product covers LLC and C-Corp formation, registered agent service, EIN assistance, and ongoing compliance. For a founder outside the US who needs a Delaware or Wyoming entity to access Stripe, open a US bank account, or pitch American investors, Firstbase has built genuine infrastructure around that use case.
Where it gets complicated is the pricing.
On our own pricing snapshot, read off public pricing pages on 30 August 2026, Firstbase advertises $99 for formation — a promotion on a $399 product — covering the filing itself and initial setup.
The ongoing layer, called Firstbase One, is where the cost structure shifts materially. Firstbase One is priced at $199 per month, which works out to $2,388 per year. This tier bundles registered agent service, compliance management, mail handling, and other ongoing services into a single subscription.
For a founder who needs all of those services and would otherwise be paying for them separately across multiple vendors, the bundling makes sense. For a solo technical founder who just needs a legal entity, an EIN, and a registered agent while they build, paying for international compliance infrastructure they'll never use is a different calculation entirely.
A few things worth understanding about how these numbers stack:
The formation fee covers document preparation and state filing, registered agent service for the initial period, and EIN assistance. Post-incorporation documents such as an operating agreement or bylaws may be included depending on the plan tier you select.
Where Firstbase genuinely excels is the international founder workflow. If you're forming a US entity without a US Social Security Number, the EIN process is more involved than it is for US residents. Firstbase has built real process around this. For a founder in Lagos, Istanbul, or Karachi, that matters.
For a US-based founder, you're paying for infrastructure that was designed around a more complex international use case. That's not a flaw in the product — it's a product-market fit question.
This is where I want to slow down and give you the analysis that most pricing pages skip.
Year one with Firstbase, if you use Firstbase One from the start: $399 formation fee plus $2,388 for twelve months of Firstbase One. That's $2,787 before state filing fees.
Year two, assuming you stay on Firstbase One, is $2,388 again. No formation fee, but the operational subscription continues.
For a pre-revenue founder who just needs to be legally incorporated, that number is significant. It makes sense once you have revenue, a team, and genuine compliance complexity. It's harder to justify when you're still building your first feature.
Here's the philosophical point I'd make, drawing from years of watching founders navigate legal infrastructure: the right time to pay for comprehensive compliance management is when compliance is actually a risk surface for your business. At pre-incorporation or pre-seed, that surface is small. The goal is to be legally formed, have an EIN, and have a registered agent. Everything else can wait.
Paying for services you don't yet need isn't prudent legal planning. It's overhead competing with runway.
A few gaps worth noting for founders comparing options:
No AI or conversational interface. Firstbase is a web form product. You fill out fields, upload documents, and wait. There's no chat interface, no AI-guided formation flow, and no way to describe your business in plain language and have the service figure out the right structure for you.
No IDE or developer tool integration. If you work in Cursor, Claude, or Windsurf, Firstbase has no presence in those environments. Formation requires you to leave your workflow, open a browser, and navigate a separate portal.
Delaware and Wyoming focus. Firstbase's product is built primarily around Delaware C-Corps and Wyoming LLCs. If you have a reason to form in another state, the product experience may be less refined.
No LLC-to-C-Corp conversion workflow. If you form as an LLC and later decide to convert to a C-Corp for venture funding, that process isn't built into Firstbase as a standard included feature.
Despite the cost concerns, there are founder profiles for whom Firstbase is a genuinely strong fit:
International founders with complex EIN needs. If you're forming a US entity from outside the country and need guidance through the EIN process for non-US applicants, Firstbase's experience in that workflow is a real advantage.
Founders who want a single vendor for everything. If you'd rather pay one bill and have one point of contact for formation, registered agent, mail, and compliance, the Firstbase One bundle removes the coordination overhead of managing multiple services.
Post-seed companies with compliance complexity. Once you have investors, employees, and revenue across multiple states, managed compliance has real value. At that stage, $199/month is a very different conversation than it is at pre-incorporation.
Here's the part where I speak as a legaltech developer rather than a neutral analyst.
The formation services built in the 2015–2020 window — Firstbase included — were designed around the assumption that founders would sit down at a browser, fill out a form, and wait. That was a reasonable assumption at the time. It's a less reasonable assumption now.
The founders I talk to in 2026 are building inside Cursor and Claude. They're not switching contexts to fill out web forms. They want formation to happen inside the environment where they're already working. They want to describe their business in plain language and have the legal structure figured out for them. They want the EIN handled without a separate phone call. They want to stay in flow.
That's a fundamentally different product requirement than what Firstbase was designed to meet. It's not a criticism of Firstbase — it's an observation about where the market has moved.
If you're a technical founder who lives in your IDE, Lovie Formation is built around that workflow. Formation is $499 one-time, with the state filing fee included whatever your state charges; registered agent service is included for the first year, then $79/year. It connects to Cursor, Claude, Windsurf, OpenAI, Lovable, Telegram, and WhatsApp via the Model Context Protocol, so you can kick off company formation without leaving your development environment. Post-incorporation documents — including Bylaws, Operating Agreement, and Stock Purchase Agreement — are included. LLC-to-C-Corp conversion is included in the plan.
That's not a knock on Firstbase. It's a different product for a different workflow at a different price point.
| Service | Formation Fee | Registered Agent | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firstbase | $99 promo on $399 | Included in Firstbase One ($199/month) | Strong international support; 191 countries |
| Stripe Atlas | $500 one-time | $100/year | Delaware only; Stripe ecosystem perks |
| Clerky | $427 one-time | Separate | Attorney-reviewed docs; Delaware C-Corp only |
| Lovie Formation | $499 one-time (state fee included) | Included year one, then $79/year | AI-guided; MCP/IDE integration; all 50 states |
State filing fees are additional and vary by state for every service listed except Lovie, whose $499 includes the state fee.
Firstbase is a well-built product with a clear use case: international founders who need US entity formation and want a single managed service for ongoing compliance. If that describes you, the pricing reflects real infrastructure and real support.
If you're a US-based technical founder at pre-incorporation stage who needs a legal entity and an EIN so you can start accepting payments or apply to YC, the Firstbase cost structure may be more than your situation requires right now. You're paying for international compliance infrastructure and a managed operations layer you won't actually need until your business is significantly further along.
The right formation service is the one that matches your actual legal surface area today — not the one that covers every possible future complexity at a price that competes with your runway.
What does Firstbase charge for company formation in 2026? Firstbase advertises $99 for formation, a promotion on a $399 product. State filing fees are additional and vary by state. Ongoing operations through Firstbase One are priced at $199 per month, covering registered agent service, compliance management, and mail handling on a subscription basis.
Is registered agent service included in the Firstbase formation fee? Registered agent service is included as part of the Firstbase One subscription at $199/month. It's a legal requirement in most states, so you'll need to maintain it annually regardless of which service you use.
Does Firstbase support LLC formation or only C-Corps? Firstbase supports both LLC and C-Corp formation. Its product is built primarily around Delaware and Wyoming entities, which cover the majority of startup formation use cases.
Can international founders use Firstbase without a US SSN? Yes. Firstbase has built specific workflow support for non-US founders forming a US entity, including EIN assistance for applicants without a US Social Security Number. This is one of Firstbase's clearest strengths relative to other formation services.
What is Firstbase One and do I need it? Firstbase One is Firstbase's ongoing operations subscription at $199/month. It bundles registered agent service, compliance management, and mail handling. Whether you need it depends on your situation. At pre-incorporation stage, many founders only need basic registered agent service, which can be obtained separately at a lower cost.
Does Firstbase offer LLC-to-C-Corp conversion? LLC-to-C-Corp conversion is not listed as a standard included feature in Firstbase's base formation product. If you anticipate needing to convert your entity type as you move toward venture funding, confirm this capability and its cost before committing to a formation service.
What is a cheaper alternative to Firstbase for technical founders? For technical founders who are price-sensitive and work inside tools like Cursor, Claude, or Windsurf, Lovie Formation offers formation at $499 one-time with the state filing fee and first-year registered agent included, then $79/year for the agent. It integrates with developer environments via MCP, covers all 50 states, and includes post-incorporation documents and the EIN application in the same price.
