Patrick Ward 
3.1/5 stars
User experience & onboarding
Onboarding for ZenBusiness is more complex than average, and they require new customers to complete a chat interview before showing their pricing. This is good for non-standard LLC and C-Corp setups, since it better accounts for additional fees. The price shown has fewer hidden fees than the industry norm.
CorpNet's initial onboarding flow is extremely straight forward - additional information is placed below the fold, but within a few clicks you are picking between 3 basic packages for your business formation. In standard 'Good, Better, Best' format, the selection of product is made extremely easy via transparent pricing and feature comparison.
ZenBusiness has a fairly swift onboarding flow, collecting information via a chat-function to generate a customized package and price for a small business owner. CorpNet's is even faster with a few clicks and a three-package 'Good, Better, Best' offering where customers can check and uncheck the package and add-on services they require.
Formation speed
ZenBusiness is light years ahead of CorpNet when it comes to business formation speed. Processing times for ZenBusiness, while not the fastest, are a very respectable 3 business days for their standard packages. CorpNet, on the other hand, can take 30 to 40 business days — although their justification is that they try to factor in state processing times as well, a non-industry standard definition of processing times.
ZenBusiness promises a maximum of three days for most standard formations, placing it in the low-mid range for processing times among formation services. ZenBusiness commonly matches one-day services, but doesn't advertise it heavily because state processing systems can delay some formation types.
CorpNet's thirty to forty business day processing time is extremely high for formation services. It appears that they have not kept up with the industry which has tended towards swift processing times (knowing that there are additional state processing times after the formation service completes their portion)
Are they worth the cost?
ZenBusiness is targeted at traditional SMB and Bootstrapped Startups. Their messaging is focused on business owners who have standard SMB businesses that can be started with family and friends funding or personal savings rather than requiring investment from outside sources such as VCs, Private Equity or Wall Street. If your business concept falls into a quintessential SMB that will require a handful of employees but isn't likely to scale, ZenBusiness is targeted at you.
Solopreneurs are the explicit target of CorpNet in both their messaging and imagery. Social proof from the publications of choice for Entrepreneurs (Inc and Forbes) abounds and they focus on making the process simple for individuals looking to start a business. Consultations are also offered to help walk prospective entrepreneurs through the complexity of business formation and ongoing compliance.
The NanoGlobals editor's rating for ZenBusiness is based on a mix of their strong marks for smooth onboarding and package flexibility. Although their pricing trends moderate–high compared with similar services, part of this is because they are transparent about add-on costs. They feature fewer hidden fees than the industry norm, and we like that they don't vary the recurring fees.
The CorpNet rating by our NanoGlobals editorial team represents that they are a solid option, but that there are significantly better options on the market. Their ongoing pricing is fairly transparent and cost-effective compared to the market. CorpNet's onboarding flow is one of the easiest to follow but that's offset by initial packages that are on the mid-high end of the market. CorpNet loses substantial points for its exorbitantly long processing times, falling behind the contemporary industry norm of 1-3 business days.