Dataset current to 16 Sep 2026

Points Architect

Formation · ranked

Forming a US company for the least upfront

For founders testing an idea, where the cash needed to get the company standing matters more than what it costs to keep.

Disclosure Links to providers on this page earn this site nothing. They go to the provider’s own site unmodified, with no tracking parameters. Affiliate relationships are planned from June 2027, and this notice changes on the day that does. Full disclosure.

date checked against the provider’s own pagecalculated; oldest date among its inputspast its recheck window

Segments show the tier reached, not the score:BasicStandardStrongExcellent

This is the same verified dataset as the formation table, re-ordered on one column. The overall score is still shown, and it does not order this page — which is why the leader here can differ from the leader there.

Scoring weights

rubric 2026.1

  • Year-one total cost40%
  • Annual cost thereafter60%

Set once per vertical and versioned. Changing a weight is a logged version bump, not routine upkeep — methodology.

Verification state

Dated fields in this table
40
Oldest check
16 Sep 2026
Most recent check
16 Sep 2026
Recheck window
90 days
Past that window
0

What this ranking does not say

One column answers one question. It is not a verdict on the products underneath it.

  • Ranking first here means leading on year-one total alone. Where the overall score disagrees, the difference is the weighting, published in full beside this table.
  • Ranking last here is not a warning. A product can be the right choice for something this column does not measure — its own page says what its figures do and do not capture.