What are the cheaper alternatives to Stripe Atlas for forming a US LLC from abroad?

Stripe Atlas forms Delaware entities only, and Delaware charges $400 a year against Wyoming's $60, which is most of why it costs more to keep than everything else here. Its fee also buys founder equity issuance, the 83(b) election filing and Stripe product credits, which a cost comparison does not capture.

Its fee is $500, charged once. Over five years, with the registered agent and the state's own fees, the company costs $2,500. Northwest Registered Agent's fee is charged once, and the same five years come to $979: $1,521 less.

Cheapest first, over five years: Wyoming Registered Agent Services $490, Northwest Registered Agent $979, StartGlobal $1,035, Bizee $1,135, doola $1,825, LegalZoom $1,834, Firstbase $1,934, Clemta $2,085, ZenBusiness $2,330, against $2,500 for Stripe Atlas. Year one is the provider's fee, the registered agent and the state's filing fee; each year after is any recurring fee, the agent renewal and the state's annual charge.

Wyoming Registered Agent Services is cheaper still but does not obtain the EIN, so you would apply to the IRS on Form SS-4 yourself, by phone, fax or mail. The table shows which tier of each package includes it.

Stripe Atlas's pricing page publishes no price for filing Form 5472, the return a foreign-owned LLC owes the IRS every year whether or not it traded. The cheapest published filing in the Form 5472 comparison is $299 a year, at US LLC Filings, and it can be bought alongside any formation service here.

If you will raise from US investors or join an accelerator, they will usually expect a Delaware corporation with founder stock already issued, and Atlas does that in one pass. Then the extra cost is the price of Delaware plus that paperwork, and the alternatives here are the wrong comparison.

If the company exists to invoice clients, hold assets or run a small online business, none of that applies, and every alternative above forms the same LLC in Wyoming for less.