LLC formation services for breweries

What a formation service does for a brewery LLC

A formation service prepares and files your Articles of Organization with the Montana Secretary of State. It does not touch your Brewer's Notice, your brewery license or your label approvals.

The $35 goes to the state whoever types the articles. What no service touches is the alcohol side: the Brewer's Notice and the Montana brewery license in the opening guide are yours.

So the comparison is narrow: what is bundled around the filing, what the bundle costs in year two, and how registered agent service is handled. If the structure itself is still open, read the LLC page first.

$35Montana charges a $35 filing fee for domestic LLC Articles of Organization, whoever prepares the filing. — Montana Secretary of State, retrieved 2026-09-29

First-year cost for a Montana brewery LLC, service by service

Compare the total, not the headline. Most services publish a $0-plus-state-fee tier, so what differs is the bundle and what renews after the first year.

Montana keeps the state side cheap: $35 to file, and the annual report fee is waived for reports filed before April 15. A service's first-year price is therefore its own bundle price plus the $35.

Each number in the table is what the service said about itself on the date checked. Pricing pages change without notice, so read the current one before paying anything.

$0 + state feeBizee publishes a $0 Basic LLC plan plus the state fee, and says each business formation package is eligible for one free year of its registered agent service. — Bizee pricing page, retrieved 2026-09-29

$199 per yearZenBusiness publishes LLC formation starting at $0 plus state fees, with registered agent service at $199 per year and Worry-Free Compliance at $199 per year. — ZenBusiness pricing page, retrieved 2026-09-29

$249 per yearLegalZoom's registered agent service costs $249 per year and auto-renews at the purchase rate until cancelled. — LegalZoom registered agent page, retrieved 2026-09-29

Formation services matched to brewery needs

The list below is organized by use case, not by merit, and its order is just the order it is written in. Where a service appears says nothing about how it compares.

No score sits behind any entry below. The prices are each vendor's own published figures, gathered on the date shown, and the fit is the use case the offer genuinely serves.

1. Tailor Brands

   Suits a first-time brewery owner who wants the entity filed and its upkeep in one account. The $0 Lite plan covers the LLC filing with processing inside 14 business days, and paid tiers at $199 and $249 a year add one-day expedited processing, legal compliance work and branding tools. Its plan page does not list registered agent service, so budget for that separately if you want one.

2. Bizee

   Pay only the $35 state fee on the $0 Basic plan and you also get one free year of registered agent service, the lowest first-year cost here with an agent included. That year can keep the brewer's home address off the public record while the taproom is being fitted out. The agent service is what renews after the free year, with paid Standard and Premium tiers at $199 and $299 above the base.

3. BetterLegal

   No tiers to compare: $299 plus the state fee covers an expedited formation filing, the EIN, an operating agreement or bylaws, and a banking resolution, with a stated two-business-day turnaround. Getting the EIN inside the package saves a step before the federal brewery application. Registered agent service is an add-on, not part of the $299.

4. ZenBusiness

   The pitch here is deadline help once the filing is done. Formation starts at $0 plus state fees, and Worry-Free Compliance at $199 a year tracks filings such as the annual report that a brewery owner might otherwise miss between brew days. Registered agent service is a separate $199 a year, so the total climbs once you add both.

5. LegalZoom

   Here the draw is a lawyer. The $0 Basic plan files the LLC, and the $249 Pro plan adds an operating agreement, an EIN and 30 days of unlimited 30-minute attorney consultations, renewing at $49 a month if kept. A distribution agreement or a taproom lease is the kind of document worth that call. Registered agent service is separate at $249 a year.

$0 + state feesTailor Brands publishes a $0 Lite LLC plan plus state fees with filing processed within 14 business days, and paid tiers at $199 and $249 per year. — Tailor Brands plans and pricing page, retrieved 2026-09-29

$299 + state feeBetterLegal publishes a $299 plus state fee formation package including an expedited filing, an EIN, an operating agreement or bylaws and a banking resolution. — BetterLegal home page, retrieved 2026-09-29

$249 + state feesLegalZoom's Pro LLC plan is $249 plus state filing fees and includes an operating agreement, an EIN and 30 days of unlimited 30-minute attorney consultations, renewing at $49 a month. — LegalZoom LLC pricing page, retrieved 2026-09-29

File it yourself with the Montana Secretary of State

You can skip every service. File the Articles of Organization yourself with the Montana Secretary of State for the same $35 fee.

No lawyer is required. The state fee schedule lists the filing, the $15 amendment and the annual report in plain line items. A Montana LLC's annual report is due April 15, and the fee is waived for reports filed before that date.

Measured against this route, a service sells convenience: someone else does the typing, watches the deadlines and hands you the extra documents. The filing itself does not change.

$35Montana LLC Articles of Organization carry a $35 filing fee, Articles of Amendment cost $15, and the annual report fee is waived for reports filed prior to April 15 with $35 after. — Montana Secretary of State, retrieved 2026-09-29

Year two for a brewery LLC

Pick by year-two cost and what you will actually use. The state side stays cheap. The brewery side does not, and it is not the service's problem.

A Montana brewery license renews by June 30 at $200 for a brewery under 20,000 barrels. The LLC annual report is due April 15, and the fee is waived when you file on time. Those two dates are yours whoever filed the articles.

The services differ on their own renewals: agent fees, compliance subscriptions and paid tiers billed yearly. Write down both calendars, then compare what each option costs you in year two. The yearly renewals page holds the full brewery calendar.

June 30A Montana brewery license must be renewed every year by June 30, at $200 for a brewery producing under 20,000 barrels a year. — Montana Department of Revenue, retrieved 2026-09-29

Questions