Z
ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness is an online platform for starting and running a small business in the United States. It forms LLCs, S corporations and C corporations, acts as registered agent, files annual reports and amendments, obtains EINs and supplies operating agreements and other corporate documents. Velo, its AI guide, is free to use. It helps an owner brainstorm and plan a business, builds a step by step blueprint with cost estimates, prepares paperwork and documents for the owner to approve, and flags annual filings, licenses and tax deadlines before they fall due.
When a question needs a person, Velo briefs a ZenBusiness expert and hands it over. ZenBusiness says Velo has held more than 2 million conversations. The platform also sells an AI website builder, a domain and email, and the ZenBusiness Money account. Formation starts at $0 plus state fees, with Pro at $199 and Premium at $299 a year. ZenBusiness states that it is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. It was founded in 2015 by Ross Buhrdorf and Shanaz Hemmati and says it has helped start nearly a million businesses.
ZenBusiness, head to head
Side by side on the same 15 capability axes and 12 legal signals: where the two part company, and what neither one publishes.
Alternatives to ZenBusiness
Other products that do the same kind of work as ZenBusiness, and what each one does.
- LLegalZoomLegalZoom is an online legal platform for small businesses and individuals. It sells business formation and compliance filings, registered agent service, trademark and copyright filings, legal forms, estate planning documents and attorney plans.
- NNorthwest Registered AgentNorthwest Registered Agent is a business formation and registered agent service based in Spokane, Washington. It forms LLCs, corporations and nonprofits, serves as registered agent in every state, and files annual reports, amendments and foreign qualifications.
- LLawpathLawpath is an Australian platform that handles legal, tax and compliance administration for small businesses in one place, without engaging a separate adviser for each task.
- TTrust & WillTrust & Will is an online estate planning service from Huge Legal Technology Company, a public benefit corporation based in San Diego.
- GGenie AIGenie AI is a contract drafting, review and negotiation platform sold to business teams rather than law firms, with in house legal setting the playbooks and guardrails that commercial…
- IInhouseInhouse is an AI legal assistant for small business owners, founders and individuals in the United States, sold by Inhouse AI, Inc. of Santa Monica.
Capability grades
All 15 axes, graded from public sources on the date shown. Hover a grade to see what the letter means on that axis.
AI Centrality
How much of the product is actually AI. Whether the machine learning is the mechanism the buyer is paying for or a feature layered onto conventional software, and whether the vendor is specific about which is which.
Velo is a free guide layered on a filing and compliance business that runs without it. ZenBusiness forms entities, acts as registered agent, files annual reports and amendments, obtains EINs and supplies operating agreements and corporate documents, and its team prepares and submits each state filing. Velo helps an owner brainstorm and plan, builds a blueprint with cost estimates, prepares paperwork and documents for approval, and flags filing, license and tax deadlines.
The AI website builder is a separate product sold on a trial. Without the models, the formation packages, registered agent service and compliance filings still work.
Citation Accuracy and Hallucination Disclosure
Whether the vendor publishes measured accuracy on citations and assertions, grounds output to primary sources, and says plainly what its system does when it does not know. Legal has a documented public record of fabricated citations reaching filed briefs, so an untested claim of accuracy is not evidence.
ZenBusiness says Velo's guidance is shaped on real questions, decisions and outcomes from nearly a million businesses rather than generic answers from the web, and that Velo has held more than 2 million conversations. Nothing says which statutes, state rules or filing requirements Velo draws on or whether an answer shows its source. The Terms of Use, updated 14 October 2026, describe the AI Services as generative AI provided as is, with no promise that output is accurate, complete or error free, and say any reliance is at the user's own risk. No accuracy figure, test or evaluation is published.
Autonomy and Oversight Model
What the system decides on its own, what a lawyer must approve, and whether the vendor documents where the review point sits. A tool that drafts under review and a tool that files without one are different products and different risks.
Velo is described as taking action: it files paperwork, creates documents and tracks deadlines, and the owner approves before it proceeds. When a question needs a person, Velo briefs a ZenBusiness expert and hands the matter over. The Terms say AI output is informational and does not replace advice from a professional. Nothing describes what Velo may do without approval, what it reviews before a filing goes to a state, or how an error is caught and corrected, and no lawyer reviews AI output. Velo Prime, offered for early access, is described as running a business on autopilot.
Operational and Outcome Evidence
Named, dated evidence that the product works in production at real firms or legal departments. Case studies with figures and identified customers count. Unattributed testimonials and launch announcements do not.
ZenBusiness says it has helped start nearly a million businesses, more than 950,000 on its about page, and that Velo has held more than 2 million conversations. It shows a Trustpilot rating of 4.8 from more than 33,000 reviews, and its customer quotes are unattributed beyond a first name. No named customer, dated outcome or measured result from Velo is published.
Privilege and Confidentiality Posture
How client confidences are handled: attorney client privilege and work product treatment, segregation of one client matter from another, whether client data trains any model, and what the vendor commits to in writing rather than in marketing.
The Terms of Use make no promise that content generated by the AI Services will be confidential, and tell users not to put documents with highly sensitive information into the services. ZenBusiness states that it is not a law firm and creates no attorney client relationship, so no privilege attaches. The Velo page says guidance is shaped on questions, decisions and outcomes from nearly a million businesses and is personalized to each business, and neither the Terms nor the privacy policy says whether a user's conversations are used to train or refine Velo. Nothing separates one user's information from another's beyond account access.
UPL and Professional Responsibility Posture
Whether the vendor is clear that it supplies a tool rather than legal advice, who its audience is, and how it addresses unauthorized practice of law, competence and supervision duties, and jurisdiction limits. ABA Formal Opinion 512 is the reference point. Where the advice line is not the duty a product raises, the axis is read through the nearest professional duty it does raise: judicial conduct rules and the reviewing duty for products sold only to courts, and the duty to bill for time actually spent for products that draft time entries.
The Terms of Use state that ZenBusiness is not an attorney, a law firm or a substitute for one, does not practice law or give legal advice, and creates no attorney client relationship, and that it gives no advice, opinion or recommendation on legal rights or remedies. The AI clause adds that the AI Services do not provide legal advice, are for information only and do not replace advice from a professional. Velo hands questions to ZenBusiness experts rather than attorneys.
Nothing names the states whose rules on document preparation services apply, and no disclosure on the Velo page itself says the guide is not legal advice.
AI Governance and Bias Disclosure
Published governance over model behavior: who owns it inside the vendor, what is tested before release, and what is disclosed about disparate output across matter types, parties, or populations.
No AI governance position is published. The Terms of Use set rules for users of the AI Services, such as no defamatory, unlawful or deceptive content, and promise to disclose AI use before a user reaches a product that deploys it. Nothing describes how Velo is tested before release, who at ZenBusiness is accountable for it, or how its guidance performs across states, entity types or industries.
AI Safety and Data Stewardship
Retention, deletion, access control, and what happens to prompts and documents after they are processed. Whether the vendor states its subprocessors and its incident practice, or leaves the buyer to assume.
The security and compliance page describes AES 256 GCM encryption of sensitive data at rest and TLS 1.2 or higher in transit, segmented Google Cloud environments with native threat detection, SSO or multifactor authentication for critical services and role based access control. The privacy policy lets users review, correct or ask to delete personal information, says some data cannot be deleted, and keeps personal information after an account is canceled where law, legal process, records, fraud prevention or disputes require it.
Twilio is named for message delivery. No retention period is stated for Velo conversations or uploaded documents, no subprocessor list is published, and no AI provider is named.
AI Liability and Recourse
What the vendor stands behind contractually when its output is wrong. Indemnities, caps, carve outs, insurance, and whether any of it is published or only reachable through a negotiated agreement.
Liability is limited by the Terms of Use to the lesser of $500 or the amount paid in the six months before a claim arises, and the Terms exclude direct, indirect, incidental and consequential damages. The AI Services are provided as is, ZenBusiness disclaims liability for reliance on AI generated content, and nothing covers a wrong answer from Velo. The 100 percent accuracy guarantee on formation filings promises that the team will correct errors in the paperwork it files, which covers the filing service rather than the AI.
Practice Systems Integration Depth
How deeply the product reaches into the systems legal work already lives in: document management such as iManage and NetDocuments, Word and Outlook, contract lifecycle management, matter management, e-billing, and court filing systems.
Velo works inside the ZenBusiness account and mobile app, alongside the company's own filing, compliance, website and Money products, and Velo Prime can send and receive text messages. No connection to accounting, document storage or other business software is described for Velo, and the website builder runs on Duda, a partner. The product stands alone.
Deployment Model and Data Residency
Where the software runs and where the data sits. Multi tenant cloud, single tenant, private deployment, on premises, and whether region of residence is a published option or an enterprise conversation.
ZenBusiness runs as a hosted service on Google Cloud, with environments segmented inside it, and the Money account is limited to United States residents and businesses. No region, residency commitment or tenancy model is published, and nothing says where Velo's AI processing runs.
Security Certifications and Trust Center
Independent attestation a buyer can pull without a sales call: SOC 2, ISO 27001, penetration test summaries, a trust center with current reports and named scope rather than a badge image.
The security and compliance page, headed as a trust center, says ZenBusiness is certified each year at PCI DSS 4.0 Level 1 and holds SOC 2 Type II compliance across all five trust criteria: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy. It names neither the auditor nor the report period, and no route to obtain the SOC 2 report is described.
Model Supply Chain Disclosure
Which models sit underneath, whose they are, where they run, and whether the vendor commits to telling customers when that changes. A legal buyer inherits every dependency it cannot see.
Velo is described as smart AI shaped on ZenBusiness's experience with nearly a million businesses, and the Terms say the AI Services use generative AI. No model, version or provider is named, nothing says where the models run, and no notice of changes is offered.
Commercial Transparency
Whether a buyer can learn what this costs without entering a sales process: published rates, the unit being charged, what sits behind an enterprise tier, and what implementation adds.
Prices are public. Formation costs $0 plus state fees on Starter, $199 plus state fees on Pro, renewing at $199 a year, and $299 plus state fees on Premium, renewing at $299 a year. Pro adds one day processing and ongoing annual report filings with up to two amendments a year, and Premium adds a domain and business email. Talking to Velo is free, and the AI website builder comes on a 30 day trial that renews monthly.
State fees pass through to the state, ZenBusiness may hold $100 on a card until fees are set, and the Terms rule out cash refunds on undelivered orders after 120 days unless ZenBusiness is at fault.
Firm and Practice Coverage
Who the product is actually built for. AmLaw, midlaw, small firm and solo, in house departments, government and courts, and which practice areas are supported rather than merely claimed.
ZenBusiness serves people starting and running small businesses in the United States, from a side project to an operating company, with formation of LLCs, S corporations and C corporations, registered agent service, annual reports, amendments, EINs, operating agreements and corporate documents. Velo is organized around four stages: dream, plan, start and grow. The Terms bar using the AI Services for highly sensitive documents or for information about people under 18.
The plans page does not list which entity types, states or industries Velo's guidance covers, and the product is not built for lawyers or law firms.
3 public documents
The public pages on file for ZenBusiness, with the recorded signals each one supports and the date it was last read. Open any of them and check the reading against the record.
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Prompt and Output Retention, Third Party Request and Subpoena Notice
Read Nov 9, 2026
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Fabricated Citation Record
Read Nov 9, 2026
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zenbusiness.com/velo1 signal
Client Data in Training
Read Nov 9, 2026
Pro $199/year + state fees
- You can form an LLC with ZenBusiness for $0 plus state fees, and talking to Velo, the AI guide, is free.
- The Pro package costs $199 plus state fees and renews at $199 a year.
- Premium costs $299 plus state fees and renews at $299 a year.
- Pro and Premium file in one business day and cover your yearly state filings.
ZenBusiness sells formation packages per business, plus state fees that pass through to the state. Starter is $0 plus state fees, with filing in 7 to 10 business days. Pro is $199 plus state fees and renews at $199 a year; it adds filing in one business day and ongoing compliance, covering state annual report filings and up to two amendments a year. Premium is $299 plus state fees and renews at $299 a year, adding a domain and business email.
Velo, the AI guide, is free on every package, and the AI website builder comes with a 30 day trial that then renews monthly.
Implementation: None stated. State filing fees are extra and pass through to the state. ZenBusiness may place a $100 hold on a card until fees are set, and cash refunds on undelivered orders end 120 days after purchase unless ZenBusiness is at fault.
Legal Signals
What each signal meansA signal records what public sources say on the date shown. It is not a grade and it is not a recommendation. Where a signal reads Not addressed, it means the index did not locate the material in public sources on that date, which is a statement about disclosure rather than about the product.
Client Data in Training
Can material a lawyer puts into this product be used to train a model?
Public material states that customer content trains, refines or personalizes models, with no matching term located in the published agreement. Any de identification, anonymization or aggregation qualifier is recorded in the summary.
The Velo page says the guide's advice is shaped on real questions, decisions and outcomes from nearly a million businesses and is personalized to each owner's business, which describes customer activity refining the product. Neither the Terms of Use, updated 14 October 2026, nor the privacy policy says whether a user's own conversations or documents train or refine the models, and no opt out is offered.
Prompt and Output Retention
How long does the product keep what a lawyer typed, and can that be set to zero?
Retention is acknowledged in public materials with no stated period.
The privacy policy keeps personal information after an account is canceled where law, legal process, recordkeeping, fraud prevention, disputes or enforcement of the Terms require it, and lets users ask for deletion while saying some data cannot be deleted. No retention period is stated for Velo conversations, generated documents or uploads.
Ethical Walls and Matter Segregation
Does retrieval respect the firm’s ethical walls, or can the model read across them?
No located public material addresses walls or matter level segregation.
Nothing describes how one user's business information, Velo conversations or documents are kept apart from another's beyond account sign in. The security page describes segmented cloud environments and role based access for ZenBusiness staff, which concerns internal access rather than separation between customers.
Third Party Request and Subpoena Notice
If someone subpoenas the vendor for a firm’s data, does the firm hear about it first?
Published terms or policy address disclosure to authorities or in response to legal process, and no commitment or reservation regarding customer notice is located anywhere. The vendor has told the customer that data can leave and has said nothing about whether the customer hears of it.
The privacy policy lets ZenBusiness keep and use personal information to comply with laws, regulations, legal process, court orders or governmental requests, and the Terms allow reporting users to law enforcement. Neither commits to telling the customer before information goes out, and no transparency report is published.
Primary Law Corpus Provenance
Where does the law in this product come from, and does the vendor have the right to use it?
Sources are identified without stating the license or rights basis.
Velo's guidance is described as drawing on ZenBusiness's own experience: real questions, decisions and outcomes from nearly a million businesses, rather than generic answers from the web. No statute, state filing rule or other primary source is named behind its answers, and no update cadence for state requirements is published.
Good Law Verification
Does the product tell you when the authority it just cited has been overruled?
No located public material addresses whether authority is checked for subsequent history.
Velo gives business and filing guidance and prepares paperwork rather than citing cases, so a citator would have nothing to check, and no check that state rules it relies on are current is described.
Refusal and Uncertainty Behavior
What does the product do when the answer is not in the corpus?
No located public material addresses what the product does when it cannot ground an answer.
When a question needs a person, Velo briefs a ZenBusiness expert and hands it over, and the Terms say AI output may be inaccurate or incomplete. No behavior is described for questions Velo cannot answer from its own guidance, and no confidence signal is shown.
Fabricated Citation Record
Does a public court record exist addressing fabricated or hallucinated legal citations in output from this product?
No court order, opinion or disciplinary record addressing fabricated or hallucinated legal citations produced by this product has been located as of the date shown. This is a statement about the public record on that one subject, not a finding about the product, and this signal is not a litigation history.
The AI Hallucination Cases database kept by Damien Charlotin holds no entry naming ZenBusiness or Velo. Velo helps owners form and run businesses and prepares state filings and corporate documents rather than court filings.
Bar Guidance Alignment
Has the vendor engaged in public with the ethics opinions its buyers are bound by?
Public materials refer to professional responsibility in general terms without naming guidance.
Professional responsibility is addressed only through the disclaimer that ZenBusiness is not a law firm, does not practice law and creates no attorney client relationship. No ethics opinion, state rule on document preparation services or bar guidance on AI is named.
Billing and Fee Posture
Does the vendor address what happens to the bill when the work takes an hour instead of six?
The product does not touch a fee between a lawyer and a client. It operates before an engagement exists, or it is bought by a team that bills no client for the work. Savings claims aimed at the buyer’s own cost are recorded in the summary and do not make the row a savings claim, because no client bill is in the loop.
Business owners buy formation, compliance and Velo for their own businesses and represent themselves, so no lawyer bills a client for the work. ZenBusiness's price claims, such as Pro filings submitted in one business day, concern the buyer's own cost and time.
Outside Counsel Guideline Readiness
Can a firm get this vendor through a client’s AI clause without a bespoke negotiation?
No located public material supports a client side disclosure obligation.
A business owner asking which providers handle its information would find no subprocessor or AI provider list. The privacy policy names Twilio for message delivery and Google Analytics, Firebase and Facebook for analytics, and the security page names Google Cloud, but no list of the services behind Velo is published.
Court Disclosure Support
If a judge’s standing order requires an AI disclosure, can the product produce one?
No located public material addresses court disclosure or verification certification.
Velo prepares documents and state filings that an owner approves, and nothing records which content the AI produced or offers a record an owner could use if a filing were questioned.