If you are a non-US founder researching where to incorporate, you have almost certainly seen Firstbase. It is one of the most visible names in the "incorporate from anywhere" category, and for good reason: it does the job. This page is an honest comparison between Firstbase and WyomingLLC, written for someone who lives outside the United States, has no SSN, and wants a clean US LLC with an EIN and a business bank account. Firstbase is a real option. WyomingLLC is the right choice when you want transparent all-in pricing and do not need a bundled annual compliance suite. Both can get you a working company. The differences are in price structure, state choice, and how much hand-holding you are paying for.
What Firstbase Actually Does Well
Firstbase built its reputation in the startup ecosystem, and its positioning reflects that. It markets itself to founders who want to look and operate like a venture-track company from day one. The dashboard is clean, the onboarding flow is polished, and the brand carries weight in accelerator and Y Combinator-adjacent circles. If your network is full of YC alumni and SaaS founders, Firstbase is a name people will recognize and nod at.
The product is more than formation. Firstbase bundles a stack: company formation, registered agent, a US business address with mail scanning, EIN procurement, and access to add-on services like tax filing and legal templates. For a founder who wants one vendor to handle the whole lifecycle of a company, that single-pane-of-glass approach has genuine value. You log into one dashboard and see your formation status, your mail, your compliance deadlines, and your documents.
Firstbase also leans into being a "system of record." The idea is that your cap table, your post-incorporation paperwork, and your ongoing filings all live in one place. For a company that expects to raise money, hire, and grow into a C-corp structure later, that continuity matters. None of this is marketing fluff. If you value a managed, all-in-one experience and the price is acceptable to you, Firstbase delivers it competently.
Firstbase Pricing, Approximately
Firstbase's pricing has evolved over the years and you should always verify the current numbers on their site before deciding. As a rough picture at the time of writing, the core formation product sits around $399 plus state filing fees. That is the headline number, and it is competitive. The complexity appears when you add the pieces a real operating company needs.
A US business address with mail handling typically runs on the order of $300+ per year. Annual tax filing support is sold separately and is commonly in the $899 range. Legal document or contract support is another add-on, often around $499. Registered agent service is included in some tiers and billed in others. None of these numbers are fixed, and Firstbase repackages its tiers periodically, so treat them as directional and confirm the live pricing yourself.
The honest takeaway is that Firstbase's entry price is reasonable, but the fully-loaded version of what most non-residents actually use ends up materially higher. A founder who wants formation plus an address plus tax filing plus the compliance layer is looking at a stack that adds up to roughly $2,000 or more in year one, and a similar recurring figure each year after. That is not a criticism of value delivered; it is a description of how the pricing is structured. You pay per capability.
WyomingLLC Pricing, Plainly
WyomingLLC is built around a single all-inclusive number: $397. That covers Wyoming LLC formation, one year of registered agent service, an operating agreement, EIN procurement (obtained without an SSN, filed via fax on Form SS-4, typically landing in 8 to 10 business days), and introductions to business banking providers such as Mercury, Relay, and Wise. The LLC itself is usually formed within about 24 hours. There is no per-feature unbundling at the point of sale: the core stack a non-resident needs to start operating is one price.
The recurring cost is where the gap widens over time. In year two and beyond, WyomingLLC's renewal is the registered agent service at $99 per year, plus Wyoming's own annual report license tax, which has a minimum around $60 per year. Wyoming has no state income tax and no franchise tax, so there is no Delaware-style franchise bill waiting for you. Your ongoing cost is small and predictable.
What WyomingLLC does not do is sell you a full managed annual compliance suite. If you need Form 5472 prepared, a pro forma 1120 filed, or ongoing bookkeeping, that is handled through referral partners rather than as an in-house bundled product. This is the trade. You get a lower, clearer price in exchange for a less wrapped-up annual experience. For many solo non-resident founders running a lean business, that is exactly the right trade. For a founder who genuinely wants one vendor managing every filing, it may not be.
The Five-Year Cost Math
Pricing comparisons that only look at year one are misleading, because a company is a multi-year commitment. The number that matters is what you pay over the life of the entity. Below is an illustrative five-year comparison. The Firstbase figures assume a fully-loaded stack (formation plus address plus tax plus compliance add-ons) at roughly $2,000 per year; your actual configuration may be cheaper if you skip add-ons. Verify all current pricing on each provider's site.
| Year | WyomingLLC | Firstbase (fully-loaded est.) |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $397 all-in | $2,000+ |
| Year 2 | ~$99 RA + ~$60 annual report = ~$159 | $2,000+ |
| Year 3 | ~$159 | $2,000+ |
| Year 4 | ~$159 | $2,000+ |
| Year 5 | ~$159 | $2,000+ |
| Five-year total | roughly $1,000 | roughly $10,000+ |
The headline gap is large, but read it carefully and fairly. The Firstbase column includes services WyomingLLC does not bundle, namely a managed US address with mail scanning and a managed tax-filing service. If you would buy those services anyway, the real comparison is closer, because you would pay a separate bookkeeper or CPA on top of WyomingLLC's base. The honest framing is this: if you are a lean operator who does not need a managed address or an in-house tax suite, the five-year savings with WyomingLLC are real and substantial. If you do need those managed services, compare the bundled Firstbase price against WyomingLLC plus your own chosen providers.
State Choice: Wyoming vs Delaware
A point that is easy to miss in vendor comparisons is which state you are actually forming in. WyomingLLC forms Wyoming LLCs. Firstbase commonly steers founders toward Delaware, especially given its startup positioning, though it can form in other states too. The state choice drives your ongoing economics and your privacy more than the vendor brand does.
Wyoming has no state income tax and no franchise tax. Its annual obligation is the annual report license tax, with a minimum near $60. Delaware, by contrast, charges an annual franchise tax that for a typical small LLC runs around $300, and Delaware requires a registered agent as well. Over five years, that difference alone compounds into several hundred dollars. Wyoming also offers strong charging-order protection, including for single-member LLCs under Wyoming Statute 17-29-503, which is a meaningful asset-protection feature that not every state extends to single-member entities.
The counterpoint is that Delaware is the expected home for companies that plan to raise priced venture rounds, because investors and their lawyers are fluent in Delaware law and Delaware's Court of Chancery. If you are genuinely on a venture-funding track, Delaware's familiarity can be worth its higher cost. If you are a bootstrapped or service-based founder who is not raising a Series A any time soon, Wyoming's lower cost and stronger privacy usually win. Match the state to your real plan, not to the brand that has the cleanest dashboard.
Banking and EIN for Non-Residents
Both providers will help you get an EIN and point you toward business banking, and this is where non-residents need accurate expectations. WyomingLLC obtains your EIN without an SSN by filing Form SS-4 by fax, which typically takes 8 to 10 business days. That EIN is what unlocks bank account applications and payment processors. There is no requirement to visit the US, hold a US visa, or have a US residential address to form the company or get the EIN.
On banking, be precise about what these accounts are. Mercury, Relay, and Wise are fintechs operating on top of FDIC-insured partner banks, not chartered banks themselves. Brex and Ramp are corporate-card fintechs. Payoneer and Wise are money services businesses, not banks. An introduction is not an approval. Whether you are approved depends on your country profile and the documents you provide, and the decision belongs to the provider, not to your formation company. Some countries are on prohibited lists, and those lists change, so check the provider's current policy before you assume you qualify. No honest provider, Firstbase or WyomingLLC, can guarantee you a bank account.
If you want card payments, Stripe is the common path and it requires an LLC, an EIN, a US bank account, and a completed W-8BEN-E; approval typically takes somewhere between one and fourteen days. One thing neither provider can fix: traditional business credit cards from issuers like Chase, Amex, or Capital One require an SSN and a personal guarantee, so they are generally not approvable for a non-resident who has no SSN. Plan around fintech accounts and charge cards, not legacy bank credit cards.
A Worked Example: Rahim, a Freelance Developer in Dhaka
Consider Rahim, a software developer in Bangladesh who sells services to US and European clients and wants a US LLC to invoice cleanly and accept card payments. He performs all his work from Bangladesh and has no US office, no US employees, and no US property. He compares Firstbase and WyomingLLC.
With Firstbase, Rahim could form, get an EIN, take a US address for $300+ a year, and buy the tax-filing add-on for around $899. Year one might land near $2,000 fully loaded. That buys him a managed experience: one dashboard, scanned mail, and a vendor handling his federal filing. With WyomingLLC, Rahim pays $397, gets his Wyoming LLC in about a day, his EIN in 8 to 10 business days, and bank introductions to Mercury or Wise. He then engages a referral-partner CPA for his Form 5472 and pro forma 1120 separately.
On tax substance, the Bangladesh-US treaty exists, which can matter for how certain income is treated, and Rahim should confirm specifics on the IRS treaty list and with a CPA. Because his services are performed abroad, that income is generally foreign-source and generally not US-taxable as effectively connected income, though this is exactly the kind of determination to verify with a professional rather than assume. Either provider gets him a working entity. The deciding question for Rahim is whether he values the bundled managed address and tax suite enough to pay several times more per year for it. For a lean freelancer, the answer is often no; for someone who wants zero filing logistics, it might be yes.
Compliance You Cannot Skip, Whichever You Choose
No formation vendor removes your federal obligations, so understand them regardless of which company you pick. A foreign-owned single-member LLC is treated as a disregarded entity and must file Form 5472 along with a pro forma 1120 every year. The deadline is April 15, and Form 7004 can extend it. The penalty for failing to file Form 5472 is steep: $25,000 under IRC Section 6038A. This is not optional and it is not something to forget because the company looks dormant.
If your LLC has more than one member, the filing changes: it files Form 1065 and issues K-1s to members, with a March 15 deadline. On the beneficial-ownership front, the FinCEN interim final rule from March 2025 exempts US-formed domestic entities from BOI reporting; foreign reporting companies remain in scope. As for payment-platform reporting, the 1099-K threshold is more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions after the OBBBA repeal of the lower figure, so do not let anyone tell you a $600 threshold applies.
The relevance to the Firstbase-versus-WyomingLLC decision is direct. Firstbase's higher price partly buys an in-house tax suite that handles these filings for you. WyomingLLC's lower price assumes you arrange Form 5472 and 1120 through a referral partner or your own CPA. Neither approach lets you ignore the $25,000 exposure. If managing a CPA relationship yourself feels risky, the bundled option has real value; if you are comfortable engaging a tax preparer directly, you keep the savings.
When Firstbase Is the Better Choice
Be honest about the cases where Firstbase wins. If you are in Y Combinator or a comparable accelerator that has a Firstbase partnership perk, the discounted or credited access can change the math entirely, and the brand alignment with your cohort is real. Accelerator perks are a legitimate reason to pick a vendor, and you should take them when offered.
Firstbase is also the better fit when you genuinely want a single managed vendor for the entire company lifecycle: formation, a US address with mail scanning, ongoing tax filing, and legal templates all under one login. If the cognitive overhead of coordinating a registered agent here and a CPA there is something you would happily pay to avoid, Firstbase's bundle is doing exactly what it is designed to do. And if you are clearly on a venture-funding path that points to Delaware, Firstbase's startup orientation matches that trajectory. Paying more for an integrated experience is a defensible choice, not a mistake.
When WyomingLLC Is the Better Choice
WyomingLLC wins on price transparency and recurring cost. If you want one all-in number with no per-feature unbundling at checkout, $397 covers the core stack and there is no surprise add-on at the end of the funnel. The year-two-and-beyond cost of roughly $99 in registered agent plus a ~$60 annual report is dramatically lower than a fully-loaded annual subscription, and that gap compounds every year you keep the company.
WyomingLLC also wins when Wyoming is the right state for you: no income tax, no franchise tax, strong charging-order protection including for single-member LLCs, and better privacy than Delaware. It fits the lean, bootstrapped, or service-based founder who does not need a managed annual compliance suite and is comfortable using a referral-partner CPA for the federal filings. Support runs over WhatsApp during business hours across NYC and Dhaka time zones plus email, which suits non-residents who want a fast human reply rather than a ticket queue. If your priority is keeping more money in the business and avoiding paying for capabilities you will not use, WyomingLLC is the stronger fit.
How Switching From Firstbase Works
Switching is more routine than most people expect, and you can do it at any point in the year. The mechanism is a change of registered agent with the Wyoming Secretary of State. Order WyomingLLC at $397, and we file the Change of Registered Agent form with the state, which carries a small state fee of around $5. We become your registered agent within roughly 5 to 10 business days. Once that is confirmed, you cancel your Firstbase subscription. The whole migration typically completes in about two weeks.
A few practical cautions. First, time the cancellation so your old registered agent coverage does not lapse before the new one is recorded; the overlap is intentional. Second, if Firstbase is holding your US business address and mail service, decide what replaces it before you cancel, because the registered agent address and a commercial mail address are not the same thing. Third, make sure you have downloaded your formation documents, EIN confirmation letter, and operating agreement from the Firstbase dashboard before you close the account, since regaining them afterward is a hassle. None of these are blockers; they are just the order of operations that keeps the switch clean.
If a transparent, all-in price is what you are after, forming a Wyoming LLC with WyomingLLC is $397 all-inclusive, with the LLC typically ready in about 24 hours and your EIN in 8 to 10 business days without an SSN. You can always layer on a referral-partner CPA for Form 5472 and ongoing tax work when you need it, and keep your recurring cost low in every year after the first.