How Charter Simple ranks

Charter Simple keeps its rankings small and plain: three years of cost, the work the price covers, a price anyone can read, a steady renewal and the number of states served. Below: the sources, the format, the sums and the checks.

Charter Simple editors Updated November 13, 2026

Sources

State fees, deadlines and agent rules come from state fee schedules, forms and statutes. Each fact links to its source and shows the month it was confirmed. Company prices come from each company's own price page. The date we read it is shown.

Page format

The answer comes first. Then the numbers. Then the source. Hard words link to the word list.

Arithmetic

Three years is year one plus two renewals. The state side is the filing fee, the reports in years two and three, and any yearly minimum tax. A cost with no fixed amount, such as a newspaper notice, is described and left out of the sum.

Criteria and weights

Three-year cost (38%). One year plus two renewals, taken from each company's own published price. State fees are the same for every filer and are shown apart.
Work included (27%). The agent, the state report, the EIN application and out-of-state use: each one inside the price counts.
Readable pricing (13%). Is the price posted in full before checkout, with the renewal and the state fee spelled out?
Renewal steadiness (11%). Prices that stay level from year to year score above prices that rise.
State coverage (11%). One state or every state. A second state makes this matter.

Close scores are settled by the check that separated them, named on the page along with what the runner-up offers.

Charter Simple scores are editorial and are not customer ratings.

Who is ranked

Mainstay Filing and the state's own agent companies make up the field. A service must carry a posted price before a company can be ranked for it.

Not included

Customer scores are not used. Nothing here is legal advice. The ranking is editorial.