A direct comparison of the three Delaware C-corp incorporation services pre-seed founders actually use, with pricing, feature gaps, and who each is built for.
Every couple of weeks a founder asks us which incorporation service to use. The honest answer is that all three, Stripe Atlas, Clerky, and Capbase, produce a valid Delaware C-corp that VCs will fund. The differences are in what happens after the Certificate of Incorporation arrives: who handles your EIN if you're a non-resident, whether your bylaws are templated or attorney-drafted, what cap table tooling is included, and how much it costs to issue your first option grant. Below is the comparison we walk founders through, with the actual tradeoffs.
The three services at a glance
All three form Delaware C-corps. All three issue founder shares, file the Certificate of Incorporation, and produce bylaws. The pricing model and the depth of post-formation support is where they diverge.
Stripe Atlas
One-time $500 fee. Includes Delaware filing fees, registered agent for the first year, EIN application (with an expedited path for non-residents), bylaws, founder stock issuance, and a built-in tax election for 83(b) filing. Most importantly, it ties directly into the Stripe payments stack, your processor account is provisioned during incorporation, not after.
Clerky
$425 for "Clerky Library" formation, plus $99/year for ongoing access to legal templates. State filing fees (Delaware franchise tax, registered agent renewal) are extra. No EIN service for US founders included by default; non-residents pay extra. Clerky's edge is that the documents are drafted by Orrick lawyers (a top startup law firm) and the templates cover post-formation events that Atlas doesn't, option grants, advisor agreements, SAFE notes, priced rounds.
Capbase
~$99/month subscription that bundles formation with ongoing cap table management, document storage, and SAFE issuance. The first month covers formation; subsequent months keep the cap table software live. Total first-year cost is roughly $1,200 if you stay subscribed.
Speed: how fast you actually get incorporated
All three depend on Delaware's Division of Corporations turnaround, which has been 2 to 5 business days in 2026 with standard filing. Each service offers same-day expedited filing for $100 to $200 extra.
Atlas
Typical end-to-end (incorporation + EIN + Stripe live) is 5 to 10 business days for US founders, 4 to 8 weeks for non-residents waiting on an EIN via fax. Atlas does have an expedited EIN path for non-residents through a partner that compresses this to 1 to 2 weeks for an extra fee.
Clerky
Incorporation in 2 to 5 days. EIN is on you to file with the IRS yourself (free if you have an SSN, slow if you don't). No payments processor or bank pre-integration. You'll spend an extra day or two doing the things Atlas bundles.
Capbase
2 to 5 days for incorporation, EIN included for US founders. Cap table is live the moment formation completes, which matters if you're already negotiating SAFEs.
What's actually included in each
Documents
Atlas: Certificate of Incorporation, bylaws, founder stock purchase agreements, IP assignment (CIIAA), action of incorporator, 83(b) prefilled. Templates are simple and standardized, fine for 95% of founders, occasionally rigid if you have an unusual cofounder structure.
Clerky: Same baseline documents, plus a much deeper library of post-formation templates, option pool authorizations, SAFE issuances, advisor agreements, board consents, priced round paperwork. If you're going to issue 8 SAFEs and 12 option grants in your first year, Clerky's templates save you from a $5,000 to $15,000 lawyer bill at seed.
Capbase: Comparable formation docs, plus the cap table is the document, every share, SAFE, and option grant is recorded as you go, not reconstructed at fundraise time.
EIN
Atlas: included for US and non-resident founders (expedited path costs extra for non-residents but is real and works). Clerky: US founders file themselves; non-residents pay an add-on or use a third party. Capbase: included for US founders; non-resident handling is less clearly documented.
Equity setup
Atlas: founder shares issued during formation, 83(b) prefilled but not mailed for you (you mail it certified). Clerky: same, but better templates for the next equity event. Capbase: founder shares issued, plus the ongoing cap table for free during the subscription.
Post-formation support
Atlas: documentation is deep; live support is limited to email and depends on your case. Clerky: documentation is excellent, and the platform is essentially a self-serve law firm. Capbase: more hand-holding via email and chat, since you're a recurring subscriber.
Don't pick at all, let us handle it.
traztech Launch incorporates you through our partner of choice for your situation, then sets up the entire rest of the stack, banking, payments, accounting, hosting, payroll. Free for accepted pre-seed and seed Delaware C-corps because vendors pay us instead of you.
See traztech Launch →Pricing, year one and year two
Atlas
$500 one-time. Year two: registered agent renewal (~$100), Delaware franchise tax ($400 to $450 minimum). Roughly $550/year ongoing. Cheapest if you don't need ongoing legal templates.
Clerky
$425 formation + $99/year Library subscription + Delaware fees + registered agent. Year one: ~$700. Year two: ~$650. The Library subscription pays for itself the moment you issue a SAFE or option grant without involving a lawyer.
Capbase
$99/month = $1,188/year. State fees included in some plans, extra in others. By year two you've spent more than Atlas + a lawyer would have, but you have ongoing cap table tooling that Carta would charge $2,400/year for at the same stage.
Who each is best for
Stripe Atlas wins if
You're a solo founder or two-person team building a SaaS product, you'll process payments through Stripe (almost everyone), and you want the cheapest, fastest path to a valid Delaware C-corp. You'll handle option grants and SAFEs yourself or with a lawyer when you raise.
Clerky wins if
You expect to issue 5+ SAFEs in your first year, you have multiple cofounders with complex equity (e.g., reverse vesting on existing IP, advisor grants), or you want lawyer-grade templates for the next 18 months without paying a lawyer's hourly rate. Clerky is the choice of most YC companies for a reason.
Capbase wins if
You want incorporation, cap table, and document management bundled and you don't mind a recurring fee. Best for founders who know they'll be issuing equity continuously and want a single dashboard. Less compelling if you're cost-conscious and willing to use Atlas + a free Carta tier.
Tradeoffs nobody mentions
Atlas locks you into the Stripe ecosystem
That's not a problem until it is. If you decide to switch to Adyen, Braintree, or a custom processor at scale, the Stripe-Atlas integration becomes irrelevant. For 99% of seed-stage SaaS, this is a non-issue.
Clerky has a learning curve
The platform is essentially a guided document workflow. If you've never seen a cap table before, the UX assumes you'll figure it out. Founders without operational experience sometimes find Capbase's hand-holding worth the extra cost.
Capbase pricing compounds
$99/month feels small until you've been paying it for three years and realize you've spent $3,564 on something Atlas could have given you for $500 plus $99/year on Carta's free tier.
What we recommend by default
For most pre-seed SaaS founders we work with, the answer is Stripe Atlas plus a free Carta or Pulley account for cap table tracking. It's the cheapest, fastest, and lowest-risk path. We use Clerky when a founder has unusual cofounder dynamics or expects heavy SAFE activity in year one. We use Capbase rarely, typically only when a non-technical founder explicitly wants more hand-holding and a single dashboard for everything.
Edge cases worth flagging
Non-resident founders
If you don't have a US Social Security Number, EIN turnaround is the bottleneck, not formation. Atlas has the most documented non-resident path and a paid expedited option that gets the EIN in 7 to 14 days. Clerky requires you to handle EIN yourself or pay a third party, meaning a 4 to 8 week wait via fax in most cases. Capbase sits in the middle. For a non-resident founder who needs to be operational in under 30 days, Atlas is almost always the right call.
Multiple cofounders with non-equal splits
Three or four cofounders with custom equity splits, vesting schedules that differ, or contributions of pre-existing IP all push toward Clerky. The reason is that Clerky's templates handle these scenarios cleanly, while Atlas's standardized flow assumes equal-ish founder splits and standard 4-year/1-year-cliff vesting. You can do custom on Atlas, but it requires more lawyer review afterward, which erases the cost advantage.
You already have customers and revenue
If you're forming a corporation around an existing freelance or consulting business with revenue, the conversion is more involved. None of these three services handle "asset-roll-up" formations particularly well, you'll likely need a startup lawyer ($1,500 to $4,000) to handle the IP and revenue transition properly regardless of which platform you use to file the corporation itself.
You're not sure you'll raise venture
If there's a real chance you'll bootstrap to profitability rather than raise, an LLC might serve you better than a Delaware C-corp because of the pass-through tax treatment. Atlas, Clerky, and Capbase all primarily form C-corps. For an LLC formation, ZenBusiness, LegalZoom, or your local lawyer is a better fit. Don't pick a C-corp out of inertia if your actual plan is to bootstrap, the double taxation hurts.
Common mistakes founders make on all three
Forgetting the 83(b) election
All three services prefill the 83(b) form. None of them mail it for you. The election has a 30-day hard deadline from stock issuance, and the consequence of missing it is taxation on the appreciation of your founder shares as they vest, potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars at exit. Print, sign, send by certified mail with return receipt, save the receipt in your data room.
Treating formation as the end of legal work
Formation is the start. Within the first 90 days, you'll likely need to issue a SAFE, hire a contractor (with IP assignment), maybe issue an advisor grant, and update your cap table. None of these happen automatically. Atlas users tend to underestimate this; Clerky and Capbase users have more guardrails because the post-formation tooling is more visible in the product.
Not registering as a foreign entity in your home state
If you incorporated in Delaware but operate in California, Texas, New York, or anywhere else, you need to register as a foreign entity in that state. The cost is typically $100 to $800/year and the penalty for skipping it is fines plus loss of standing to sue in that state. None of the three services automatically handle this, you do it manually through your state's Secretary of State website or a service like Harbor Compliance.
The bottom line
None of these three services will mess up your incorporation. All three produce VC-fundable Delaware C-corps. The real decision is about post-formation: how much equity activity you'll have, whether you want a payments processor pre-integrated, and whether you want a recurring cap table tool. Pick based on your actual roadmap for the next 12 months, not on which website looks the cleanest.
Want help with all of this?
traztech Launch handles incorporation, EIN, banking, payments, accounting, hosting, payroll, and compliance, all through our affiliate directory. Free for accepted pre-seed and seed Delaware C-corps with technical or SaaS products. Vendors pay us, you don't.
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