Stripe Atlas vs Clerky: Costs Beyond Formation

Stripe Atlas charges $500 for formation, including founder equity, 83(b) election filing and the first year of registered-agent service; its agent service then renews at $100 annually. Clerky’s $427 incorporation offer creates a $73 entry-price gap, but it does not include the same post-incorporation work.

Choose Atlas if a bundled Delaware C corporation setup, founder shares and a standard SAFE workflow cover the work you expect to do. Clerky is better suited to a team that expects to keep using one service for stock plans, option grants, broader fundraising paperwork and corporate changes. The useful comparison is the cost of the documents the company will need, not the price of filing its certificate.

What comes after incorporation

Incorporation establishes the corporation; the next documents put its ownership and governance into effect. Founder share purchases, bylaws, initial board approval and intellectual-property assignments are distinct tasks, even when a service presents them as a continuous setup. Comparing formation prices alone hides who prepares those records and who files the founder’s 83(b) election.

Atlas bundles founder equity issuance and share purchase with its formation purchase and files the 83(b) election. Its included fundraising workflow produces board consents and post-money SAFE agreements using a Y Combinator template. That is a substantial starting set for a company using conventional founder equity and that form of early financing, but the formation price does not establish a price for a later employee stock plan or option grant.

Clerky’s price list puts post-incorporation setup at $299, stock-plan adoption at $199, a regular option issuance at $29, a SAFE issuance at $9 and its Company Lifetime Package at $819. The post-incorporation product includes bylaws, initial board consent, restricted-stock purchase agreements, stock-issuance notices and invention-assignment agreements. It provides a pre-filled 83(b) form, instructions and reminders; filing with evidence is a separate paid service.

That division matters to founders outside the United States as well. Atlas includes obtaining the company tax ID in its formation process, while Clerky offers an EIN application for non-US founders within its formation products. Either route can address that task, but the founder should compare the complete sequence of formation, share issuance and tax paperwork before treating the initial purchase as the finished setup.

A hypothetical solo founder

Consider a solo founder forming a Delaware C corporation, purchasing founder shares and completing initial governance and 83(b) paperwork, without an employee stock plan. At the listed prices, that defined workload costs $500 through Atlas or $726 through Clerky Pay Per Use: $427 for incorporation plus $299 for post-incorporation setup. The gap for this workload is $226, rather than the $73 visible when only incorporation purchases are compared.

Atlas also takes responsibility for filing the founder’s 83(b) election within its stated package. The Clerky setup supplies a completed form and filing guidance, leaving submission to the founder unless the separate filing service is purchased. A founder who wants that service should add its checkout price to the Clerky scenario; the published formation and setup prices alone do not fix that total.

The solo calculation assumes standard documents and stops after initial setup. It does not price state registration outside Delaware, professional advice or later changes to the corporation. Those costs depend on the company’s circumstances, so they should not be silently treated as included in either formation figure.

A hypothetical team preparing to raise

Now consider a venture-backed Delaware team with two founders that needs initial share and governance documents, an employee stock plan, one regular option grant and one SAFE. On Clerky Pay Per Use, the specified purchases total $963: $427 for incorporation, $299 for post-incorporation setup, $199 for stock-plan adoption, $29 for the option issuance and $9 for the SAFE. This is an arithmetic scenario for that document set, not a quote for every team preparing a financing.

For this workload, the $819 Company Lifetime Package costs $144 less than buying those Clerky products individually. It also covers continued use of standard fundraising, hiring, commercial and maintenance products under the package terms. Add-ons and some third-party charges remain outside that price, so a team expecting extra filings or services still needs to account for them.

Atlas covers founder equity and a standard post-money SAFE workflow within its formation purchase. The team’s stock plan and option grant are additional needs for which that purchase has no comparable listed total. Declaring a winner on the team’s entire budget would require pricing how those documents will be prepared if the team forms with Atlas.

The financing path is another practical difference. Clerky’s catalog includes SAFEs and convertible notes, along with equity-grant and later governance products; Atlas provides a standard SAFE path with board consents. A team expecting repeated grants, different financing instruments or continuing corporate changes has a clearer use for Clerky’s wider document catalog. A team expecting only the standard SAFE may find the Atlas bundle sufficient for that stage.

Agent renewals and the cost of changing course

Both formation routes cover the first year of Delaware registered-agent service. Atlas’s published renewal is $100 annually after that year. For a company incorporated through Clerky that keeps its original agent, Clerky’s registered-agent guidance says CSC bills the company directly in later years; it does not give a fixed renewal price in the incorporation offer. Optional CSC compliance services can increase the invoice.

A later move into Clerky can involve more than opening an account. For a Delaware C corporation formed elsewhere, Clerky’s existing-entity policy calls for a startup attorney to review the existing records, address problems and enable access to suitable products. A founder who already expects to use Clerky extensively for equity and financing should weigh that possible review against the convenience of forming elsewhere first.

For a simple founder-share setup, Atlas offers the clearer bundled price and handles the tax-election filing. For a team planning a stock plan, grants and continuing fundraising work, Clerky’s separate products or lifetime package give a more complete price for that specified workflow. In either case, include registered-agent renewals and any documents outside the chosen package when comparing the total.