Clerky Review 2026: Pricing, Pros, and Cons

What Clerky costs

Clerky prices two different ways: one lifetime package, or à la carte per document.

Company Lifetime Package — $819

This is what Clerky markets as "best for most startups." It includes:

• Delaware incorporation

• Expedited filing fees for incorporation

• First-year Delaware registered agent fee

• Annual report and franchise tax reminders

• Unlimited lifetime access to Clerky's standard fundraising, hiring, commercial, and maintenance documents

The lifetime access is the actual product here. You are not really buying an incorporation; you are buying a document library you will use for years.

Pay per use

If you would rather not commit, Clerky sells the pieces individually:

One thing worth doing before you compare the $427 incorporation price to anything else: Clerky states that the package embeds $203 in Delaware expedited filing fees and a $125 first-year registered agent fee. That is roughly $328 of pass-through cost, meaning Clerky's own margin on the incorporation is closer to $99 than $427.

Note the structure carefully. The $427 incorporation gets your Delaware filing done. Post-Incorporation Setup is a separate $299, and that is where bylaws, restricted stock purchase agreements, and your pre-filled 83(b) forms live. Buy incorporation alone and you have a company with no operating documents. The $819 lifetime package folds both together plus everything after.

Who Clerky is for

Clerky was built by startup attorneys, and it shows in what the product optimizes for: paperwork that will survive due diligence.

The clearest fit is a venture-track Delaware C corporation that expects to raise. Clerky claims over $5 billion raised from more than 1,000 seed investors using its documents. If your next twelve months include SAFEs, a priced round, an option pool, and half a dozen hires, the lifetime package covers all of it and every document matches what investor counsel expects to see.

The clearest non-fit is anyone who wants something other than a Delaware C corporation. Clerky offers only Delaware C corps, including public benefit corporations. There is no LLC option, no other state of incorporation.

What Clerky actually gives you

The document library is the reason to choose Clerky, so it is worth being concrete about the contents.

Formation: Incorporation; Post-Incorporation Setup (action of incorporator, bylaws, initial board consent, restricted stock purchase agreements, notices of stock issuance, pre-filled 83(b) election forms with filing instructions, and confidential information and invention assignment agreements); Foreign Qualification; Stock Plan Adoption.

Fundraising: SAFEs and convertible notes, each in valuation cap, discount, and cap-and-discount variants. Board consents to authorize issuances.

Hiring: Offer letters, consulting agreements, advisor agreements, and CIIAAs. On the equity side: restricted stock issuance, regular stock options, and early-exercisable stock options.

Commercial: One-way and mutual NDAs.

Maintenance: Charter amendments for name changes and increases to authorized shares, plus board consents to add or remove directors and officers.

Is Clerky a law firm?

No, and Clerky is direct about it. Its footer reads: "Clerky, Inc. is not an attorney or a law firm, and can only provide self-help services at your specific direction." It operates as a bonded legal document assistant registered in Santa Clara County, California.

The distinction Clerky draws is about who built the software rather than what the software is: "Clerky isn't a law firm and we aren't attorneys for our customers. But we are run by experienced startup attorneys who worked at one of the top startup legal practices in Silicon Valley."

That is a fair claim, and it explains the product's character. Clerky's own argument against competitors is not that it is cheaper or faster, but that legal quality requires expertise most self-serve tools do not have.

The 83(b) difference founders miss

This is the most consequential practical difference between Clerky and its closest comparison, and it is easy to overlook when comparing feature lists.

An 83(b) election must reach the IRS within 30 days of your stock being transferred. There are no extensions and no relief for missing it. Blow the deadline and you owe ordinary income tax at every vesting event, on stock you cannot sell.

Clerky gives you a pre-filled 83(b) form and instructions. You mail it yourself. Clerky's instructions are thorough, and it sends automated reminders, but the actual filing is your job: two signed copies, an IRS transmittal letter, a self-addressed postage-paid envelope, sent by USPS Certified Mail with Return Receipt, with a counter postmark obtained at the post office.

Clerky does sell a Managed 83(b) Election add-on that handles the physical process for you: Priority Mail with certified service, physical postmark verification, return receipt, follow-up if delivery confirmation fails, scanned evidence uploaded to your account, and physical storage. Clerky's framing is sharp and correct: "making a valid 83(b) election is different from being able to prove it."

Clerky does not publish the price of that add-on on any public page. If you want it, ask before you buy.

By comparison, Stripe Atlas files the 83(b) automatically for every C corp founder at no extra charge. If leaving a 30-day legal deadline in your own hands makes you nervous, that difference matters more than the price gap.

How fast is Clerky?

Clerky files your certificate of incorporation with Delaware on an expedited basis. Its help center — the most specific of its pages — says Delaware "typically returns it within 1-2 business days," though other Clerky pages quote 1–3 and 2–3 business days.

Post-incorporation setup has no filing step at all, so it moves as fast as you can get signatures.

For EINs, Clerky files in-house rather than outsourcing, and it made online EIN applications available to non-US founders for free. Its stated IRS timelines are the honest ones: a few minutes online if you have a US taxpayer ID, roughly four business days by fax though often longer, and four to five weeks by mail. Clerky's own blog is blunter about the fax route: "It can easily take months in some cases."

Clerky pros and cons

Pros

• Documents built by startup attorneys, designed to match what investor counsel expects at diligence.

• The lifetime package is genuinely lifetime. Unlimited SAFEs, hires, board consents, and amendments for one fee.

• Deep post-incorporation coverage, which is where most incorporation services stop entirely.

• In-house EIN filing, free, and available online to non-US founders.

• Honest about IRS timelines rather than quoting a best case.

Cons

• Delaware C corporations only. No LLCs, no other states.

• Highest sticker price in the category at $819, or $427 for incorporation alone.

• Incorporation and post-incorporation setup are priced separately at the pay-per-use tier, so $427 does not get you an operating company.

• You mail your own 83(b) unless you buy an add-on whose price is not published.

• Direct foreign qualification only in California and New York; other states go through partners.

• Processing times are stated inconsistently across Clerky's own pages.

Clerky vs the alternatives

For the wider field, see our best incorporation services for startups guide and the Stripe Atlas vs Clerky vs LegalZoom comparison.

A note on Rho

If the 83(b) question above is the one giving you pause, Rho takes it off your desk.

Rho incorporates your Delaware C corporation for free, with a $400 refundable deposit returned once you open a Rho account and maintain a $10,000 average checking balance for 60 days. Every document is reviewed by a licensed attorney, your 83(b) elections and EIN application are filed for you, and registered agent year one is included. About 80% of filings complete within 24 hours.

Your business account opens in the same flow, so banking, invoicing, cards, and bill pay are live the moment your account is approved rather than after the paperwork settles. Delaware C corporations are supported today, with LLC support coming soon.

Rho also runs a co-marketing partnership with Clerky, which is worth disclosing in a review of Clerky.

Is Clerky worth $819?

If you are building a venture-track Delaware C corporation, the math is straightforward. One priced round's worth of documents through a law firm costs multiples of $819. If you will issue SAFEs, adopt a stock plan, hire a dozen people, and amend your charter over the next two years, the lifetime package is cheap.

If you are forming a company that may never raise, or you want an LLC, or you want the cheapest possible path to a filed Delaware entity, Clerky is the wrong shape and you will pay a premium for a library you will not open.

The one thing to decide deliberately rather than by default: whether you are comfortable owning the 83(b) mailing yourself. That single deadline carries more financial risk than the entire price difference between these services.