Comparison
CorpStart vs incorporating with a lawyer
A lawyer sells you two things a filing service cannot. The first is advice about whether this structure suits your situation. The second is professional responsibility for that advice: they are licensed by the Law Society of Ontario and required to carry liability coverage. We are neither of those things, and we would rather say so here than let you find out later. What we do is file a standard corporation and produce the records that belong with it, for less than the lowest published legal fee we could find. When your situation is not standard, a lawyer is the right call, and the list below says plainly when that is.
Which one suits you
Choose a lawyer if
- Your share structure goes beyond common shares: multiple classes, a family trust, or an estate freeze.
- You are incorporating a professional corporation, which carries its own regulator conditions.
- You want advice on whether to incorporate at all, and what it does to your tax position.
- You need a unanimous shareholders agreement drafted alongside the incorporation.
- You want someone carrying professional liability insurance for the advice you act on.
Choose CorpStart if
- Your corporation is a standard one: common shares, one or a few directors, no trust and no freeze.
- You have already decided to incorporate and you want it filed the same day.
- You want the same by-laws, resolutions, registers and minute book without a legal fee attached to them.
- You would rather put the difference into the business itself.
Side by side
| CorpStart | a lawyer | |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs | $637.87 all in for an Ontario customer, HST included. | Published Ontario flat fees seen in September 2026 ran from $820 plus tax with filing fees included, to $1,338.98 all in, to $1,200 plus HST with roughly $215 of disbursements on top. Sources below. |
| The filing itself | Ontario Business Registry or Corporations Canada, under the OBCA or the CBCA. | The same registry, the same statute, the same Certificate of Incorporation. |
| By-laws, resolutions, registers, minute book | Prepared and included. | Included in every published package we checked. |
| Legal advice | None. We are not a law firm, and we give no legal or tax advice at any price. | This is the substance of what you are paying for. |
| Regulation and insurance | Not licensed by a law society, and carrying no professional liability coverage for advice, because we give none. | Licensed by the Law Society of Ontario and required to carry professional liability coverage. |
| Share structures beyond common shares | Not offered. We file common share structures and say so before you pay. | Multiple classes, estate freezes and trusts are ordinary work. |
| How long it takes | Roughly ten minutes to order, filed the same business day. | Usually a consultation, then drafting, commonly several days to a couple of weeks. |
Our pricing is generated from our live price list. Everything here about a lawyerwas last reviewed on 2026-09-20 and reflects what was publicly available then. Fees and packaging change without notice, so check current terms before you decide. If anything here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Where these figures come from
- Neufeld Legal, published Ontario incorporation fees $795.00 legal fee, and $1,338.98 as the stated total once the $300.00 provincial charge, a $79.95 NUANS reservation, share certificates, disbursements and HST are added.
- Green Economy Law, startup packages $820 plus tax for a provincial incorporation, with administrative filing fees stated as included rather than extra.
- Onley Law, Ontario incorporation $1,200 plus HST and disbursements, with roughly $215 of government fees and NUANS estimated on top.
Common questions
Do I actually need a lawyer to incorporate?
For a standard corporation, no. Incorporating is a government filing and the registries are open to the public. Where a lawyer genuinely earns the fee is a share structure built for more than one owner, an estate freeze, a family trust, a professional corporation, or a shareholders agreement. Those are legal questions, and we do not answer legal questions.
Why does a lawyer cost so much more for the same filing?
Because the filing is not what you are buying. You are buying judgement about whether the structure fits your situation, and someone who is accountable for that judgement. A licensed lawyer answers to the Law Society of Ontario and carries insurance against getting it wrong. We file what you tell us to file. That is a smaller thing to buy and a much cheaper thing to run.
Is the corporation itself any different?
No. Same registry, same statute, same certificate. A corporation incorporated by a lawyer and one incorporated here are the identical legal entity. What differs is the advice wrapped around the filing, and who carries the consequences if the structure turns out to be wrong for you.
What if I start here and later find I need a lawyer?
That is an ordinary path and nothing is wasted. Your minute book is delivered to you as a complete set of documents, and it is yours. Hand it to a lawyer and they can work from it rather than rebuilding it, which is the part that gets expensive when records were never kept in the first place.
How current are the legal fees quoted here?
They were read directly from each firm's own published page on the date shown below, and the sources are linked so you can check them yourself. Law firms change their fees without notice, and a flat fee usually excludes anything outside a standard incorporation, so treat these as a starting point and ask for a quote on your own matter.
Decided we are the right fit?
Flat fee, government fee at cost, filed within one to two business hours.