An LLC
The Articles of Organization cost $200 to file with the Department of State, as of 2026.
Within 120 days the LLC must publish a notice once a week for six weeks in two newspapers chosen by the county clerk, then file a Certificate of Publication, which costs $50. An LLC that does not publish has its authority to do business suspended until it does.
The cost of publishing depends almost entirely on the county: a few hundred dollars in much of the state, and well over a thousand in parts of New York City.
A corporation
The Certificate of Incorporation costs $125, plus a tax on the shares it is allowed to issue. For no-par shares that is 5 cents a share with a $10 minimum, so 200 no-par shares costs the minimum.
There is no publication requirement. In a county where publishing is expensive, that alone can make a corporation the cheaper of the two to start.
A corporation does have more housekeeping: bylaws, issuing the shares, electing officers and keeping minutes.
Things that apply to both
The name has to be distinguishable from every active business on the state’s register, and has to carry its ending: LLC or L.L.C. for an LLC; Inc., Corp. or Corporation for a corporation. Some words, such as bank or insurance, need another agency’s approval.
No registered agent is required. The Secretary of State is the agent for service of process and forwards papers to the address you give.
Every two years the business files a biennial statement with the Department of State, for $9.
Electing S-corp in New York
Either an LLC or a corporation can elect S-corp treatment with the IRS on Form 2553. New York does not follow that on its own: the business also files Form CT-6, on the same deadline, signed by every shareholder.
New York City is different again. It does not recognise the S election, so a corporation doing business in the city owes the city’s General Corporation Tax regardless.
Choosing between them
For tax purposes the choice matters less than people expect, because either can elect S-corp and end up taxed the same way. The practical differences are the cost of publication, the corporate housekeeping, and what the owners’ agreement is called: an operating agreement for an LLC, bylaws and a shareholders’ agreement for a corporation.
Whichever you choose, the owners’ agreement is the document worth paying a lawyer for. With more than one owner, an S-corp’s distributions have to follow ownership exactly, and the agreement is where that, and what happens when an owner leaves, gets written down.
If the choice turns on the S-corp election, run your own profit through it: the S-corp vs sole proprietor calculator.