LLC or sole proprietorship, state by state.
Both are real ways to run a business. A sole proprietorship requires no formation filing at all; you simply start trading. An LLC is a filing with your state and an obligation that repeats after it. The difference that matters most is where the liability sits. Pick your state to see what the LLC side involves where you are.
Four things that change with the entity.
The comparison usually gets made on paperwork, which is the least interesting part of it. What actually changes is where the risk sits, what repeats, how the income is taxed, and whose name the money is in.
The shield, and its limits
An LLC separates the business's debts and obligations from your personal assets. A sole proprietorship does not, because there is no second party for them to belong to. The shield is not insurance, it does not cover your own negligence, and it depends on keeping the two sides genuinely separate.
One filing, then a cycle
A sole proprietorship has nothing to file to exist and nothing to keep current. An LLC starts with a formation filing and carries a recurring obligation on whatever cycle its state uses, plus a registered agent whose details stay on the public record.
Pass-through either way
By default an LLC does not change how the profit is taxed: it passes through to you, as sole proprietorship profit does. What the LLC adds is the option to elect S-Corp treatment later, once profit is high enough to justify the payroll that comes with it.
Banking, credit, credibility
An LLC can hold a bank account, a credit file and contracts in its own name. A sole proprietorship runs all of that through you, so the borrowing and the history stay on your personal file. Some clients and vendors also treat the entity as a threshold question before they contract.
The filing is not the point. The separation is.
Pick your state.
Each state page runs the comparison with that state's specifics: what forming an LLC there involves, what the recurring obligation is and how often it falls due, how the arithmetic looks against operating as a sole proprietor, and what to do once you have decided.
A clean handoff, in four steps.
This is a decision rather than a filing, so the steps are about reaching the answer rather than submitting it. Four questions, in an order that makes the last one easy.
Rate your liability exposure
Who could be harmed by what you do, what a claim would look like, and what you personally own that a claim could reach. This is the question the entity choice actually answers.
Look at revenue and growth
What the business earns now and where it is heading. Hiring, borrowing, taking on premises and bringing in a partner all sit more comfortably on an entity than on a person.
Weigh who you sell to
Some clients and vendors expect to contract with a company, and some procurement processes assume one. It is not the strongest argument for filing, but it is a real one.
Run the numbers and act
Weigh what your state asks for at formation and every year afterwards against what the separation is worth to you. Then file, or do not, and arrange insurance either way.
Insurance and an entity solve different problems. Neither one replaces the other.
The rest of Compare & choose.
Every one of these is built the same way: a national explainer above its state pages. They are the filings that sit closest to this one.
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The multi-member LLC, state by state
All 51 states → HubS-Corp vs LLC
S-Corp vs LLC, state by state
All 51 states → HubSingle-member LLC
The single-member LLC, state by state
All 51 states → HubDelaware LLC vs your state
Delaware, or your own state
All 51 states → HubFlorida LLC vs your state
Florida, or your own state
All 51 states →The full index lives on Compare & choose.
The questions people ask before they decide.
What is the real difference between the two?
A sole proprietorship is you, trading. There is no second legal person, so the business's obligations are yours by default. An LLC is a separate entity created by a state filing, and it carries its own obligations, its own bank account and its own name on contracts. Everything else in this comparison, tax, banking, credibility, follows from that one structural difference.
Does an LLC actually protect personal assets?
It separates business obligations from personal ones, which is what the shield means in practice. It is not absolute. It does not cover your own negligence, it does not replace insurance, and it can be undermined by running personal and business money through the same account. Treated as a real separation rather than a label, it does the job it was designed for.
Is a sole proprietorship taxed differently?
Not by default. Profit from a single-member LLC passes through to you much as sole proprietorship profit does, so forming one does not by itself change the tax treatment. The difference is the option it opens: an LLC can elect S-Corp treatment when profit justifies the payroll and the additional return that come with it. A sole proprietorship cannot.
Do I have to file anything as a sole proprietor?
Nothing creates the business, and there is no state register keeping it current. That simplicity is what people are choosing. What does not follow is that nothing else applies: licenses for the work, local registrations and tax obligations exist independently of the entity question, and they are set where you actually operate rather than by the entity you picked.
Can I switch from sole proprietor to LLC later?
Yes, and many people do once the risk or the revenue grows. It means forming the entity, getting an EIN, moving the bank account, and putting contracts, invoices and any licenses into the company's name. It is more work later than at the start, mostly because things have to be moved across rather than simply opened in the right name.
What does an LLC require every year?
Whatever the state needs to keep it on the register: a report on an annual or biennial cycle in many states, a tax filing in others. The registered agent has to stay current on the record. The federal return follows whatever tax treatment the LLC has. Your state page lists exactly what applies where you are, and when it falls due.
Keep going, in order.
Compare & choose
Every hub in compare & choose, in one place.
Open the index → IndexAll 51 state guides
Every filing a business does, organised by jurisdiction.
Open the index → ServiceCompliance calendar
Every deadline that touches your entity, watched.
Track deadlines → ServiceTalk to a specialist
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