Delaware, Wyoming, Nevada, or home.

Weight the five factors by what your business is, not by folklore. A bootstrapped consultancy should weight ongoing cost and simplicity: the home state wins almost automatically, because a Delaware entity would still owe California its 800 dollar minimum and a registered agent in both states, roughly doubling the annual carry for zero benefit. A venture-track startup should weight courts and investor fit: Delaware wins because the people writing the checks require it, and every other factor is noise at that point. A privacy-sensitive online business should weight disclosure rules: Wyoming keeps member names off the public record, which no amount of fee shopping elsewhere buys back.

The mistake to avoid has one shape: choosing a famous state for a business that operates squarely in an unfamous one. Operating at home while formed elsewhere means foreign qualification at home anyway: two filings, two agents, two annual reports, forever. Run the numbers above with your own state in the fourth column, and if the exotic option does not win by a clear margin, it loses.