Online company formation vs accountant: which should you choose?

Quick answer. Forming a company online through a legaltech platform is fast and inexpensive for a standard, well-defined project. Using a chartered accountant makes sense as soon as the choice of legal form, taxation, the salary-versus-dividends trade-off, or ongoing management carries real stakes. Either way, registration must go through the INPI one-stop shop (mandatory since 1 January 2023), and the incorporation legal notice costs a flat fee set by decree (€148 excl. VAT for a SARL, €199 excl. VAT for a SAS in metropolitan France in 2026).

You are launching your business and the same question keeps coming up: should you set up your company yourself through an online platform, or hand the file to a chartered accountant? Both routes end with a registered company. They do not cover the same scope, do not secure the same risks, and do not carry the same real cost once the first year is behind you. The right choice depends on the complexity of your project, not on a matter of principle.

Forming a company is not just filling in a form. It is a sequence of decisions that durably commit your assets and your tax position.

The essential incorporation steps are:

1. choose the legal form (SAS, SASU, SARL, EURL, SCI, etc.);
2. draft the bylaws and set the governance clauses;
3. build and deposit the share capital;
4. publish an incorporation legal notice;
5. file the registration with the INPI one-stop shop;
6. declare the beneficial owners;
7. activate the right tax and social options from day one.

Since 1 January 2023, registering any commercial company is done exclusively through the one-stop shop for business formalities (formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr), operated by the INPI (the French industrial property office). This platform replaced the former business formality centres (CFE), whatever route you take to prepare the file. A legaltech and a chartered accountant therefore file on the same platform: the difference lies upstream, in the quality of the choices.

Part of the cost is regulatory and identical whatever the route: these fees are unavoidable. The other part is the support, and that is where the gaps appear.

The legal-notice flat fees above are set by the decree of 19 November 2025, applicable from 1 January 2026. They vary by legal form and are increased in Réunion and Mayotte. Share capital is no longer an obstacle: there is no statutory minimum capital for a SAS, SASU, SARL or EURL: €1 is legally possible (except for the SA, which still requires €37,000). Capital that is too low remains, however, a negative signal for banks and partners.

On the support side, the platforms' "free" offers are rarely free end to end: the free part usually covers standardised bylaws generation, while the regulatory fees and some services (legal notice, filing) remain billed or bundled into a package. A chartered accountant's fee for a formation should be weighed against what it secures downstream. For a detailed view of costs on more complex set-ups, see our article on the costs of forming a holding company online.

Online formation excels on speed and entry price. The chartered accountant stands out as soon as a decision carries a cost of error: a poorly chosen form, a missing approval clause, or an unintended tax regime can cost far more than the initial saving. If you are unsure about the form, our SASU vs EURL comparison and our analysis of the 2026 flat tax on dividends clarify the most common trade-offs.

This table does not pit the two routes against each other: it positions them by cost of error. The more structuring your project, the more value upstream advice carries. Founders of tech startups and liberal professions anticipating fast growth generally benefit from framing the entity from the start.

Micro-enterprise. If you start as an auto-entrepreneur, no company is created: a legaltech then has limited value, and the real question shifts to choosing between micro status and a company.

Holding companies and asset structuring. As soon as a holding is involved (share ownership, dividend up-streaming, tax consolidation), drafting the bylaws and aligning the tax position go well beyond a standardised online journey. We handle these cases in our holding structuring support.

Formation by a non-resident. Capital deposit, representation and international tax constraints make support almost essential: see our guide on setting up a company in France as a non-resident.

Family or real-estate SCI. The statutory clauses (management, approval, dismemberment) shape all later transmission; a generic template is rarely enough.

The most frequent mistakes we fix after a poorly calibrated online formation:

• generic bylaws with no approval clause or mechanism for shareholder disputes;
• a tax option not set, or set wrongly (corporate vs income tax, mismatched year-end);
• a corporate purpose too narrow, blocking future development;
• symbolic capital that undermines access to credit;
• an uncontrolled registered office (on this specific point, our article on fast company formation and domiciliation details the options);
• no continuity between formation and the first set of accounts, triggering costly rework.

A later correction (amended bylaws, registered-office transfer, change of regime) often costs more than the initial advice that was skipped.

Recently, two partners came to us after forming their SAS through an online platform for a few hundred euros. The file was formally correct, but the bylaws contained neither an approval clause nor an exclusion clause, and the salary-versus-dividends trade-off had never been addressed. At the first disagreement between partners, the absence of those clauses turned a governance point into a deadlock. The bylaws amendment and corrective advice ultimately cost more than a supported formation would have.

This is not a case against online formation, which remains relevant for a simple project. It is a reminder: the value of a chartered accountant is not measured at the moment the file is filed on the one-stop shop, but in everything decided before and managed after. As a firm registered with the French Order of Chartered Accountants and acting as statutory auditor, we reason in terms of cost of error, not headline price. This logic mirrors our 2026 online accountants comparison, which compares ways of practising the profession, whereas this article compares delegating the formation itself.

Hayot Expertise tip. If your project is simple and you are comfortable with admin, online formation is often enough: have it reviewed before registration. As soon as there are several shareholders, a tax stake or a growth outlook, get the form, bylaws and options framed from the start. Our business formation support includes this review, then ensures continuity with your chartered accounting in Paris 8.