Collective is a bundle. You're buying the whole thing.
Collective packages formation, payroll, bookkeeping, and tax filing into one monthly bill, run by their team inside their ecosystem. Their entry LLC plan is $199/mo; the S-corp plan, with the election and your 1120-S, is $349/mo. If you want every piece handled by one vendor and you never want to think about it, that's the pitch.
ExpenseGhost isn't a bundle. It's $16/mo for the books. You keep your own CPA, your own payroll, and your own call on when, or whether, to elect S-corp.
- ExpenseGhost: books for any entity, sole prop to C-corp. $16/mo. Bring your own everything else.
- Collective: formation, payroll, bookkeeping, and tax in one bundle. $199 to $349/mo. Their team, their tools.
Year-over-year cost
| ExpenseGhost (Solo) | Collective (LLC) | Collective (S-corp) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $16 | $199 | $349 |
| Year 1 | $192 | $2,388 | $4,188 |
| Year 5 | $960 | $11,940 | $20,940 |
Run the S-corp break-even before you commit to the bundle
The S-corp election only pays off around $80K net profit. Under that line, what you save on payroll tax doesn't cover what the election costs to run. If you're not there yet, the $199 LLC plan is still $199/mo for bookkeeping you can do here for $16.
Past $80K? Build it à la carte for a fraction of the bundle
Cross $80K and the election makes sense. You still don't need one vendor to hold all of it. Assemble the same stack yourself, and keep the freedom to swap any piece:
- S-corp formation and election: $300 to $500 once, with any CPA.
- Owner payroll: about $40/mo with Gusto.
- Bookkeeping: $16/mo with ExpenseGhost.
- 1120-S at year end: $1,200 to $1,500 with any CPA.
Total: roughly $1,500/year against Collective's $4,188 for the S-corp bundle.
What $16/mo gets you
- Plaid bank sync, 5 to 25 connections by plan.
- Receipt OCR, auto-matched.
- Schedule C lines mapped to specific IRS boxes.
- A live self-employment tax estimate, stamped DRAFT.
- Books that keep up if you do elect S-corp later, sole prop to C-corp.
- An export that drops into any CPA's preferred tool.
ExpenseGhost provides tax estimates and tax-ready exports. We are not a tax preparer and do not file returns. Estimates are informational. Verify every number with a licensed tax professional before filing.