If you’ve searched for an S Corp back office, you’ve probably run into both of us. Collective and Lettuce both help solopreneurs form an LLC, elect S Corp status, and run the bookkeeping, payroll, and taxes that come with it. But the two platforms are built around genuinely different philosophies. Lettuce is a fintech product built around its own bank account and AI automation. Collective is a service built around a human team, with software handling the repetitive parts underneath. Here’s how they actually compare.
Quick answer
If you want a fully automated, software-first back office and don’t mind moving your business banking into a new account to get it, Lettuce is built for that. If you want your own bank account, a real accountant who knows your business, and human-prepared tax filings, with a dedicated advisor included well below Lettuce’s top-tier price, Collective is may be a better fit.
Collective vs. Lettuce at a glance
| Category | Collective | Lettuce |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | LLC: $199/mo · S Corp: $349/mo | Grow: $99/mo · Pro: $299/mo · Premium: $525/mo |
| Business formation | LLC formation and S Corp election (Form 2553) handled by our team | Self-serve automated formation and election |
| Business banking | We work with various business bank account providers | Requires Lettuce’s own integrated business bank account |
| Bookkeeping | Synced from your own accounts, software-categorized, reviewed by human bookkeepers | AI-categorized automatically, built around transactions in the Lettuce account |
| Payroll | Guided S Corp payroll setup and reasonable-salary support from your team | Automated payroll processing through a built-in Gusto integration |
| Invoicing | Included and synced with your books | Not a core offering |
| Registered agent | Included | Not offered |
| Tax filing | Business (1120-S) and individual returns prepared by tax professionals | Software-prepared business return |
| Dedicated advisor | Included starting on the S Corp tier ($349/mo) | Included only on the $525/mo Premium tier |
| Support | Human team plus an embedded AI assistant | 24/7 AI assistant; live human access depends on tier |
Pricing and features above are pulled from each company’s own public pricing pages and are accurate as of this writing. Always worth a quick double-check before you commit, since providers may update plans.
Pricing: cheaper on paper isn’t the same as cheaper in practice
Lettuce’s entry tiers do carry a lower sticker price — Grow at $99/mo undercuts Collective’s LLC tier at $199/mo, and Pro at $299/mo comes in under Collective’s S Corp tier at $349/mo. The gap closes once you look at what’s actually included at each price. Lettuce’s Pro tier is still self-serve software. A dedicated advisor doesn’t show up until Premium, at $525/mo. Collective builds a dedicated account manager into the S Corp tier itself, which means the human support Lettuce reserves for its most expensive plan is included at $176/mo less on Collective’s side.
Bookkeeping and banking: your account or theirs
This is the core structural difference between the two. Lettuce’s automation runs through its own integrated business bank account. Transactions are categorized in real time because they all flow through a system Lettuce controls. That’s genuinely convenient if you’re starting fresh and don’t mind consolidating your banking into a new provider.
Collective works with the business bank account you already have (or we’ll help you open one if you don’t have one yet). Your bookkeeper syncs and categorizes transactions from your existing accounts and a human reviews the books, rather than leaving categorization entirely to software. If you’re attached to your current bank, have existing business relationships tied to it, or just don’t want your books contingent on staying inside one company’s banking product, that’s a meaningful difference.
Payroll and reasonable salary
Both platforms handle S Corp payroll, but the support around it looks different. Lettuce automates payroll processing through a built-in Gusto integration once your account is set up. Collective’s S Corp tier pairs payroll with support for setting your reasonable salary — the number the IRS actually scrutinizes — from a person who can talk through your specific role, industry, and income instead of leaving that judgment call to software alone.
Tax filing: software-prepared vs. professional-prepared
Both companies file your annual Form 1120-S. Lettuce’s business return is software-prepared, with personal 1040 filing offered separately as a $500/year add-on. Collective’s business and individual returns are prepared by tax professionals with Collective’s personal 1040 filing starting at $199/year. If your situation has any complexity- multiple income streams, a W-2-plus-1099 mix, prior-year cleanup- having a person actually look at the return before it’s filed is worth factoring in.
Support: AI-first vs. human-first
Lettuce leads with a 24/7 AI assistant and positions live human access as something you reach for “when needed,” with a dedicated account manager and quarterly strategy sessions reserved for the $525/mo Premium tier. Collective pairs an embedded AI assistant with a human team by default, and a dedicated advisor is part of the S Corp tier rather than a top-tier upgrade. Neither approach is objectively wrong, it depends on whether you want software to be your first line of support or your accountant to be.
Which one actually fits you
Lettuce is a reasonable fit if you want to consolidate banking and bookkeeping into one automated system, you’re comfortable managing your S Corp mostly alone through software, and you don’t need a dedicated human advisor unless you’re paying for the top tier.
Collective is a better fit if you want to keep your existing bank account, want a real person who knows your business preparing your taxes and setting your reasonable salary, or want dedicated human support without paying $525/mo to get it.
If you’re currently on Lettuce or another automated platform and want to see what switching to a human-backed team looks like, Collective’s team can walk you through it.
