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Legal Suite offers case management, document management, time tracking, and legal billing. Conclusion There are plenty of free, ancillary tools out there to help you with other aspects of running a law practice. Combining document management and accounting software, we offer a holistic legal practice management solution for mid-tier to top-tier law firms across Australia, New Zealand, UK and Ireland. Learn more about us.
Whether you’re just getting started in your profession or legal practice, or are new to law practice management software, it could take hours of research just to figure out what a solution will cost.
The prices, and pricing models, vary pretty widely.
We wanted to save you some time by offering a guide to what you can expect to pay for each kind and level of software.
The below post will help you determine what kind of law practice management software best fits your company needs, and your budget.
But first, check out our new law practice management software pricing guide:
Click through to compare software options. You can sort by whether they have a free version, starting price, payment model, and cost per user.
Free and Open-Source
There is some free and open-source law practice management software.
But not a lot.
The first issue is that free and open-source means free and open-source support, which is a non-starter for most law firms. It’s also just not a huge market, so interest from open-source developers isn’t huge. There are two notable exceptions, HoudiniEsq and Credenza Practice Management, which are free for a single user. The other free software options are updated infrequently, don’t offer support, and are generally not full law practice management solutions.
There’s also not a lot of experimentation with different pricing models, such as freemium or ad-supported.
![Software Software](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125841872/148963672.png)
There are basically two pricing models:
- Cloud-based, billed monthly according to number of users
- Desktop, billed one-time
Before you begin
One thing to keep in mind is that it’s not at all clear that you get more or better features by paying more for software. The issue is that different attorneys and practices will value each feature differently. For some, the ability to label contacts, for example, is crucial. For others, ease of use is paramount.
Because ease of use is important to an extent for everyone, it’s highly recommended you take advantage of the free trials nearly every law practice management software offers. The other thing you’ll want to do is to take some time to evaluate your processes to see where you’re spending a lot of time. The whole point of software is to help automate and streamline time-intensive, or just plain yucky, tasks.
It will save you time to know, for example, that you are often switching from one matter to another. Some solutions, like Aderant Expert, let you open up, and stop and start multiple timers at the same time to handle such activity.
Cloud-based
Cloud-based software generally requires a credit card for a monthly bill. The rate is most often a flat-fee based on number of users. Sometimes there are discounts if the additional users are admins, clerks, or paralegals. Discounts for paying in advance (a year or years at a time) are common. Discounts for large number of users are rare. Ask your local bar association if they can help you get a discount.
The potential issue with cloud-based software is some worry that data stored on remote servers the firm doesn’t control isn’t secure, and put firms at risk for HIPPA violations and data security breaches from hackers.
These fears are generally overblown for two reasons. First, it’s becoming increasingly common for cloud-based software vendors to implement SSL security and encryption. For example, many cloud-based law practice management software products use SSL including PracticePanther, MerusCase, Rocket Matter, MyCase, and Clio.
Second, most cyber security breaches are the result of user error and internal leaks, neither of which are prevented by self-hosting data.
The advantages of cloud-based software go beyond setup and support. For example, data recovery is much easier when data is stored on mirrored servers. Software updates are also easier to take advantage of.
Most cloud-based law practice management software products cost $50-$70 per lawyer per month.
Examples of this pricing model and range include:
![Legal Legal](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125841872/458506243.jpg)
Desktop
You’ll usually pay a one-time fee for self-hosted software, though updates and support typically cost extra.
Locally-hosted, desktop-based software does, unfortunately, often mean extensive setup and support. Both require either greater tech-savviness or more hand-holding from vendors (which can cost extra).
One big advantage for desktop-based software is that it can be cheaper for larger firms. They might also have robust-enough in-house IT resources that setup and support aren’t a problem. Self-hosted software is also generally more configurable, again a great advantage for large firms or in-house teams. This is particularly helpful for very specialized teams for which the ideal out-of-the-box software doesn’t yet exist.
Desktop law practice management software cost from $1000-$3000.
Desktop law practice management software is much more likely require custom pricing, such as TyMetrix 360 and Aderant CRM4Legal. The quote will generally take into account how labor-intensive for the vendor it will be to set up your software, and how much training your team will need.
Conclusion
Whether you go with cloud-based on desktop, or just stick with free and open-source, there are lots of great choices. Check out our law practice management software category for even more options.
Looking for Law Practice Management software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Law Practice Management software solutions.